The Saga of K9
1977: Bob Baker and Dave Martin create K9 for the Doctor Who story The Invisible Enemy. He was only supposed to be in that serial, but production made him a companion as he would be popular with kids.
After four seasons as a companion, K9 became an icon of classic Doctor Who. Due to a quirk of character rights at the time, Bob Baker and Dave Martin owned K9 as a character. This spawned decades of attempts to make a spin-off featuring K9...
1979: The Adventures of K9 and Other Mechanical Creatures:
1980: The Adventures of K9 books are published. K9 fights the Time Lord "Omegon" in one:
1981: A pilot episode is made for K9 and Company. The BBC does not pick it up for a full season:
1982: The K9 Annual 1983 is published:
1997-98: DWM 253 announces a four-part pilot for a K9 series is being developed. DWM 269 reveals concept art made by Rory McLeish:
2006: K9 returns to Doctor Who in School Reunion:
2007: K9 is relegated to small cameos in The Sarah Jane Adventures as Bob Baker is still developing his own K9 spin-off:
2007: Dave Martin passes away.
2009-10: A K9 spin-off series is finally made in Australia, independently from the BBC. K9 had to be redesigned because the BBC owns his original design. The series has mixed reviews at best and lasts one season:
2015: The Essential Book of K9 is published. It features another redesign of K9 in the comic Short Circuit.
2015: A film titled K9: TimeQuake is announced and slated for a theatrical release in 2017. It will feature K9 fighting the Time Lord Omega.
2017 comes and goes with no news.
2018: A multi-million dollar K9 TV series is being developed to lead into K9: TimeQuake:
2020: The anthology book K9: Megabytes is released and promoted as a prequel to TimeQuake.
2021: Bob Baker passes away. His obituary mentions he has written scripts for a K9 film and TV series:
2023: Concept art for K9: Omega Rises is shown at the conversion Invasion Blackpool. The concept art shows K9, a new male character, Omega, Matter Beasts, and Dinodragons. The status of this project is unknown.
