K-9 - The Complete Series

K-9 - The Complete Series
Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: May 7, 2013.
Director: Various
Cast: Various
Year: 2009
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The Movie:

Here's an odd one - an Australian spin-off of sorts involving K-9, the mechanical 'dog' who accompanied Doctor Who and Leela on various adventures in the 1970s, now off on his own, having been regenerated into a new form. This isn't the first time it happened though - some may remember a short lived 1981 series called K-9 And Company and he also appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures which ran from 2007 through 2011. This series, however, was not produced by the BBC and so it isn't really able to tie in to the Doctor Who universe at all (though attentive viewers will note some intentionally vague references here and there).

So yeah, when the series starts off, K-9 (John Leeson, who did do the voice for the character on Doctor Who originally) gets damaged. He regenerates and in the process, his memory banks get messed up - as such he isn't able to remember The Doctor, which conveniently explains away the need for any ties to BBC related continuity and frees the little guy up to go off and have adventures of his own. That brings us to the London of an undisclosed future where we meet two teenagers, Starkey (Keegan Joyce) and Jorjie (Philippa Coulthard), who meet up with Professor Gryffen (Robert Moloney) and his assistant, Darius (Daniel Webber). Together with Darius, Gryffen is in the midst of constructing a so-called 'Space-Time Manipulator' for a secret government agency called The Department.

How does K-9 hook up with these guys? Well he comes zipping through a time portal that Gryffen opens up to take out a scary reptile monster named Jixen, but by doing so explodes. That's where the regeneration thing comes into play - see, he gives Starkey directions to help him come back, and when he does, well, they're all buddies and stuff and so they have more adventures, and as other monster types like Jixen are bound to be coming through that portal, its' a good thing that K-9 is around to help.

The twenty-six episodes that make up K-9: The Complete Series are spread out in this set as follows:

DISC ONE:

REGENERATION / LIBERATION / THE KORVEN / THE BOUNTY HUNTER / SIRENS OF CERES / FEAR ITSELF / FALL OF THE HOUSE OF GRYFFEN

DISC TWO:

JAWS OF ORTHRUS / DREAM-EATERS / THE CURSE OF ANUBIS / OROBORUS / ALIEN AVATAR / AEOLIAN

DISC THREE:

THE LAST OAK TREE / BLACK HUNGER / THE CAMBRIDGE SPY / LOST LIBRARY OF UKKO / MUTANT COPPER / THE CUSTODIANS / TAPHONY AND THE TIME LOOP

DISC FOUR:

ROBOT GLADIATORS / MIND SNAP / ANGEL OF THE NORTH / THE LAST PRECINCT / HOUND OF THE KORVEN / THE ECLIPSE OF THE KORVEN

Very definitely written with a younger audience in mind, this is decent family-friendly science fiction adventure fare; good harmless entertainment. Each half hour episode moves quickly and there's a good mix of action and humor in here to compliment all of the racing around and battling with aliens and what not. K-9 is rendered more or less all in CGI here, so there are spots where he just sort of looks like he's floating and not actually 'there' (because he isn't) but outside of that the series shows pretty good production values.

Some of the highlights of the series include episodes where the team have to bust a bunch of aliens out of prison and an episode where a bounty hunter with ties to K-9's past comes to London looking for him. When The Department starts using mind control tactics in a school the crew have to bust up those experiments quickly and in another episode it seems like K-9 himself might be responsible for rampant vandalism all across London (hey, this is a kid's show, we're going to get odd morality tales here and there - vandalism is bad, kids, remember that!). We get an ecological message poison gets into the Thames river and threatens the health of Londoners old and new alike.

Though the series plays out more or less like you'd expect it to, there's fun to be had here if you're in the right mood for it or watching it with the younger audience its geared towards. As a Doctor Who spin-off, it's not of much use but judged on its own merits, which is only fair, K-9 is fine family entertainment.

Video/Audio/Extras:

K-9 is presented on a series of four DVDs in a series of very nice looking 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfers. Shot in HD for broadcast, the transfers look quite good here and there's a lot of depth and detail present throughout the entire series if you want to look for it. Color reproduction looks nice and natural without ever feeling like it's 'too much' while black levels are rich and deep. Some of the CGI used in the show looks a bit hokey and there are some green screen effects that don't always work so well, but overall this is crisp, clean and colorful with nice black levels and no authoring issues of note.

The English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound mix on the disc is also of very good quality, in fact, everything sounds quite nice here. Dialogue is always nice and sharp and easy to follow and the score sounds good when it kicks in. Bass response is strong enough and the high end has a nice depth to it that ensures it never sounds too shrill. All in all, there's nothing to complain about here.

Shout! Factory has included a twenty-four minute behind the scenes featurette that is made up of some on set footage and some cast and crew interviews. We get a look at how the different characters were developed and how some of the effects set pieces were created. Aside from that we get a quick interview with K-9 himself (seriously), which is amusing in a goofy sort of way, some menus and episode selection.

The Final Word:

If flying robotic dogs and aliens are your thing, K-9: The Complete Series from Shout! Factory just might be up your alley. The set looks and sounds good and if it's not slammed to the gills with extras, the featurette and interviews are a nice touch.