The Last Precinct (TV story)

The Last Precinct is the twenty-fourth episode of K9. This episode offered much insight into Darius' backstory with the appearance of his father.

Synopsis
A vigilante group of former police officers discover that the Department are upgrading the CCPCs with alien tech and make a stand by holding Gryffen hostage. K9 and Starkey battle the intruders whilst Darius faces up to his past.

Plot
At Gryffen Manor, Gryffen is preparing a sample of mucus while Darius tells him he's not sure that it was a Jixen that was tailing them, as it was too fast. Gryffen shows the mucus to K9 who analyses it and confirms that it's loaded with enough Jixen pheremones to cover a thirty metre tall Kaldarean bedmite. A news report gains Darius' attention. It tells of another attack on a CCPC in which one unit was held up and another kidnapped. Jorjie notices Darius' shocked reaction when it is announced that a group known as the Last Precinct have claimed responsibility. Gryffen calls Darius and says that if he can't keep his mind on the task at hand, perhaps he can rustle up some tea and biscuits. As Jorjie observes Darius, she asks him about his obsession with CCPCs in newscasts lately. K9 tells Starkey it would be too hard to scan Darius for a social concience. Darius becomes frustrated and snaps at K9. Starkey tells Darius to calm down but he just gets even more angry, accusing them all of ganging up on him. Starkey confirms to K9 that he's hit a raw nerve, or circuit as K9 says.

In the garage, Mariah asks Darius if he's sure he doesn't want to talk to her. He thanks her then is shocked because she called him handsome. She says she means as in handsome cab driver and decides to be quiet now. Starkey goes to Darius and apologises for hitting a raw circuit, Darius regrets snapping at him. He says it's about the Last Precinct but it's old news to him. The doorbell rings. At the front door, Gryffen is shocked to find two CCPCs accusing him of conducting illegal experiments and tells them they have the wrong house number. The head CCPC persists but Gryffen tells them to take it up with June at the Department. He closes the door on them, but the CCPC stops him and pushes him aside. As they enter the house, K9 finds something odd about the CCPC's energy signal, so much so that it shouldn't be functioning. The CCPC uses a strange device on K9, knocking him out. Gryffen realises the device is not standard issue, and that this is not a CCPC. Even though Jorjie uses her mother's override code, the CCPC doesn't comply. Gryffen tries to protect Jorjie but is restrained by the CCPCs,, who declare that they are all under house arrest as Jorjie calls for Darius.

The CCPC then takes off his mask, revealing him to be a human called Halloran. He corrects Jorjie, telling her that only he's human and his comrade is a CCPC, with a few minor adjustments. When Gryffen demands that they get out of his house, another human Police officer with a CCPC upstairs questions him, saying that this is their house and always has been, explaining that he went through a secret entrance unknown even to Gryffen. He announces that this is the final stance of the Last Precinct. Starkey arrives with Darius, who is shocked to see the officer, just as he is to see Darius. Halloran asks him, referring to him as Sergeant Pike, if he knows Darius. Pike replies that he does, revealing that Darius is his son, shocking the team. At the Department Mobile HQ, Thorne watches as four CCPCs move towards the house. He sees Pike's message to the Department, announcing that he has commandeered this police station in the name of the Last Precinct. He makes several demands: first, the immediate deactivation of all CCPC units, and second, that the CCPC cloning plant be shut down within 48 hours. As he makes his third demand, Thorne orders it to be shut off. The Department Technician protests but Thorne says it's on a loop. When Thorne makes a loop joke he is irritated that the only humourous thing he will say in his life is wasted on the technician, who didn't get it. June arrives, asking what is going on. She is glad that Jorjie is at the library during this hostage situation. Thorne's facial expression reveals that Jorjie is not at the library.

The CCPCs try to enter the mansion but are knocked out by a force field, June orders an override of the mansion's security system. Thorne tells her that they've tried, but the codes have been changed and are using the Department's own security systems against them. June asks if they could cut the mansion's power. Thorne says they've tried but can't, June tells the technician to get Pike on vid-link communication. In the mansion, the team are pushed together as K9 is still offline. June opens contact with Sergeant Pike, after determining that he was one of the officers dishonourably discharged two years before and charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. Pike argues that he was standing up for his rights. June cuts to the chase and urges Pike to let the children go. Pike asks her if he only let one go, who would she choose. She tells him she'd choose the girl, acting as if she doesn't know her. Pike reveals that he knows that Jorjie is her daughter. June warns Pike not to hurt her. When he asks her who does she take him for, she replies a dangerous and disturbed fanatic who uses guerrilla warfare to achieve his goals and doesn't care who he harms in the process. Pike replies that she backed the replacement of human law enforcement officers with Cyborgs. June tells him that it was agreed by everyone in the Department but Pike insists that it doesn't make any difference and she approved the worst decision ever taken by the government. June terminates the transmission.

Pike is offended by June accusing him of being a fanatic but Gryffen says he should be flattered as he considers him a home invader at best. Pike says that he can't invade his own home but Gryffen persists that this house belongs to him. Pike explains that before it was annexed by the Department, it was the last operational police station in London, the very one that he and his friends were dragged out of by the CCPCs for refusing to surrender their jobs to cyborgs. Darius reminds Pike that he walked out on him in the middle of the night two years ago. Pike walks off, saddened, as Gryffen comforts Darius. K9 reactivates and charges his photon beam, but fails to fire. Starkey is surprised that a terrestrial weapon was able to knock out K9. K9 corrects Starkey as he explains his living metal antibodies are able to deal with 99% of terrestrial weaponry while the weapon used on him is not completely of this Earth, or of this time. Pike claims that the Department have been installing extra-terrestrial materials in the latest CCPCs for the past six months, while the Last Precinct have been harvesting it and putting it to their own use. Gryffen insists that June specifically opposes the use of alien technology in CCPCs. Pike opens up a CCPC and takes out an organic stalk which K9 detects as an alien bio-mechanical component of an unidentified species. Pike explains it's unidentified because it's been altered by the Department, twisted and mutated to serve their purpose. There's one of these in the heart of every single Mark II CCPC.

K9 secretly informs Starkey his repairs are 60% complete. Pike decides that he can play at the Department's game as Halloran was able to use the Department's alien bio-tech, creating weapons for the Last Precicnt to use against them. He puts a green chip into the stalk as he explains that Halloran was one of the greatest forensic scientists in the world before he was tossed aside like a shoe. He plans to show the world the CCPCs for what they really are, unreliable alien machines prone to malfunction at any moment. As Pike presses a slimy hand print on a CCPC's shoulder, K9 alerts them to an unstable cybernetic bio-agent reaction and a level 9 bio-mechanical virus has been incubated. Halloran insists that it's not unstable, saying they conducted numerous tests and the virus is gene spliced to override the Department's control and replace it with theirs. K9 says that even though it's their plan, it isn't working. Pike turns to Halloran who dismisses K9. Pike orders Green Hand to initiate bio-mech transmission protocols. As he infects the other CCPC with the same virus, Halloran explains they will be disconnected from the Department's control, unresponsive and utterly useless except to the Last Precinct; it will give the Department no choice but to reinstate humans into the police force.

K9 advises everyone to stay as far away from the infected CCPC as possible. K9's scan confirms they are unstable. Pike decides to let them go but keep Gryffen as he'll give them the leverage they need. Pike orders Halloran to take Gryffen upstairs, and release green hand into the CCPC ranks. In Darius' room, the team barricade the door. K9 informs Starkey his self-repairs are 80% complete. Darius says it doesn't matter where they hide as he came here with his dad all the time. As Halloran and green hand move through the tunnels, the CCPC suddenly becomes unresponsive. Halloran becomes impatient and tries to use his control device, but it is knocked out of his hand by green hand, who then strangles him, chanting its new objective: to crush all resistance and subjugate all humans. Pike asks June, who is with Thorne, if she has considered his demands, warning that this is her last chance to get out of this with her dignity intact. June tells him that the Department doesn't give in to threats, she alerts him that she's just sent an elite squad of fresh CCPCs reinforcements who she assures are fully preshield against anything he throws at them. The squad of four forms up near the front door where they are met by green hand, who infects them.

Pike announces that he intends to reveal how useless the CCPCs are and their alien technology, confusing June. Pike can't believe she isn't aware. She turns to Thorne who tells her not to listen to him, dismissing him as mad. Pike warns that Thorne knows more than he says. The great retaliation will begin as soon as she gives the order to enter the mansion. Thorne says he is merely bluffing, June orders the CCPCs to advance, but they don't comply. The CCPCs chant the same words as green hand and move towards the Department Mobile HQ. The CCPC in the mansion makes his move as well. The CCPCs start attacking the HQ. Thorne says it wasn't meant to go like this yet, shocking June, who asks what he put in them. Thorne tells the driver to get them out of here, but he tells him the CCPCs are attacking the engine. Pike shows Gryffen the truth behind the CCPCs: alien invested cybermenaces, uncontrollable except by him, of course. In the tunnels, green hand walks over Halloran's body, who regains conciousness and gets up.

In Darius' room, the kids talk about their parents. Jorjie is shocked that June was behind the police force becoming robots. Darius says there's a lot they don't know about their parents. Starkey says they're lucky as they actually have parents. Jorjie only has one, while Darius considers himself the same, not counting his father. Jorjie admits that even though she loves her mother, she wants her to change and Darius wishes that his father stayed at home. An infected CCPC moves near the room, as K9 observes that both parents and children want to change one another but everyone stays the same. The CCPC breaks through the barricades just as K9 completes his repairs and shoots him, explaining that he synthesised the energy signature of the customised weapon. They make their way to the STM room where they are met by green hand, who is shot by K9. They escape as he gets up.

In the STM room, K9 and the others arrive. He alerts Pike that he is no longer in command of the CCPCs. No one is. Green hand comes back. Pike asks him why he isn't with the others. Halloran arrives and warns Pike the CCPCs have gone haywire. Pike uses the weapon and knocks out the two CCPCs. The team unite upstairs where Pike asks K9 why they have gone berserk, K9 corrects him, saying they are quite the opposite as the unstable virus has mutated to its own cause. Darius is angered that this is why Pike left him and his mother, saying he will go down as a joke. K9 suggests a solution. As an unstable virus has been created from corrupted alien material and the infected CCPCs have developed an immune system, injecting a pure form of the alien bio-mech into them could work. Darius tells Pike to untie Gryffen. Gryffen can't figure out where to find the kind of material to immunise the CCPCs, but spots the STM and tells K9 to use his photon beam to get a component off the machine. Darius tells him he's risking his experiments and finding his family, but Gryffen says that if he doesn't do this he will lose another family. K9 heats the component which Gryffen takes off and takes a piece of bio-mech from underneath. As only another cybernetic organism can generate enough energy needed for the immunisation, he puts the bio-mech inside K9.

As the CCPCs come up the stairs, K9 fires the immunisation at them, shutting them down. K9 moves out of the house and immunises the CCPCs attacking the mobile HQ. June goes outside to K9 and thanks him. K9 advises that the anti-virus patch is relayed as a coded energy pulse through CCPC com-central. Thorne arrives and refuses, saying that K9 can't be trusted. June tells Thorne that the only person she doesn't trust now is him and they're having a debrief as to what he's done to the CCPC. K9 and June arrive in the house where she prepares to take Pike away. Gryffen asks Darius if he wants to say something to his father. June gives them a moment together. Pike tells Darius how he's glad he found him again and apologises that it was in this way. Darius says he's glad too, Pike tells Darius he's proud of him and he'll miss him and his mother. They share a tearful hug. Darius hopes that his father gets a proper trial and fair sentence, Thorne arrives and asks Pike how it's like to be taken out of the station by the CCPC again. K9 tells Thorne to treat Pike with the respect he deserves or there will be consequences. Pike and Darius smile at each other as Pike is taken away. The kids talk about parents again, can't live with them and can't live without them, they laugh when K9 notes their usefulness for pocket money.

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
 * Harry Pike - Chris Betts
 * Halloran - Lloyd Morris
 * Green Hand - Jason McNamara
 * CCPC - Josh Norbido
 * CCPC - Eugen Bekafigo
 * CCPC - Tyler Rostedt
 * CCPC - Simon Preston-Barnes

Production crew

 * Writer - Shayne Armstrong, S.P. Krause
 * 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
 * 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
to be added

Ratings
to be added

Myths
to be added

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors
to be added

Continuity
to be added

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