K-9 & Company-A Girl's Best Friend (1981)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation Main Menu Introduction Booklet Reversible Cover Featurette Interviews-Character Trailer Trivia Audio Commentary Gallery-Photo DVD-ROM Extras-Multiple
Rating
Year Of Production	1981
Running Time	50:00 (Case: 74)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	John Black
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Elizabeth Sladen John Leeson
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	Box	Music	None Given

    One of Doctor Who's most famous and best loved companions, K-9 (voiced by John Leeson), was introduced to the series in 1977 as part of the serial,  The Invisible Enemy which I reviewed recently. The subject of this review is K-9 & Company which was an early 1980s attempted spinoff series. These two titles make up a two disc set called K-9 Tales.

    K-9 & Company was certainly a valid idea using the popularity of two previous Doctor Who companions (K-9 and Sarah Jane (Elizabeth Sladen)) to build a new series around. Unfortunately, the delivery of that idea was pretty ordinary and after one show, which screened just after Christmas in 1981, the series was canned. Recently a new K-9 series has been made, this time animated. The biggest problem with this show to my mind is that the storyline seems to have been stolen from a show like Midsomer Murders rather than be anything like Doctor Who. It is very questionable whether the first show of a series featuring a character extremely popular with children should feature devil worshipping, human sacrifice and murder. Even K-9 points out in his interview in the extras that he was not sure that grisly murder mysteries was where he wanted to go with his career at the time. Throw into the mix some smoking and alcohol consumption and it becomes fairly dodgy for the littlies.

    The story follows Sarah Jane as she moves into her Aunt Lavinia's house in a small village while her aunt is away in America. Here she starts to meet some strange people who don't seem overly friendly. Her Aunt's ward, Brendan, comes home from boarding school to stay. Sarah Jane finds a large crate marked to her attention and discovers K-9 Mark III inside who says he is a gift from the Doctor. Pretty quickly Sarah Jane, Brendan and K-9 are involved in dangerous local goings on and they must try to work out who is responsible, especially when Brendan is attacked and Aunt Livinia seems to have gone missing.

    On a positive note, K-9 is as usual dryly amusing and the show does not outstay its welcome at only 1x50 minute episode. The theme song and credits for the show are quite funny but not on purpose, which Elizabeth Sladen comments on in the commentary.

    A good addition to the K-9 set and worthwhile for Doctor Who completists. But this is not the place to start in the Doctor Who universe.

Video

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio, non 16x9 enhanced which would be the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was reasonably sharp and clear and would seem to have had some restoration work done. Shadow detail is decent. There is some regular grain.

    The colour was quite good for the age but dull compared to more modern shows. There was some flaring of bright yellows and bleeding from light colours.

    Other artefacts included some very minor aliasing.

    There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired which are accurate but a little small and thin for my liking. Another subtitle track provides trivia and is covered in the extras below.

    There is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good considering the source.

    This DVD contains one audio option, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s. There is also a commentary track with the same specs.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout.

    The music was unobtrusive during the show however the theme was quite strange and dated.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu features music, action and an intro.

Booklet

    The booklet includes an essay plus information about the extras and the people involved.

Reversible Slick

    You can choose either a specific cover this show or one that is the same design style as the other classic Doctor Who discs.

Trivia Track

    An optional trivia subtitle track is available which relays lots of interesting information about the production, casting, locations, cut scenes and the props and sets. Excellent for fans.

The K-9 Files (11:41)

    2007 Featurette about the character K-9, his popularity, shooting issues, how Mark III was different and why this show got canned. Interviews with cast and crew included. Worth watching

K-9 - A Dog's Tale (3:28)

    A joke interview with the character K-9 where he talks about his career aspirations and why this show wasn't were he wanted his career to go. Good stuff.

Trailers and Continuity (2:11)

    Various bits and pieces of promo material.

Audio Commentary - Elizabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane), John Leeson (Voice of K-9), Linda Polan (Juno Baker) & Eric Saward (Script Editor)

    A good selection of people are involved here and they discuss their reminiscences and feelings about this show. They are fairly critical of the end outcome and honest in their appraisal. Another quality extra.

Photo Gallery (3:04)

    Various shots from the production set to music from the score.

Coming Soon (1:01)

    Trailer for DVD release of Brain of Morbius.

DVD-ROM Extras

    Various pdfs can be found on the disc including

• The original Radio Times television guide listings
• Four complete 32 page children's novels starring K-9
• 1983 K-9 Annual (60 pages)

    The Region 1 (and other) releases seem to be exactly the same. Draw

    The video is good considering the age of the source.

    The audio is good.

    Lots of quality extras are included.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall