K9 (Doctor Who)
| K9 | |
|---|---|
| Doctor Who character | |
 The original K9 prop from 1977 | |
| First appearance | The Invisible Enemy (1977) |
| Last appearance | Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith (2010) |
| Created by | Bob Baker Dave Martin |
| Voiced by |
|
| Shared universe appearances |
|
| Non-canonical appearances | Dimensions in Time (1993) |
| Duration | 1977–1981, 1983, 1993, 2006–2010 |
| In-universe information | |
| Affiliation | Fourth Doctor Tenth Doctor Sarah Jane Smith Luke Smith Leela Romana Professor Gryffen |
| Home era |
|
K9, occasionally written K-9, is the name of several fictional
Within the series' narrative, K9 is a robot dog acquired by Doctor Who's title character (the Doctor) in the 1977 serial The Invisible Enemy. The first two incarnations of the character travelled alongside the Fourth Doctor (portrayed by Tom Baker) until 1981. In these stories, K9 proved useful for the powerful laser weapon concealed in his nose, his encyclopaedic knowledge and his vast computer intelligence. By 1981, each of the two models of K9 which travelled alongside the Doctor had been left with one of the Doctor's female companions. The character subsequently transitioned into spin-off territory. Producers hoped K9's popularity with children would launch the series K-9 and Company, led by actress Elisabeth Sladen in the role of companion Sarah Jane Smith alongside a new K9. In 2006, K9 reappeared in the revived series of Doctor Who. Although the character's appearances in the 2007 spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures were hampered by the concurrent development of the K9 spin-off, the character began to appear full-time in both K9 and The Sarah Jane Adventures, depicting adventures of the original K9 Mark I and of Mark IV, respectively.
Televised appearances
K9 Mark I
K9, retroactively "K9 Mark I" (Leeson), initially appeared in The Invisible Enemy (1977) as the creation of Professor Marius (Frederick Jaeger) in the year 5000. K9 subsequently travelled with the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) as a companion of the Doctor in his adventures in time and space until The Invasion of Time (1978). In this serial, K9 decides to remain on the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey with Leela. Immediately afterwards, Doctor Who would introduce a second incarnation of K9, played by the same prop; the last scene of The Invasion of Time shows the Doctor unpacking a box labelled "K9 Mk II".
Although the first incarnation of K9 does not appear again in televised Doctor Who media, he is the star of the 2009
K9 Mark II
Introduced into the plot in The Invasion of Time, K9 Mark II first actually appears on-screen in
K9 Mark III
K9 Mark III first appeared in "A Girl's Best Friend", the 1981 pilot for a series,
K9 Mark IV
After debuting in the final scene of "School Reunion" (2006), K9 Mark IV returned in spin-off series
Other appearances
Literature
K9's co-creator Dave Martin wrote a series of four children's books entitled The Adventures of K9, published by Sparrow Books in 1980. K9 is travelling on his own in these stories for reasons not explained.
In 1985, a series of
A short story, "Moving On", in
Another short story, "Tautology", by Glenn Langford (
The Virgin New Adventures seventh Doctor novel Lungbarrow (written by former Doctor TV series writer Marc Platt) featured K9s Marks I and II meeting for the first time on Gallifrey during the events surrounding the disappearance of the Doctor's entire family house and his living relatives, which also featured many previous established Gallifreyan based characters. The two collaborated towards rescuing the Doctor, then current companion Chris Cwej and the Doctor's lost family. This novel also served as the direct lead-in story to the 1996 Doctor Who telemovie.
Jealous, Possessive by
The
Movie
On 24 October 2015, Bob Baker and Paul Tams announced the film K9: TimeQuake which is destined for cinemas in 2017 and is to feature the robot dog facing off against classic Doctor Who villain Omega in deep space. However, this did not happen leaving it unknown when the movie will be released.[4][5] In 2018 it was confirmed TimeQuake was confirmed to still be in pre-production, with plans for a prequel TV show to establish K9 for modern audiences before the movie. As of 2023, no further updates have been made.
Audio plays
In the spin-off media, K9 Mark II remained Romana's faithful companion for many years. In the early 2000s, John Leeson and
When Romana eventually returned to her own universe, she brought K9 Mark II with her (presumably having repaired it) and eventually became Lady President of Gallifrey. K9 Mark II is first seen on Gallifrey in the
K9, played again by
Online media
In 2003, a webcast adaptation of the never-completed Shada serial was produced for the BBC's Doctor Who website, rewritten as an Eighth Doctor adventure and featuring the post-E-Space versions of Romana II and K9 Mk II.
According to the official website for The Sarah Jane Adventures in 2007, the Doctor stored several presents for Sarah inside K9, including a "sonic lipstick" and a watch that scans for alien life.
Video games
K9 appears in the Lego Dimensions video game. He is part of the Doctor Who Level Pack as a rideable vehicle. Archive recordings of John Leeson's performance was used in-game as he was unavailable.[6]
Conceptual history
K9 was the brainchild of writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin. Its purpose was to have a character that could narrate while the miniaturised clones of the Doctor and Leela were inside the Doctor's body during the events of The Invisible Enemy. Martin's own dog had also been recently run over by a car, and K9 was a car-proof tribute to it.
K9 was not originally intended to be a companion, but producer Graham Williams liked the concept so much that the decision was made to retain him as a regular character, in order to appeal to the younger members of the audience. The original name for the character was "FIDO" – apparently from "Phenomenal [sic] Indication Data Observation" unit – but it was eventually named K9.
The initial idea for realising K9 was to use a small actor inside a robotic
K9's innards were redesigned twice more over the course of the series, firstly in collaboration with a company called Slough Radio Control. It allowed one of its employees, Nigel Brackley, to be seconded to the series semi-permanently to supervise the prop. Brackley, who has since gone on to a career in the movie industry, controlled K9 for many of its studio appearances. Eventually, there came a point where the dog's inherent liabilities were outweighing his assets, and the internal mechanisms were completely rebuilt by designer Charlie Lumm. The wheels were enlarged and given independent drives for power and better manoeuvrability, and the radio controls were switched from AM to FM signals to resist interference. However, by the time the improved model made his debut in State of Decay, the first story recorded for Season 18, the decision had already been made to write the character out of the series in the adventure Warriors' Gate.
K9 was a popular enough character to warrant an attempt to spin him off into his own series. In addition to K9 dolls, there were also talking K9 toys produced by Palitoy, the speech provided by a miniature record inside the body of the toy. John Leeson provided the voice for K9 in all its appearances, except for Season 17 (which included the unfinished Shada) when it was voiced by David Brierley. When Shada was remade by Big Finish Productions, Leeson provided its voice.
The practical challenges of working with the K9 prop have accompanied the robotic pooch in his return to Doctor Who. Producer Russell T Davies told SFX magazine, "Yes, just as we expected, multiple takes [were required] when he bumped into a door or veered off to the left. Lis Sladen did warn us, and she was right!"[7] 2009 saw two different incarnations of K9 appear regularly in two Doctor Who spin-offs: Mark IV in the third series of BBC production The Sarah Jane Adventures, and a re-vamped Mark I in the Jetix Europe production K9.
K9 (2010 spin-off series)
A proposed K9 television series or special had been rumoured since the late 1990s, and images of a redesigned K9 were leaked.[8] However, nothing came of this effort until 2006.
On 24 April 2006,
Each episode is 30 minutes long, made by Jetix Europe and London-based distribution outfit Park Entertainment. According to a report in Broadcast magazine, the BBC opted out of involvement in order to focus on their own Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, meaning that BBC-owned characters do not appear in the series.[11][12]
On 3 April 2010, the TV series K9 began broadcasting on the Australian Television Network Ten as part of a Saturday morning line-up of children's shows. John Leeson is the voice of K9. The first episode called "Regeneration"
Cultural influence
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2012) |
In 1990, an unspecified K9 unit appeared with
In the final area of the game Secret of Evermore, the main character's dog appears similar to K9 and can fire lasers from its mouth.[citation needed]
Engineers at
Several individuals have built their own personal K9 robots, ranging from radio controlled units like that used on the show to several levels of computerised autonomy.[citation needed]
K-9 Mail is a popular e-mail client for the Android operating system, with the name and the logo being a direct reference to the K9 robot.[citation needed]
On November 3, 2020, American newspaper the
See also
References
- ^ K-9 News, Outpost Gallifrey.
- ^ "The Nightmare Man, Part 2". The Sarah Jane Adventures. Series 4. Episode 2. 12 October 2010. BBC One.
- ^ Spilsbury, Tom, ed. (1 April 2009). "Ronnie meets K9 for a Comic Relief Special!". Doctor Who Magazine (406): 6.
- ^ "#K9fans ... Bob Baker and Paul Tams are... – K9 OFFICIAL PAGE – Facebook". facebook.com.
- ^ "K9 to Battle Omega in Movie "Timequake"". doctorwhotv.co.uk. 24 October 2015.
- ^ "Peter Capaldi Leads All 12 Doctor Whos in Lego Dimensions". 9 July 2015.
- SFX. 25 October 2005. Retrieved 18 March 2006.
- ^ Leaked image
- ^ Milmo, Cahal (24 April 2006). "Doctor Who's K-9 sidekick is dragged into 21st century in computer-designed cartoon". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 24 April 2006.
- ^ Sherwin, Adam (24 April 2006). "K9 is back and ready to fight in shining armour". The Times. London. Retrieved 25 April 2006.
- ^ Lyon, Shaun (18 July 2006). "More on K9 Series". Outpost Gallifrey News Page. Retrieved 18 July 2006.
- ^ Johnson, Richard (11 March 2007). "Master of the universe". The Sunday Telegraph. p. 3. Archived from the original on 13 March 2007. Retrieved 12 March 2007.
- ^ ""K9" Regeneration (TV Episode 2009) - IMDb". IMDb.
- ^ Perlman, David (4 October 2005). "NASA's new robots show their stuff". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 23 April 2006.
- NASA Ames Research Center (25 June 2000). "Introduction, Advanced Technology Field Testing". Archived from the originalon 9 February 2008. Retrieved 23 April 2006.
External links
- K9 on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
- K9 on the BBC's Doctor Who website ("New Series")
- K9 on the BBC's Doctor Who website ("Classic Series")
- K9 being introduced on Blue Peter in 1977
- "Affirmative, Master: All You Ever Wanted To Know About K9", by Jon Preddle ("Time Space Visualiser" issue 41, Oct 1994)
- A K9 game, on the BBC's official Doctor Who website
