Search - Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy (Story 93) / K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend on DVD

Samuel K. (Solvanda)
Reviewed on 10/16/2018...

First broadcast in 4 weekly parts in 1977. The serial introduced the robot dog K9 (who preceded even R2-D2 in the cute robot milieu), voiced by John Leeson. A most outrageously ambitious project and concept, daring to span the expanses of both micro and macro dimensions. Year 5000, an intelligent virus hiding out in an interstellar cloud. A claustrophobic base on the Saturn moon Titan. Victims and aggressors appearing like some encrusted, furry, deranged Thufir Hawat. An up close and personal version of "Fantastic Voyage". A massive megalomaniac arthropod. What more did you expect? One of my favorites here.

The ideas are better than the realization, the successes far outweighing, which was quite often the case in Classic Doctor Who. The same cannot quite be said for K9 and Company, which was the first fully realized Doctor Who spin-off. I have to say here, that starting off a children's series in the 80's with dark occult ritual sacrificing probably wasn't the best of choices (not to mention the techno-disco theme tune), and doomed the production in it's tracks, which was really depressing to me at the time. This could have been so much more, and eventually did become that later.

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Armchair Pundit | Durham City, England. | 06/14/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Invisible Enemy.
A mysterious cloud is causing havoc in space, infecting all those who pass through it with an intelligent virus, the first victims are a crew of a shuttle heading for Titan base.(One of Saturns moons)
The Doctor and Leela try to come to the rescue, but the TARDIS passes through the cloud itself, leaving the Doctor infected with the nucleus.
He and Leela then try to find help at a medical station situated inside a Asteroid, where they meet the eccentric Professor Marius and his pet robot K-9.
According to this story written English in the future will be spelt phonetically, look at the wall signs. Interesting concept.
(Air date:~01/10/77-22/10/77)
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This was an ambitious story that was unusually given more sfx shots then was usually allowed for a Who story. And once again the Beeb was thankful for it's supplies of old Gerry Anderson models.
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DVD extras.
Commentary. With actors Louise Jameson and John Leeson, visual effects designer Mat Irvine and co-writer Bob Baker.
Dreams and Fantasy - artistes and production crew recall the making of this story and even take the original K9 for walkies. With actors Louise Jameson and John Leeson, director Derrick Goodwin, co-writer Bob Baker, visual effects designers Tony Harding and Mat Irvine, K9 operator Nigel Brackley, journalist Gary Gillatt.
Studio Sweepings - a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes on the recording of this story, courtesy of a timecoded Shibaden videotape recorded for production use.
Visual Effect - Visual effects designer Mat Irvine meets up with his old colleague Ian Scoones at Bray Studios to talk about the visual effects for 'The Invisible Enemy' and other stories.
Blue Peter - K9 meets John Noakes and Shep in this extract from the long running children's magazine show
CGI Effects - this gives the viewer the option to watch the story with many of the original video effects sequences replaced by CGI versions. Trailers and Continuity, Photo Gallery, Coming Soon, Easter Egg, Radio Times Listings Programme subtitles, Subtitle Production Notes.
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K9 and Company.
Sarah Jane Smith pays a Christmas visit to her Aunt Lavinia's house in the village of Moreton Harwood. She discovers that Lavinia, a noted scientist, has yet to return from a lecture tour of the USA. She does however meet Brendan (Lavinia's ward) and Commander Bill Pollock*, her partner in a small market garden business.
Also in the house, is a box sent to her by the Doctor, in it she finds K9.
The luckless Brendan is kidnapped by a local coven of witches who want to sacrifice him to the goddess Hecate. Sarah, with K9's assistance, set out to try and foil their dastardly plan.
This was a pilot for a possible spin-off series from Doctor Who. Alas, it was not to be.
(Air date:~ 28/12/81)
(*Bill Pollock is played by Bill Fraser, he played General Grugger in Meglos.)
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Once passed the annoying and severely dated eighties theme and credits this is an okay story for the undemanding viewer. The more discerning Who fan will probably be impatiently waiting for "Seeds of Doom" and other such stories.
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DVD extras.
Commentary - With actors Elisabeth Sladen, John Leeson, Linda Polan and script editor Eric Saward.
The K9 Files - key production personnel look at the making of this story and K9's subsequent life in books and comic strips. With actors Elisabeth Sladen, John Leeson, writer and co-creator of K9, Dave Martin, script editor Terrance Dicks, director John Black, visual effects designer Mat Irvine and journalist Moray Laing.
K9 - A Dog's Tale - K9 himself answers a selection of questions about his life.
Pebble Mill at One - K9's appearance on the Christmas 1981 edition of the BBC1 lunchtime magazine show.
Trails and Continuities, Photo Gallery, Coming Soon Trailer
K9 Stories - four books for younger children - 'K9 and the Beasts of Vega', 'K9 and the Missing Planet', 'K9 and the Time Trap' and 'K9 and the Zeta Rescue' - plus the K9 annual on PDF for Mac and PC.
The K9 Radio Times Listings
Programme subtitles, Subtitle Production Notes.

"

Better Then Bad; It's GOOD!

Erik Runnels | Los Angeles | 09/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Look, Doctor Who is never going to win any awards for special effects. In addition, the fight sequences occasionally leave me in stitches; I'm afraid everyone in the Doctor Who universe is easily felled with a stiff kick to the shins or a slight nudge to the back of the neck.

Once one gets past these rather inconsequential shortcomings, however, Doctor who is generally a combination of both acting and teleplay brilliance!

The Invisible enemy is no different. Amongst the excellent focal points of this "episode" are: the introduction of K-9 (who preceded even R2-D2 in the cute robot milieu), Leela at the top of her form, Tom Baker - brilliant as always, and a rather interesting plot involving a microorganism with intelligence.

Furthermore, this DVD includes K-9 and Company. As a kid, I always wanted, but was never able to see this quirky chapter in the Doctor Who canon. To be honest, I thought it was quite fun. The theme song, by the way, hilariously embraces the kitzchy-ness of 1970's techno-disco. All in all, Sarah Jane is always fun, K-9's neither over or under-utilized, and the side characters are more than adequate.

My verdict? A fantastic introduction to the Doctor Who collection of DVD's!"

For completists only

Byron | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 05/24/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This one is deadly. My sister (who likes new Who and is somewhat familiar with Pertwee & T. Baker stuff) bought it for the K-9 angle. I had not seen it for many years but I had moderately positive memories. We watched it for about 30 minutes then switched off. It was excruciating. This mess was a huge nosedive from the previous story Doctor Who: Horror of Fang Rock (Story 92). This was the beginning of the Graham Williams years as producer and it shows. The story gets a little better towards the end but it's painful getting there. AVOID.
K-9 & Company isn't much but it is better than 'The Invisible Enemy'. Not enough, however, to warrant the price."