 K9
was a mobile computer constructed by Professor Marius of the
medical Bi-Al Foundation. He was both a database and huge source
of information but also had defensive capabilities as he was
equipped with a laser in his nose which could be set to stun
or kill. Being in the shape of a dog he was very useful in his
ability to sneak up unawares on his foe.
In his
first encounter, with the Fourth
Doctor and companion Leela, K9 was to prove invaluable in helping to defeat
the Swarm that was attacking not only the Bi-Al Foundation but The Doctor's
own brain. After this encounter, Professor Marius gave K9 to The Doctor
as he was no longer able to keep K9 himself. From the outset it was clear
that K9 was a computer with a vast amount of knowledge with an even bigger
ego to match.
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"He's very useful; he's my own personal data bank.
He knows everything that I do, don't you, K9?"
"Affirmative. And more, Master."
(Professor Marius and K9, "The
Invisible Enemy")
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| The Invisible Enemy |
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Nevertheless both The Doctor and Leela took an instant
liking to K9 and he did not object to the change in ownership
in fact he needed no prompting to enter the TARDIS.
Somehow the addition of a smug computerised
dog with a well-developed sense of his own importance seemed to fit
in with the already established team. K9 was to prove to be the perfect
foil for both The Doctor's knowledge and arrogance, and Leela's primitive
intuition. He also provided the necessary element of humour and he
served as an extra 'hook' for the audience, aimed mostly at the younger
viewers just as Leela was a 'hook' for the older male viewers. And
of course with the success of Star Wars the same year cute robots
were the in-thing.
K9 though
did have a tendency to break down rather a lot as demonstrated when he
became damaged prior to the fight against the Fendhal, thus causing him
to remain inside the TARDIS for the duration of that encounter. His absence
in a number of stories is blamed on corroded circuitry, and being unsuited
to the terrain in which the TARDIS took them to. Despite this he was to
prove to be a very useful tool. With his laser gun K9 had a tendency to
lead the plot into many a battle scene with many laser shots been fired
in all directions.
Despite
being a computer K9 had many human traits and his smugness
and tendency to show The Doctor up much to his annoyance.
Never liking to be outdone The Doctor, while losing at a
game of chess with K9, causes the game to be wrecked when
he makes the TARDIS lurch. Leela is also seen to chide The
Doctor for calling K9 'him' instead of 'it' something that
he had earlier pulled her up on. The Doctor claims that
he is allowed to do so as K9 is his dog for which K9 nods
in agreement. However, Leela is able to take advantage of
The Doctor and K9's love-hate relationship and when in on
instance when K9 disagrees with The Doctor's prophecies
on the future causing The Doctor to storm off in a huff
Leela is seen to kiss K9 on the nose.
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| The Ribos Operation |
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K9's loyalty
to The Doctor is in no doubt as demonstrated in the story "The
Invasion of Time", where he is seen following The Doctor's
orders to put the Transduction Barriers, that protect Gallifrey
from invasion, out of action without question thus allowing
the Vardans to invade. Of course this turns out to be a
ruse so that K9 can be linked to the Matrix so as to determine
the Vardans point of origin and so defeat them. While he
was more than willing to obey The Doctor, K9 was not incapable
of making his own decisions. He displayed this not only
when he joined The Doctor, but also during his travels,
such as when he left the TARDIS to search for The Doctor
and Leela despite being ordered to remain after their arrival
on Pluto ("The
Sun Makers"). His ability to make
independent decisions was also seen when he decided to stay
on Gallifrey with Leela who he knew was very fond and devoted
to him.
When Leela
elects to stay on Gallifrey with one of the Chancellary
guards with whom she has fallen in love with K9 announces
that he will remain with her and so The Doctor returns to
the TARDIS apparently on his own and unaffected by this
double loss. However, it soon becomes obvious that The Doctor
had been secretly working on an improved model when he is
seen dragging into the console room a large box with 'K9
Mk II' printed on its side.
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| The Androids of Tara |
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Exactly
how The Doctor was able to build K9 Mark II was never explained.
It can therefore only be assumed that he was able to obtain
a set of blueprints from the first K9's memory banks which
allowed him to build K9's duplicate. However, while similar
to his predecessor the new version had many enhancements
including better mobility and the ability to sense danger
and respond to ultrasonic signals. He retained, however,
that all-knowing smugness, and with the arrival of Romana this meant a whole new set of challenges
for The Doctor who had to prove himself to both of them
(Although The Doctor allegedly also had a habit of losing
K9; according to Romana mid-way through their search for
the Key to Time, with the amount of time he’d spent
lost before The Doctor could recover him K9 by now would
have to be the single oldest coherent matter in the universe,
although she may have been exaggerating out of frustration
("Heart
of TARDIS")).
K9 assisted
them both during their search for the Key of Time and it
was during this time that all three of them were all trying
to outdo each other, and if it meant The Doctor could be
proved wrong, then K9 and Romana always joined forces against
him, even as their shared loyalty to him was unquestioned.
K9 Mk II also had much more involvement than his predecessor,
and his abilities were used to the full (A particularly
amusing example of this being his ‘duel’ with
a robotic parrot belonging to the ruthless Captain in "The
Pirate Planet"). He was seen carrying out many varied
tasks including tracking, flying aircars as well as fighting,
rescuing The Doctor and Romana out of sticky situations
and, in the "The
Armageddon Factor", he acted
as a Trojan Horse for a very small Doctor and Drax.
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| The Creature from the Pit |
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Most of K9's charisma came from his relationship with The Doctor.
He was perhaps the only one who could undermine The Doctor's 'infallibility'
with one smug comment and for an automaton with no capacity for
emotional responses, K9 certainly had his fair share of feelings.
These ranged from an eager desire to accompany The Doctor and
Leela in the exploration of the mysteriously-inhabited Pluto ("The
Sun Makers"), regret at his perceived failure to protect
The Doctor ("Festival
of Death"), calls for assistance
after he was left drifting in a lake ("The Androids of Tara"),
and even apparent frustration with the TARDIS itself for not being
able to speak ("The Invasion of Time"). This is what
gave him his personality, and what made him a likeable character
and a huge success.
In an
effort to make K9 appear not quite invincible, he was still susceptible
to the occasional power depletions or disorders; indeed, on one
occasion he somehow contracted laryngitis, resulting in his voice
changing significantly for a year. These malfunctions included
being nearly melted down, his circuits nearly overloading due
to exposure to the higher dimensions, and being shorted out when
he was accidentally immersed in the English Channel, to say nothing
of an occasion where he was trapped in a dimensional rift and
briefly possessed by The
Repulsion, a being of pure death that hated all life and sought
access to this universe. K9 became damaged even further when he
has his head knocked off by a marauding Marshman, until he was
finally severely disabled by the Time Winds surrounding the Gateway
between E-Space and N-Space which prevented him from continuing
with The Doctor. K9 therefore elected to stay behind in E-Space
with Romana ("Warriors'
Gate").
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| Full Circle |
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K9's departure
from the television show had many reasons behind it. Mainly it
was felt he was being used too often as a rescue device, his function
to provide humour was no longer required and with the introduction
of Adric the need for a device to explain proceedings
was greatly reduced. His departure from the show, however, caused
a huge outcry,
with many fans venting their fury towards current producer John
Nathan-Turner. So much so that in 1981 the BBC agreed to make
a Christmas Special. Titled "K9 and Company: A Girls Best
Friend" this pilot, of an envisaged series, involved a K9
Mark III being sent to Sarah
Jane Smith as a present from The
Doctor. The two of them became involved battling black magic and
the occult in a small English village. The planned series was
never produced past the pilot but it did allow for K9 Mark III
to make a brief appearance in Doctor Who proper in the
1983, 20th anniversary story "The
Five Doctors", where
he attempted to warn Sarah of great danger just before she finds
herself transported
to the Death Zone on Gallifrey and reunited with the Third
Doctor and The
Brigadier, along with fellow companions Susan,
Tegan
Jovanka and Turlough,
and the First,
Second and
Fifth Doctors.
He also aided Sarah when investigating the activities of the mysterious
Remote
(“Interference
Book One” and “Interference
Book Two”), during which he and Sarah encountered the Eighth
Doctor.
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K9
(1977 – 1981, 1983, 2006 & 2008) |
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John
Leeson
(voice only)
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| John
Leeson was born in 1943 and after spending time
working in a bookshop and then as a porter at Leicester
Royal Infirmary he joined RADA. Work in repertory
theatre, pantomimes and television soon followed.
His appearances on television included Dads Army and
the children's show Rainbow where he played
the original "Bungle the Bear" in 1972. He was also
involved in the setting of the questions in Mastermind.
However, it was his involvement in voice-overs which
brought him eventually to Doctor Who. He
was cast as the Nucleus and as well as K9 in "The
Invisible Enemy" and he was also seen onscreen in "The
Power of Kroll". He played K9's voice between 1977
and 1981 (except for Season
17 when he took a break
from the part). He even agreed to return in the
1981 spin-off programme K9 and Company: A Girls
Best Friend along with Elizabeth
Sladen and again in the 20th anniversary special "The
Five Doctors" in 1983. Since leaving Doctor Who John
Leeson has continued to provide voice-overs for
the BBC. He also appeared in the 1988 Reeltime Pictures
video production Wartime along with John
Levene. |
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David
Brierley
(voice only)
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in Yorkshire in 1935 David Brierley has worked in
numerous television programmes including Blind
Justice,
Howard's Way, Tripods, Coronation
Street and Juliet
Bravo. He played the voice of K9 after John Leeson
decided not to continue. However, he only ended
up playing the part during season 17 due to other
work commitments so creating the opportunity for
John Leeson to return for a further season before
K9 left the series. He has also been involved in
radio and theatre work including The Hound of
the Baskerville, Julies Caesar, Romeo
and Juliet, and
A Midsummer Night's Dream. He can been seen reminiscing,
along with John Leeson, about his time as K9 in
the 2001 Reeltime Video "K9 Unleashed!". |
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| The Five Doctors |
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As later
revealed in the novels, K9 Mark II was eventually restored to
his original universe when Romana returned to Gallifrey and
was elected President of the High Council, subsequently working
with Mark I to find information about the missing House of Lungbarrow
- The Doctor’s old family home ("Lungbarrow")
- as well as aiding Leela, Romana and current companion Charley
Pollard when they attempted to rescue The Doctor from Rassilon’s
attempts to turn him into a weapon against an ancient race ("Zagreus"),
both K9s working with Romana and Leela against the ancient Gallifreyian
Imperiatrix known as Pandora, who manifested using the form
of Romana’s first incarnation. Although Mark I was destroyed
during the Gallifreyian civil war against Pandora, Mark II briefly
returned at the conclusion of "The
Gallifrey Chronicles", where it was revealed that he
was transported into the TARDIS prior to Gallifrey’s destruction
with orders to kill The Doctor in an attempt to defeat Grandfather
Paradox - The Doctor’s corrupted future incarnation
and leader of the attack on Gallifrey - only to be trapped in
a distant part of the TARDIS. When The Doctor finally discovered
K9, he initially tried to kill The Doctor, but changed his mind
when he learned that The Doctor at least partly saved Gallifrey
by downloading the Matrix into his subconscious mind (Albeit
at the cost of his own memories as he was forced to erase them
to create room), K9 noting with satisfaction that ‘The
Doctor-Master never loses’. Although The Doctor stated
that he had sent K9 to contact the mysterious Madam Xhinn ("Halflife")
at the conclusion of the novel - most likely to seek a means
of transferring the dormant Time Lord memories in his mind before
restoring his own memories - this K9’s final fate is unknown.
The most likely explanation is that, having returned with a
means of allowing the Eighth Doctor to remove the Matrix from
his mind and restore his own memories, K9 was left with the
Eighth Doctor’s current companions Fitz Kreiner and Trix MacMillan - who had decided to leave the TARDIS
to start a new life together - as a housewarming present.
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| School Reunion |
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K9 Mark
III returned to the television series when he aided Sarah
and the Tenth
Doctor in defeating the alien goings on in
a local school ("School
Reunion"). Although he
was forced to sacrifice himself to defeat the Krillitane
invasion, The Doctor left Sarah with a rebuilt version of
K9 that retained the original’s databanks and memories
while providing Sarah with various new tools, including
a ‘sonic lipstick’, while also possessing such
new features as the ability to teleport. Due to copyright
debate, K9 Mark IV is generally absent from The
Sarah Jane Adventures, his absence being explained
by saying that he is operating ‘outside’ of
time to negate an artificially created black hole. Despite
this, he has returned
to aid Sarah on two occasions, helping her to reprogram
the renegade ‘Mr Smith’ - an alien computer
who had turned against Sarah when his original programming
was activated ("The Lost Boy") - and subsequently
providing the reprogrammed Mr Smith with the TARDIS base
code, allowing Mr Smith to connect the TARDIS to the Cardiff
Rift and thus permitting The Doctor to use the Rift to tow
Earth back to its proper place in space and time after it
was ‘stolen’ by the Daleks ("The Stolen Earth/Journey's
End"). K9 eventually returned to Sarah's
life full-time when the black hole he was monitoring was
drained away to provide power for a crashed space ship ("The
Mad Woman in the Attic"), attending Sarah's aborted
wedding - during which he was reunited with the Tenth Doctor
when aiding The Doctor and Sarah's friends against the Trickster
- ("The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith") before he
left to accompany Sarah's son Luke when he went to Oxford
after taking his exams early ("The Nightmare Man").
Throughout
his time with The Doctor, K9 remained irritatingly smug
and invariably right. He also left the show at the height
of his popularity, and because of this he remains a fond
memory.
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