Origin : Asteroid K4067 Companion reign – 1977 – 1981
“Affirmative… ..master!” K9
Robotic pet pooch endures till spinoff.
K-9, or ‘K-9 Mark II’ (voiced by both John Leeson and David Brierly), first appeared in the Fourth Doctor episode – The Invisible Enemy – 1977.
K9 was created by Professor Marius – in the year 5000 (on an Asteroid base in deepspace), to replace his Earth dog – as a companion. Unable to take K9 back to Earth, due to weight restrictions. Marius offered K9 to the Fourth Doctor.
K9 was in every sense of the word – ‘mans best friend’, accompanying and acting as a companion and guard-dog to the Doctor.
K9 was useful too, he could be plugged into a computer mainframe, or the Tardis control column. His snout was also a defensive ray gun which could torture, incapacitate or even kill – and K9 also had a finely tuned sensor array, to sweep the area for danger.
K9 was intelligent aswell, regularly playing and beating the Doctor at chess – and general trivia, which annoyed the Fourth Doctor.
K-9 was a regular companion alongside the Leela, until The Invasion of Time – 1978. K-9 decided to remain on Gallifrey with Leela.
However, due to the popularity of the character, K9 ‘Mk II’ was immediately introduced – at the end of the episode, to continue travelling with the Doctor.
This K9 MK-II upgrade was quicker, more agile, had better weapons and an even better sensor array. But still had the same personality – that made the first K9 so endearing.
K9 accidentally damaged himself – in Leisure Hive – 1980, on Brighton beach. When he chased a ball thrown by the Fourth Doctor into the sea and short-circuited himself.
Romana decided to stay behind in E-Space, so the Doctor gave K9 MK-II to her as a parting gift. The N-Space winds had a healing effect – on his broken circuitry.
K9 made one further appearance, in The Five Doctor’s – 1983; now back in the care of Sarah-Jane Smith, back on Earth.
