DOCTOR WHO on Sci-Fi tonight: "The Parting of the Ways" as Eccleston bows out in style

"The extrapolator's working, we've got a fully functioning force-field. Try saying that when you’re drunk."

"Worship him! Worship him! Worship him!"

"I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape. And that's okay, hope it's a good death... Have a good life."

"He's fighting for us, this whole planet, and I'm just sitting here eating chips!"

"You are the weakest link... goodbye!"

"**-***-***-***!!"

"Hail the Doctor: the Great Exterminator!"

"I am the Bad Wolf."

"I think you need a Doctor."

"Rose, before I go I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I!"

"Hello, I tremufu... hmmm, new teeth. That's weird. So where was I?"

This evening the Sci-Fi Channel wraps up its presentation of the first (or twenty-seventh, depending on how you look at it) season of Doctor Who here in the States with "The Parting of the Ways". At the same time Season 2/28 of Doctor Who is rolling on in Great Britain this weekend with "The Satan Pit", the conclusion of a two-part story that began with last week's "The Impossible Planet". That episode (the eighth with David Tennant as the Doctor) was classic Who-vian horror with a strong dash of everything from H.P. Lovecraft, the movie Event Horizon and a LOT of what can only be references to the videogame Doom. "The Impossible Planet" had me hooked so much that I had to re-watch it twice, and I'll be downloading "The Satan Pit" as soon as our British friends put it online tomorrow.

But as for Doctor Who in America, tonight belongs to Christopher Eccleston.

This is Eccleston's final performance as the Doctor: a portrayal that he brought just about everything to but especially a personality that was as manic as it was magnetic. After just one season, I think he easily became my personal favorite Doctor. It would have been terrific (or maybe I should say "Fantastic!") to have seen him go an extra season or two, but I'll be thankful for what we did get to see of Eccleston in the role. He'll forever be known as the man who brought the Doctor back into the public conscience. And tonight, he gets to leave in a fashion truly fitting the Doctor, as our hero prepares to face down thousands of his old enemy, the Daleks. Expect some mysteries to be revealed tonight, especially the whole "Bad Wolf" thing that has followed the Doctor and Rose throughout this season. The final scene is something of a tear-jerker, as Christopher Eccleston undergoes the time-honored Doctor Who tradition and regenerates into the new Doctor (David Tennant). All told, some darned fine television tonight at 9 P.M. on Sci-Fi.