Lost Library of Ukko (TV story)

Lost Library of Ukko was the seventeenth episode of Series 1 of K9 and featured the first travel to an alien planet in a Doctor Who television spin-off.

Synopsis
Inspector Thorne sets a trap for K9 and Starkey is whisked away to a far off planet. The desolate world is contained within an alien library card. The Librarian arrives to reclaim the card. The team need June's help to rescue Starkey and teach Thorne a lesson. The Librarian takes a likeing to Professor Gryffen and sets about tidying up the mansion.

Plot
K9 flies towards Department HQ and hides on its roof, curious about its new open day. He contacts Starkey (who is in a queue to the entry) with Darius, asking him if they have ever had a careers day. He tells him it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. K9 doesn't like this. As he looks over people entering Starkey tells him to move back. In Department HQ, June is talking with Thorne. She is intrigued, as the Department hasn't recruited like this before. Thorne tells her she keeps saying the Department needs to be open and transparent. June argues that he always rejects it but he tells her it's like water on a stone; eventually it will have some effect and her words have a touch of acid. The CCPC guard opens the door, letting the queue (including Starkey and Darius) inside. Thorne arrives to greet the crowd and introduces himself. As they move on, Thorne tells everyone that the Department is a Multi-national security facility, offering career opportunities in the UK, the Americas, the Pacific Union and other, lesser countries. Starkey and Darius stop and ask K9 where to go. He tells them to go back down the corridor the way they came in, the way to Thorne's office. As they make their way they spot a CCPC, the first they've seen inside. K9 suggests they abort the mission. The CCPC then moves on as Starkey and Darius get to Thorne's office. Darius stands guard at the door as Starkey finds an interesting picture. Despite K9's warnings Starkey moves closer and is sucked into it. A shocked Darius grabs Starkey's communicator. K9 tells Darius to take the picture and bring it back to Gryffen and by all means don't look at it.

Darius and K9 arrive at the Gryffen House and tell Gryffen that Starkey has been sucked into the picture, which K9 identifies as a Library card from Ukko. Gryffen decides to take a look at it but Darius warns him not to. K9 brings him up to date on this, telling him that Starkey used the careers day to get in Department HQ; Darius and Starkey arrived at Thorne's office, discovered the Library card and when Starkey looked at it he was sucked inside it. K9 tells Gryffen he thinks it's a set-up by Thorne. When Gryffen asks K9 what the next step is, he tells him to get a mirror. At Department HQ, Thorne enters his office and discovers the Library card is missing, he takes a look at CCTV footage and finds that Starkey and Darius intruded, Starkey was sucked in the card and Darius stole it. A CCPC arrives, Thorne demands to know how they managed to escape. The CCPC tells him their orders were to guide them so they could find their way to his office. Thorne tells the CCPC to get ready to ship out, he will be sent to the Mortainian mines for the next twenty years. Using a mirror, Gryffen,Darius and K9 look at the Library card to find that Starkey is trapped on barren planet, calling out for them. K9 tells Gryffen and Darius that the Ukkans are an all-women race of Librarians who mastered - or as K9 notes "mistressed" - the art of archiving. They can reduce a whole world to an infinitely compressed hologram which they file in their archives as a library card. They do it because nobody else will; they are preserving endangered planets in holographic form. K9 compares it to squashing the data when you zip a file on a computer. This particular card is of the barren planet Urlic. K9 tells Darius they would have to speak to a Librarian to get Starkey out. Gryffen asks him how. K9 tells him he doesn't know.

At Department HQ, June arrives in Thorne's office and asks him if he took an Ukkan Library card and what he's doing with it. He tells her he's exploring its properties for use by the Department, something he says she should have done. June tells him it's extremely dangerous and three scientists have already been lost. He says that the subject he's using is completely expendable. June spots the base of the card on Thorne's desk and asks him where the card is. Thorne merely smiles. Back at the house, K9 confirms Darius' observation that the light on the card is blinking faster. Someone knocks at the door. Darius goes to answer and is shocked to a see an alien on the doorstep. K9 tells Darius she is the Ukkan librarian they're looking for. She introduces herself as Yssaringintinka. Gryffen tells her he needs her assistance. She goes to take a look at the card, causing Darius and Gryffen to avert their eyes. She assures them that she has become immune to the effect of the card over millennia. Gryffen tells her that Starkey is trapped on Urlic. She is more concerned about Urlic than Starkey as his presence threatens the planet with contamination if he leaves anything behind. Gryffen asks if she can get him out. She asks him where the plinth is. He tells her that's all they have. She says she can extract Starkey with a retriever but only if the card is on the plinth. K9 tells her it's at Department HQ. She tells them to go get it, but Gryffen warns her that the Department doesn't like people dropping in. The Librarian gives everyone purple glasses which will allow them to look at the card without being sucked in so they can talk to Starkey. They contact Starkey, who asks Darius if he can get him something to drink. Darius tells him he can't leave anything behind. Yssaringintinka warns that the card's fail-safe will close the portal in two hours.

June goes to Thorne's office with a warning that LOMAXX wants a good explanation as to why Thorne has been interfering with alien technology. He explains that as prison numbers are rising he wants to use Ukkan technology to dump them on other planets. June tells him he's insane. He says he may be, but he's definitely in charge. She asks where the card is; he says not far away. She warns him that LOMAXX wants the card back in twelve hours or Thorne will be forced to resign. Back at the house, Jorjie has arrived. K9 tells the team they have to do a deal with Thorne. They will offer him the card if he gives them the plinth to get Starkey out. Gryffen argues Thorne will never keep his side of the bargain. Darius tells him that if Thorne's gonna lie to the team, Gryffen will have to lie to him. Gryffen refuses, saying he dislikes lying; he's a scientist and science is the pursuit of truth. K9 tells him that to a machine such as himself, truth is just software and Yssaringintinka asks why he is so careful with truth when his house is so messy stating "tidiness comes before truth". Gryffen is contacted by Thorne, who tells him he has something of his and he wants it back and if he goes to take it by force, people will get hurt. K9 interrupts and tells him the facts. Thorne has stumbled across technology he wants to exploit but doesn't know how, so he sets up an entrapment and he can do nothing with the technology unless he has more information. He tells him about the Ukkan goggles and offers him the Librarian as a consultant.

As K9, Jorjie and Darius go through the tunnels, Jorjie is angry because Darius didn't tell her earlier about Starkey's plan to infiltrate Department HQ. Darius confirms it's because he didn't want her to join in. Jorjie asks to take a look at the card to make sure he's all right. K9 tells her she can't, as Yssaringintinka has the goggles disabled. Later, they meet with Thorne. Jorjie gives Thorne a pair of protective goggles. The reason Yssaringintinka disabled the goggles is revealed as Darius opens the box containing the card, double-crossing Thorne and sucking him into the card. However, Thorne has double-crossed them as well. His box merely contains a brick rather than the plinth. At the house, Gryffen is shocked to see Yssaringintinka making his cabinet neater. He tries to make it unneat as she puts it back. K9, Jorjie and Darius, along with June (whom they need to get in the Department). On Urlic, Thorne is now trapped with Starkey. Thorne tells him his plan to turn the planet into a prison colony and the first inmate will be Starkey. Starkey tells Thorne he's the second. Thorne is contacted by June. He demands that she gets him out of there. June goes to Thorne's office in Department HQ and grabs the plinth.

On Urlic, as Starkey drinks from his water bottle, Thorne tells him he's thirsty as well. Starkey tells him he doesn't care. Thorne tells him he should be grateful and if it weren't for him and the Department he'd have nothing to rebel against. Starkey remarks that Thorne's shirt is "skanky" and he looks like he's "selling funeral insurance". June arrives at the house and gives Yssaringintinka the plinth, with only three minutes until the link is closed. She tells K9 the position Starkey and Thorne are standing is crucial for the extraction to be successful. As Starkey and Thorne fight over the water, Yssaringintinka tells them where to stand and the others tell them to stop fighting. Thorne is persistent but Gryffen warns him to do what Yssaringintinka says. She says that the extractor does work too well with two seperate entities, she tells them to put their arms around each other. Starkey grabs Thorne and they are sent back into the House. When Thorne threatens to have everyone arrested, Yssaringintinka threatens to erase him if he harms anyone. She tells him he deserves erasure for his overdue Library card alone. As everyone give her back the goggles she tells them that humans don't deserve to live on Earth as they have made such a mess of it. Starkey thanks her for retrieving him. She tells him it was her pleasure although unfortunately the same can't be said for Thorne. She tells Gryffen to show her out. On the doorstep she asks him to come back to Ukko with her as they are short of men. He is tempted but passes. He thanks her and she teleports home.

At night, as Starkey and K9 go to bed, Starkey asks if he missed him. K9 tells him that as a cybernetic robot he does not experience emotion, much. Starkey asks K9 to turn his night light off. As K9 falls asleep Starkey tells him he missed him.

Cast

 * K9 Mark 2 - John Leeson
 * Starkey - Keegan Joyce
 * Jorjie Turner - Philippa Coulthard
 * Darius Pike - Daniel Webber
 * Professor Alistair Gryffen - Robert Moloney
 * June Turner - Robyn Moore
 * Thorne - Jared Robinsen
 * Yssaringintinka - Cathey Robinsen

Production crew

 * Writer - Deborah Parsons
 * Director - Mark DeFriest
 * 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 - 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

 * Even though only Starkey and Thorne go to Urlic, this is the first visit to another planet on K9 and also the first visit to an another planet in a Doctor Who television spin-off, beating both Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures which had its first visit to another planet several months later with Death of the Doctor.

Ratings
to be added

Myths
to be added

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors
When K9 says happy landings in the tunel his blue light does not come on

Continuity

 * K9 is shown to have a nightlight, K9 Mark IV was shown to use this in SJA: The Lost Boy which took place 43 years before the events of this episode.


 * On The Department Open Day, Thorne reveals that The Department is a multi-million dollar corporation stretching across the entire globe, employing thousands of people. So in this respect, The Department is more a corporate giant than a form of government, but still dominates not only London but the whole world.

Home video releases
This episode is featured in the Series One complete boxset.