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.

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.

So K9 was written out of Doctor Who and with the furore from the fans and the media, the producers gave him a spin off show and teamed him with Sarah Jane Smith.

It seems not much attention was paid as to who this series was aimed at. It looks like there was no type of focus group evaluation, it was just quickly green-lit into production.

The final result, a mish mash of ideas that forgot K9 was popular with kids. Therefore a witches coven story line that harks back to Pertwee era Doctor Who might not be the wisest of moves.

For years K9 & Company stuck out like a sore thumb in the Doctor Who canon. Almost a quarter of century later, Russell T Davies effectively tried a second pilot, pushing Sarah Jane to the forefront, surrounding her with some kids and K9 pushed to the background. Even the Doctor turned up a few times.

In essence this pilot provided a bridge to the Sarah Jane Adventures.

I rather enjoyed this pilot episode of this proposed "Doctor Who" spinoff series. Too bad the BBC didn't pick it up as a series because I think it showed promise.