HOW MUCH IS THAT DOGGIE IN THE TARDIS? THE COMING OF K9! (1977)

Here's one that flew under my radar -- the November edition of David Langsford's Ansible reports that actor John Leeson has died:

"John Leeson (1943-2006), UK actor who voiced K9 in Doctor Who (62 episodes 1979-1988 plus many returns and spinoffs) died on 1 November aged 83."  [K9's start date was actually 1977 -- JH]

What Doctor Who fan could possibly forget K9, the robotic (and to me, annoying) dog of the Tom Baker/4th Doctor era?  K9 (name sometimes given as K-9) also carried over to the brief spinoff series The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007-2010).  He (it?  them?  they?) was also the central character in the failed pilot K-9 and Company (1981) and in K9 (2009-2020), and has appeared alongside several of the Doctor Who incarnations.

He was created by writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin (who still own the rights to the character) for the four-part episode The Invisible Enemy.  Originally intended as a one-off, K9 proved very popular with younger viewers and is now considered on of the Doctor's most-loved companions.

K9 had been built in the year 5000 by Professor Marius (Frederick Jaeger), who gifted the robot to the Doctor (Tom Baker) at the end of the adventure.  

In the first episode, a three-man crew arrive on titan and become hosts for an alien intelligence which turns them hostile.  The Doctor and Leela (Louise Jameson) arrive in answer to a distress call.  in the second episode, we meet K9, and the Doctor has to fight a voice in his head which is trying to take over his intelligence.  Episode 3 sees the Doctor catatonic, while clones of the Doctor and Leela go microscopic to hunt down the intelligent infection that has struck the Doctor.  In the final episode, efforts to bring the clones back from the microscopic world to the macroscopic in, also brings the alien invader -- which is ready to spawn!  But fear not, boys and girls -- the Doctor is triumphant in the end.

K9 had been introduced as a means to provide narration while the Doctor and Leela clones were inside the Doctor's body.  The original intention ways to have a small actor inside a robotic Doberman costume,  but that idea was abandoned kin favor of an electronically-controlled prop.  Over the course of K9's Doctor Who career, five different iterations of the robot companion were presented -- almost all voiced by Leeson, who also voiced the character for audiobooks and video games.

Enjoy all four episodes of The Invisible Enemy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNf8NuUC4kE