K-9 and Company

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Television broadcast
Original title K-9 and Company
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
year 1981
Production
company		 British Broadcasting Corporation
length 50 minutes
genre Fantasy , mystery , science fiction , drama
idea Terence Dudley
production John Nathan-Turner
music Fiachra Trench , Ian Levine
First broadcast December 28, 1981 on BBC One
occupation
  • Elisabeth Sladen - Sarah Jane Smith
  • John Leeson - voice of K9
  • Colin Jeavons - George Tracey
  • Bill Fraser - Bill Pollock
  • Nigel Gregory - Vince Wilson
  • Sean Chapman - Peter Tracey
  • Mary Wimbush - Aunt Lavinia
  • Ian Sears - Brendan Richards
  • Linda Polan - Juno Baker
  • Neville Barber - Howard Baker
  • John Quarmby - Henry Tobias
  • Gillian Martell - Lily Gregson
  • Stephen Oxley - PC Carter

K-9 and Company (also K9 and Company ) is an offshoot of the British television series Doctor Who . Originally, K-9 and Company was supposed to be a television series. However, only the pilot film A Girl's Best Friend was made into a film . A Girl's Best Friend aired on BBC One on December 28, 1981 .

action

Sarah Jane Smith wants to visit her aunt Lavinia in Moreton Harwood. When she gets there, however, she only meets Brendan Richards, a boy whose education is funded by Lavinia. Sarah Jane later learns that Lavinia is in America. Sarah Jane finds a package from the doctor at her aunt's house . This contains the robot dog K9, which is by her side from now on.

Strange things are going on in town, however. There are rumors that black magic is practiced near Moreton Harwood. Sarah Jane soon realizes that there is some truth behind the rumors. Suddenly Brendan is kidnapped and Sarah Jane learns that a witch cult wants to sacrifice him.

Sarah Jane drives together with K9 to the place where the sacrifice is to take place. K9 manages to take out the high priestess and save Brendan. Now the police are taking care of the witch cult.

background

The robot dog K9 was created by Bob Baker and Dave Martin in 1977 for the Doctor Who episode The Invisible Enemy. In order to interest the young audience in particular, K9 was finally established as a supporting character. He stayed in the series for three years until the producer John Nathan-Turner decided to let K9 write out of the series. However, this drew some criticism from viewers and media. The Sun created the save K-9 campaign to keep K9 on the show. This forced Nathan-Turner to rethink K9's future. He was still in favor of writing K9 from the series, but thought of doing an offshoot with K9. The 19th Doctor Who season was originally supposed to have 28 episodes. Nathan-Turner, however, managed to convince the BBC to leave him the budget for two of the Doctor Who episodes for the film adaptation of the K-9 and Company pilot. John Leeson , the voice of K9, agreed to participate in the series. Despite K9's popularity, Nathan-Turner didn't believe that K9 could carry an entire program on its own. So he thought about adding a companion from Doctor Who to K9. A return of Sarah Jane Smith or Leela was discussed. Nathan-Turner ultimately chose Sarah Jane Smith.

Nathan-Turner worked on a script with Antony Root. In this Sarah Jane should find K-9 and bring with her to the village. K-9 would actually have been a trap for the Master, the doctor's archenemy. However, Brendan Richards manages to reprogram Sarah Jane's aunt Lavinia K9 again, before he can carry out his dark mission. Then the script was rewritten by Antony Root and Terence Dudley again. A series of six episodes was planned. K9 and Sarah Jane Smith should be in each of these episodes. Either Brendan or Aunt Lavinia should help them in each episode.

The film was shot at K-9 and Company in Gloucestershire . The pilot film was broadcast on television just a month after filming was finished.

By the time Torchwood launched in 2007, K-9 and Company was the first Doctor Who spin-off to be shown on television. Although the ratings for the pilot were very good, the BBC decided not to shoot any more episodes. Even so, what happened in the offshoot had an impact on the regular Doctor Who series. Sarah Jane also owned K9 in the later Doctor Who episodes The Five Doctors and School Reunion , although she had not met him as the Doctor's companion.

26 years after K-9 and Company first aired , The Sarah Jane Adventures was a new, successful Doctor Who offshoot, in which Sarah Jane Smith and K9 could also be seen together.

Publications

For the first time K9 and Company published on 7 August 1995 by BBC Worldwide on VHS. On June 16, 2008, the story was released on DVD together with the Doctor Who episode The Invisible Enemy . From October 25, 2010, the DVD was available for individual purchase.

K-9 and Company was also released on DVD in the United States and Australia.

In addition, a book on the pilot film was published on October 1, 1987. The book was called The Companions of Doctor Who: K9 and Company and was written by Terence Dudley.

The publication as an audio book followed on December 3, 2015. This is read by John Leeson .

reception

The audience ratings for the pilot were very good. A total of 8.4 million viewers saw the pilot film on British television. This meant that the pilot had more viewers than any episode of the 18th Doctor Who season. The reviews, however, were rather mixed.

Reviews

IGN's Arnold T. Blumberg stated that there isn't much that makes K-9 and Company recommendable. The directing was not good and this can be seen in the pilot film. The script was also not well written. The music would hardly convey atmosphere. K9's integration into the show would be haphazard and unsatisfactory. The best thing K-9 and Company could have done would have been that without this unsuccessful pilot, the later hit television series The Sarah Jane Adventures might not have existed.

Martin Rayburn of Warpedfactor says that only Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith makes K-9 and Company worth seeing. Evan Sawdey adds that Sladen's devotion to her character shows in every scene. They hold the film's credibility together whenever it threatens to break apart.

Martin Izsak from Lyratek thinks the theme song is terrible. Musically it has nothing to offer. The constant bass sound leads nowhere and does not convey any feeling. Additionally, John Leeson's voice as K9 would make the whole thing seem childish and ridiculous. Overall, K9 & Company: A Girl's Best Friend is a nice little story with a lot that makes it worth seeing, but it's also easy to see that it doesn't offer enough to build a whole series on.

Eamonn McCusker from The Digital Fix gives K-9 and Company seven out of ten. He thinks the pilot lacks any tension. Nevertheless, he enjoys this much more than many Doctor Who episodes. The reconstruction team would have done a great job especially with the DVD release. The colors come out much better than expected and the night scenes also look very good. The soundtrack is also clearer and contains less disturbing background noise than the original production.

Michael Bush of DenofGeek explains that K9 and Company is an interesting new direction for a Doctor Who offshoot. Sarah Jane Smith in particular would be brilliantly portrayed by Elisabeth Sladen.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arne Henkler: Doctor Who - Spinoffs / offshoots. K-9 and Company. . Robots and Dragons. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  2. ^ A b Arnold T. Blumberg: Doctor Who - The Invisible Enemy with K-9 and Company - A girl's best friend. DVD review. . IGN. October 14, 2008. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b c Shannon Sullivan: A Brief History Of Time (Travel): A Girl's Best Friend. . Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 18, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.shannonsullivan.com
  4. ↑ 1 episode, broadcast: 28th December 1981 . Doctor Who locations. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  5. ^ A b Martin Rayburn: Revisiting K-9 AND COMPANY. . Warped factor. February 25, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  6. ^ K9 and Company . Chicken dynasty. November 2, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  7. ^ Doctor Who: K9 and Company VHS . amazon.co.uk. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  8. ↑ Doctor Who: K9 Tales Box Set (Invisible Enemy / K9 and Co) DVD . amazon.co.uk. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  9. ^ K9 & Company DVD . amazon.co.uk. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  10. ↑ a b Martin Izsak: "K9 & Company" Review: An In-depth Analysis of the Doctor Who season 19 spinoff pilot episode "A Girl's Best Friend". . Lyratek. February 25, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  11. ^ The Companions of Doctor Who: K9 and Company (A Target book) . Goodreads. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  12. ^ David Carroll: K9 and Company by Terence Dudley, Target. Reviewed by David Carroll. . Tabula rasa. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  13. ^ Doctor Who: K9 and Company (BBC Audio) . Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  14. ^ Gerry D .: K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend . Tardismusings. January 28, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  15. ↑ Evan Sawdey: Doctor Who. The Invisible Enemy / K9 and Company . Popmatters. January 6, 2009. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  16. ↑ Eamonn McCusker: Doctor Who: K9 Tales Box Set - K9 And Company . The digital fix. June 19, 2008. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  17. ↑ Michael Bush: Doctor Who: K9 tales boxset DVD review . DenofGeek. June 17, 2008. Retrieved March 18, 2016.