New ‘Doctor Who’ coming to Sci Fi channel

NEW YORK — Doctor Who is again jumping the pond from England, this time arriving stateside via the Sci Fi Channel.

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The BBC’s “The Doctor,” an updated version of the classic TV show that ran from 1963-1989, will begin airing in March on Sci Fi, the network announced Friday. It stars Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor, who battles aliens and monsters while time traveling.

The original “Doctor Who,” also a British export, featured seven different actors in the starring role through the years. Each Doctor would “regenerate” into another person when close to death or after being killed.

Slideshow: Celebrity Sightings The Sci Fi channel will also team up with Steven Spielberg on “Nine Lives,” a 12-part miniseries about people reuniting with deceased loved ones in the afterlife through near-death experiences.

Spielberg and DreamWorks Television will produce the series, which is slated to air in 2007. The “Munich” director last partnered with the Sci Fi Channel on the 2002 alien abduction miniseries, “Taken.”