Best bets:
"Doctor Who," 8 p.m. Friday, Sci Fi Channel: Despite a few missteps, there's much to recommend this fast-paced edition of "Doctor Who," the first brand-new TV season of Britain's longrunning "Who" franchise in many years. As the Doctor, a space traveler who pops all over the universe having adventures and fighting bad guys, Christopher Eccleston has a cheeky, spiky charm and more than a dash of sex appeal. As the Doctor's companion, Rose Tyler, English pop star-turned-actress Billie Piper brings a winning combination of dogged sincerity and working-class irreverence to her role. Having said that, it's a good thing that Sci Fi is running two episodes of this updated "Doctor Who" on Friday: The first episode starts out with promising chills, but the resolution of the paperthin plot is far too predictable. And though the story in the second episode isn't terribly complex, the dialogue and pop-culture satire throughout is entertaining (who would have thought Britney Spears' "Toxic" would ever appear on a "Doctor Who" soundtrack?). All in all, new head "Who" writer Russell T. Davies has done the Doctor a service by making him a multilayered, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes troubled hero who's comfortable in modern-day, multicultural London - - and in the rest of the galaxy too, where evil never sleeps.
PHOTO; Caption: PHOTO: Title character Christopher Eccleston (from left), Billie Piper and Simon Pegg in "Doctor Who."
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