Alistair Gryffen

Professor Alistair Gryffen was a scientist specialising in many areas such as alien technology, robotics, cybernetics and Time-travel. He worked for The Department, an agency of the totalitarian government of 2050s London. He was one of K9 Mark 2's friends.

Early life


Alistair Gryffen was born in Canada in the year 2012. (K9TV: Taphony and the Time Loop)

Gryffen moved to London before his role in the Great Cataclysm, a disaster accidentally caused by him and a group of scientists who created a device to cool the Earth. (K9TV: Aeolian, The Korven)

Alistair was married to Eleanor Gryffen and had two children, a daughter, Mina and later a son, Jacob. In 2040, when the family went on holiday, Gryffen stayed behind while his wife and children went on a walk and were lost. (K9TV: The Fall of the House of Gryffen) Gryffen never forgave himself and never got past that he wasn't there for them. (K9TV: Liberation)

When the CCPCs were put into use in 2048, Gryffen was moved by The Department to one of the last active police stations in London for his new workplace and home. (K9TV: The Last Precinct) He had agoraphobia, a condition that kept him from leaving his home and lab facility. Because of this condition, the Department delivered items of interest for him to investigate. He was also aided in his work by his assistant, Darius Pike, the son of Harry Pike, a former police officer who used to work in the police station.

Meeting K9 Mark 2
In 2050, his experiments with a Space-Time Manipulator to bring back his lost loved ones led to an accident which brought both the Jixen and K9 Mark I to Earth. After K9's regeneration into his new form, Gryffen worked on him and helped him to save Starkey. (K9TV: Regeneration)

Gryffen let Starkey stay at the mansion to hide from the Jixen. When the Jixen went to Dauntless Prison, Gryffen monitored K9 as he made his way there. When K9 was disabled by the Department's defences, Gryffen managed to reactivate him by making a familiar sound (the sound of throwing a ball). (K9TV: Liberation)

As he worked on the Space-Time Manipulator for hours on end, Gryffen dreamed of being reunited with his family again and the limitless possibilities of Time Travel. When a Korven from 2618 came through the STM, he kidnapped the Professor so he could extract his knowledge of a Weather-Control device to convert Earth to Korven standards. Gryffen was saved by K9 and the rest of the gang. Later he managed to hack into Starkey's encryption code so that he wasn't a fugitive any more, he also gave K9 and Starkey a room in the mansion. (K9TV: The Korven)

Gryffen started work on attempting to restore K9's lost memories. While K9 and Starkey were foiling a Department publicity stunt, Gryffen encountered Ahab, a bounty hunter who came through the STM. Ahab told Gryffen that K9 was wanted for murder in the year 50000 of Zanthus Pia, president of the Galactic Peace Assembly. Gryffen feigned ignorance but Ahab's voice analyser revealed that Gryffen was lying and he did no about K9. Ahab prepared to use violence to get his information but saw a news broadcast featuring Inspector Drake of the Department telling the people about a dissident and a "mechanical dog". Ahab decided to go to the Department for help in tracking down K9. Gryffen explained the situation to the others, explaining to Jorjie, when she asked why K9 was hunted in his new life, that K9 may have a new body but was still the same dog. K9 hid with Starkey, Jorjie and Darius in Darius' hideout in the sewers. Ahab later captured K9 and brought him to the mansion. However, the lasso used by Ahab to hold K9 was super-cooled, turning K9 into a superconductor and repairing his memory, revealing that Ahab, not K9, assassinated Zanthus pia. When they learned of the truth, [Jorjie threw a cup of hot tea on the lasso, neutralising it. The force of the lasso sent Ahab into the STM, catapulting him 47,950 years into the future but the same place, at which point the Earth had moved, leaving him in space. (K9TV: The Bounty Hunter)

One night, a trio of non-corporeal lifeforms came through the STM, taking on the appearance of Gryffen's lost family, and manipulating him into doing their bidding. However, due to Starkey convincing him that he, Darius and Jorjie were like family to him, he was able to break free of the apparitions' control, sending them back through the STM. (K9TV: The Fall of the House of Gryffen)

When Nehetka and Geb of the Anubians, a race whom K9 had liberated, arrived on Earth, Gryffen was the first to fall under their hypnotic control. He banished Darius from the house when he irritated the Anubians. Starkey and Jorjie were next and Darius tried to convince K9 something was wrong but K9 was too occupied with remembering his past. Darius used Mariah to knock Geb out, using the Ankh on his chest to take control of the Anubian spacecraft and with K9, defeated the Anubians when they attempted to take over the Department, freeing Gryffen and the others. (K9TV: Curse of Anubis)

An accident in the STM resulted in Jorjie being sent to 23 November 1963. K9 and Starkey were sent to retrieve her. They encountered Darius' great-grandfather, William Pike and saved him from the clutches of Barker, a MI6 agent with a surprising resemblence to Thorne, preventing Darius from being erased from history. Gryffen, with June's help, was able to bring them back. (K9TV: The Cambridge Spy)

When Korven agents stole the STM, planning to use it to create a portal for their army to attack Earth, Gryffen finally overcame his agoraphobia, making his way to their base and shutting down the STM, an act that resulted in the device's destruction, although it also destroyed all hope of being reunited with his family. (K9TV: The Eclipse of the Korven)

Personality
Alistair was a classic "absent-minded professor", his work on the Space-Time Manipulator often taking up most of his time. He was a friendly, kind-hearted, trusting individual, as evidenced by his taking in K9 and Starkey. He disliked lying, as he considered his role as a scientist to be "the pursuit of truth". (K9TV: Lost Library of Ukko) He often used phrases referencing famous scientists to express shock, such as "Schrödinger's cat and kittens", (K9TV: Oroborus) "blood of Pythagoras", "what the Heisenberg", (K9TV: Alien Avatar) and "Hawking's ghost". (K9TV: The Last Oak Tree)

Behind the scenes

 * Even though he is not a character on the parent show, Professor Gryffen is the first major Canadian character of either Doctor Who or its spin-offs.