Mind Snap (TV story)

Mind Snap was the twenty-second episode of K9. It was written by Bob Baker and Paul Tams, directed by David Napier and featured John Leeson as K9 Mark 2, Keegan Joyce as Starkey and Robert Moloney as Alistair Gryffen.

It was a, the first of its kind in the Doctor Who franchise.

Synopsis
K9 is using the space-time manipulator to try to recall events before his arrival and regeneration. Gryffen and Starkey discover him linked to the machine. This creates a feed-back and K9 loses all control of his memory and programming. He becomes a danger to everyone and starts his self destruct programme.

Plot
The STM is activated as K9 watches. Gryffen and Starkey walk in. Starkey says the STM is doing something to K9 again. K9 has been recalling scrambled information since this morning and collapses.

Later, Gryffen is working on K9. He says siphoning temporal power from the STM is very dangerous. K9 says it's a calculated risk and there is an even bigger connection between him and the STM than they thought. Starkey says there has to be some other way of finding the connection. After Gryffen activates the STM to full power, K9 warns he is entering attack mode. As Gryffen and Starkey duck, K9 fires, causing an explosion. Starkey and Gryffen are unharmed, but K9 is gone. He returns and warns them to stay back. He detects an alien and fires at Gryffen, who evades the shot. Starkey tells him it's Gryffen. K9 says he does not compute and warns him to retreat or he will fire again.

K9 remembers when Gryffen worked on K9, imprinted the sound of a ball in his memory and played fetch. K9 identifies him as human and stands down. Starkey and Gryffen are relieved until he refers to himself as a dog rather than a unit. K9 says his archives are scrambled. Gryffen has Starkey get his VR goggles as this is more serious than he thought. Gryffen gets ready to find out what the connection between K9 and the STM is.

They start at the beginning, when he first came through the STM, fighting the Jixen warriors and looking "a bit different" and "really like a dog". They see his battle with the Jixen and his self-destruction. Starkey tells K9 he self-destructed and saved him. Gryffen notes he sustained no damage when he came through the portal, then changed. They see Jorjie and Starkey and how he protected them and then regenerated. K9 tries to remember Starkey. He recalls when Starkey spoke his first words to him to convince him he wasn't a Jixen.

K9 recognises Starkey as "young master" and asks for walkies. Gryffen tells Starkey it's best to play along until his memory returns. Starkey confirms he is his master but they aren't going for walkies now. They ask K9 who else he remembers. K9 remembers Jorjie and Darius finding him incapacitated by the phosphane gas and Darius seeing the Korven leech Gryffen. He tried to focus but shut down. Darius got angry and took action. The Korven started to drain Darius. Starkey told K9 to fire his photon beam and K9 killed the Korven.

K9 starts acting strange. He is remembering when he encountered a hallucination of a Jixen. K9 warns Gryffen to keep back or he will incapacitate him. He is experiencing something like a dream. He remembers the time he fought the Bodach. He tried to destroy the Obelisk but June was too close while putting the second eye in. K9 tried to ram into the Obelisk but it was protected by a shield and he bounced off. Jorjie put on the helmet and went into the Dreamworld to wake June. K9 was then able to destroy the Obelisk.

K9 says he is dangerous. He remembers the time the team hid from Ahab in Darius' hideout in the sewers. As Starkey, Darius and Jorjie ate, K9 was "defragging". Jorjie wondered if K9 had assassinated Zanthus Pia. All but Starkey had gone to sleep. Starkey petted K9. He accessed the remains of his memory and encounter with Zanthus Pia. The clip showed K9's HUD stating Zanthus must be destroyed, then glitched and cut to Zanthus' remains. K9 decided he he was a murderer.

When K9 remembers this, he arms his cannon. He shoots, turning the STM off. Gryffen tells K9 he almost hit the STM. K9 could have destroyed their only chance of figuring out his connection to it and getting him back to his own time. K9 says doesn't remember his own time as he is only a dog. Starkey says he's K9 and he has to help them help him.

K9 remembers his purpose: to protect humans. He recalls when they met with Thorne so he could give them the base of the Ukkan library card. They doubled-crossed Thorne, sucking him into the card. He asks who the "tall human" who he feels like biting is. Starkey tells him that Thorne is a Department Inspector. K9 doesn't remember the Department. He remembers when Jorjie stayed over as a storm raged. When her mother called, Drake asked who she was talking to and she hung up. He remembers June saying K9 is under the control of the Department, her section and not security. She gave Gryffen responsibility for K9 and made K9 and the team the official "K9 Unit".

Gryffen tells K9 about June and says that he has great respect for her. K9 says his short-term memory is incomplete. He turns off the STM. The directives from the STM are in conflict with his programming. Starkey asks what that means. K9 says it means his existence is an error and the logical solution is to self-destruct. He starts his one-minute count down, warning Starkey and Gryffen to get out of the room. Gryffen tells K9 to stop and that he, not the STM, controls his own directives, and that he's being illogical. K9 says that to say he is illogical is illogical.

Gryffen asks if he remembers the Anubians who made him think he was a god. K9 remembers when Gryffen, Starkey and Jorjie were controlled by the Anubians and Darius arrived and woke him. K9 turned his attention to Darius and explained running memory scans meant he couldn't concentrate on anything else. K9 went back to his memory search as the Anubians grabbed Darius. Geb told Darius his audience with K9 was at an end. When Darius left, Nehetka suggested an attitude adjustment and he'd make a fine court jester. K9 says there is a programme conflict between him and the STM. The logical procedure is to erase memory and reboot, but Starkey refuses to let him. Gryffen gets an idea and asks if he remembers the ball. As he drops it, K9 tries to remember.

He recalls when he was disabled in a dustbin and Gryffen tried to wake him up. Gryffen watched a recording of his family and told K9 that if he survived and Starkey and Darius didn't, he would never forgive himself. When K9 didn't respond Gryffen made a sound that K9 was familiar with, dropping a ball over and over. K9 reactivated. His living metal frame required down time to repair and his combat shielding had now done its job. K9 made his way to Dauntless prison.

Gryffen tells him he is a machine and not a dog. He throws the ball and K9 goes to fetch it. K9 is surprised they are friends with a machine. Starkey points out that K9 is friends with machines, too. Starkey asks K9 if he can remember Chuckles and Boris. K9 recalls when he was undercover in Crashclub. His crate was opened by two robot clowns, Chuckles and Boris. Chuckles told him refuelling was almost over. K9 said he was supposed to be delivered to the gladiator pens. Chuckles told him that they were in the pens and they were the gladiators. Chuckles said he and Boris used to be clowns but Freddie owned them, so like it or not they were gladiators, as was K9.

Gryffen says K9 became Chuckles' friend, just as he became his and Starkey's friend. They're all in this together. Gryffen says K9 has to override the directive from the STM and hooks him back up to it. Starkey fears there's a "but". Gryffen says the but is that he risks losing all his memory and forgetting his friends. He says he has made his choice. K9 must override the directives. The STM is not K9's master. Gryffen puts the STM on full power.

Starkey tells K9 to come to him, calling him "good dog". He comes up and says he is a cybernetic construction containing quantum consciousness capable of logical deduction and he is not a dog. Gryffen is relieved to see he's back to normal and tells K9 they may never know how the STM did this to him and it's too dangerous to find out. K9 explains he does not have to risk remembering his past. He may not be a dog, but remembers he is a faithful friend. Starkey and Gryffen agree and smile at him.

Cast

 * K9 Mark 2 - John Leeson
 * Starkey - Keegan Joyce
 * Professor Alistair Gryffen - Robert Moloney

Crew

 * Writer - Bob Baker, Paul Tams
 * 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 and Russell Maggs
 * 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

Story notes

 * This episode is the first example of a in the Doctor Who franchise. K9, Starkey and Gryffen are the only characters who appear in new footage.
 * In K9's memories, archive footage of Regeneration, Liberation, The Korven, The Bounty Hunter, Fear Itself, The Fall of the House of Gryffen, Dream-Eaters, Curse of Anubis, Lost Library of Ukko, Taphony and the Time Loop and Robot Gladiators is shown.
 * Along with Dave Martin, Bob Baker wrote eight Doctor Who serials during the classic series, from The Claws of Axos and The Armageddon Factor. He and Martin are the creators of K9, who was introduced in The Invisible Enemy. This is the first time that Baker has written for the televised Doctor Who franchise since Nightmare of Eden in 1980.

Ratings
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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, scheduled for release in the UK on 11 June 2011.