A Girl's Best Friend (TV story)

A Girl's Best Friend was a single-episode story produced in 1981 as a pilot for a potential Doctor Who spin-off called K9 and Company. The BBC chose not to commission a new series, but did televise the episode as a holiday season special. It was only the second story of this kind in the Doctor Who franchise, preceded by more than a decade by "The Feast of Steven", a Christmas Day "break" from The Daleks' Master Plan. This was the only attempt at a spin-off series during the "classic series" era to make it to the filming stage; it would be more than a quarter-century before this was attempted again.

It is common for this episode to be referred to only by the series title, K9 and Company, including its initial release on home video and in the Target Books novelisation.

Synopsis
Sarah pays a Christmas visit to her Aunt Lavinia's house in the village of Moreton Harwood. She discovers that Lavinia, a noted scientist, has unexpectedly left early for a lecture tour of the USA. She does however meet Brendan - Lavinia's ward - and Commander Bill Pollock - her partner in a small market garden business. Also in the house, in a box sent to her by the Doctor, she finds K9. Brendan is kidnapped by a local coven of witches who want to sacrifice him to the goddess Hecate. Sarah, with K9's assistance, foils their plan and unmasks their leaders - Commander Pollock and local postmistress Lily Gregson.

Plot
Sarah-Jane Smith visits her Aunt Lavinia. When she arrives at her aunt's house, though, she finds that her learned relative has left early for a lecture tour in America, Christmas notwithstanding. Sarah is thus left disappointed by the prospect of another holiday without family. Fortunately, Lavinia's ward, Brendan Richards, breaks her moment of reflection on her aunt's sudden disappearance. After picking him up from the train station, they return to the house and discover a large crate that has been waiting for Sarah for a number of years. When they open it, they discover a mechanical dog named K-9. Upon activation, it tells Sarah that it is a gift from the Doctor.

Brendan's curiosity about K-9 is matched only by Sarah's renewed concern over Lavinia's absence. They thus split up and follow their new-found obsessions. Sarah goes into town to question the locals, and Brendan stays behind to test the capabilities of Sarah's new "pet". In town, Sarah discovers that Lavinia has become disliked by some because of her blunt letters to the local newspaper editors about a growing practice of witchcraft in the area. Brendan, meanwhile, is attacked while using K-9 to analyse soil samples in Lavinia's garden. His attackers, George Tracey and his son, Peter, are tied in to the local coven. Unfortunately, both attackers flee before Brendan can get a good look at them.

Since Tracey is actually Lavinia's gardener, he is naturally called in the next morning to investigate the damage the scuffle with Brendan caused to the garden. After Brendan attempts to brag about the pH balance of the soil, Tracey sharply comments that gardening is more about respect for nature than scientific theory. Otherwise, though, he doesn't betray his more sinister intent towards Brendan. Later that night, he sends his son out to kidnap the sleeping Brendan from the house.

This time, Brendan's attacker is successful, stealing him out from under Sarah, who is elsewhere in the house, reading up on the local practice of witchcraft.

Sarah is now increasingly suspicious of Tracey, believing he would have the opportunity to commit the crime, even if she can't yet put her finger on the motive. She therefore finds a way to hide K-9 in Tracey's house. K-9 quietly monitors the household, until he eventually listens in on a conversation that implicates Tracey as a member of a coven. He also discovers that Tracey intends to kill Brendan in an act of ritual murder.

When Tracey leaves his cottage, Sarah is able to retrieve K-9, who alerts his new mistress to the impending crime. Unfortunately, she has no way to enlist the aid of the local police or, really anyone else in the town, because she can't substantiate her claim of overhearing the conversation without also then having to explain who and what the anachronistic K-9 actually is.

Realising that she and K-9 are effectively on their own, she tries to figure out how to stop the sacrifice. Her first order of business is determining the when of it. Using Lavinia's books on witchcraft, she and K-9 deduce it must occur at midnight on the winter solstice, now just a few short hours away. The where of it is more elusive, however, causing the duo to drive around the shire looking at all the churches. As the last few minutes before midnight tick away, they finally realise that there's an abandoned chapel on Lavinia's property. Rushing home, K-9 and Sarah are briefly upset at missing something that was right under their noses all along.

They arrive just in time for K-9 to use his blaster to stop the coven's Priest and Priestess from plunging a knife into Brendan's chest. Now stunned, the group's ringleaders are easily apprehended by the police.

Finally able to celebrate Christmas, Sarah receives a call from her Aunt Lavinia. She's surprised that Sarah was worried about her, since she left instructions for her business partner to send Sarah a cable. As he turned out to be the High Priest of the coven, Sarah merely laughs and tells her aunt that she has a story to tell her about why that message never reached her. Meanwhile, K-9 tries to connect with the human holiday in his own way, teaching himself to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

Cast

 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Brendan Richards - Ian Sears
 * K9 Mark III - John Leeson
 * Bill Pollock - Bill Fraser
 * George Tracey - Colin Jeavons
 * Vince Wilson - Nigel Gregory
 * Peter Tracey - Sean Chapman
 * Aunt Lavina - Mary Wimbush
 * Juno Baker - Linda Polan
 * Howard Baker - Neville Barber
 * Henry Tobias - John Quarmby
 * Lily Gregson - Gillian Martell
 * P.C. Carter - Stephen Oxley

Crew

 * Director - John Black
 * Producer - John Nathan-Turner
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Writer - Terence Dudley

Story notes

 * This is the first official Doctor Who spin-off; the second is Torchwood, the third is The Sarah Jane Adventures, and the fourth K9.
 * The Sarah Jane Adventures debuted with its pilot episode, Invasion of the Bane, only 3 days after the 25th anniversary of the original broadcast of this pilot.
 * The story features The Army Game actor Bill Fraser as Bill Pollock, who had also recently appeared with Tom Baker and K9 Mark II in the Doctor Who story Meglos.
 * The Winter Hill transmitter in the North West region suffered a power blackout at the time this story was screening (most likely resulting in lower than expected ratings).
 * The theme music was composed by Ian Levine. Supposedly it was meant to be an orchestral score, but was altered to be electronically performed, with John Leeson "singing" in character as K9.
 * Running 50 minutes, this was the first time a Doctor Who-related production had exceeded 30 minutes in length.
 * The original outline by John Nathan-Turner proposed that K9 Mark III was in fact sent by and under the control of the Master, but this element never made it to the screen.
 * There is some significance in the names writer Terence Dudley gave his characters. One couple is named Baker, the name of Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker.
 * Sarah Jane's Aunt Lavinia was played by Mary Wimbush, the voice of Julia Pargetter in BBC Radio 4's soap opera The Archers and Bertie Wooster's long-suffering Aunt Agatha in Jeeves and Wooster. She later starred in Russell T Davies' children's drama Century Falls. Aunt Lavinia had been mentioned since Sarah's debut story in Doctor Who (The Time Warrior), but had never before appeared on screen.
 * Ian Sears, who played Brendan, carried on acting throughout the 1980s and later became a director, producer, writer, and film editor.
 * Peter is seen polishing his crash helmet with Mr. Sheen, a proprietary brand of furniture polish often used by motorcyclists. This is an unusual example of a product's brand name being visible in a BBC drama.
 * This story had the working titles of Sarah And K9 and One Girl And Her Dog.

Ratings

 * 8.4 million viewers

Myths
to be added

Filming locations

 * Cirencester in the Gloucestershire countryside.
 * Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham
 * Sheepscombe, Gloucestershire
 * Wishanger Farm, Wischanger, Gloucestershire
 * Parish Church, North Woodchester, Gloucestershire
 * Barnsley House, Barnsley, Gloucestershire
 * Cheltenham Road, Bisley, Gloucestershire
 * Miserden Park Estate, Miserden, Gloucestershire
 * Miserden Nurseries, Gloucestershire
 * Miserden, Gloucestershire
 * Bear Inn, Bisley, Gloucestershire (Title sequence; Sarah typing on a typewriter)

Production errors

 * When Sarah Jane and K9 go out to look for Brendan in Sarah's car. Sarah leaves her aunt's house when it is dark and arrives at the Church in the dark, but the intervening driving scene is in daylight.

Continuity

 * K9 is referred to as "Mark III" in this story because he is actually the third robot dog owned by the Fourth Doctor. As chronicled in the main series, the first K9 chose to stay with Leela on Gallifrey at the end of The Invasion of Time, while K9 Mark II was forced to stay with Romana in E-Space at the end of Warriors' Gate due to being damaged by time winds.
 * DW: The Five Doctors features Sarah Jane and includes a brief scene establishing that she still owns K9, providing a link to this special.
 * DW: School Reunion reveals that Sarah Jane still owns K9, although he has become non-functional by that time (later to be repaired by the Doctor).
 * K9 and Sarah Jane Smith reappear in EDA: Interference - Book One and meet the Eighth Doctor and his companion Sam Jones.
 * K9 and Sarah Jane Smith meet the Tenth Doctor and his companion Rose Tyler in DW: School Reunion.
 * Sarah once more has a problem driving due to tractors, like in DW: Planet of the Spiders.
 * BFSJS: Comeback begins with Sarah dealing with Lavinia's death.
 * Upon discovering K9, Sarah Jane says "Doctor, you didn't forget." The last words she said to him before departing were "Don't forget me." (DW: The Hand of Fear)

Timeline
For Sarah Jane Smith
 * This story occurs after DW: The Hand of Fear
 * This story occurs before: VD: Housewarming

For K9 Mark III:
 * Asylum occurs after DWA: Just a Small Problem
 * Asylum occurs before VD: Housewarming

Home video releases

 * A Girl's Best Friend was released on video on 7 August 1995.
 * Released along side The Invisible Enemy on DVD as part of K9 Tales.

Novelisation

 * Main article: K-9 and Company (novelisation)


 * A Girl's Best Friend was novelised as K9 and Company, written by Terence Dudley and published as part of Target's Companions of Doctor Who series.