The Last Precinct (TV story)

The Last Precinct is the twenty-fourth episode of K9. It was written by Shayne Armstrong and S. P. Krause, directed by James Bogle and offered insight into Darius' backstory with the appearance of his father, Harry Pike.

Synopsis
A vigilante group of former police officers discover the Department are upgrading the CCPCs with alien tech. They make a stand by holding Gryffen hostage. K9 and Starkey battle the intruders whilst Darius faces up to his past.

Plot
At Gryffen Manor, Gryffen is preparing a sample of mucus while Darius tells him he's not sure it was a Jixen tailing them. Darius says that it was too fast. Gryffen shows the mucus to K9, who then analyses it, and confirms it has been loaded with enough Jixen pheromones to cover a thirty metre tall Kaldarean bedmite. A news report gets Darius' attention. It tells of another attack on a CCPC in which one unit was held up and another kidnapped. Jorjie notices Darius' shocked reaction when it is announced that a group called the Last Precinct have claimed responsibility. Gryffen tells Darius that if he can't keep his mind on the task at hand, he can rustle up some tea and biscuits. Jorjie asks Darius about his obsession with CCPCs in recent newscasts. K9 tells Starkey it would be too hard to scan Darius for a social conscience. Darius snaps at K9. Starkey tells Darius to calm down but he gets angrier, accusing them of ganging up on him.

In the garage, Mariah and Darius chat. Starkey joins them and apologises to Darius for hitting a "raw circuit". Darius regrets snapping at him. He says it's about the Last Precinct but it's old news to him. At the front door, Gryffen finds two CCPCs accusing him of conducting illegal experiments. He tells them they have the wrong house. The head CCPC persists but Gryffen tells them to take it up with June. The CCPC pushes him aside. As they enter, K9 finds something odd about the CCPC's energy signal; it shouldn't be functioning. The CCPC uses a device on K9, knocking him out. Gryffen realises the device is not standard issue and this is not a CCPC. When Jorjie uses her mother's override code, the CCPC doesn't comply. Gryffen tries to protect Jorjie but is restrained by the CCPCs, who declare that they are all under house arrest as Jorjie calls for Darius.

The CCPC takes off his mask, revealing a human called Halloran. He tells Jorjie he is human and his comrade is a CCPC with a few minor adjustments. When Gryffen demands they leave, another human police officer with a CCPC says this is their house and always has been; he has come through a secret entrance unknown to Gryffen. He announces that this is the final stand of the Last Precinct. Starkey arrives with Darius, who is shocked to see the officer, just as the officer is to see Darius. Halloran asks Sergeant Pike if he knows Darius. Pike says that Darius is his son.

At the Department Mobile HQ, Thorne watches as four CCPCs approach the house. He sees Pike's message to the Department, announcing he has commandeered this police station for the Last Precinct. He makes demands: the immediate deactivation of all CCPC units and the CCPC cloning plant shut down in forty-eight hours. As he makes his third demand, Thorne orders it shut off. The Department Technician protests but Thorne says it's on a loop. When Thorne makes a loop joke he is irritated that the only humorous thing he will say in his life is wasted on the technician. June arrives to ask what is going on. She is glad Jorjie is at the library during this hostage situation. Thorne's face reveals that Jorjie is not at the library.

The CCPCs try to enter the mansion but are knocked out by a force field. June orders an override of the mansion's security system. Thorne tells her that they've tried, but the codes have been changed. June tells the technician to get Pike on vid-link communication. In the mansion, the team are pushed together. K9 is still offline. June opens contact with Sergeant Pike after determining he was one of the officers dishonourably discharged two years before, charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. June cuts to the chase and urges Pike to let the children go. Pike asks her which child she would choose. She tells him she'd choose the girl. Pike knows that Jorjie is her daughter. After some squabbling, June stops the communication.

Pike is offended by June accusing him of being a fanatic, but Gryffen says he considers him a home invader. Darius reminds Pike that he walked out on him in the middle of the night two years ago. Pike stalks off as Gryffen comforts Darius. K9 reactivates and charges his photon beam, but doesn't fire. K9 explains his living metal antibodies can deal with 99% of terrestrial weaponry, but the weapon used on him is not completely of this Earth or time. Pike claims the Department have been installing extra-terrestrial materials in the latest CCPCs for the past six months and the Last Precinct have been harvesting them for their own use. Gryffen insists that June specifically opposes the use of alien technology in CCPCs. Pike opens up a CCPC and takes out an organic stalk which K9 detects as an alien bio-mechanical component of an unidentified species. Pike explains it's unidentified because it's been altered by the Department, twisted and mutated to serve their purpose. There's one of these in the heart of every Mark II CCPC.

K9 secretly informs Starkey his repairs are 60% complete. Pike decides he can play at the Department's game as Halloran was able to use the Department's alien bio-tech, creating weapons for the Last Precinct to use against them. He puts a green chip into the stalk as he explains that Halloran was one of the greatest forensic scientists in the world before he was tossed aside like a shoe. He plans to show the world the CCPCs for what they really are, unreliable alien machines prone to malfunction. As Pike presses a slimy hand print on a CCPC's shoulder, K9 alerts them to an unstable cybernetic bio-agent reaction and a level nine bio-mechanical virus has been incubated. Halloran insists it's not unstable, saying they conducted numerous tests and the virus is gene spliced to override the Department's control and replace it with theirs. K9 says that even though it's their plan, it isn't working. Pike turns to Halloran, who dismisses K9. Pike orders Green Hand to initiate bio-mech transmission protocols. As he infects the other CCPC with the virus, Halloran explains they will be disconnected from the Department's control, unresponsive and utterly useless except to the Last Precinct; it will give the Department no choice but to reinstate humans into the police force.

K9 advises everyone to stay far away from the infected CCPC. His scan confirms they are unstable. Pike decides to let them go but keep Gryffen for leverage. He orders Halloran to take Gryffen upstairs and release Green Hand into the CCPC ranks. In Darius' room, the team barricade the door. K9 says his self-repairs are 80% complete. Darius says it doesn't matter where they hide as he came here with his dad all the time. As Halloran and Green Hand move through the tunnels, the CCPC becomes unresponsive. Halloran tries to use his control device, but it is knocked out of his hand by Green Hand, who strangles him, chanting its new objective: to crush all resistance and subjugate all humans.

Pike asks June, who is with Thorne, if she has considered his demands, warning her it's her last chance to get out of this with her dignity intact. June tells him the Department doesn't give in to threats and she's just sent an elite squad of fresh CCPC reinforcements, fully shielded against anything he throws at them. The squad of four forms up near the front door, where they are met by Green Hand, who infects them.

Pike announces he intends to reveal how useless the CCPCs and their alien technology are, confusing June. She turns to Thorne, who tells her not to listen to him, dismissing Pike as mad. Pike insists Thorne knows more than he says. June orders the CCPCs to advance, but they don't comply. The CCPCs chant the same words as Green Hand and move towards the Department Mobile HQ. The CCPC in the mansion makes his move as the CCPCs outside attack the HQ. Thorne says it wasn't meant to go like this yet, shocking June, who asks what he put in them. Thorne tells the driver to get them out of here, but the CCPCs are attacking the engine. Pike tells Gryffen the truth behind the CCPCs: they are alien-infested cybermenaces, uncontrollable except by him. In the tunnels, Green Hand walks over Halloran, who regains consciousness and gets up.

In Darius' room, the kids talk about their parents. Jorjie did not know June was behind the police force becoming robots. Darius says there's a lot they don't know about their parents. Starkey says they're lucky to have parents. Jorjie only has one, while Darius considers himself the same, not counting his father. Jorjie admits that even though she loves her mother, she wants her to change and Darius wishes that his father stayed at home. An infected CCPC moves near the room as K9 observes that parents and children want to change one another but everyone stays the same. The CCPC breaks through the barricades just as K9 completes his repairs and shoots him, explaining that he synthesised the energy signature of the customised weapon. They make their way to the STM room where they are met by Green Hand, who is shot by K9. They escape as he gets up.

In the STM room, K9 and the others arrive. He alerts Pike he is no longer in command of the CCPCs. No one is. Green Hand returns. Halloran arrives and warns Pike the CCPCs have gone haywire. Pike uses the weapon and knocks out the two CCPCs. The teams unite upstairs, where Pike asks K9 why they have gone berserk. K9 says the unstable virus has mutated to its own cause. Darius is angry this is why Pike left his mother and him, to go down as a joke. K9 suggests that as an unstable virus has been created from corrupted alien material and the infected CCPCs have developed an immune system. Injecting a pure form of the alien bio-mech could work. Darius tells Pike to untie Gryffen, who can't figure out where to find the material to immunise the CCPC. He spots the STM and tells K9 to use his photon beam to get a component off the machine. Darius tells him he's risking his experiments and finding his family, but Gryffen says that if he doesn't do this he will lose another family. K9 heats the component, which Gryffen removes, then takes a piece of bio-mech from underneath. As only another cybernetic organism can generate enough energy needed for the immunisation, he puts the bio-mech inside K9.

As the CCPCs come up the stairs, K9 fires the immunisation at them, shutting them down. K9 moves out of the house and immunises the CCPCs attacking the mobile HQ. June goes outside to thanks K9. K9 advises that the anti-virus patch is relayed as a coded energy pulse through CCPC com-central. Thorne arrives, saying K9 can't be trusted. June tells Thorne that the only person she doesn't trust now is him and they're having a debrief as to what he's done to the CCPCs. K9 and June go in the house, where she prepares to take Pike away. Gryffen asks Darius if he wants to say something to his father. June gives them a moment together. Pike tells Darius he's glad he found him again and apologises that it was this way. Darius says he's glad too. Pike tells Darius he's proud of him and he'll miss him and his mother. They share a tearful hug. Darius hopes that his father gets a proper trial and fair sentence. Thorne arrives and asks Pike what it's like to be taken out of the station by the CCPC again. K9 tells Thorne to treat Pike with the respect he deserves or there will be consequences. Pike and Darius smile at each other as Pike is taken away. The kids talk about parents again, can't live with them and can't live without them. They laugh when K9 notes their usefulness for pocket money.

Cast

 * Professor Alistair Gryffen - Robert Moloney
 * Starkey - Keegan Joyce
 * Jorjie Turner - Philippa Coulthard
 * Darius Pike - Daniel Webber
 * Voice of K9 - John Leeson
 * June Turner - Robyn Moore
 * Thorne - Jared Robinsen
 * Harry Pike - Chris Betts
 * Halloran - Lloyd Morris
 * Green Hand - Jason McNamara
 * CCPC - Josh Norbido, Eugen Bekafigo, Tyler Rostedt, Simon Preston-Barnes

''Robert Moloney, Keegan Joyce, Philippa Coulthard, Daniel Webber and John Leeson are all credited in the opening of the episode and not the closing credits. With the exception of Leeson's credit, they are credited only by their name and not with their respective character's name attached.''

Crew

 * Writer - Shayne Armstrong, S.P. Krause
 * Director - David Napier
 * Producers - Penny Wall, Richard Stewart, Simon Barnes
 * Executive producers - Jim Howell, Grant Bradley, Steve Robbins
 * Associate producers - Bob Baker, Paul Tams
 * Supervising producer - Dale Bradley
 * Co-Executive producers - Mark Blythe, Sam Tromans
 * Line producer - Pam Collis
 * VFX Director - David Napier
 * Series Production Designer - Jon Dowding
 * Episodic Designer - Adam Head
 * New K9 Design by - Paul Tams, Alex Kubalsky
 * Series Director of Photography - Ben Nott
 * Episodic Director of Photography - Tony O'Loughlan
 * Music by - Christopher Elves
 * K9 theme music by - Michael Lira
 * Editor - Patrick Stewart
 * Casting - Faith Martin and associates
 * Episodic casting - Lisa Maloney
 * Drama/Dialogue coach - Peter Kent
 * Story Producer - Greg Walters
 * Script Adaption - Michaeley O'Brien
 * Production Accountant - Pru Donovan
 * 1st Assistant Director - Peter McLennan
 * Script Supervisor - Sue Ketchington
 * Costume Designer - Joanne Thompson
 * Makeup Designer - Sharon Robbins
 * Puppeteer - David Pawsey
 * Location Manager - Charles Boyle
 * Sound Recordist - Ian Grant
 * B Camera Operator - Dan Maxwell
 * Gaffer - Steve Monk
 * Key Grip - Billy Harmer
 * Special thanks to - Space Furniture, Shredox, J. Barbour & Sons Ltd, Heath Williams at Firefly Lighting, Videopro
 * Safety Supervisor/Stunt Coordinator - Danny Baldwin
 * Transport Manager - Alister Ward
 * Unit Manager - Graeme Suhr
 * Post Production Facility - Cutting Edge Australia
 * Head of Post Production - John Lee
 * Sound Design - Warren Pearson

Worldbuilding

 * K9 references the planet Kaldarea, the homeworld of the Kaldarean bedmites.
 * K9 quips that parents are still good for pocket money.

Story notes
to be added

Ratings
to be added

Myths
to be added

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors
to be added

Continuity

 * Gryffen Manor was a police station as far back as 1963. (TV: The Cambridge Spy)
 * The CCPC objective to subjugate humanity is later revealed to have been planted by the Korven. (TV: The Eclipse of the Korven)

Home video releases
This episode is featured in the following DVD sets:
 * Series One complete box set, released in Australia on 29 September 2010.
 * K9: Series 1: Volume 2, containing episodes 13–26, released in the UK and US on 18 April 2011. ,
 * K9: Ultimate Collectors Edition, containing the full first series, was released in the UK on 11 June 2012.