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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

School Reunion

Doctor WhoAfter Mickey alerts them to strange goings-on near Deffry Vale High School, the Doctor and Rose each take a job there, the Doctor posing as a new physics teacher and Rose winding up as a dinner lady in the school’s cafeteria. The new headmaster, Mr. Finch, has brought a new curriculum, a new lunch menu, and several new staff members with him. But original faculty members and even students are vanishing without a trace. Rose spots large barrels of a strange and apparently dangerously corrosive oil being moved around by the cafeteria staff, and the Doctor discovers that students who have been eating foods from Mr. Finch’s new lunch menu, prepared with that oil, are demonstrating knowledge and learning ability far beyond 21st century humans. The Doctor is stunned when he learns that someone else is investigating these unexplained happenings – namely, reporter Sarah Jane Smith, his former traveling companion, with her now somewhat dilapidated K-9 in tow. While the Doctor and Sarah are cautiously eager to renew their friendship, it becomes apparent – especially to Rose – that traveling in the TARDIS and seeing the wonders of the universe carries a price.

Download this episodewritten by Toby Whithouse
directed by James Hawes
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Anthony Head (Mr. Finch), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Rod Arthur (Mr. Parsons), Eugene Washington (Mr. Wagner), Heather Cameron (Nina), Joe Pickley (Kenny), Benjamin Smith (Luke), Clem Tibber (Milo), Lucinda Dryzek (Melissa), Caroline Berry (Dinner Lady), John Leeson (voice of K-9)

Notes: Elisabeth Sladen first appeared as Sarah Jane in 1974’s The Time Warrior, the premiere of Jon Pertwee’s final season as the Doctor. She remained with the Doctor after his regeneration, accompanying Tom Baker through 1976’s The Hand Of Fear, which did indeed see the TARDIS dropping School ReunionSarah off in what she thought was Croydon. In 1981, Sladen and John Leeson starred in the first spinoff of Doctor Who to make it to production, K-9 & Company, in which she found a gift from the Doctor – her own K-9 unit. Sarah and her K-9 appeared in one further Doctor Who story, 1983’s The Five Doctors.

Guest star Anthony Head – a.k.a. Anthony Stewart Head – starred as Giles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. He’s been linked several times to Doctor Who, including a contender for the role of the Doctor himself when the new series was first announced in 2003. He appeared as a cunning, immortal villain in the linked Excelis trilogy of Big Finish audio plays, though he did so without ever meeting any of his co-stars, since recording schedules forced him to record his dialogue alone without any other actors! He has thus “appeared” with previous Doctors Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy without actually working with them. He also had a small role in the BBC Radio one-off story Death Comes To Time. Another series in which Head starred was Manchild, alongside Don Warrington (the President in Rise Of The Cybermen and the voice of Rassilon in the Big Finish eighth Doctor stories).

Sarah Jane Smith has also appeared in two series of Doctor-less audio adventures from Big Finish, though in this case without K-9 (in the final story of the first “season” of her adventures, Sarah notes that K-9 has been incapacitated, though the nature of K-9’s state of disrepair in the audio plays is a case of deliberate sabotage; it’s unclear if this is the same damage that the Doctor seems to fix rather quickly). Big Finish producer John Ainsworth has said that School Reunion likely takes place between the first two “seasons” of Sarah’s audio adventures.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Big Finish Spinoffs Doctor Who Gallifrey The Audio Dramas

Imperiatrix

Gallifrey: ImperiatrxiLeela receives news that Andred has been found murdered in the chambers of the Chancellery Guard. Leela intends to claim the Sevateem right of vengeance, but Romana needs her friend to continue serving as the acting Castellan, not a bloodthirsty killer. That’s only the latest in a series of violent incidents, including a bombing of the Time Lord Academy, targeting the alien students. Inquisitor Darkel, now openly challenging Romana’s presidency, can’t resist suggesting to the Gallifreyan public that if Romana can’t ensure that the presence of aliens at the Academy can’t be maintained without violence, then the aliens should be sent home. Romana sets Leela and K-9 on the trail of the bombers, while also assigning Coordinator Narvin of the Celestial Intervention Agency to investigate. But what Romana doesn’t know is that Narvin is working with Darkel to secure the Inquisitor’s rise to the presidency. Romana continues to consult in secret with the being known as Pandora, but continues to insist that she won’t go down the path that Pandora says in inevitable. Leela’s K-9 finds evidence of another bomb at the Academy just before it explodes; Guard Commander Hallan closes the blast doors before K-9 or many of the alien students can escape. Romana raises Gallifrey’s defensive transduction barriers and puts the planets on a war footing. Darkel calls for a public, and openly broadcasted, debate in the High Council, and Romana agrees…but she has something in mind other than than the orchestrated open debate that Darkel is planning. And naturally, Romana only has the best interests of Gallifrey and the Time Lords at heart…even if that means that the freedom to disagree with her policies is about to become a thing of the past.

Order this CDwritten by Stewart Sheargold
directed by Gary Russell
music by David Darlington

Cast: Lalla Ward (President Romana), Louise Jameson (Leela), John Leeson (K-9), Lynda Bellingham (Candidate Darkel), Sean Carlsen (Coordinator Narvin), Michael Cuckson (Commander Hallan), Robin Sebastian (Commentator Antimon), Jenny Livsey (Student Galadina), Nicholas Briggs (Gold Usher), Daniel Hogarth (Nekkistani Ambassador), Conrad Westmaas (Nekkistani Emperor)

Notes: K-9 has worn the Coronet of Rassilon before, in the 1977 TV adventure The Invasion Of Time; that story also established the transduction barriers surrounding Gallifrey.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 1

The Lost Boy – Part 2

The Sarah Jane AdventuresWith Luke’s family revealed to be Slitheen, and Mr. Smith having turned against Sarah, it doesn’t seem that things can get much worse. Luke escapes his captors and goes to Sarah’s house, but Mr. Smith is waiting to spring a trap. Harnessing Luke’s latent potential for telekinesis, Mr. Smith forces the moon out of its orbit and toward Earth. With Mr. Smith out of commission, Sarah has to rely on Maria’s dad for his computer smarts…but can his skills shut down a computer that’s not of this Earth? And can Clyde help him from the other side of the screen?

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Phil Ford
directed by Charles Martin
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Joseph Millson (Alan Jackson), Juliet Cowan (Chrissie Jackson), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Jay Simpson (Jay), Holly Atkins (Heidi), Ryan Watson (Nathan Goss), Floella Benjamin (Professor Rivers), Julian Dutton (Chief Inspector), Paul Kasey (Jay Slitheen), Jimmy Vee (Nathan Slitheen), Ruari Mears (Heidi Slitheen), Jason Mohammad (Newsreader), John Leeson (voice of K-9)

Notes: Despite statements from the BBC that K-9 would not appear in The Sarah Jane Adventures beyond Invasion Of The Bane, he appears here, voiced as always by John Leeson.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 04

Journey’s End

Doctor WhoCaught by a glancing blow from a Dalek weapon, the Doctor’s body is involuntarily beginning the regeneration process – until the Doctor is able to divert the energy into his severed hand, benefitting from the restorative effects without changing his appearance or personality. On Earth, Sarah Jane is saved from the Daleks by Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler, who have returned from the alternate universe after losing contact with Rose. The Dalek attack on the Torchwood Hub is halted by a defense mechanism that the late Toshiko Sato was developing, locking the Dalek into a moment of frozen time – but also trapping Ianto and Gwen inside, safe but unable to escape. To Mickey’s disgust and Jackie’s horror, Sarah surrenders herself and both of them to the Daleks, reasoning that being taken to the Dalek mothership as hostages will put her closer to the Doctor, and in a better position to help. The TARDIS is brought about the mothership by the Daleks, and the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack step out to meet their fate – but the TARDIS doors close, trapping Donna inside. Declaring the time machine and anyone who is still inside it a threat, the Dalek Supreme orders the TARDIS dumped into the neutrino core of his own ship, where it will dissolve and surrender its energy to the Dalek war effort. But when Donna reaches for the Doctor’s severed hand, she sets other events into motion which the Daleks can’t possibly have foreseen. Davros is planning the destruction of the entire cosmos, every universe, every alternate universe, and every dimension, to prove himself a god, and nothing the Doctor says can dissuade the mad Dalek creator from his plans. Martha, Sarah, Jack, Mickey and Jackie join forces to put an end to Davros’ plan, but he has anticipated their interference. But he hasn’t anticipated Donna’s next move – and he certainly hasn’t anticipated whose help she has.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Murray Gold

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones), John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Adjoa Andoh (Francine Jones), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Thomas Knight (Luke Smith), Bernard Cribbins (Wilfred Mott), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Julian Bleach (Davros), Valda Aviks (German Woman), Shobu Kapoor (Scared Woman), Elizabeth Tan (Chinese Woman), Michael Price (Liberian Man), Barney Edwards, Nick Pegg, David Hankinson, Anthony Spargo (Dalek Operators), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voice), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Alexander Armstrong (voice of Mr. Smith)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 3

(Red Nose Day Special 2009)

The Sarah Jane AdventuresA fairly routine day for Sarah and the kids is turned upside-down with the sudden arrival of a dapper little man claiming to be a representative of the Galactic Alliance. Sarah is skeptical but at least offers him some hospitality – at least until the first signs that the man is not who he says he is. When K-9 appears to warn of the man’s true identity, the trap is sprung – and it appears that the intruder is pursuing his prey with a dogged determination.

Get the DVDwritten by Gareth Roberts & Clayton Hickman
directed by
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Cast: Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Ronnie Corbett (Ronnie), Tommy Knight (Luke), Daniel Anthony (Clyde), Anjli Mohindra (Rani), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Jimmy Vee (Ronnie Slitheen)

Notes: Comedian Ronnie Corbett is best known as half of The Two Ronnies, a beloved comedy duo whose television specials were a high point of the BBC’s schedule between 1971 and 1987; Corbett starred with the late Ronnie Barker throughout the show’s run, and The Two Ronnies is even referenced as a gag in this short special. The Comic Relief “Red Nose Day” telethon and the Doctor Who universe have had one other collision, in 1999 with the broadcast of the two-part Doctor Who spoof The Curse Of Fatal Death, starring Rowan Atkinson (and a number of others) as the Doctor, and written by future Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat. While writer Gareth Roberts has penned several adventures for Sarah Jane and Doctor Who, this is his first televised collaboration with Doctor Who Magazine editor-in-chief Clayton Hickman; the two wrote two comedy-themed Doctor Who audio adventures for Big Finish, The One Doctor and Bang-Bang-a-Boom! Hickman may be best known to fandom as the cover artist in residence for most of 2|entertain’s Doctor Who classic series DVD releases in the UK; he served in that capacity for the early years of Big Finish as well.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 3

The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith – Part 1

The Sarah Jane AdventuresLuke, Rani and Clyde are growing suspicious: Sarah has been increasingly secretive about a number of recent evening excursions. Luke places a tracking device on Sarah’s car and instructs Mr. Smith to pinpoint where Sarah is going. It turns out that it’s nothing more suspicious than a date, and while Luke tries to cope with some confused and very human feelings, Clyde and Rani do some investigating of their own, looking into the background of Sarah’s new boyfriend. Finally, Rani is convinced that nothing is amiss, but Clyde remains suspicious. When Sarah abruptly announces that she’s getting married, and just as abruptly deactivates Mr. Smith, it seems that Clyde’s fears may be founded. But even Clyde isn’t ready for a surprise guest who appears on the big day: a guest who doesn’t have an invitation, but does have a TARDIS.

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Gareth Roberts
directed by Joss Agnew
music by Sam Watts & Dan Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Nigel Havers (Peter Dalton), Mina Anwar (Gita), Ace Bhatti (Haresh), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Paul Marc Davis (Trickster), Zienia Merton (Registrar)

Sarah Jane AdventuresNotes: Nigel Havers was one of the stars of the UK series Manchild, a sort of all-male version of Sex And The City, in which his co-stars included Anthony Stewart Head (of Buffy fame and the villain of Doctor Who stories such as School Reunion and the Big Finish Excelis audio series) and Don Warrington (the ill-fated President from Rise Of The Cybermen, and the voice of Big Finish’s Rassilon). Appearing very briefly as the officiant at Sarah’s wedding is Zienia Merton, best known to SFTV fans as Sandra Benes from Space: 1999, but also a guest-star in the fourth-ever Doctor Who serial, Marco Polo, which starred William Hartnell as the Doctor in 1964. K-9 mentions a “stair navigation” hover mode, never before seen; this episode aired just two days before the K-9 spinoff series brought viewers a new-style K-9 who spends almost all of his time hovering!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 3

The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith – Part 2

The Sarah Jane AdventuresThe trap has been sprung: the new man in Sarah’s life is a pawn of the Trickster, who still wants revenge against Sarah, and the trap is almost perfect. If Sarah calls the wedding off, Earth will suffer the consequences, and if she goes through with it, she belongs to the Trickster and his torments forever. Luke, Clyde, Rani and K-9 join forces with the Doctor, but the Trickster has trapped them in one second of recurring time, a temporal schism that leaves the TARDIS powerless to help. The Doctor isn’t giving up on Sarah yet, but the Time Lord doesn’t hold the key to ending this siege: Sarah’s fate lies in the hands of Clyde… and the man she was going to marry.

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Gareth Roberts
directed by Joss Agnew
music by Sam Watts & Dan Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Nigel Havers (Peter Dalton), Mina Anwar (Gita), Ace Bhatti (Haresh), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Paul Marc Davis (Trickster), Zienia Merton (Registrar)

Sarah Jane AdventuresNotes: David Tennant filmed these episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures after completing filiming on his final Doctor Who episode, The End Of Time; in a TV interview, Tennant revealed that the last scene he filmed and the last line he delivered as the Doctor was “You two with me, spit spot!” as the Doctor dashes up the stairs. The Doctor mentions a “Pantheon of Discord,” a cabal of powerful beings who are trapped outside of time, trying to wreak chaos; it’s possible that this pantheon may also include such previous enemies as Fenric, the Gods of Ragnarok, Kwundaar, and perhaps even the Black Guardian.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1

Regeneration

K-9In a dystopian world, street kids Starkey and Jorjie seek refuge from omnipresent police patrols in the secluded lab of Professor Gryffen, an enigmatic scientist who is trying to retrieve his family from another place in time and space. Spooked by what he’s witnessed, Starkey tries to make his escape… and promptly ruins Gryffen’s experiment. The space-time coordinates of Gryffen’s equipment shift and a group of vicious aliens called the Jixen appears through the portal, followed shortly thereafter by a robot dog who takes on the Jixen single-handedly. Declaring the battle an unwinnable situation with its dwindling power reserves, the dog warns the humans to retreat so it can self-destruct and eliminate the Jixen. In the resulting pile of debris, Starkey finds an electronic “heart” – and it soon begins to hover under its own power, building a new metallic body: a smaller, more mobile version of the metal dog that saved them. Starkey, Jorjie, Professor Gryffen and Gryffen’s cocky lab assistant Darius Pike are too stunned by this to notice that the original K-9’s destruction left one of the Jixen alive… and dangerous. But the authorities are more interested in finding Starkey – also known as Stark Reality, a voice favoring a resistance against the near-totalitarian rulers of London – and once the new K-9 begins exploring the city, he attracts attention as well.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Robert Moloney (Professor Gryffen), Keegan Joyce (Starkey), Philippa Coulthard (Jorjie Turner), Daniel Webber (Darius Pike), John Leeson (voice of K-9)

written by Shayne Armstrong and S.P. Krause
directed by David Caesar & Mark DeFriest
music by Christopher Elves
K9 theme music by Michael Lira

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner)

K-9Notes: Filmed on a soundstage outside Brisbane, Australia (which is also where the cast and crew hail from), K-9 isn’t technically a spinoff of Doctor Who. It utilizes the K-9 character created by the late Dave Martin and executive producer Bob Baker outside of the Doctor Who context. In online pre-publicity, Baker mentioned that this K-9 was the original K-9, which remained on Gallifrey with Leela in the Doctor Who story The Invasion Of Time (1977), though this isn’t ever established in on-screen dialogue, and with the new Doctor Who series’ assertion that Gallifrey was destroyed in a war with the Daleks, begs for an explanation of where that K-9 was during those events. (This also assumes that one overlooks the destruction of Leela’s K-9 in the Big Finish Gallifrey audios.) In any case, the London depicted in this series is clearly not a London that has been seen in Doctor Who, so everything here – including K-9 – may be in a parallel universe handily unencumbered by the still-unfolding Doctor Who mythology. However, taking Baker’s mention of Leela’s K-9 as gospel may explain why the original model has the ability to regenerate (a term actually used numerous times in dialogue) – Leela’s K-9 may well have been upgraded with Time Lord technology. No elements of Doctor Who mythology are mentioned in dialogue at all. Baker’s attempts to create a K-9 spinoff have been in progress for many years, as documented in the 2000 video documentary K-9 Unleashed! (which happened to have been written by series co-creator Paul Tams), featuring a primitive computer-generated flying K-9 not entirely dissimilar to the one which appears in this series. Baker’s attempts to launch K-9 on his own – thanks to a loophole in UK copyright law which allows the creators of characters or situations to control and exploit their creations even after inclusion in a larger franchise like Doctor Who – languished with Doctor Who off the air, but with the new series thriving, Baker finally found parties interested in funding a K-9 spinoff (and allowed one-off Doctor Who appearances of the “original model” in School Reunion, Journey’s End, and the Sarah Jane Adventures series). K-9 had, in fact, been central to the very first attempt to launch a Doctor Who spinoff, 1981’s K-9 & Company. The series airs on Disney XD in the UK and Europe, and the airdate of this episode reflects its world premiere as a “sneak preview” special; the series proper would not begin until 2010. Bob Baker gave permission for the “original model” K-9 to make more appearances than usual in the third season of The Sarah Jane Adventures, perhaps in an attempt to draw additional attention to this spin-off.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 3

The Gift – Part 1

The Sarah Jane AdventuresSarah and her friends engage in one of their least favorite pastimes: tracking down a nest of Slitheen bent on destroying the world. Just as it looks as though the Slitheen have the advantage, two more Slitheen-like creatures appear, neutralizing both the Slitheen and their world-destroying equipment. The newcomers introduce themselves as members of the Blathereen family, and claim to be devoted to law and order – by way of bringing the last remaining members of the Slitheen family to justice. The Blathereen apologize for the Slitheen’s behavior over the years and offers a gift to humanity as an apology, a vegetable which they say will eliminate famine on Earth. Sarah asks for time to study the gift before distributing it to the rest of the Earth… but the gift has its own timetable for spreading across the planet, with or without human assistance.

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Rupert Laight
directed by Alice Troughton
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Miriam Margolyes (voice of Leef Blathereen), Simon Callow (voice of Tree Blathereen), Paul Kasey (Leef Blathereen), Ruari Mears (Tree Blathereen), Calvin Dean (Chris), Jimmy Vee (Chris Slitheen), Edward Judge (Dave), Sarah Paul (Miss Jerome)

Notes: Actor Simon Callow had previously played Charles Dickens in The Unquiet Dead, the third episode of the new Doctor Who series in 2005, and had been rumored as a contender for the role of the Doctor himself. Miriam Margolyes made multiple appearances in Blackadder. The Blathereen do have a point: the Slitheen have a lot to answer for: they crop up persistently in the Doctor Who episodes Aliens Of London, World War Three and Bad Wolf, and they’ve kept Sarah Jane & company busy in Revenge Of The Slitheen and The Lost Boy. The real reason the Slitheen keep popping up: the partly-animatronic Slitheen costumes are still among the most expensive investments made in the new Doctor Who series (and its subsequent spinoffs).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 3

The Gift – Part 2

The Sarah Jane AdventuresThe Blathereen’s “gift” is spreading itself throughout London and, within days, will overrun the entire Earth. Clyde and Rani are lucky – when the plant spreads through their school, they have K-9 on hand to help (but only because Clyde has brought K-9 along to help him cheat on a test). Luke is not so lucky, but even with the prospect of him dying from his infection, Sarah decides to confront the Blathereen, and this time she’s going in guns blazing.

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Rupert Laight
directed by Alice Troughton
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Miriam Margolyes (voice of Leef Blathereen), Simon Callow (voice of Tree Blathereen), Paul Kasey (Leef Blathereen), Ruari Mears (Tree Blathereen), Sarah Paul (Miss Jerome), Nick Williams (Reporter)

Notes: The BBC news report lists Perivale (Ace’s old stomping grounds, as seen in the 1989 Doctor Who story Survival) and Chiswick (the site of Donna’s wedding in The Runaway Bride) among the sites infested with heavy concentrations of the Blathereen’s plant.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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K-9 Season 1

The Korven

K-9Professor Gryffen’s latest attempt to reactivate the device that could retrieve his family fizzles before his eyes – but as he walks away in disappointment, he doesn’t notice that it powers up again and admits a visitor to his house: an alien called a Korven. Gryffen disappears, and Darius reluctantly decides to call Jorjie and Starkey, who are hiding from Department troops with K-9. The Korven is an alien being from 300 years in Earth’s future, who will attempt to invade by terraforming the planet to provide the rest of its species with their ideal environment: bitter cold. This particular Korven intends to remove Gryffen’s memories in the hope that his scientific knowledge can speed the invasion by several centuries. The gas the Korven is using to keep its immediate surroundings cold is not only freezing K-9’s human companions, but it’s affecting K-9’s computer brain – leaving him a very limited time to heat up the rescue effort.

written by Tim Pye
directed by Karl Zwicky
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake), Todd Levi (Medowin), Matthew Renner (Korven), Stephen Sourkis (Dept. Technician), Josh Norsend (CCPC), Jason McNamara (CCPC), Eugen Bekaford (CCPC), Dane Paltman (CCPC)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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K-9 Season 1

The Bounty Hunter

K-9After spending a long day trying to retrieve some of K-9’s lost memories, Professor Gryffen grudgingly gives in to Starkey’s idea of taking K-9 for a walk to jog those memories. While out, the two pass an out-of-control ferris wheel surrounded by Department guards – and Inspector Drake is standing by, claiming that a dissident bomb well go off if the ferris wheel is slowed down. But Starkey and K-9 suspect that Drake is stalling until more news cameras arrive before he disarms the device, and they do it themselves and win the dissident movement a little bit of positive publicity in the process. The time portal in Gryffen’s lab is activated remotely, and a bounty hunter emerges from the year 50,000, hot on K-9’s trail. When he spots K-9 and Starkey in the news coverage of the ferris wheel incident, the hunter decides to make the Department an offer that it can’t refuse: if the Department will make its manpower and technology available, the bounty hunter can rein in a robot dog who’s wanted for murder in the future.

written by Ian McFadyen
directed by James Bogle
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake), Brad McMurray (Bounty Hunter)

Notes: There’s no indication of where in K-9’s timeline the incident with Zanthus Pia falls, but since the heads-up display from K-9’s point of view shows the post-regeneration K-9, it may – paradoxically – be from K-9’s future – either that, or it’s a memory recorded by the pre-regeneration K-9 and the HUD is merely showing K-9’s current form as a default. The “news ticker” at the bottom of the Department-approved TV news broadcast includes a reference to “NX-2000” making its first test flight; this may or may not be an in-joke for SF fans of a certain age, who would know that NX-2000 was the original registry number of the brand-new U.S.S. Excelsior in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. Maybe K-9 has slipped into more of an alternate universe than we imagined – one in which a ferris wheel is controlled by an early 1980s-model television production switcher.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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K-9 Season 1

Liberation

K-9With the Jixen still at large on Earth, and still following a biological marker that will lead them to Starkey, K-9 may not provide enough of an advantage to keep Professor Gryffen and his friends alive. They learn that the Department – the totalitarian government whose oppressive rule Starkey opposes – has been infiltrated by the Meron, sworn enemies of the Jixen. K-9 warns against pinning too much hope on the Meron, since their ongoing clashes with the Jixen have laid entire innocent civilizations to waste, and goes to the Department’s headquarters to investigate. Starkey and Darius follow K-9, and wind up being thrown in the alien prison themselves – and then they discover that Jorjie’s mother is one of the Department’s chief operatives. Worse yet, the Jixen follow Starkey’s scent to the prison, where they can easily corner him…

written by Shayne Armstrong & S.P. Krause
directed by David Caesar & David Napier
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake), Jared Robinsen (Thorne), Rob Horton (Dept. Field Officer / Meron #1), Michael Thompson (Dept. Field Officer / Meron #2), Josh Norbido (CCPC), Jason McNamara (CCPC), Michael Donnet (CCPC), Edgen Bekafigo (CCPC), Tyler Rostedt (CCPC), Janardan Kewin (Jixen), Simon Preston-Barnes (Lochnessy Alien), Noel Sheridan (Mr. Whiffy Alien), Paul Tams (Mr. Whiffy Alien), Leah Tilney (Geisha Alien), Sam Tromans (Geisha Alien), George Pikusa (Alien), Jessica Field (Alien), Nick Burgess (Alien), Amy Verwayen (Alien), Hayley McFarlane (Alien), Vince Holland (Alien), Billy Shannon (Alien), Cathey Burgess (Alien)

Original Title: Feast Of The Meron

Notes: Liberation is effectively the second part of Regeneration, the first episode of K-9the series; both episodes have a darker tone (and much darker lighting) than most of the rest of the series, with the Department experimenting on captured alien life forms and Inspector June Turner exhibiting more ruthless behavior (and more advanced technology) than in the remainder of the series; also, Jorjie seems to know nothing of her mother’s day job, whereas by The Sirens Of Ceres she seems to take it for granted. There’s also more overt violence than the rest of the series: Darius orders K-9 to use “lethal force”, and the kids use a grenade-like device to deal with the Jixen. In-joke references to other SF series abound: Starkey appears to be wearing a T-shirt with a stylized version of the masks worn by Berg Katse’s guards in the anime series Gatchaman (better known to the English-speaking world as Battle Of The Planets), and the Department’s operating room uses Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s tricorder sound effect. The K-9 series isn’t allowed to refer overtly to the Doctor Who universe beyond K-9 himself; none of the aliens seen in the Department’s alien prison compound are from the Doctor Who, but intriguingly (and entirely coincidentally), the Meron bear some resemblance to the unnamed fishlike humanoid cornered by Torchwood in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. The changes in tone and storyline between Regeneration / Liberation and the rest of the first season is probably a symptom of a major rethink of the show’s premise after the pilot was shot, making the Department less of an all-conquering Orwellian enemy and changing many of the dynamics between the main characters, all in an attempt to make the series more kid-friendly; this may also explain why the episode had yet – as of its Australian premiere – not appeared on Disney XD in the UK, which also did not repeat Regeneration after its “sneak preview” premiere in 2009. Series co-creator Paul Tams gets in front of the cameras here – see the cast list above.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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K-9 Season 1

The Sirens Of Ceres

K-9When she, Starkey and K-9 catch a glimpse of police brutality in action, Jorjie takes action. At Inspector Drake’s command, the CCPCs try out a new weapon derived from an alien substance, but K-9 makes sure that it misfires badly and suffers serious damage while protecting his friends. In the meantime, Jorjie’s mother, Inspector June Turner, is put in a precarious position within the Department, and enrolls Jorjie in a private school for her own protection. What she doesn’t realize is that the school is just another of Drake’s secret weapons – one which works on the same principle as the one that backfired catastrophically.

written by Deborah Parsons
directed by Daniel Nettheim
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake), Sophia Emerson-Bains (Vibeka), Cathy Tucker (Malena), Natalie Stephenson (Hilena), Britt Henderson (Kalena), Michael Coglan (CCPC #1 / School CCPC), Josh Norsend (CCPC #2), Manuel Saubie (CCPC #3), David Pawsey (CCPC #4), Catarina Hibbard (Teacher)

Notes: The CCPCs are confirmed to be completely robotic in this episode, rather than uniformed guards. Signage seen at the school identifies it as both the “Magdalene Academy” and the K-9“Magdalen Academy,” even before Starkey interferes with the school’s systems. (The logo seen on-set on various computer screens was probably made by the scenic art department, while the signs that Starkey hacks outside the school were probably the responsibility of the visual effects department.) In a throwback to his days in 1970s Doctor Who, K-9 is sidelined for much of the story for repairs, affording his human co-stars a larger share of the action. Somewhat confusingly, references are made here to events in the episode Liberation, which had yet to air in the UK – even though it had aired in other territories, and effectively serves as part two of the pilot, Regeneration.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
K-9 Season 1

Fear Itself

K-9Fear and panic grip London, as rioting and fires break out across the city. At the heart of it all is a battered old wardrobe hidden away in a warehouse, guarded by CCPCs and Inspector Drake. Darius is shoved into the wardrobe, and discovers that it’s bigger inside than out, with a seemingly bottomless pit where its floor should be. He escapes, and brings his friends back with K-9 – and they quickly find that Drake is as terrified of what’s in the wardrobe as they are. Drake is certain that there’s an alien inside the wardrobe, something causing irrational fear to ripple through the city. K-9 is determined to discover what’s hiding inside, but his investigation may only prove Drake right.

written by Everett DeRoche & Graeme Farmer
directed by Daniel Zwicky
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake), Brian Vaughan (Tramp #1), Nick Neilo (Tramp #2)

Notes: The new K-9 has apparently added a tractor beam to his capabilities, and it sounds remarkably like a long phaser blast from the original Star Trek. Professor Gryffen mentions the Great Plague of 1665, an event which history says culminated in the Great Fire of London – but history seems to be unaware of the Doctor’s role in events. The wardrobe – bigger inside than out (though seemingly only in a vertical sense) – might be a TARDIS; Discuss it in our forumgiven the wardrobe’s resemblance to a certain sinister grandfather clock, could this be an experiment of the Master’s gone horribly wrong?

LogBook entry by Earl Green