Liberation (TV story)

Liberation was the second episode of Series 1 of K9. It resolved the issue of the surviving Jixen and Dauntless Prison shown in the first episode.

Synopsis
Having been tagged by Jixen slime, Starkey is hiding from the Department and the Jixen warrior who survived K9’s blast. Jorjie tells Starkey the Department is imprisoning aliens and K9 flies off to investigate. Jorjies’s mother is Department inspector June Turner. There is a confrontation as the youngsters and K9 try to release the innocent aliens. The Jixen have a battle with their sworn enemies, the Merons, who have infiltrated the Department. Starkey confronts the Jixen with dire consequences!

Plot
At the mansion, Gryffen watches a recording of his wife and children. Darius doesn't like Starkey staying, but K9 insists he must or the Jixen tear him asunder. Starkey asks why can't he just get the Jixen before it gets him. K9 states the odds aren't in his favour. Starkey becomes alert when someone knocks at the door. Jorjie arrives and talks about travelling through time via the Space-Time Manipulator. Darius says it's too dangerous and anything could come through. Suddenly the STM activates and sends a couple of black rats through, scaring Darius. K9 tells Gryffen that the Jixen is alive and on the move.

Some time later, K9 detects the direction the Jixen is heading. Starkey says it must be heading for Dauntless prison. Jorjie says the Department keeps captured aliens there. They have no rights and treated inhumanely; it isn't fair. Darius asks why the Jixen would go to an alien prison and suggests Starkey give himself up. K9 says one word: Meron, which Darius hears as 'moron'. Jorjie corrects him and asks what it means. Gryffen explains it's an enemy of the Jixen and very dangerous. Starkey decides they should go to the prison and get the Jixen before it gets him. K9 says that isn't a good idea. The last thing they'd want would be to get caught in is battle between the Merons and the Jixen: whole planets have been wiped out.

Jorjie's mother calls her. Gryffen asks K9 to go to the prison and track the Jixen. K9 says he will, but with great discomfort. While Darius is with Mariah, Starkey says they should help K9 find the Jixen. Darius agrees but only with the promise that Starkey will leave and not come back after they stop the Jixen. They get into Mariah and go for a drive. Gryffen tracks K9 through the monitor. On his way to the prison, K9 is detected by the Department. K9 enters the Department exclusion zone. The Department's defence robots attack and disable K9. He falls in a dustbin that Starkey and Darius walk by.

Starkey and Darius climb down and find a locked door, which Starkey tries to unlock. Darius wishes him good luck on getting out as he walks into a brick wall which breaks. He has stumbled upon the entrance. They spot two scientists taking a sample from an alien on the other side of the corridor as they are apprehended by the CCPCs. Starkey calls K9 with his dog whistle. Gryffen takes this as a sign he is in trouble and asks K9 to wake up. As Starkey and Darius see the alien prisoners, Gryffen begs K9 to respond. They look at the alien prisoners. Starkey notes there's a lot they don't know about the Department.

They are met by Thorne, the prison governor, who throws them in a cell with an alien called Mr Wiffy. Darius complains he can't keep them in here with no charges. June comes in and says he can. She is surprised to see Starkey, "The boy everyone is looking for". She says they're not to be harmed. Thorne asserts his authority as governor, but she challenges this as a Department inspector in charge of alien threats. She suggests he searches his prisoners before he "blabs his face off". She takes Darius's communications device and contacts Gryffen, who asks why the Department is imprisoning aliens. She says they need to be catalogued to look out for others of their species and if the species commit a crime, they'll know what they are looking for. They can't be allowed to wander around London. Gryffen says they should be sent back home. She says they have tried, but insists it's the only way and ends the call.

June warns Starkey he will be returned to Virtual detention, where his sentence will be restarted plus an extra six months for escaping unless he tells her where she can find K9. If he does, they will both be released. Starkey refuses. She leaves them. Gryffen waits for K9 to wake up. He thinks of his family and tells K9 if he survives and they don't he'll never forgive himself. He'll never get past that he wasn't there for them. When K9 doesn't respond, Gryffen creates a sound that K9 knows, dropping a ball over and over. K9 reactivates. He says his living metal frame required down time to repair from the Department's weaponry and his combat conditioning shielding has now done its job. K9 starts to make his way to Dauntless prison.

Darius tries to convince Starkey to give K9 up. Suddenly, Jorjie arrives. Asked how she found them, she says she tracked Mariah's autodrive and then followed the bickering. Darius gives her a key card for the keypad up the corridor that he picked from Thorne's pocket. Jorjie unlocks all the cells in the corridor. All CCPC units are ordered to the cells. K9 goes through the prison, scanning for the Jixen. As the kids and aliens run, Starkey looks behind to see if they are being followed when he is attacked by the Jixen.

The Jixen corners him but K9 shoots it. However, he has used up all his power and his energy levels don't have time to reboot. He recommends they run. Starkey and K9 lure the Jixen to the cells. Starkey puts his jacket, covered in the Jixen tracking slime, in a cell which the Jixen finds. Starkey locks the cell. As they taunt the Jixen, one of the scientists walks in. He morphs into his true Meron form and attacks K9. As he advances on Starkey, the Jixen emits a loud scream which makes the Meron retreat. In Thorne's office, June hears the Jixen's scream. Thorne locks the door, saying it's best they stay here. June spots Starkey and K9 on a camera and suggests they go capture him. Thorne refuses, saying they don't know what's going on down there. K9 isn't in good shape. Saying his immunity levels are down to 19%, he reroutes energy reserves to critical systems amd tells Starkey to leave. K9 can't go as his power levels are critical. Starkey tells him to try.

June grabs Thorne's locking device and promises he'll never darken the prison's doors again. He's finished. Thorne vows revenge. Starkey and K9 meet up with the others and Darius unlocks the door, but they are met by June, who tells them they are blocked by a force field and orders the aliens to return to their cells. Darius calls her a monster. She says that the system works but Starkey argues she's imprisoning innocent aliens. She says she's doing this for the future, so their children's children will be safe. Jorjie tells her that she helped the aliens. June is shocked to see Jorjie here, just as Jorjie is to find she works for the Department. The Jixen arrives and attacks Starkey and June. K9 tries to fight it but exhausts his firepower. June gives Jorjie the force field device and tells her to arm it to self-destruct. Darius grabs it and June tells him to attach it to the Jixen. When the Jixen advances on him, he throws it to Starkey, who attaches it to the Jixen, killing it. Jorjie and Darius agree they make quite a team. K9 calls the assessment logical, amusing the kids. Starkey faints.

That night, Starkey wakes up in Gryffen's house. He calls for K9 and Gryffen shows him that the robot dog been waiting by his side. Starkey asks K9 how he got away from June. Darius says that all the aliens did was leaked to the media. The prison is being shut down. K9 confirms the Jixen is gone.

As one problem is solved, another presents itself. Gryffen reports bad news about the rats. They multiply every ten seconds. He says he knows the machine needs more work before he tampers with it. As Starkey gets up, Gryffen asks where he's going. Starkey says he has a job to do and he had an deal with Darius. Jorjie's gone home and the Jixen's dead. Starkey thanks K9 for saving him from "termination" before he leaves. Later, Starkey hacks into the display board terminal again but is met by two CCPCs. K9 moves to protect him and they both run away.

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
 * Drake - Connor Van Vuuren
 * Thorne - Jared Robinsen
 * Department Field Officer 1 - Rob Horton
 * Department Field Officer 2 - Michael Thompson
 * CCPC - Josh Norbido
 * CCPC - Jason McNamara
 * CCPC - Michael Donnet
 * CCPC - Edgen Bekafigo
 * CCPC - Tyler Rostedt
 * Meron 1 - Rob Horton
 * Meron 2 - Michael Thompson
 * Jixen - Janardan Kewin
 * Lochnessy Alien - Simon Preston-Barnes
 * Mr. Wiffy - Noel Sheridan
 * Mr. Wiffy - Paul Tams
 * Geisha Alien - Leah Tilney
 * Geisha Alien - Sam Tromans
 * Alien - George Pikusa
 * Alien - Jessica Field
 * Alien - Nick Burgess
 * Alien - Amy Verwayen
 * Alien - Hayley McFarlane
 * Alien - Vince Holland
 * Alien - Billy Shannon
 * Alien - Cathey Burgess

Production crew

 * Writers - Shayne Armstrong, S.P. Krause
 * Directors - David Caesar, 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 - Russell Maggs
 * Casting - Faith Martin and associates
 * Episodic casting - Lisa Maloney
 * Drama/Dialogue coach - Peter Kent
 * Story Producer - Victoria Madden
 * Script Editor - Victoria Madden, Anthony Morris
 * Script Adaption - Michaeley O'Brien
 * Production Accountant - Pru Donovan
 * 1st Assistant Director - Peter McLennan, Wade Savage
 * 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
 * Sound Mix - Ben Vlad
 * K9 Theme Music Recorded - Supersonic
 * The Postworks - Bob Blasdall
 * Marshalls and Dent Lawyers - Shaun Miller, Bryce Menzies
 * Completion Guarantor - First Australian Completion Bond Company Pty Ltd
 * Executive producer Network Ten Australia - Cherrie Bottger
 * Head of Children's Drama Network Ten - Cherrie Bottger

Food and Beverages

 * Darius complains that Starkey ate all the biscuits.
 * The particular box of biscuits is of a brand called "Best".
 * Darius likes Italian food.
 * When K9 is disabled by Dauntless Prison's defences, he falls into a dustbin. Some of the rubbish in it is baked beans.

Species

 * K9 states the Mermaids of Gorgol XIII can eat dinner through their nostrils.
 * The Jixen and Merons have been at war for hundreds of years.
 * Many aliens have been imprisoned in Dauntless Prison, including a foul-smelling creature known as Mr. Wiffy, an alien resembling an Axon (DW: The Claws of Axos) and an alien resembling Zephon. (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan)

History

 * Jorjie thinks about using the STM to travel to the Dark Ages or London 2010.

Earth creatures

 * Darius mentions dinosaurs as an example of a dangerous creature that could come through the STM. but when it activates it only sends a couple of black rats.

Technology

 * Dauntless Prison is protected by hovering robots which resemble orange spheres.

Story notes

 * Although it was reported Liberation would air on 4 April on Disney XD, The Korven was broadcast instead of the reported rebroadcast of Regeneration and The Bounty Hunter aired in Liberation's place. Liberation wouldn't be broadcast for six months until it finally aired on Disney XD on 9 October.
 * K9 recomends "rapid movement in the opposite direction of the xenomorph", a reference to the Alien film franchise, whose titular aliens are known as xenomorphs.
 * A non-canonical charity piece published in LifeDeath, featuring the Fourth Doctor, was also called "Liberation."

Ratings
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Myths
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Filming locations
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Production errors

 * When Thorne throws Darius into the cell with the alien he calls "Mr. Wiffy", Darius' reply of "You're not wrong" is obviously dubbed, as his mouth doesn't move when he says it.

Continuity

 * In Dauntless Prison, a prison corridor door is labelled D84.
 * Jorjie considers the possibility using the Space-Time Manipulator to have time-travel adventures. Time-travel adventures are the main feature of Doctor Who.

Home video releases

 * This episode is featured in the Series One complete box set, released in Australia on 29 September 2010.
 * This episode is featured in a "vanilla" DVD called The Bounty Hunter, along with Regeneration, Liberation, The Korven. Sirens of Ceres and Fear Itself, released in Australia on 29 September 2010.
 * This episode was released along with episodes 1-12 as "K-9: Series 1; Volume 1" on 31 January 2011.