Coming from a world which saw first the successful spinoffs of the Russell T. Davies years come and go, and then the Marvel television universe boom, it is acutely strange to see an attempt at a Doctor Who spinoff program at such an early date. I was not entirely sure what to expect from K-9 and Company going in except for a hilarious opening theme.

All things considered, I found this story perfectly harmless Christmas season viewing, but kept asking myself one question over and over again: who was this made for?

With Torchwood or the Sarah Jane Adventures, that's a pretty easy question to answer. Torchwood was meant to engage with the older side of Doctor Who's age range, and SJA the younger. What demographic was K-9 and Company supposed to appeal to? It just feels like more Doctor Who. Only, perhaps, less of it.

There are a few noticeable differences from the parent program. For example, I was kept waiting the whole runtime for the alien face behind the threat of the witch's coven to show itself, only to remain befuddled when it just ended up being a bunch of rural townsfolk in robes. For a show named after a robot dog, there is nary a trace of science fiction to be found. I was left almost with a sense that I had missed something important, when it was all said and done.

Aside from a few odd details (like Aunt Lavinia's confounding reappearance despite the constant implications that she was dead, and Sarah's inexplicable skill in judo) this story mostly ran in through one of my ears and dribbled out the other. It seems like the sort of television that's best enjoyed the night after Christmas while imperfectly sober and celebrating with the family. It is an inoffensive piece of television, but only because it is just too slight a sliver of material for anyone to be offended. I can't fault the network for not greenlighting more of it. Sarah and K-9 will, nevertheless, have another, better shot at this a ways down the road. All the power to them.