Mind Snap (TV story)

Mind Snap was the twenty-second episode of Series 1 of K9 and a clip show.

Synopsis
K9 is using the Space-Time Manipulator to try and rectify his memory loss of events prior to his arrival and regeneration. Gryffen and Starkey discover him linked to the machine which 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. Gryffen asks K9 what's going on, Starkey says the STM is doing something to K9 again. K9 tells them that he has been recalling scrambled information since this morning and collapses. Later on, Gryffen is working on K9, he warns that siphoning temporal power from the STM is highly dangerous. K9 says it's a calculated risk and that this event points to an even bigger connection between him and the STM than they previously thought. Starkey says there has to be some other way of finding the connection other than hooking him up to the STM. K9 says there's no other way and he has a bad feeling about his connection to the STM. Gryffen says he is doing this against his better judgement, K9 says that sometimes his judgement is totally illogical. Gryffen says that he's a scientist and he experiments, explaining that the nature of experimentation involves taking chances. K9 suggests he takes a chance now and initate full power to the STM, Gryffen does so. K9 suddenly warns them that he is entering attack mode. As they duck he fires, causing an explosion. Starkey and Gryffen are unharmed, they get up to see K9 is gone. He comes back up and warns them to stay back, Gryffen asks what's wrong. K9 detects an alien and fires at Gryffen, who manages to evade the shot. Starkey tells him it's Gryffen. Gryffen tells K9 to let him see what's gone wrong. When Starkey tells him to stay, K9 says he does not compute and warns him to retreat or he will be fired upon again.

Gryffen tells K9 his name and K9 searches for memory of Gryffen, he 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 but are shocked to her him refer to himself as a dog rather than a unit, he says his archives are scrambled. Gryffen tells Starkey to get his VR goggles as this is more serious than he thought. As Starkey arrives holding his VR goggles Gryffen says those should be patched into his helmet which will allow them to witness K9's memories. Starkey almost walks off as Gryffen guides him to the chair. Gryffen gets ready to find out what the connection between him and the STM is after all, he gets him back online and descrambles his archives so he can jog his memory. K9 insists he does not jog, they start at the beginning when he first came through the STM when he was fighting the Jixen warriors and looked "a bit different" and "really like a dog". They see his battle with the Jixen and self-destruction. Starkey tells K9 that he self-destructed and saved him, Gryffen notes how he sustained no damage when he came through the portal but then changed. They see Jorjie and Starkey noting how he protected them and then K9 regenerating, Starkey says that's when he met him and Gryffen. K9 tries to remember Starkey and remembers when Starkey repeated his first words to him in order to convince him he wasn't a Jixen.

K9 recognises him 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, he asks him who else he remembers. Gryffen asks about Jorjie or Darius, he remembers Jorjie and Darius finding him incapacitated by the Phosphane gas and Darius witnessing the Korven leeching Gryffen. They tried to get K9 to help. He tried to focus but engaged his self-protection protocol and shut down. As Gryffen cried out for his family Darius got angry and decided to take action. He went up to the Korven and got his attention by destroying his Phosphane tank, the Korven prepared to shoot Darius. As Darius struggled with him Starkey told K9 to fire his photon beam, K9 shot and killed the Korven. K9 starts acting strange, Starkey asks what's happening but Gryffen doesn't know. Starkey asks K9 whats going on. He is remembering when he encountered a hallucination of a Jixen. K9 warns Gryffen to keep back or he will incapacitate him, he tells him that whatever he is experiencing is not real and is like a dream. K9 argues dogs don't dream, Starkey reminds him he's had his fair share of "puppy dreams". He remembers the time when he fought the Bodach, he tried to destroy the Obelisk however June (possessed by the Bodach) was too close and put the second eye in. K9 tried to ram into the Obelisk but it was protected by a shield that he bounced off. Jorjie decided to take action and put on the helmet and went into the Dreamworld. She showed June a fake love tattoo for Darius, this outraged June who woke up. K9 told June to remove the Eye and leave, K9 was then able to destroy the Obelisk.

K9 says he is dangerous and remembered 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 it's possible K9 assassinated Zanthus Pia. Starkey refused to believe it but Darius argued neither they or him know what he did before he came here. Starkey asked if he done anything suspicious, Darius acted sarcastic saying he's so gentle he wouldn't hurt a fly. He warned one day he'll be petting him and then K9 will blast his arm off, Darius joked around impersonating Starkey in the event that happened. Jorjie told them to give it a rest as she needed her sleep. They all gone to rest, as 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, the clip then glitched and cuts to a burning corpse which K9 identified as Zanthus' remains. As everyone slept, he determined he was Guilty and he was a murderer. When K9 thinks they think he's a murderer he arms his cannon, as they duck he turns around and shoots, turning the STM off. Gryffen tells K9 he almost hit the STM and he could have destroyed the only chance they have of figuring out his connection to it and getting him back to his own time. He says he doesn't remember his own time as he is only a dog, Starkey says he isn't only a dog he's K9 and he has to help them help him.

He remembers his purpose to protect humans and the time where they met with Thorne so he could give them the base of the Ukkan library card, he was given a pair of (disabled) protective goggles as Darius opened the box containing the card, double-crossing Thorne and sucking him into the card. K9 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. Gryffen says how can he forget the Department after all the things they've done to disrupt their work, K9 asks if they are all enemies. Gryffen says that not all of them are and K9 remembers when Jorjie stayed over when a storm raged. She predicted her mother will be calling again which she did, much to her annoyance. As Drake took an interest asked who she was talking to she hung up, suprising Jorjie as that was her "trick". He then remembers June saying that K9 is under the control of the Department. Her section and not security, giving Gryffen responsibility of K9 and making K9 and the team the Official "K9 Unit". Gryffen tells him that's June and he has great respect for her, K9 says his short-term memory is incomplete. He turns on the STM, he says the directives from the STM are in conflict with his programming. Starkey asks what it means, K9 says it means his existance is an error and the lofical solution is to self-destruct. He starts his one-minute count down, later they Starkey and Gryffen get out of the room. At the last second Gryffen tells him to stop as he controls his own directives and not the STM, he tells him he's being totally illogical. K9 comes behind them and says that to say he is illogical is illogical.

Gryffen asks if he remembers the Anubians who made him think he was a God, "totally illogical" as Starkey says. K9 says that the logic seems sound that he would be a God, being a cybernetic sentient dog to a lesser species. 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 that running memory scans means he couldn't concentrate on anything else. Darius told K9 to listen as there was something wrong going on, Nehetka told K9 to ignore him. Darius said he had figured it out and it isn't the real Gryffen, Starkey or Jorjie. Darius said the Anubians have replaced them with Robots, Podpeople or Clones. The Anubians and the others laughed at him, Darius asked him to scan them. K9 scanned Gryffen and determined he is human. K9 gone back to his memory search as the Anubians grabbed Darius and Geb told him his audience with K9 was at an end. When Darius left, Nehetka suggested that a slight attitude adjustment and he'd make a fine court jester. K9 says there is a programme conflict between him and the STM and that the logical proceedure is to totally erase memory and reboot, Starkey refuses to let him. Gryffen thinks, he gets and 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 he told K9 that if he survived and Starkey and Darius didn't he'll never forgive himself, he'll never get past that he wasn't there for them. When K9 didn't respond Gryffen had a thought, he created a sound that K9 was familar with, dropping a ball over and over again. K9 reactivated, he explained that his living metal frame required down time to repair from the Department's weaponary and his combat conditioning shielding had now done it's job, K9 then 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, to Starkey's irritance. K9 is curious as they are friends with a machine, Starkey says he has too and asks him if he can remember them. He recalls when he was undercover in Crashclub, his crate was opened by two robot clowns, Chuckles and Boris. Chuckles told him refuelling's is almost over, K9 said there was a mistake and he was supposed to be delivered to the Gladiator Pens. Chuckles told him these were the pens and they were the Gladiators. K9 was shocked, saying they were merely a couple of clowns. Chuckles said that he and Boris used to be clowns but Freddie owned them so like it or not they are Gladiators, as was K9, the ferocious Pain-Maker then arrived.

Gryffen explains that K9 became Chuckles friend just as he became his and Starkey's friend and that they're all in this together. Gryffen says that K9 has to override the directive from the STM and he hooks him back up to it. Starkey fears there's a "but", Gryffen says the but is that he risks losing all his memory, he will forget his friends. He says he has made his choice and he must override the directives and the STM is not his master. Gryffen puts the STM on full power, Starkey and Gryffen protect themselves from another explosion. They go back and Starkey tells K9 to come to him, calling him "good dog". He comes up and says that he is a cybernetic construction containing quantum conciousness capable of logical deduction and he is not a dog. Gryffen is relieved to see he's back to normal and tells K9 that they may never know how the STM did this to him and it's too dangerous to find out. K9 explains that 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 affirm it and smile at him.

Cast

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

Production 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

 * Unlike Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures which have only shown brief flashback scenes, this episode is the first example of a clip show in the Doctor Who franchise. K9, Starkey and Gryffen are the only characters who appear in new footage.

Ratings
to be added

Myths
to be added

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors
to be added

Continuity

 * In K9's memories, archive footage of K9TV: 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.

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