Tag: K-9

The Department’s plan to implant microchips into every citizen of London meets with a rowdy protest – one at which K-9 appears, fires on Drake (non-fatally), and causes even more very public commotion. Inspector Drake immediately applies for an arrest warrant for K-9, but Gryffen’s initial examination of K-9’s memory seems to show that K-9 didn’t attend the rally… and certainly didn’t do any shooting. But even K-9 himself finds the accusation disturbing, and prepares to turn himself in to the authorities, even though it’s almost surely an elaborate ploy on Drake’s part to dismantle the robot dog.

written by Lindsay James
directed by James Bogle
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake)

Note: Orthrus – K-9’s “evil twin” – is named after the treacherous twin brother of the mythical dog Cerberus in Greek mythology.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Starkey, Jorjie and Darius all experience vivid, disturbing dreams of being pursued by Jixen, of K-9 turning against them, being surrounded by sinister clowns, and of being captured and goaded by a strange creature. And they’re not alone: all of London is sleeping and having similar nightmares, but no one can wake up. Jorjie ventures out into the city and returns quickly when the creature about whom they’ve all dreamed appears. Gryffen confirms that this being is no hallucination: it’s very real. Is this a new alien attack that has overpowered the Department’s defenses, or is someone from the Department involved?

written by Jim Noble
directed by Daniel Nettheim
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

An unknown object approaching Earth gets the Department’s attention, and Inspector Drake’s first instinct is to blow it out of the sky. When it disappears before he can unleash all of the Department’s firepower on it, it’s assumed to be a meteor. But K-9, Starkey and Jorjie, out for a walk, see an enormous, pyramid-like spacecraft appear in the sky, while soldiers dressed as ancient Egyptian gods appear out of nowhere, with enough firepower of their own to overpower CCPCs. When the alien soldiers move to take Starkey prisoner, K-9 intervenes… and is promptly worshipped as a god. The soldiers even follow K-9 back to Professor Gryffen’s home, where they begin redecorating the lab as a shrine, supposedly to help jog K-9’s memory. Gryffen begins to worship K-9 as well. Starkey and Jorjie discover more about the aliens’ true plan, but then they are captured and brainwashed into serving K-9’s every whim. Only Darius remains unchanged… and now saving the world is up to him.

written by
directed by Karl Zwicky
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake), Michael Turaine (Nehebka), Matthew Reimer (Geb), Todd Levi (voice of Nehebka), Josh Norbido (CCPC), Jason McNamara (CCPC), Eugen Bekaford (CCPC), Dane Paltman (CCPC), Stephen Sourkis (Dept. Technician)

Notes: In Egyptian mythology, Anubis was edged out by the god Set (who, in some interpretations of the mythology, was Anubis’ father) as the Egyptian god of the underworld. Set was also known as Sutekh. Sutekh figures into Doctor Who mythology as the last of the alien Osirans, godlike beings who occupied the planet Mars until internecine conflict wiped out most of their race. Sutekh survived long enough to be defeated by the fourth Doctor in Pyramids Of Mars, though the Egyptian mythology elements in this episode appear to be a coincidence. In the scene where Jorjie and Starkey look at the book containing the Anubins’ history, two aliens from classic Doctor Who episodes can very clearly be seen: Alpha Centauri (The Curse Of Peladon / The Monster Of Peladon) and a Sea Devil (The Sea Devils / Warriors Of The Deep). If the notion of an alien playing the role of an Egyptian god, hovering over Earth in a pyramid ship, isn’t familiar to you, you probably haven’t watched enough Stargate SG-1 – a show in which K-9 star (and Canadian actor) Robert Moloney has also appeared.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Professor Gryffen’s dimensional gateway activates by itself, something which should be impossible; before forcing it to shut down with brute-force firepower, K-9 is able to determine that an outside power source is the cause. Strange jumps in time begin occurring, but only Starkey notices them. An inflamed area on Starkey’s arm also begins to itch, and a blood test reveals alien matter causing Starkey’s immune system to go into overdrive. Gryffen recognizes the alien material, remembering an incident in which a couple of scientists implanted themselves – and their young son – with alien DNA. The dimensional gateway reactivates, and Starkey remembers how to close it again, but this isn’t a new incident: it’s the same incident repeating itself… but only K-9 believes him.

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

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Starkey tries to take K-9 fishing, only to find that the fish are apparently frying of their own accord, covered with an unknown substance. Starkey brings a sample back to Gryffen’s lab, where it’s identified as an alien substance. Inspector Turner makes a similar finding: Inspector Drake is holding an alien spacecraft, and has authorized extreme measures to get its crew to reveal the technology aboard. When she deduces that Drake is working on turning the alien technology into a surveillance device of unlimited range, Inspector Turner decides that even the Department shouldn’t have that kind of power, and turns to Gryffen and K-9 for help.

written by Graeme Farmer
directed by Karl Zwicky
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake)

Notes: Starkey reveals that K-9 has 5,000 movies “on his hard drive,” which accounts for the casual, colloquial speech of this K-9 model. (It’s possible that Starkey’s just guessing about the hard drive and doesn’t have a better technical term to explain K-9’s memory.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A freak hurricane seems to appear out of nowhere, and Professor Gryffen immediately formulates a theory that the severe weather is the product of unusual music that can be heard outside. The combined force of the weather and the vibrations of the music bring the roof of Jorjie’s home down on her, and while Darius tries to free her from the debris, K-9 and Starkey go to see if the alien Aeolian behind the disaster is taking requests – namely, to avoid destroying Earth.

written by Dave Warner
directed by Karl Zwicky
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake), Liam Nunan (Aeolian)

Notes: Oddly, both K-9 and Inspector Turner know of the Aeolians and their extinction. Also, the Aeolian’s signals are conveyed as music, therefore it would seem logical that the signals travel at the speed of sound… and yet, the reply to those signals arrives within the running time of the episode, from 10,000 light years away. Clearly, the Aeolian is using something with a bit more power than an average tube amp.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The last oak tree in England is stolen from a museum, cutting short Starkey and Jorjie’s participation in a virtual reality exhibit claiming the tree to be the only survivng piece of Sherwood Forest. K-9 quickly spots a webbing made of alien mucus, and cuts a sample loose for Professor Gryffen to analyze. Inspectors Drake and Turner arrive from the Department, also acquiring a sample of the strange substance, though Turner suspects that, with K-9 on the case, Gryffen’s investigation will be far ahead of her own. K-9, Starkey, Darius and Jorjie have already started tracking down the source of the mucus: a near-extinct alien creature protecting the eggs of her young. But why did she need the tree, and how far will Drake go to make the endangered creature extinct?

written by Jim Noble
directed by Dale Bradley
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake), Gabriel Egan (Postman Pat), Remi Broadway (Robin Hood)

Original Title: The Last Oak Tree In England

Notes: K-9 claims to have met the real Robin Hood, and also says he is invulnerable to “mere” electromagnetic interference – perhaps an in-joke on the fact that the original ’70s K-9 prop was prone to mere radio frequency interference that would send it haywire in the studio. This is the first episode since Liberation to show the airborne propaganda screens. Guest star Remi Broadway would appear in K-9 again later in the first season.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Exploring some of the underground tunnels below Professor Gryffen’s lab, Darius spots two Department scientists experimenting with a piece of alien technology… and then unleashing something alive into the air. What Darius doesn’t see, however, is that the airborne life form quickly consumes anything near it – anything alive or dead, including one of the scientists. As far as Darius knows, the scientists simply abandon their experiment and leave their equipment there, which he then gathers up and takes to Gryffen’s lab. Darius discovers the purpose behind the alien life form: it consumes anything, and can then be retrieved by the device – the perfect miracle cleaning solution, except that it’s capable of devouring human life as well.

written by Chris Roache
directed by James Bogle
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake), Jared Robinsen (Thorne), Scott Tilly (Worker #1), Anthony Kidd (Worker #2), Stephen Sourkis (Dept. Technician), Josh Norsend (CCPC), Jason McNamara (CCPC), Dane Paltman (CCPC)

Notes: There’s a fairly interesting piece of rather major character development in this episode, as Inspector June Turner admits that Jorjie’s involvement with K-9’s adventures does represent a conflict of interests for her work with the Department, but she also says that she stays with the Department to keep the likes of Drake from winding up in charge. There’s also a major Doctor Who reference here, as K-9 says he’ll evacuate his fuel cells when he next visits the planet Atrios, which has “no carbon-based life forms” – presumably the Atrios-Zeos war didn’t come to a conclusion that favored the survival of any life there.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A violent storm strikes London, and Starkey and Jorjie are marooned at Professor Gryffen’s house. When the power goes out, Darius, Jorjie and Starkey spot two children in the house – Darius recognizes them as Gryffen’s children, who disappeared with their mother during one of Gryffen’s space-time experiments. Gryffen’s wife appears as well, though she seems to be focused on forcing Gryffen to forget his friends. K-9 is unable to repel the advance of Gryffen’s family, but they’re more than capable of putting him out of commission. Have they really returned, or have bloodthirsty aliens taken their place… and either way, can Gryffen bring himself to stop them?

written by Shayne Armstrong & S.P. Krause
directed by Daneil Nettheim
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Connor Van Vuuren (Drake), Sarah McIntosh (Eleanor Gryffen), Rachael Everett (Mina Gryffen), Joshua McIvor (Jacob Gryffen)

Notes: Starkey reads from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”, while the episode plays off of the title of Poe’s “Fall Of The House Of Usher”. When K-9, Starkey and Jorjie first see the children, the scene is very reminiscent of the appearance of the twins in the classic horror movie The Shining. Scheduled by the producers to be shown seventh in the season, The Fall Of The House Of Gryffen was the third episode shot – and, to date, hasn’t aired in the UK at all. (The airdate for this episode guide entry reflects the Australian premiere date.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Jorjie uses VR glasses to access a virtual encyclopedia during a storm – at exactly the same time that Professor Gryffen is attempting another time-space experiment. Jorjie finds herself in the same place – the site of Gryffen’s lab used to be a London police station – but in a different time, namely 1963. At the height of cold war tensions, Jorjie finds herself in the company of Bill Pike – a dead ringer for his great-grandson, Darius – who is being accused of spying for the Russians. But history doesn’t record his arrest or imprisonment until now, at the same moment that Bill Pike’s future changes, Darius begins to vanish. Now it’s up to K-9 and Starkey to take a very risky trip into the past to free Jorjie and restore the history of Darius’ family.

written by Jason Bourque
directed by Mark DeFriest
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Jared Robinson (Agent Barker), Daniel Murphy (Burley Constable), Corey Robinson (Myles)

Notes: In a sly nod to the origins of the series that spawned K-9, William Pike is shown in a photo to have been booked by police on November 23rd, 1963 – the date of the premiere of Doctor Who. Considering that a Dalek incursion was taking place in and around Shoreditch at the same time, the clumsiness of the MI6 detail assigned to finding and interrogating Bill Pike is understandable; this activity may also explain the lack of immediate official concern about the disappearance of schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. Coincidentally, 1963’s Agent Barker bears a striking resemblance to new Department boss Inspector Thorne (both are played by Jared Robinsen).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Over K-9’s objections (and under his watchful eye), Starkey and Darius attend an open house at the London headquarters of the Department. The boys aren’t there for the official tour, however – they’re at Department HQ to gather intelligence. The absence of ever-present CCPC patrols seems almost too good to be true, but there are other dangers inside: Starkey looks at an unusual framed picture and is sucked into the frame. Darius steals the frame and escapes from the Department as quickly as possible. At Gryffen’s lab, K-9 identifies it as a holographic “library card” from the planet Ukko, a world whose librarians can compress a snapshot of an entire planet into such a card. But it will take a librarian from Ukko to free Starkey before he starves on the isolated planet preserved in the picture…

written by Deborah Parsons
directed by Mark DeFriest
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Jared Robinsen (Inspector Thorne), Cathey Robinsen (Librarian)

Notes: Inspector Thorne mentions that the Department is a presence in the UK, the Americas and “the Pacific Union”.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Starkey stokes the fires of a protest gathering against the Department, but the CCPCs present are simply too slow-witted to find him. But Starkey, K-9 and Jorjie are surprised when they find a CCPC who’s even dimmer than his fellow cyborgs: he’s too busy birdwatching to apprehend potential agitators. When this particular CCPC helps the kids hide from the other CCPC patrols, Jorjie is certain that this particular cyborg is somehow evolving into something more than the average robotic thug deployed by the Department. What they don’t know is that this CCPC – nicknamed “Birdie” by Jorjie – is the result of an experiment to see if the CCPCs can be made more ruthless with the addition of human emotions and instincts. All Birdie knows is that he doesn’t want to go back to being like the rest of the Department’s henchmen, and K-9 and his friends risk everything to help him escape.

written by John O’Brien
directed by James Bogle
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Jared Robinsen (Inspector Thorne), Thomas Calder (Marcus), Josh Norbido (Birdie), Peter Kent (voice of Birdie)

Notes: Starkey says that he “used to be known as” Stark Reality, his nickname from the pilot episode, a further indication that the series writers are attempting to distance themselves from the darker premise of the early episodes. Peter Kent, who provides Birdie’s voice, is also the drama and dialogue coach for the series’ young cast.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Across Britain, millions of kids fall victim to a popular massively-multiplayer virtual reality game, whose headsets first render their victim “players” comatose and then begins to mutate them with alien DNA. Never one to fall for trends, Starkey remains unaffected, and he and K-9, along with Inspector Turner, pay a visit to the game’s makers. There, they find a powerful telepathic being is behind the addictive game – and that the creature has seized control with the full knowledge of some of Turner’s cohorts at the Department in a bid for total mind control of the population. But even the Department can’t control this intruder.

written by Shayne Armstrong & S.P. Krause
directed by James Bogle
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Jared Robinsen (Thorne), Dash Kruck (John: The Custodian), Josh Norbido (CCPC), Jason McNamara (CCPC), Dane Paltman (CCPC), Tarek Beheiry (Etydien)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Professor Gryffen takes it upon himself to right a wrong for which he feels responsible: at some point in the past, he helped the Department with a project involving a time-sensitive being known as Taphony. Despite the warnings from K-9, who has a bit of time travel experience, Gryffen uses his dimensional gateway to bust Taphony out of her cell at Department headquarters. She hides out at Gryffen’s lab, but K-9 warns that to survive, Taphony will have to siphon off another person’s life force – namely Jorjie. With only a momentary touch, Taphony ages Gryffen several decades. Jorjie and Gryffen have only hours left unless K-9, Starkey and Darius can convince Taphony to leave of her own free will.

written by Anthony Morris & Graeme Farmer
based on a story by Shayne Armstrong & S.P. Krause
directed by Mark DeFriest
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner), Jared Robinsen (Inspector Thorne), Maia Mitchell (Taphony), Josh Norbido (CCPC), Jason McNamara (CCPC), Eugen Bekafigo (CCPC), Michael Donnet (CCPC), Tyler Rostedt (CCPC)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Darius and Starkey hatch a plan to take down an old rival of Professor Gryffen’s, a man named Freddie who long ago stole Gryffen’s secret advances in robotics to create a breed of fighting robots that now feature in no-holds-barred, pay-per-view competitions. While Gryffen has been unable to get the authorities – including the Department – interested in the theft of his secrets, Freddie has become a rich man. But Darius has a robot warrior of his own to help him take down Freddie’s empire and expose the crime: K-9. What Darius and his cohorts don’t know is that Freddie has very highly-placed allies of his own who are willing to bet against the robot dog.

written by Jim Noble
directed by James Bogle
music by Christopher Elves

Guest Cast: Jared Robinsen (Thorne), Gareth Harris (Freddie), Remi Broadway (Chuckles), Michael Donnet (Boris), Josh Norbido (Pain Maker), Peter Kent (Lomax), Eugen Bekafigo (CCPC), Jason McNamara (CCPC), Josh Norbido (CCPC), Tyler Rostedt (CCPC)

Notes: K-9 himself hasn’t encountered robotic clowns before, but his former time traveling cohort the Doctor did in 1988’s The Greatest Show In The Galaxy; fortunately, the ones K-9 meets aren’t homicidal. This story, in which Thorne reveals that he knows about K-9’s regeneration capability, and will do anything necessary to induce the amount of damage necessary to force another regeneration, is the beginning of a story arc that leads up to the season finale. Robot Gladiators is one of the only season 1 episodes not to feature Robyn Moore as June Turner.

LogBook entry by Earl Green