K9 and Company

K-9 and Company
Title card
Created by	John Nathan-Turner
Directed by	John Black
Starring	Elisabeth Sladen John Leeson (voice)
Theme music composer	Fiachra Trench Ian Levine
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	1
Production
Producer(s)	John Nathan-Turner
Running time	50 min.
Release
Original network	BBC1
Picture format	PAL
Original release	28 December 1981
Chronology
Followed by	The Sarah Jane Adventures
Related shows	Doctor Who

"A Girl's Best Friend"
K-9 and Company episode
Cast
Starring Elisabeth Sladen – Sarah Jane Smith John Leeson – Voice of K-9 Mk. III
Others 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 – P.C. Carter
Production
Directed by	John Black
Written by	Terence Dudley
Script editor	Eric Saward, Antony Root
Produced by	John Nathan-Turner
Incidental music composer	Peter Howell
Production code	D300A
Length	50 minutes
Originally broadcast	28 December 1981
List of Doctor Who serials

K-9 and Company

Author	Terence Dudley
Cover artist	Peter Kelly
Series	The Companions of Doctor Who
Published	1 October 1987 Target Books
ISBN

K-9 and Company was a proposed television spin-off of the original programme run of Doctor Who (1963–1989). It was to feature former series regulars Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist played by Elisabeth Sladen, and K-9, a robotic dog. Both characters had been companions of the Fourth Doctor, but they had not appeared together before. A single episode, "A Girl's Best Friend", was produced as a pilot for a proposed programme, but was not taken up. "A Girl's Best Friend" was broadcast by BBC1 as a Christmas special on 28 December 1981. The story was released on DVD on 16 June 2008 as a double pack with K-9's first Doctor Who story "The Invisible Enemy". Although a full series of K-9 and Company was not produced, the two characters did re-appear two years later in The Five Doctors, an episode of Doctor Who broadcast in 1983 celebrating the show's twentieth anniversary.

Following the successful revival of Doctor Who in 2005, Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 would be re-introduced to the show in the second series episode "School Reunion", which aired in 2006. In addition to subsequent appearances by both characters in the main programme, this became the basis for another series featuring the two characters, The Sarah Jane Adventures, which debuted in 2007. K-9 appears only occasionally in the first and second series, and becomes a regular character in series three. Another unrelated programme, not produced by the BBC and without Sarah Jane, K-9, began airing in 2010. This series, created by Bob Baker, one of the originators of the K-9 character, features a different version of the robot dog.

The programme has its roots firmly in the desire of Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner to get Elisabeth Sladen back into the TARDIS. He had wanted her to have the contract eventually awarded to Janet Fielding in late 1980. John Nathan-Turner's preferred plan for the transition from Baker to Davison was to have Sarah Jane be along for the ride from Logopolis to the second story of series 19. However, Sladen had no interest in returning simply to reprise a role and function identical to the one she had left years before.

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Wikipedia