K9 (TV series)

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K9 is a spin-off television series featuring the robotic dog K9. It was produced in Australia by Park Entertainment and Stewart & Wall Entertainment under the auspices of Metal Mutt Productions, a business identity of Bob Baker which holds primary copyright to the series. K9 premiered worldwide between 2009 and 2010. In the wake of the first series, there were indications that a second series was being planned.[1] In June of 2012 series producer Paul Tams stated that he and Bob Baker were "working on the updates for series two and are also entering a new production partnership." with another twenty-four episodes planned. They have also adjusted the K9 CGI model based on the the positive and negative comments from fans, test footage has already been filmed, with further announcements regarding production later in 2012.[2]

History

School Reunion led to near-immediate plans to launch the Sarah Jane Adventures spin-off. The rights to K9 were obtained by other parties for a separate spinoff. According to news reports in mid-2007, the K9 series would "feature a blend of live-action and CGI: K9 himself will be a CGI creation, but the show will otherwise be recorded in front of cameras."[3]

In June 2008 it was announced production would begin on the series in July 2008, with all or some of the episodes written by the co-creator of K9, Bob Baker. Other announced writers included Shane Krause and Shayne Armstrong. The series would be produced by Simon Barnes, Richard Stewart and Penny Wall. Due to licensing issues, the robot dog was extensively redesigned. At first, the series was not expected to have any obvious connection to the Doctor Who universe.[4], but a 2009 update to the Park Entertainment website revealed that the series would explicitly star K9 Mark I and he would initially appear to be the same design seen on Doctor Who.[5] It was the first Doctor Who-related series to not be produced or co-produced by the BBC. Aside from the 1996 telefilm, it was the first time a Doctor Who-related production was not based in Great Britain.

These licensing issues also prevented K9 Mark IV from initially making more than cameo appearances in The Sarah Jane Adventures. K9 later became a regular for series 3 of SJA.

The first season of the series consisted of twenty-six episodes of thirty minutes each, which gave it a similar run time to an average series of Doctor Who. It was the first time a Doctor Who-related season had so many episodes since the mid-1980s.

The first episode of the series premiered in the UK on the cable network Disney XD as a special on 31 October 2009. The series began airing as a weekly offering on a Scandinavian network in January 2010. It commenced broadcast in the UK on 3rd April 2010, the same day it premiered on the Ten Network in Australia.[6] This was also the same day that Series 5 of the parent program debuted in the UK. Nevertheless, the later December 2010 broadcast on Five was claimed to be the "premiere" UK broadcast.[7]

Currently, Disney XD has adopted a twice-weekly broadcast schedule for K9, airing episodes on Saturday and Sunday.

The backstory does not appear to contradict the canon of the other Whoniverse TV series, but does contradict the Big Finish Productions' Gallifrey series, which showed K9 Mark I destroyed. Although Leela refused to rebuild K9 it is possible that the Time Lords rebuilt K9 without her knowledge, possibly to help fight in the Last Great Time War because K9's regeneration unit has writing on it very similar to Gallifreyan. Also, K9 Mark III didn't have a regeneration unit when he was destroyed, which implies that it was fitted in by the Time Lords as opposed to the Doctor.

Cast

Primary cast

Secondary cast

Television Stories

Series 1 - 2009-2010

see Main article

Connections with Doctor Who

Crossover monsters from Doctor Who

Broadcasts

Series 1

  • K9 was broadcast in Australia on Network Ten and began screening on 4 April 2010.
  • K9 was on Disney XD in the UK.
  • In April 2010 it was announced that K9 would begin broadcasts on the UK terrestrial network Five after broadcasts on Disney XD concluded, [9] The series debuted on Five on 18 December 2010. Although it had originally been announced that the first season would be split in half, the series ran interrupted on a daily schedule for its first twenty-one episodes, concluding on 9 January 2011; after a month's hiatus, two more episodes aired on 5 and 6 February 2011. It then went on hiatus until resuming on 24 April 2011, airing episodes 24 and 25 on a weekly schedule. However as of mid-August 2011, no broadcast has been indicated on Five for the 26th and final episode of Season 1.[10]
  • K9 is broadcast in Bulgaria and Romania on Disney Channel and it's dubbed in both languages.
  • The K9 Official Facebook Page announced that the series would be broadcast on Cartoon Network in New Zealand.
  • The K9 Official Facebook Page also announced that K9 was due to be broadcast on Disney XD in America, although broadcast dates are currently unknown. [11]
  • The K9 Official Facebook Page also announced that K9 would be broadcast in Canada on BBC Kids, starting in September 2012.[12]
  • K9 has thus far been broadcast on Network Ten in Australia, Disney XD in the UK & Ireland; Scandinavia, Poland, Italy and the Netherlands and Disney Channel CEE in Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, Five in the UK, circulated to the US through Disney XD. It has also been broadcast on pay TV stations through Australia, New Zealand and Asia via Cartoon Network.[source needed]

See also

External links

Footnotes