‘DOCTOR WHO’ PREMIERE COMING TO THEATERS

“Doctor Who” is going bigtime. Well, big screen anyway. The beloved, albeit somewhat cheesy, British sci-fi TV program that’s had more reinventions than Madonna over the past half-century will introduce its new season in select movie theaters nationwide next month.

About a dozen are in and around metro Atlanta, including Alpharetta, Duluth, Lawrenceville, Kennesaw and Cartersville.

“Doctor Who: Season 10 Premiere” will play at 7 p.m. on April 17 and April 19. This episode featuring the latest incarnation of “the Doctor” (currently Peter Capaldi, though you never know) will make its TV debut here on April 15 on BBC America.

(A quick catch-up on what’s meant by “latest incarnation,” let alone why anyone would pay good money to watch something in a movie theater that’s also on TV: The Doctor is actually a Time Lord who travels the universe in a space ship called a TARDIS — from the outside, it looks like a blue British police box, or phone booth — battling evildoers while repeatedly saving civilization.

He also “regenerates” himself from time to time. Eleven times, arguably, considering Capaldi is the 12th actor to play the Doctor since the show premiered way back in 1963.)

It then ran continuously until 1989, when it went away save for one TV movie in 1996. To the delight of several generations of fans, it finally regenerated … er, came back to TV as a series in 2005. The “Doctor Who” canon already totals more than 800 episodes (some early ones are missing). This latest, 12-episode season is the 10th since that 2005 revival; it’s actually the 36th season of “Doctor Who” overall.

For additional information and tickets, visit www.fathomevents.com/events/doctor-who-season-10.