When the BBC first announced the return of the massively popular cult series "Doctor Who" after a nine-year absence, I was skeptical. And I'm sure a great many other Britons were likewise unconvinced that it was even indeed possible to resurrect this classic sci-fi series.

Even after the launch night of the series, which started with shop window manikins springing to life and spontaneously growing machine guns from their hands in order to terrorize London in the name of a plastic alien, there was still a niggling doubt in the back of my mind as to whether or not this new Doctor would work.

It wasn't anything about the cast that put me off--well, not completely. Christopher Eccleson instantly jumped into the role of the mysterious Doctor and turned the character around in over a dozen different directions that were never expected. There was an aura about him, something beyond the goofish geography teacher charm that he initially presented. Something greater. To put it simply, he became "The Doctor."

Billie Piper, on the other hand, I had a little trouble with. I instantly questioned the decision over her casting, mostly because of her former role as a pop star. I mean come on, how many more singers turned actors do we need? But in a matter of weeks, I came to realize just how lucky we are to have someone of her talent as part of the show.

Forgetting the ridiculousness of the manic manikins in "Rose" and moving swiftly on to the second episode, "The End of the World," this episode had it all--weird aliens, futuristic space stations, spectacular special effects--and a very accessible emotional window into the future through Piper's Rose Tyler. That has always been the purpose of the companion. And Piper has been exemplary at it. As an emotionally fragile (but equally gutsy) being, Rose provided the dramatic flurry for the series and both Eccleson and Piper very quickly showed they have a very different bond than that of the Doctor and his usual companions and it allowed for some very human story telling in very not-human situations.

Space stations, time-dragons and people with zippers on their heads that are unable to hold their gas--all of it is so far removed from reality, but Rose Tyler was able to bring it all down to earth just enough to make it accessible and an enjoyable story.

Both actors again showed exactly what they were made of a few episodes down the line in "Dalek." As the name may suggest, the enemies that used to send children all over Britain diving behind sofa's are back. But the question was "how would they fair with today's audience?"

Delving into the very much hinted at "time war" story (a development that was dealt with in far more entertaining manner than that of "Enterprise's" "temporal cold war"), we suddenly saw a darker side to Eccleson's character. And with the screeching noises of the Daleks muddled in there too, what we got was a chilling and very emotional episode. Rose befriending a Dalek seemed both ludicrous and very human all at once, and as this Dalek demanded to die, it was clear more than ever before that this "Doctor Who" series is something very different from the original.

The level of humor intertwined with the story is very similar to that of "Stargate-SG1." Some of the fan favorite episodes are the self-proclaimed "comedy episodes," such as "Window of Opportunity." These episodes that are able to tell a very serious story but at the same time allowing for a bundle of laughs along the way. But with The Doctor, it is a very tongue-in-cheek, and ultimately a very British level of humor that is presented. And it works wonders for the revitalized series.

This "re-vamped" series is in actual fact very similar in concept to Ronald D. Moore's "Battlestar Galactica." Like Moore, "Doctor Who" show-runner Russell T. Davies has kept just enough of the original mythology in place to send the series off in new and exiting directions whilst also allowing for the classic story-telling of The Doctor and his companion.

The penultimate episode was a little bit of a disappointment--the quirky slapstick comedy was there and in full force, but for a television network that doesn't believe in advertising, the BBC sure managed to cram in enough adverts for current reality television so that ads are no longer needed. There was however the added surprise of having Ann Robinson participate in the episode to voice her very own robotic counterpart, the Ann-Droid for a deadly edition of "The Weakest Link."

The episode maximized the advertising that the BBC could get whilst also tying into the previously developed episode set on Satellite Five. It was gracefully done, but still had a thick layer of cheese on the top.

The final episode, however, exterminated that cheese, once again reuniting the Doctor with his most feared enemy. And not just one of them, but an entire invasion army poised to harvest the human race.

As the Dalek god proclaimed "Behold The Doctor: The Great Exterminator!" I could feel the hair on the back of my neck rising and the goose bumps forming. Chills ran down my spine and I knew once and for all that "Doctor Who" was back--and as the Dalek invasion force entered the lower levels of Satellite Five intent on killing the human civilians, I wanted nothing more than to be able to dive behind my sofa.

The scale of the invasion was completely unexpected for a British television show. This series has broken all boundaries and gone to show that Britons can make epic sci-fi just as well as anyone else.

So with a weirdness you'd never see on "Star Trek," the gut-wrenching emotion of the best dramas and an epic scale that even the most creative television shows are unable to create, Davies' "Doctor Who" has shown it is a match for anything currently in production. The only regret about the series is that Eccleson will not be returning for the second season. David Tennent has a tough role to follow, and I can only hope he is up to the challenge.