BBC travels back in time to revive the hit ‘Doctor Who’

A time-traveling blast from the past -- and the future -- has become one of the biggest hits of Britain’s television present.

A BBC update of the hugely popular science-fiction series “Doctor Who,” complete with killer robots from outer space and a rickety wooden police box that zips through the millenniums, has introduced a new generation to a TV classic that originally ran from 1963 to 1989.

The new season, 13 episodes running through June, is packed with oddball aliens and frequent opportunities for the two heroes to save humankind.

So far, spaceships have crashed into Big Ben and the River Thames to presage a takeover of the British government -- the bad guys invaded the bodies of the prime minister and his aides -- and the mysterious Doctor and his young sidekick have zoomed 5 billion years into the future to watch the Earth come to a fiery end.

It’s a welcome return for fans who’d been waiting more than 15 years for the comeback of the Doctor -- an alien “Time Lord” who’s taken the form of nine different human actors in the course of the show -- and his assistant, this time a working-class London gal named Rose Tyler.

Starring a smooth, charming Christopher Eccleston in the title role and former pop singer Billie Piper as his sidekick, the British Broadcasting Corp. remake stays true to the much-loved original while giving it a contemporary sheen.

“All the ‘Doctor Who’ furniture is there,” said Antony Wainer, spokesman for the 1,500-member Doctor Who Appreciation Society. “That is the formula. And it still survives.”

Writer Russell T. Davies, who created the British TV drama “Queer as Folk” and its U.S. version on Showtime, revived the series, serving as executive producer and writing episodes.

The original “Doctor Who” was widely exported, winning fans in the U.S., Canada and Australia. The new season is being shown in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Italy, but for the time being, BBC America has no plans to air it.