Love K9, he's super fun! Love Sladen, she's amazing as always. But found the pace of this a bit slow and plodding sadly. Will give a rewatch when not sick with the cold to see if I can focus better and enjoy it more.

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.

K9 & Company is a Masterclass in Spin offing a Show. Sarah Jane is easily one of the most beloved Companions ever, a personal favorite of mine as well, thanks to Liz Sladen's amazing Performance. She is obviously great here as well, but the Big Star here is the Robot Dog: K9, just the Theme Song alone makes you excited to see what this has in store. The whole Plot is bonkers, but greatly bonkers!

Overall this is truly the greatest Spin Off, which sadly never got to the ground, it deserved better!!

i actually love this so much. i adore the bonkers intro, the insane plot, k9 trying to be festive and attempting to sing a christmas carol - it may be my favourite spin off that i've seen so far <3 i would have liked to see what they would have done with it next, but the fact that there's only one does also make it very special, and i'm grateful that it exists

K9 & COMPANY: STORY 1

It’s impossible to talk about A Girl’s Best Friend, the pilot for the (never continued) spin-off K-9 and Company, without mentioning that intro.

It’s so stupid, and I love it.

In fact, that last sentence could also be applied to the whole episode.

It’s so bonkers, with one of the strangest plots in the Whoniverse.

Sarah Jane and her cousin Brendan, with the help of K-9, must stop a cult from... I actually don’t really know what the story was about, as a lot was annoyingly left unexplained.

The most unforgettable part of the episode for me is the finale, where K-9 slaughters everyone in the cult, and no one cares!

This is one of the weirdest stories in the world of Doctor Who, and, while it will definitely not be to everyone’s taste, I love it because of how strange it (unintentionally) is.

I do like to wonder what it would be like if the series actually went ahead, but I think that would just be too much, even for me.

Oh well, we’ll always have Australia’s K-9 series.