The latest reincarnation of the British TV series "Doctor Who" has drawn impressive ratings and has Sylvester McCoy, the last doctor, a bit envious.

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"It is a 'Doctor Who' for the new millennium," McCoy, who played the role between 1987 and 1989, told the Sunday Telegraph. "It is fast-paced, imaginative and very wonderful. There is something gorgeously, gloriously British about the whole thing and I think it has hit written all over it."

Actor Christopher Eccleston, born in Manchester, England, is the ninth actor to assume the role and the first to play the doctor as a fast-talking and flirtatious man from Northern England, the Telegraph reported.

Clay Hickman, the editor of the Doctor Who magazine, also praised Eccleston's performance and the new version of the TV series.

"This is the first real family drama for a decade," he said.

The first episode of the revised series aired Saturday in Britain and attracted 10.5 million viewers, the BBC reported. It was the fist of 13 episodes of the new "Doctor Who" series.

The show was originally telecast in 1963.