K9 (TV series)

K9 was a spin-off television series featuring the robotic dog K9 that premiered worldwide between 2009 and 2010. It was produced in Australia by Park Entertainment and Stewart & Wall Entertainment under the auspices of Metal Mutt Productions, a business identity of Bob Baker which holds primary copyright to the series. In the wake of the first series, there were indications that a second series was being planned, but as nothing has come of those plans, the series is effectively concluded.

History
School Reunion led to near-immediate plans to launch the Sarah Jane Adventures spin-off. The rights to K9 were obtained by other parties for a separate spinoff. According to news reports in mid-2007, the K9 series would "feature a blend of live-action and CGI: K9 himself will be a CGI creation, but the show will otherwise be recorded in front of cameras."

In June 2008 it was announced production would begin on the series in July 2008, with all or some of the episodes written by the co-creator of K9, Bob Baker. Other announced writers included Shane Krause and Shayne Armstrong. The series would be produced by Simon Barnes, Richard Stewart and Penny Wall. Due to licensing issues, the robot dog was extensively redesigned. At first, the series was not expected to have any obvious connection to the Doctor Who universe. , but a 2009 update to the Park Entertainment website revealed that the series would explicitly star K9 Mark I and he would initially appear to be the same design seen on Doctor Who. It was the first Doctor Who-related series to not be produced or co-produced by the BBC. Aside from the 1996 telefilm, it was the first time a Doctor Who-related production was not based in Great Britain.

These licensing issues also prevented K9 Mark IV from initially making more than cameo appearances in The Sarah Jane Adventures. K9 later became a regular for series 3 of SJA.

The first season of the series consisted of twenty-six episodes of thirty minutes each, which gave it a similar run time to an average series of Doctor Who. It was the first time a Doctor Who-related season had so many episodes since the mid-1980s.

The first episode of the series premiered in the UK on the cable network Disney XD as a special on 31 October 2009. The series began airing as a weekly offering on a Scandinavian network in January 2010. It commenced broadcast in the UK on 3rd April 2010, the same day it premiered on the Ten Network in Australia. This was also the same day that Series 5 of the parent program debuted in the UK. Nevertheless, the later December 2010 broadcast on Five was claimed to be the "premiere" UK broadcast.

Currently, Disney XD has adopted a twice-weekly broadcast schedule for K9, airing episodes on Saturday and Sunday.

The backstory does not appear to contradict the canon of the other Whoniverse TV series, but does contradict the Big Finish Productions' Gallifrey series, which showed K9 Mark I destroyed. Although Leela refused to rebuild K9 it is possible that the Time Lords rebuilt K9 without her knowledge, possibly to help fight in the Last Great Time War because K9's regeneration unit has writing on it very similar to Gallifreyan. Also, K9 Mark III didn't have a regeneration unit when he was destroyed, which implies that it was fitted in by the Time Lords as opposed to the Doctor.

Primary cast

 * K9 - John Leeson
 * Starkey - Keegan Joyce
 * Jorjie Turner - Philippa Coulthard
 * Darius Pike - Daniel Webber
 * Professor Alistair Gryffen - Robert Moloney
 * Inspector June Turner - Robyn Moore

Secondary cast

 * Lomax (K9) - Peter Kent
 * Inspector Drake - Connor Van Vuuren
 * Inspector Thorne - Jared Robinsen

Series 1 - 2009-2010
see Main article

Connections with Doctor Who

 * As noted above, K9 has a long history with the parent series, being one of the most recognisable icons of the show. K9 Marks 1 and 2 travelled with the Fourth Doctor from 1977 to 1980. The next K9 appeared in A Girl's Best Friend, the pilot episode for a aborted 1980s spin-off, K9 and Company. He made reunion appearances in DW: The Five Doctors and DW: School Reunion. K9 Mark IV made cameo appearances in several episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures and DW: Journey's End and later had a larger role in Series 3 of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Specifically, the K9 in this series is the regenerated K9 Mark I, having a radically different design change as the BBC own the design to K9.
 * In Regeneration Professor Gryffen triggers a piece of music stored in K9's memory. The three notes that are played are the first three notes of the Doctor Who theme song.
 * In Regeneration the component of K9 that triggers his regeneration has symbols resembling Old High Gallifreyan, the language of the Time Lords with whom K9 Mark I has been. The writing includes "δ³Σx²", which was used to identify the Doctor in the 1972 behind-the-scenes book The Making of Doctor Who.
 * In Liberation Jorjie considers the possibility using the space-time manipulator to have time-travel adventures, the main theme of Doctor Who.
 * In Liberation creatures resembling Zephon and an Axon are seen in Dauntless Prison.
 * In Liberation one of the prison corridor doors in Dauntless Prison is labelled D84.
 * In The Bounty Hunter, in a news report it is stated a man named only "Mr Smith" has won the lottery and it asks anyone who he is. "Mr Smith" could possibly be the Doctor as he often goes by the alias of "John Smith" or it could be a reference to the character Mr Smith from the spin off series The Sarah Jane Adventures, or it could have been an in-joke reference to Matt Smith who had "won the lottery" in the sense that he would be playing the Eleventh Doctor.
 * In Jaws of Orthrus Proffessor Gryffen uses the phrase "reverse the polarity", a phrase often associated with the Third Doctor. In Black Hunger, K9 also used the phrase.
 * In Curse of Anubis a gallery of races the Anubians have invaded show a Sea Devil, a Mandrel and an Alpha Centauran.
 * In The Cambridge Spy Jorjie is sent to 23 November 1963, the same day the first episode of Doctor Who was both broadcast and set. (DW: An Unearthly Child) The date is not given in dialogue, but is visible on the newspaper prop.
 * Some of the devastating events described in DW: The Waters of Mars may have happened either before or during the first series.

Crossover monsters from Doctor Who

 * Axon (The Claws of Axos)
 * Mandrel (drawing) (Nightmare of Eden)
 * Alpha Centauran (drawing) (The Curse of Peladon, The Monster of Peladon)
 * Sea Devil (drawing) (The Sea Devils)

Broadcasts

 * K9 is broadcast in Australia on Network Ten and began screening on 4 April 2010.
 * K9 is on Disney XD in the UK.
 * In April 2010 it was announced that K9 would begin broadcasts on the UK terrestrial network Five after broadcasts on Disney XD concluded, The series debuted on Five on 18 December 2010. Although it had originally been announced that the first season would be split in half, the series ran interrupted on a daily schedule for its first twenty-one episodes, concluding on 9 January 2011; after a month's hiatus, two more episodes aired on 5 and 6 February 2011. It then went on hiatus until resuming on 24 April 2011, airing episodes 24 and 25 on a weekly schedule. However as of mid-August 2011, no broadcast has been indicated on Five for the 26th and final episode of Season 1.
 * K9 is broadcast in Bulgaria and Romania on Disney Channel and it's dubbed on both languages.
 * The K9 Official Facebook Page has announced that the series will be broadcast on Cartoon Network in New Zealand.
 * The K9 Official Facebook Page has also announced that K9 is due to be broadcast on Disney XD in America, although broadcast dates are currently unknown.
 * K9 has commenced broadcast on Network Ten in Australia, Disney XD in the UK & Ireland; Scandinavia, Poland, Italy and the Netherlands and Disney Channel CEE in Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. It has recently begun broadcast on Five in the UK and will soon be circulated to the US through Disney XD, being sent through Australia, New Zealand and Asia via Cartoon Network. DVD releases and other such merchandise will soon follow evident by such endeavours already taking place in the UK.