K9, the robot dog from ‘Doctor Who,’ gets an upgrade

New details and images are emerging from the latest Doctor Who spinoff, K9.

They reveal a sleek new look (above right) and a new focus on children’s comedy.

No release date has been set, but production company Park Entertainment (with writing credits on Wallace & Gromit) has released a synopsis (scroll down), and episode titles are leaking out.

The BBC aired a pilot for a K9 series in 1981 featuring former Doctor Who costar Elizabeth Sladen and the metal mutt, but the show wasn’t picked up. More than 20 years later Sladen would reprise her character of Sarah Jane Smith in an episode of the relaunched Who, leading to a spinoff of her own at last with K9 — sometimes — in tow.

The iconic robotic dog will get a facelift for his own show, mostly because the BBC, which opted out of involvement in the series to focus on Who and existing spinoffs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, still retains the rights to the original design. The K9 Mark IV that resides with Sarah Jane can therefore still appear in the BBC properties.

See also:

Has the next Doctor found his assistant?

‘Doctor Who’ updates include a TARDIS facelift

Zimbabwe: Holy Grail for ‘Doctor Who’ completists?

PRESS RELEASE

From the writer of Wallace and Gromit, Bob Baker, comes…

K9 – The Series

GENRE: Comedy
Running Time: 26 x 1/2 hr episodes

PREMISE
Somewhere in the future…

COMING SOON

Originally created for the 1970s DOCTOR WHO series by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, K9 has long been an iconic television character. Now comes a brand new adventure series featuring everyone’s favourite robot dog!

K9 is a children’s sci-fi/adventure series combining comedy, action and suspense “X Files” meets “Men in Black” with a zany dash of “Ghostbusters”. K9 mixes live action characters with stunning visual-effects.

London, in the future: STARKEY (14) orphan and rebel ultimately plans to bring down the system but for the time being he is prepared to simply slip through the cracks. While evading the police he takes refuge in a large detached house, now the residence of reclusive scientist, Professor GRYFFEN. He is followed by JORJIE (14) an adventurous girl who partly admires Starkey’s dissident stance, but mostly wants to share whatever excitement is afoot.

Inside the dilapidated mansion, they see Gryffen absorbed in an experiment with a strange piece of alien technology, a Space Time Manipulator (S/TM). DARIUS (15) an artful dodger who, among his many occupations, runs errands for Gryffen, confronts the pair, but at that moment a portal opens and through the hole torn in the fabric of space/time burst two reptilian warrior JIXEN. The Jixen attack Starkey. The teenager is saved from certain death by a small dog-like robot, K9 Mark I, who follows the Jixen through the portal and places himself between the monsters and boy.

In the ensuing battle, the only way K9 can defeat the Jixen is to blow himself and them to pieces. One surviving Jixen limps out of the mansion. Before expiring, K9 is able to give instructions that allow Starkey to initiate a regeneration program. A new, more sophisticated and futuristically designed K9 is regenerated.

K9 and Starkey, with the assistance of Jorjie, Darius and Gryffen, become the earth’s front line defence against dangers threatening from anywhere and anytime in the galaxy. They will have a lot of fun, action, adventure, and some scares along the way, saving the earth from alien creatures, monsters and more than a few human threats.