K9 and Company came about as a way of deflecting the backlash that ensued when incoming Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner, in conjunction with executive producer and mentor Barry Letts, decided that the dog had finally had his day in the series and should be phased out. The character had appeared in the series since October 1977 and a fourth year was felt should be his last. But the public had taken K9 to its heart and along with an orchestrated 'Save K9' campaign run by the tabloid newspaper The Sun, the production office soon felt they needed a way out. As such a potential spin-off series was thought to be the best option; it had never happened before although the dreaded Daleks, UNIT and even characters from the popular Tom Baker story The Talons of Weng-Chiang had all been thought to have possible spin-off series potential. This time, K9 was deemed to have it in spades, especially if he could be teamed with someone from Doctor Who's past of even greater standing.

Thus it was that Nathan-Turner produced an original outline in early 1981 under the title One Girl and her Dog featuring K9 and his new owner, popular ex-companion Sarah Jane Smith played by Elisabeth Sladen. Sladen had agreed to the producer's proposal and the format was reworked into A Girl's Best Friend by Nathan-Turner and outgoing Who script editor Anthony Root before being passed to writer and director Terence Dudley to flesh out into a script under the same title. This was later edited by incoming script editor Eric Saward, with amendments that Dudley was reportedly very unhappy with.

When it actually made it to the screen, it did pretty well in terms of ratings, gaining a very respectable 8.4 million and would indeed have done even better had the main transmitter in the North West of England not failed, blacking out those homes covered by it. Even when repeated the following year on Christmas Eve itself, it garnered 2.1 million viewers.

However, in fandom K9 and Company is generally held to be a bit of a joke. Why should that be? And looking at it now, is that perception accurate or does it have a lot more going for it than those critics would have us believe?

For and against

Well, let's look at those negatives first and then we'll see if really that's what they are. Firstly, there's K9 himself. As a lead character, he just isn't. He was created as a companion, not initially for the Doctor but for the character of Professor Marius in The Invisible Enemy. Again, we are led to believe he proved so popular that two endings were recorded so that he could become a TARDIS crew member. That's as maybe, but he was never allowed to become that much of a leading character after his first couple of seasons because a) he was too clever by half and b) he'd get the Doctor or Romana out of a fix in double-quick time. So, he'd get corrosion for a story or laryngitis (when original voice-man Leeson took time out and a replacement was less than speedily found) or a flat battery, anything to stop him ruining the plot. K9 has to be limited by interaction with the company he keeps at least to keep whatever story there is from being solved in the first ten minutes.

Of course, there was also that, at that stage, even after a massive refit in 1980, the mechanical prop was still not without many problems, especially on location; as had happened immediately after the refit where the prop refused to move at all along Brighton beach and the lightweight dummy of him had to be pulled along on fishing line, so for the finale of K9 and Company the same had to be done again when his gearbox stripped. It may not have been string and sealing wax (almost though?) but if your leading 'man' is this unreliable, what on earth (or in space) can you do?

Secondly, the 'company', where that refers to the characters who would have gone on to be K9's sidekicks rather than just local colour. Now, no one companion argued that Sarah Jane Smith was the most popular companion in Doctor Who up to that point (or since, although the new series' Rose is giving her a run for her money - more later). However, like K9, that is essentially what she is, a companion. Here she had to take centre stage in the role that would normally be occupied by the Doctor and many fans felt that this was no longer the Sarah Jane Smith that we had all known and loved in the past. She was a good driver, even adept at the odd judo kick or two. She was becoming a Mrs Peel or a Mrs Gale, not our Miss Smith.

As with many ‘boy genius’ characters down the years, Brendan was almost universally despised. Firstly because he had to assume the feeble ‘companion’ role to Sarah's ‘Doctor’, secondly because he was too clever by half, conversing with a robot dog from thousands of years in the future about technical gubbins that he should have been going ‘Eh?’ at, not knowing all about it, thirdly his rather embarrassing laugh and lastly because boy geniuses in tv shows have always been depicted as the most yawn-inducing and cringe-worthy characters, rather than rounded individuals that viewers should like like any other character. Lucas in Seaquest DSV, Wesley in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Adric in Doctor Who itself - how come nobody ever learns and writes them properly (To be fair at this point, Wesley did improve, but they had to make him grow up to do it...)

Back to the negatives and thirdly comes the plot and setting itself; rural England and black magic rites. K9 always worked best in a futuristic setting, on an alien planet or trundling down corridors blasting the pursuing Blobulan guards as the Doctor and Leela/Romana ran for their lives and the safety of the TARDIS. Here you have the problem that your leading character is inimical to the setting; you can't take him out and about because you're going to spend your entire time explaining to everyone you come across what he is, where he came from, are there any more at home like him etcetera. That's assuming he can actually go over kerbs, rough ground etcetera as we've already said. Like it or not, K9 is a creature of the future and works best where there's plenty of ramps and he's accepted as part of the fixtures and fittings of the environment, where a throwaway line such as ‘this is K9, he's a computer’ is all that's needed and the story continues. You also have the problem that your series is going to be limited to stories thrown up by that environment. Once you've arrested all the local yokels in your pilot, what are you going to do for follow-up stories?

Other negatives at the time included the music, such as the brashly jangling theme and some out-of-place obvious synthesiser pieces which jarred with those modulated to sound more like woodwind to provoke a darker mood, evoked by use of a lot of night filming for the second half of the story. With mood swings from dark to light elicited at the drop of a hat by the score, maintaining a middle ground never really materialised.

The case for the defence

So we've defined the negatives and fairly damning they would appear to be. What about the positives? Are there any, and if so are they different or are they - shock, horror! - the same things?

Let's take them in reverse order. The theme music wasn't actually intended to be as brash as it turned out to be, having been re-arranged from the basic demo of Fiachra Trench's piece recorded by fan and record producer Ian Levine on synthesiser by Radiophonic Workshop staffer and then-recent re-arranger of the Doctor Who theme, Peter Howell. Someone forgot to tell him it was only a demo and could be re-scored, so he simply used it as is without attempting to use different instruments to give it a more appropriate and less jarring effect. Hearing it again, it does actually come across rather well though as the sort of thing K9 himself might have composed and performed - after "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" of course? - and coupled with the title sequence of a rapid montage of shots of Sarah and K9 'in action', something that Elisabeth Sladen herself wasn't actually too happy with, it does work. It doesn't really fit the mood of this story, being the type of sequence one might expect from an American show than a British one - it reminds me quite a lot of Knight Rider - but it is hard to see how a sequence introducing both characters coming from opposite ends of the universe could be otherwise be done, and of course had it gone to a series as a generic title sequence rather than black magic orientated it would have worked perfectly well. The incidental music is strong when used, though the pieces that work best are those that suit the mood. However, that said, much of the more 'synth' type stuff is placed around K9 himself and so when viewed in context is only as out of place as the character you are watching on screen. Does this mean it doesn't work? Well compared to some of today's over the top stuff, much of these pieces are positively laid back.

Next, setting and plots. Well, it is true that you're limited to what is available, but as a starter story it works well and fits the surroundings. As for future plotting, you have the potential of stories brought to her by Sarah's own contacts in journalism, people she's met or investigated in the past (as indeed later happened in the Big Finish audio series that featured her but not K9), contacts and acquaintances of Aunt Lavinia once she returns from America, not to mention Lavinia herself, problems at school that Brendan might encounter and bring to her attention? The point most fans were making was that this wouldn't really be science fiction, just a Boy's Own yarn. As usual it would seem that they actually missed the point; this wasn't supposed to be Doctor Who mark 2, but a spin off drama with the emphasis on 'drama'. The science fiction element was only ever likely to be K9, for budgetary reasons if for no other, and if they wanted anything else they were bound to be disappointed. As far as the prop being of little use in its exile, the use to which it was put in its pilot story was actually perfectly acceptable. The accident with the mechanical prop's gearbox on location occurred at the end of the last day's filming and the operators, led by veteran BBC effects wiz Mat Irvine, were well used to what it could, couldn't or was likely to do and could come up with solutions that would mean the story could be got in the can, as indeed it was. Any series would have to be written with those potential problems in mind, but as was proved it could be done and done well. The main problem was one that had cropped up in Doctor Who, and that was that actors got used to having voice man Leeson substituting for the prop in rehearsal and weren't so keen at having to adjust to his mechanical persona when it came to recording. Anybody appearing in the show would have to get used to that, and in the pilot most did (even Bill Fraser who had reportedly only appeared in a recent Who so he could kick K9?)

Now, the company. Well, to be fair Brendan is, at this point, beyond redemption and is a low point of the story. However, the high point has to be that he is written out for a good half of it when he is kidnapped by the coven - hurrah! This leaves the rest of the company (as defined) to take centre stage, which she was always going to do. Now, who in their right mind, if they think about it, is going to expect Sarah Jane Smith to return as we last saw her five years before? Introduced to Jon Pertwee's Doctor as being the first companion who had a life of her own as a freelance journalist, she is not the sort of girl who is going to sit at home in her flat in South Croydon waiting for the TARDIS to re-materialise next to her typewriter. No, she is going to pick up her life as best she can where she left off when she went travelling with the Doctor and go back to earning an honest crust. Indeed, as some fans seem to forget, she did just that during her time with him, in both personas she travelled with (see the original Doctor Who stories Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Planet of the Spiders, Robot and The Seeds of Doom.) So, five years on and Sarah's carved out a successful career for herself, although it seems to be coming to an end for reasons that she's not altogether happy with or for that matter elaborates on (time for that in a later story perhaps they thought?) Even then, she's still determined to make it as an author, and has obviously got herself a book deal hence her return to stay at Moreton Harwood to write it. The intervening years have aged and toughened Sarah mentally and she is far less the ‘damsel in distress’ that she would often be portrayed as when the Doctor was around. This is an obvious character development that would happen; again, she could hardly wait for the Time Lord to pop up and write her stories for her! So a stronger figure she appears to be, and is played as such by Sladen. She is still totally recognisable as Sarah, and Sladen's portrayal in the quieter moments, such as K9's message from the Doctor to her, is just like the Sarah of old, and all the more welcome for it. Physically, she has toughened up, as seen if nowhere else than at the end of the sacrifice scene despatching first an un-named coven member then editor Tobias; again, if she's covered stories abroad in less than savoury places, any sensible girl would take a course in self defence wouldn't she? Of course she would!

So finally we come back to K9. It's not possible to talk him up to 'leading man' status. He's the gimmick, the hook and nothing more. But? you can't get away with just calling him that, not really. To use the Knight Rider analogy, if KITT was just a talking car, would that have been any use? No, of course not. KITT had a personality that interacted with those around him, especially Michael Knight. And so it is with K9; both can be the fount of knowledge to move the plot along, but they rely on their human masters, or mistresses, to really define and dictate the action. And K9 does this just as well as KITT. Granted, he's nowhere near as fast or manoeuvrable, but is just as much a part of the story as his four wheeled successor. In story terms he works well as a character without actually being the driving force behind that story. And that's exactly what he should be.

The final judgement

In the end it comes back to the one purpose that K9 and Company was designed to do, apart from appease those who just wanted him back on the box, and that purpose was to entertain. It did so perfectly well within its limited range, proving that there was indeed life in the old dog yet. Doctor Who it wasn't and those expecting it to be were disappointed. However, it you're going to define its success by those terms you're coming from the wrong direction before you start.

K9 and Company was as good a spin-off as it was possible to get and like its parent show had a lot of rough edges. Its low status in fandom is truly not deserved because for all it set out to do it managed rather well and whether any of those other proposed series would have worked better is debatable. Certainly it did neither character harm, with Elisabeth Sladen turning up in 2006 in the new series opposite new Doctor David Tennant and K9's appearance has been rumoured but not confirmed. It would certainly be nice to see the old dog again though, wouldn't it K9? ‘Afffirmative, Master’

STOP PRESS!

No sooner had I finished setting this article down than it was finally announced that K9 would return with his mistress in the new series, although it looks like twenty years of British weather have taken their toll judging by the released picture. Still, looks like even the BBC think there's life in the old dog yet...

article copyright PPS / M.Hearn 2005