K9 (TV series)

K9 was a spin-off television series featuring the robotic dog K9. 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. K9 premiered worldwide between 2009 and 2010. In the wake of the first series, there were indications that a second series was being planned.

In June 2012 series producer Paul Tams stated that he and Bob Baker were "working on the updates for series two and also entering a new production partnership." with another twenty-six episodes planned. They also claimed to have adjusted the K9 CGI model based on the positive and negative comments from fans. Test footage had apparently already been filmed, with further announcements regarding production supposedly due later in 2012. The new design of K9 was to be unveiled at a convention in 2013. However, this never came to fruition and only vague reassurances about the progress of the second season came from Baker and Tams in 2014.

The Essential Book of K9 was then released in 2015, including a trilogy of short stories about the further adventures of K9 Mark 2, set long after the end of this television series and distancing him completely from it. The comic story Short Circuit finally revealed the new design of K9. This design carried over into the 2020 anthology Megabytes.

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. 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.

K9 was the first Doctor Who-related series to not be produced or co-produced by the BBC. It marked only the second time, after the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie, that an official Doctor Who-related production was not based in Great Britain.

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 Season 19 of Doctor Who.

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. Disney XD soon adopted a twice-weekly broadcast schedule for K9, airing episodes on Saturday and Sunday, but soon stopped airing the show.

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

Recurring

 * Lomax - 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 I and II travelled with the Fourth Doctor from 1977 to 1980. The next K9 appeared in A Girl's Best Friend, the pilot episode for an aborted 1980s spin-off, K9 and Company. He made reunion appearances in The Five Doctors and School Reunion. K9 Mark IV made cameo appearances in several episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures and 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.
 * 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 "∂³Σx²", which was used to identify the Doctor in The Trial of Doctor Who from 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 Axons are seen in Dauntless Prison. Bob Baker co-created the Axons for TV: The Claws of Axos.
 * In Liberation, one of the prison corridor doors in Dauntless Prison is labelled D84.
 * 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. Bob Baker created the Mandrels for Nightmare of Eden.
 * In The Cambridge Spy, Jorjie is sent to 23 November 1963, the same day the first episode of Doctor Who was both broadcast and, according one source, set. (TV: An Unearthly Child) The date is not given in dialogue, but is visible on the newspaper prop.

Crossover monsters from Doctor Who

 * Axon (TV: The Claws of Axos)
 * Mandrel (drawing) (TV: Nightmare of Eden)
 * Alpha Centauran (drawing) (TV: The Curse of Peladon, The Monster of Peladon)
 * Sea Devil (drawing) (TV: The Sea Devils)
 * Zephon (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)

Series 1

 * K9 was broadcast in Australia on Network Ten and began screening on 4 April 2010.
 * K9 was 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, dubbed in both languages.
 * The K9 Official Facebook Page announced that the series would be broadcast on Cartoon Network in New Zealand.
 * The K9 Official Facebook Page also announced that K9 was due to be broadcast on Disney XD in America, although broadcast dates are currently unknown.
 * The K9 Official Facebook Page also announced that K9 would be broadcast in Canada on BBC Kids, starting in September 2012.
 * K9 has thus far been 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, Five in the UK, circulated to the US through Disney XD. It has also been broadcast on pay TV stations through Australia, New Zealand and Asia via Cartoon Network.
 * K9 was aired in the United States on the SyFy channel on December 25, 2012. 26 episodes were aired in a marathon.