Sci Fi Channel will air the new Doctor Who

It took nearly a year, but the new Doctor Who TV series will finally be aired here in America. In a new deal, the Sci Fi Channel (a division of NBC/Universal) has picked up the first season of the new show that starred Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as companion Rose. The cable net announced it will begin airing the show in March, most likely beginning on the 17th, after the March 10 season finales of Stargate: SG1, Stargate: Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica. The show then would air for 13 weeks leading into the summer premiers of all three shows.

This now explains why the DVD release here in the States was delayed from its original February 14th announcement . However, since the show has already aired in Canada, it appears the show will make that previous release date. So, fans here in the States still can get the show on Region 1 DVD, they’ll just have to order it from Amazon.ca, the Canadian version of the popular US retailer. Warner Bros. and BBC video have now moved the American DVD release of the show to July 4th.

One thing curious was the status of the TOS. My guess is one of the stumbling blocks that prevented the sale a year ago was that any network picking up the new version had to buy the TOS. And while there are many in America who have not seen every episode of the show, American’s still have a problem with black and white shows. The original series did not broadcast in color until John Pertwee -the third Doctor - debuted in 1970. And realistically, most Doctor Who fans in the States know of the show when Tom Baker was playing the famous Time Lord, and consider anything before him to be unwatchjable. So, it seems a good bet that to finally get a US distributor (and NBC/Universal was interested in at the time), the BBC most likely dropped that clause.

And what about the recent Christmas episode of the series and its impending second season launch this spring with 10th Doctor David Tennant? Well, Sci Fi does have the option of picking up those shows (and could air them between the fall finales of their hit Friday night line-up), but ratings will be the barometer.

But while we’ll have to wait until July for the American DVD release, I am pleased that the show is coming to broadcast TV. It’s just about time, though.