Doctor Omega
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K-9 and Company was a proposed television spin-off of the original programme run of Doctor Who (1963–1989). It was to feature former series regulars Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist played by Elisabeth Sladen, and K-9, a robotic dog. Both characters had been companions of the Fourth Doctor, but they had not appeared together before. A single episode, "A Girl's Best Friend", was produced as a pilot for a proposed programme, but was not taken up. "A Girl's Best Friend" was broadcast by BBC1 as a Christmas special on 28 December 1981.
Following the successful revival of Doctor Who in 2005, Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 would be re-introduced to the show in the second series episode "School Reunion", which aired in 2006. In addition to subsequent appearances by both characters in the main programme, this became the basis for another series featuring the two characters, The Sarah Jane Adventures, which debuted in 2007. K-9 appears only occasionally in the first and second series, and becomes a regular character in series three. Another unrelated programme, not produced by the BBC and without Sarah Jane, K-9, began airing in 2010. This series, created by Bob Baker, one of the originators of the K-9 character, features a different version of the robot dog.
Further adventures
- The Five Doctors, in which Sarah Jane was shown to be transported to Gallifrey from just outside her home, after ignoring K-9's warnings of danger.
- A K-9 Annual dated 1983 and published by World International Publishing featured short stories and comic strips based around the K-9 and Company format, including the characters of Sarah, Brendan and Lavinia. The villains in the majority of these stories were rural witchcraft covens similar in character to that featured in A Girl's Best Friend.[10]
- The educational special "Search Out Science: Search Out Space", in which K-9 appeared with the Seventh Doctor and Ace, featured the K-9 and Company theme song as incidental music while K-9 compared differently coloured Smarties to stars at various points in their lives.
- Comic strip:
- "City of Devils", written by Gary Russell, illustrated by Vincent Danks, printed in the Doctor Who Magazine Holiday Special 1992 (Marvel, 1992). At Aunt Lavinia's request, Sarah and K9 accompany an archaeological dig in Egypt, which has uncovered a lost city of the Silurians (which K9 refers to by the more accurate name 'Eocenes').
- Short stories:
- "Housewarming", by David A. McIntee, a short story in Decalog 2 (Virgin, 1995). This Doctor-less story teamed K-9 and Sarah with Mike Yates in visit to a haunted house that turns out to be run by the Master.
- "Moving On", by Peter Anghelides, a short story in Decalog 3 (Virgin, 1995), which relates how Sarah's travels with the Doctor impacted her emotionally, and how K-9 Mark III eventually broke down due to a lack of available parts. This was obliquely referenced in the Sarah Jane Smith audio play Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre, also by Anghelides, and addressed in the 2006 episode "School Reunion".
- "The Sow in Rut", by Robert Perry and Mike Tucker, short story in More Short Trips (BBC, 1999). This featured Brendan from K-9 and Company and also involved an encounter with ghosts, this time in and around a Lake District pub called "The Sow in Rut".
- "Balloon Debate", by Simon A. Forward, a short story in Short Trips: Companions (2003, Big Finish), involving Sarah writing a work of fiction about being trapped in the TARDIS. However, how she comes to know so much about the Doctor's other companions is not explained.
- Audio dramas:
- Comeback, by Terrance Dicks (2002, Big Finish), which starts off the Sarah Jane Smith audio series, relating her exploits as an investigative journalist. The play mentions that Lavinia has died, and starts at her funeral. Brendan is mentioned as living in San Francisco and unable to attend the funeral. It also sets the stage for her journalistic "independence" by portraying her as the sole inheritor of Lavinia's estate. Not only does she get the sprawling manor and market garden shown in A Girl's Best Friend, but she also is the heir to the royalties from Lavinia's patents.[11]
- Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre (2002, Big Finish), by Peter Anghelides, a 2002 Sarah Jane Smith audio adventure by Big Finish Productions. Although not named as K-9, an electronic device referred to only as a "pet" is found in storage at Sarah's house and further disassembled by the story's villain.
- "School Reunion", by Toby Whithouse (2006), an episode of the 2006 series of Doctor Who. K-9 here is shown to still be in Sarah's possession, and in a state of disrepair. He is destroyed in the episode and replaced with K-9 Mark IV.
- The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007-2011), K-9 Mark IV appeared briefly in "Invasion of the Bane", the pilot episode of this spin-off[12] as well as another cameo appearance saving the day, in the episode The Lost Boy, but was not expected to appear often in the ongoing series. This was due to the simultaneous development of K-9 by Jetix Europe (with no BBC connections). In "Invasion of the Bane", K-9 is shown to be busy sealing off an artificially-created black hole (explaining his absence from most of the subsequent series). The black hole is resolved in the second serial of the third series, and K-9 Mark IV returns to the Smith home full-time.
- "Journey's End", by Russell T Davies, an episode of the 2008 series of Doctor Who. K-9 appears briefly at the end of the episode, where he assists Sarah Jane's computer Mr Smith and Torchwood to create a lasso of temporal energy, allowing the TARDIS to tow the Earth back to its original position in time and space.
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