Spend the holiday with K-9
It’s Christmas, and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) has moved to her aunt’s home but learns all is not well in the town. Sarah Jane and her aunt’s ward Brendan Richards (Ian Sears) discover the Doctor has sent her a present in the form of K-9. With K-9, Sarah Jane and Brendan must find out if rumors of witchcraft in are true not realizing that they have just made themselves targets.
K-9 and Company: A Girl’s Best Friend was the pilot episode for a spin-off of Doctor Who starring as Sarah Jane Smith, one of the Doctor’s most popular companions. The series was not picked up but the single episode can be seen on Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy (where K-9 first appeared) as part of The Tom Baker Years collection.
I can’t be responsible for a robot dog…all the oiling and battery changing
While Doctor Who was always goofy and its goofiness was part of its fun, K-9 was a bit too over the top. Like Kamelion, the character just seemed really impractical and a bad rip-off of R2-D2 and C-3PO combined. I can see why a series with K-9 as the centerpiece would fail (especially where Doctor Who was when it was produced).
I don’t like K-9, but I do like Sarah Jane and I don’t think this episode is too bad. It flows a lot better than some of the Doctor Who episodes (probably because it is shorter in length and a more compact story). Unlike the standard Doctor Who episode, the enemy is Earth born and is witchcraft based instead of alien so that also is a fun change.
It is odd because though called K-9 and Company, the series still treats K-9 as more of a sidekick than the lead of the series. It is a wise move, but it still is hard to make a character that has difficulty moving on any non-flat surface as a star of a show. If the show had been picked-up I imagine that the series would have had to found some way to develop his character and make him more mobile…or I guess it could be like Scooby-Doo where it was often about the sidekicks more than the dog.
Oh K-9, you wacky robot!
K-9 and Company: A Girl’s Best Friend should have been given a shot after a decent first outing here. Elisabeth Sladen was extremely likeable as Sarah Jane and the change in directions from a space based show to an Earth based show would have provided different storylines from Doctor Who (or make it more like Doctor Who during the Jon Pertwee period). Sarah Jane did end up returning after the relaunch of Doctor Who in the second season and starred her own series The Sarah Jane Adventures (with K-9) until her death in 2011. I can imagine that K-9 and Company would have developed in a similar path to The Sarah Jane Adventures if the series had been picked up and there might have been even more adventures. The episode is a fun bonus to a decent episode of Doctor Who and makes Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy worth picking up.
Related Links:
Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy (Story #93)
The Sarah Jane Adventures—Season 1 Review and Complete Episode Guide
The Sarah Jane Adventures—Season 2 Review and Complete Episode Guide
The Sarah Jane Adventures—Season 3 Review and Complete Episode Guide
The Sarah Jane Adventures—Season 4 Review and Complete Episode Guide
The Sarah Jane Adventures—Season 5 Review and Complete Episode Guide
