Search Out Space (TV story)

Search Out Space was a special edition of Search Out Science, a children's education programme in which Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred appeared as the Seventh Doctor and Ace. John Leeson provided the voice of K9 for the first time since The Five Doctors.

It was broadcast nearly a year after Survival, which marked the end of the original Doctor Who series.

Synopsis
The Seventh Doctor, Ace, K9 and Cedric are taking part in a game show to see who can win The Ultimate Challenge.

They will show you the Earth and its Solar System.

Plot
For unexplained reasons, the Seventh incarnation of the Doctor is acting as the host of a game show.

The contestants are his companion Ace, former companion K9 and an alien named Cedric.

The contestants are forced to answer fairly basic questions about space, with severe punishments if they get it wrong. K9 fails to answer on time and is transported to outer space, where he almost ends up being pulled into the sun. The Doctor saves him in the TARDIS, but only just manages to dematerialise before the TARDIS is also pulled into the sun.

Eventually, Ace deduces that there is no answer to one of the questions. The Doctor says this is the right answer, and bizarrely produces an ice cream as if by magic.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Cedric - Stephen Johnson
 * K9 - John Leeson

Crew

 * Writers - Lambros Atteshlis, Stuart Berry-Anne Billingsley
 * Director - Stuart Berry-Anne Billingsley
 * Producers - Robin Mudge, Lambros Atteshlis

Earth

 * Cedric explains that the Earth is shaped like a sphere.

TARDIS

 * The Doctor's TARDIS can fly over a village.

K9

 * K9 can control a large computer with the Doctor's TARDIS.

Story notes

 * Search Out Space was included as an extra on the DVD of Survival.
 * The Doctor and his companions were invited to appear on a quiz show in the short story Storm in a Tikka, which bridges this story with the events of the Children in Need special Dimensions in Time.
 * Search Out Space is one of five non-spin-off Doctor Who on screen stories from the 1990s, the others being Dimensions in Time, the TV Movie, the Destiny of the Doctors video game and Introduction to the Night.