K-9 and Company

If one can get past the jarring credit sequence and theme tune(a guilty pleasure of mine, I must confess!)this is a fun special updating us on what's happened to our beloved Sarah Jane Smith(Elizabeth Sladen) since she left the fourth Doctor at the end of 'The Hand Of Fear'.

She has gotten on with her life, and is visiting her aunt's home at Christmastime, when she gets involved in a witch cult of all things, but the unexpected discovery of a forgotten crate(a gift from the Doctor) brings welcome help in the form of K-9 Mark III(voiced by John Leeson), the lovable robotic dog from the series, which arrived in the Tardis after Sarah's time.

The only official spin-off from the classic series is most enjoyable!

After wading through several ideas for Doctor Who's one `official' spin-off (including a UNIT series I believe), John Nathan-Turner decided to base a series on K9. After all, there were times when the metal dog had received more fan mail than Tom Baker.

In short, the pilot episode has an older and wiser Sarah Jane Smith returning to her home village. She finds a box that the Doctor sent her years ago containing K9 Mark 3. Being the nosy investigative journalist she is, Sarah Jane soon become involved in stopping the activities of a coven of witches. Thank goodness she has K9 and her geeky cousin Brendan helping her.

It doesn't look promising from the first second of the theme song (something I'm sure Nathan-Turner wrote during lunch one day), and the plot is not all that engaging. In fact, there are times it seems you're watching bits of some of the Earthbound Doctor Who episodes cobbled together. Perhaps because of these factors, K9 & Company didn't make it to Episode 2.

For completists only.

Spin-offs rarely get anywhere, and "K-9 and Company" is no exception. Now that I have the videotape, I've seen this. I liked it; it's very true to the spirit of "Doctor Who," with a touch of "The Avengers" thrown in. I always was a fan of both K-9 and Sarah Jane Smith; the chance to see them together was simply irresistable.

This takes the tried-and-true "Doctor Who" formula of a mysterious cult with supernatural powers terrorizing the local populace -- "Image of the Fendahl," "Masque of Mandragora," and "Stones of Blood" all toyed with this.

This one takes a more detective-like approach, and benefits well from it.

Unfortunately, I think this pilot was doomed by its opening sequence. The theme song will make you want to beat your head against the wall, because anything else is prefereable to listening to the theme. "K-9. K-9. K-9." That's the lyrics. I think this failed pilot works quite well to support my thesis that unpopular or failed spin-offs generally have really stupid theme songs, while the original show has some terribly memorable and catchy thing.

Most of the other reviewers here can't seem to get past the theme song--yeah, it's silly but hardly something you would want to commit suicide over! The producer John Nathan Turner wanted a Hart To Hart opening credit sequence and that was a bit of a bad idea considering that the two leads in this are a woman and a mechanical dog! However, there is something bizarrely funny about it that acually draws you in. Maybe it's the camera zooming in on K-9 sitting on a stone fence--just how the hell did he get up there?! All of that aside, the actual story of witchcraft in the English countryside is rather fun stuff. There is some nice nightime atmosphere surrounding the coven's ceremonies and the actors who portray the various locals are all well cast. The only real negative is the short running time which is why there is not a lot of tension built. If one reads the novel it can be seen there was much more going on in the background to create tension but this does an acceptable job. Anyone who takes this too seriously or gets mad over this needs to relax and take a few deep breaths. This is great fun in the solid tradition of Doctor Who and it is too bad it never became a series.

I think K-9 and Company was a good idea,and Elisabeth Sladen always gives a great performance although Sarah-Jane seems a bit more grumpy than her normal self in this spin-off. John Lesson's voice gives K-9 a life of his own and he makes K-9 very endearing,the opening credits are very bizarre and I am sure not meant to be as funny as they come across. Thngs do seem to take a long time to start,there is a lot of running around until Sarah-Jane opens the box containing K-9. Having recently saw the pilot of The Sarah-Jane adventures,at least K-9 and company wasn't full of annoying kids! and people overacting. It was a good idea,it wasn't a failure,it got respectful viewing figures and K-9 remains a very popular character of DR.Who even today.