The K9 factor.

[blackhawkrush]

Just wanted to get everyone to post their thoughts on whether they like the K9 era and the dog himself. Looking forward to some interesting responses. Thanks!

[merlinsseer]

When I first saw K-9 in ' The Invisible Enemy' ' , I thought , " Oh, that's cute", and he was just fine for that story. Then they put K-9 on the Tardis, I never saw the point really in having K-9 join the team. Other than the voice of John Leeson providing some nice banter with the Doctor , K-9 was just blah- cute- but blah. He served no real purpose and was sort of a boring lump of metal most of the time.

I guess if you were a younger viewer K-9 would have been neat- kids love robots and a robot dog would be cool to have.When my kids were small they had to have the robot cat and dog when they came out for Christmas one year. One of our cats fell in love with the robot cat...

These things could at least walk around and do back flips, K-9 could only roll around and not much else. I read somewhere that Tom Baker " broke" K-9 during the filming of ' Invisible Enemy ' ?

Now days I look on K-9 with some nostalgic fondness and am glad to see him still rolling around, even though they still don't know what to do with him.

[pattie anne]

K9 what a joy! Best addition to the Dr Who Universe since jelly babies. Can not sing high enough of his very special praises. And as he is 'virtual pet', I think some one ought to give him his own Website! PS: several 'someones' did. Just google: K9 Website, of course you will find a bunch of those four footed K9s lurking about 'out there' among our K9's Sites, but they are very special K9s too as most of them are service animals -- with very special stories about loyalty and courage.

[Captain Rum]

He was good in "the Key To Time" boxset, but love him or hate him (I liked him mainly) he was very dog-ged

[bcm77]

K9 is the Jar Jar Binks of the Whoniverse in that kids loved him and most adults hated him. I don't mind him myself and always have a chuckle at how loud his motor sounded, or at the moments where the director had to cut away as he couldn't manage certain surfaces

[biddenden_sue]

Personally, I'm a K9 fan. I have the K9 DVD Boxset, and that introduced my children to him as well.

I loved it when he came back with David Tennant and then with Sarah Jane. How could you not love him?

However, I caught the pilot of the new CGI K9 series on Disney a while back and that was dire! What were they thinking???

[Malcolm Orr]

K9 is a character that only a few people could write well for, more so the Missing Adventures novellist Gareth Roberts. It would be a different situation now, of course.

[John]

Well, I like him. I think he provided great entertainment value in an era designed to be more fun and humorous. He probably wouldn't have suited the Hinchcliffe era though.

[Jedi Princess]

I like K-9 for the most part, especially in School Reunion. However, the new K-9 series looks so horribly awful that it doesn't bear thinking about.

[merlinsseer]

For those of them that are pro-K-9 , I simply have to ask this question ," Other than the pure sake of cuteness and the magic of John Leeson's voice, why ? "
I give that, yes , he is cute and it's cute in the Doctor showing affection for , bantering with and arguing with a tin dog . Unfortunately these reasons are not quite enough ( for me ) to make the K-9 case . The more I watch of K-9 in the stories the more I'm convinced that he became a crutch for the writers and less of a real character . I mean really, how many times did we see the Doctor get out of a sticky situation because a well timed zap from K-9's nose only to then endure the inevitable dying battery scenario ? How many times did we have to hear the the question, " K-9 are you fully charged yet? ". They seem to have wasted a whole lot of time in stories repairing, tinkering , charging and wondering about K-9's health and when another close call for the Doctor reared it's ugly head -TA DA- the dog was back to " full capacity" to save the day ! However did the Doctor manage to get along for 750 years without K-9 to save his skin ? Before K-9 how did the writers manage to write a scene where the Doctor used his own wits to save the day ? Oh , wait ! That's right , they had to use that rusty old thing called a creative imagination and that made it a lot more fun and interesting to watch than doggy zaps