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K-9 (Doctor Who)K-9, or K9 is the name of several robot dogs in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. There have been at least three separate K-9 units in the series. Debuting in the 1977 serial The Invisible Enemy, the first K-9 was the creation of Professor Marius, a scientist working for the Bi-Al Foundation which was built on an asteroid near Titan in the year 5000. A mobile computer, K-9 was constructed in the shape of a dog as a substitute for the one Marius had left back on Earth. Highly intelligent, with an extensive database and equipped with sophisticated sensors as well as a laser built into its nose, K-9 was instrumental in helping the Fourth Doctor and Leela defeat a sentient virus. At the end of the story, Marius suggested that K-9 join the Doctor on his travels. K-9 Mark I continued to travel with and aid the Doctor and Leela until The Invasion of Time, when the Doctor left it on the planet Gallifrey to accompany Leela, who elected to remain behind on the Time Lord homeworld. However, the Doctor had somehow obtained K-9's schematics, as he built a second K-9 unit. K-9 Mark II was more mobile than its predecessor, and exhibited the ability to sense danger, which it would warn the Doctor of. It was with the Doctor and Romana when they were shunted into the parallel universe of E-Space, and was severely damaged by time winds during the events of Warrior's Gate. The damage was such that K-9 could only function in E-Space, and when Romana decided to stay and forge her own path, the Doctor gave K-9 to her. K-9 Mark III was a gift from the Doctor to Sarah Jane Smith, and appeared with her in the pilot episode of the aborted spin-off series K-9 and Company as well as briefly in the 20th anniversary television movie The Five Doctors. It is not known what happened to this K-9, although a short story, "Moving On", in Virgin Publishing's Decalog 3: Consequences anthology and the Big Finish Productions-produced Sarah Jane Smith audio play Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre (both written by Peter Anghelides) indicate that it broke down and Sarah was unable to repair it as the replacement circuits would not be invented for several centuries. Another short story, "Tautology", by Glenn Langford, suggests that K-9's motherboard would be passed down through Sarah's descendants and eventually end up in the hands of Professor Marius, who uses it to build the first K-9, creating an ontological paradox. A K-9 unit also appeared in the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time. All the K-9s referred to whoever owned them as "Master" or "Mistress" depending on their gender, and were programmed to be both loyal and logical, with a penchant for taking orders literally, almost to a fault. Conceptual history K-9 was the brainchild of writers Bob Baker and David Martin. K-9 was not originally intended to be a companion, but producer Graham Williams liked the concept so much that the decision was made to retain it as a regular character. The initial idea for realizing K-9 was to use an actor inside a giant robotic Doberman costume, but that was rejected in favor of a radio controlled robot, designed by Tony Harding and made by the BBC Visual Effects Department. The robot suffered from numerous technical problems during its time in the series, often malfunctioning because the radio controls interfered with the cameras and vice versa. On location, K-9 also proved unable to traverse uneven terrain, and shots had to be conceived with this in mind. Workarounds included using a concealed piece of twine to pull the robot along, or laying wooden planks on which it could roll. The robot was redesigned twice more over the course of the series, and eventually the internal mechanisms were completely rebuilt by designer Charlie Lumm. The wheels were enlarged and given independent drives for power and better maneuverability, and the radio controls were switched from the AM to the FM band to resist interference. However, by the time the improved model made its debut, the character was written out of the series in the next story. K-9 was a popular enough character to warrant an attempt to spin it off into its own series, as mentioned above. In addition to K-9 dolls, there were also talking K-9 toys produced by Palitoy, the speech provided by a miniature record inside the body of the toy. John Leeson provided the voice for K-9 in all its appearances, except for Season 17 (which included the unfinished Shada) when it was voiced by David Brierley. When Shada was remade by Big Finish Productions, Leeson provided K-9's voice.
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