Doctor Who: K9 and Company

The Companions of Doctor Who #3

by Terence Dudley

John Leeson reads this exciting novelization of the 1981 spin-off TV adventure for two popular Doctor Who characters. In the sleepy village of Hazelbury Abbas, the Winter Solstice is fast drawing near. It is a time of deep mystery and ancient evil. Sarah Jane Smith, journalist and former companion to the Doctor, comes to the village to write her new book. For company she has Brendan, the young ward of Sarah's missing Aunt Lavinia. Then Brendan too disappears, possibly kidnapped by practitioners of Black Magic. Is he to be sacrificed to the goddess Hecate on the Solstice? Sarah is not alone in her search for Brendan, for the Doctor has sent her a very special companion: a robotic dog by the name of K9 . . . John Leeson, who provided K9's voice in the original BBC TV serial, reads Terence Dudley's own novelization of his 1981 teleplay. Duration: 6 hours approx.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook

1 pages, Audio CD

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

Terence Dudley joined the BBC in 1958 and worked with them throughout his life in various capacities.

He was a producer on the SF-flavoured The Big Pull, Doomwatch (working alongside Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis) and Survivors (the mid-seventies post-apocalyptic drama created by Terry Nation, although the two did not see eye-to-eye on how the series should evolve).

He directed episodes of Out of the Unknown, Doomwatch, Softly, Softly, Detective, Colditz, Survivors, To Serve Them All My Days, Secret Army, All Creatures Great and Small and Doctor Who (Meglos).

He wrote for Doomwatch, the Wednesday Play (A Piece of Resistance, 1966), Survivors and Doctor Who (Four to Doomsday, Black Orchid, The King's Demons), and the pilot of Who-spin-off K9 and Company.

Reviews

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, it was a cheesy TV show, and the story is only slightly better, but it was a fun, cheesy story.

Sarah Jane Smith travels to her aunt's house in the country for some rest and ends up with a new dog, a young ward to look after and a mystery to deal with as her aunt has disappeared and there are rumors of a witches coven in the neighborhood.

An old fashioned mystery with some genuine suspenseful bits and two likable main characters.

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a few months since I've read one of my hundreds of DW novels, so I thought I should open one up. Add in to that me eternally missing Elisabeth Sladen and her character of Sarah Jane Smith, and I decided to read this novelization of the fun and silly 1981 Christmas special. Now, Dudley added a lot to his novelization of his television script, and for the most part I appreciated the minor changes and descriptive additions. Dudley is a talented, descriptive writer and that works out well here.

There were a few issues caused by his writing, however. For one, he tells the reader straight off who all of the members of the coven are as we are introduced to them. Sarah Jane doesn't know of course, but the reader is informed. And while you would think this would add good dramatic tension, it more just kills any suspense that could be caused by wondering who around Sarah Jane was someone to be trusted. It also means that we're treated to quite a few moments where we know way in advance that Sarah Jane is being unfair to a character she meets; while this would work if we too were unaware as to a character's innocence or guiltiness, the reader knowing the details in advance just makes it difficult for us to side with the lead heroine.

And changing Aunt Lavinia's career from virologist to anthropologist works well within the course of this individual story, but throws it completely out of contact with the show's visual canon. I mean, if Sarah Jane's aunt had been an anthropologist and not a virologist, Sarah jane would never have met the Doctor because why would an anthropologist have been invited to a scientist's consortium at UNIT?

[Julian White · Rating 4 out of 5]

pdf - 142 pages

A complete surprise - I wasn't overly keen on the original broadcast spin-off (and it wasn't too much of a disappointment when K9 went to Australia to regenerate into that flying version... ) as it had all the hallmarks of something I'd dislike: two companions I found tiresome, a teenage supporting character, a derivative plot. I must have skipped through an earlier reading with thse feelings colouring my enjoyment. This time round - a revelation: neither K9, Sarah jane nor Brendan are as irritating as I remembered and the plot, derivative as it is, managed to mislead me. I'd forgotten who the cult leaders were (and in fact changed my mind several times during the reading) so the final unmasking came as a shock. The writing is more complex than some of the standard Target novelisations - and since many of the places named actually exist and are not entirely unfamiliar to me there was an added learning experience (burial sites of TS Eliot and Archbishop Fisher, for instance).

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of fun. Sarah Jane feels a lot like she did on screen and there’s a genuine sense of mystery and tension as she slowly unravels the mystery she finds herself a part of. I might have like a proper proofread before publication - there’s a few grammatical issues - and possibly a bit more time with the cultists and a less Scooby-Doo epilogue, but this is far superior to its original version. It’s also the best in the Companions series.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The TV version may have bordered on cheesy curiosity, but without it, we would never have had "The Sarah Jane Adventures". That said, as with all his novelizations, Terence Dudley performs a miracle, and gives this story all the substance and style that was lacking on television. Only Eric Saward's novelization of "The Twin Dilemma" outdoes this for sheer power of rehabilitation.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

After several weeks of not reading, I finally finished this book. I enjoyed it, but I don't see why they changed the setting from Moreton Harwood, Gloucestershire to Hazelbury Abbas, Dorset. I like that the writer gave Peter Tracey more time on the page than he had onscreen. If I didn't already know that Commander Pollock was a bad guy, I'd feel more betrayed by him in the book, where he seems kinder than what I remember of the TV special.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was different in the fact that it featured only Sarah Jane without the Doctor. Overall, I think it worked and kind of wish they had continued with the series. The only quibble I have is that it is kind of slow and drags in places. Other than that, I quite enjoyed it.

[Robbie Carnegie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terence Dudley works hard to pad out a very thin story that doesn't really seem to capture the character of Sarah Jane Smith. It's kind of fun though ...

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1230505.html#cutid1[return][return]Long, long before Torchwood or the Sarah Jane Adventures, the BBC made a pilot for a possible spinoff series, K9 and Company, which lasted for precisely one 50-minute episode in December 1981. The novelisation, by Terence Dudley who also wrote the script, wasn't published until 1987, as the third the last in another series of spinoffs, Target's Companions of Doctor Who (the two earlier books being Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma and Harry Sullivan's War). I picked it up the other day as a quick leisure read (more my thing than Elizabeth Spencer).[return][return]Dudley also wrote novelisations of his two other two-episode Who stories. Doctor Who - Black Orchid is possibly the best Fifth Doctor novelisation; Doctor Who - The King's Demons is one of the worst. Of the three stories as televised, Black Orchid was OK, K9 and Company dull and The King's Demons pretty dire, so I was curious to see how Dudley would manage turning this one into print.[return][return]It's not too bad, in fact. The beginning is a bit ropey, with Dudley insisting on giving us the exact age of each character, and some dubious descriptions of Sarah's problems in an Ethiopian village; but it settles down and has a lot more oomph than the original. Sarah is explicitly a 'girl' (as compared to Elisabeth Sladen's svelte but mature 33 when this was made). She is tough; she sometimes prays; she has a black belt in karate; she loves driving her MGB (and there is a great chase sequence absent from the original TV version). [return][return]Some other things done to continuity: Aunt Lavinia has become an anthropologist rather than a virologist, which gives her an excuse for writing to the newspapers about witchcraft; Brendan is explicitly 14, so the reference to him doing three extra O-levels has been dropped. (As indeed O-levels had been by 1987.) The red herrings of the original (Aunt Lavinia's mysterious disappearance, the not-so-sinister Bakers) are retained without further explanation. For some reason K9 sings 'While Shepherds Watched' rather than 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' at the end.[return][return]So, more towards the Doctor Who - Black Orchid than the Doctor Who - The King's Demons end of the spectrum, and without the silly mistakes that marred the former.

[Jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugg, this was a bore. Morbid curiosity is the only thing that kept me reading it. The story moved far too slowly and Sarah Jane seemed out of character. She wept and cried in several places. Really, Sarah Jane crying? Apparently, she has a black belt in karate. I don't remember seeing this in the show. I thought Sarah Jane was more of a tough mental character rather than an Angelina Jolie type.

[Paul Doody · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1981, the BBC showed what was then the first and, until 2007, the only, spin-off from Doctor Who. This is the novelisation of that spin-off, in which much-loved companion Sarah Jane Smith teamed-up with robot dog K9 to investigate sinister goings-on in a small village. Solidly-written reminder of a simpler age.

[Lori S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The audio version actually adds to the story, and it's appropriate to the season too. I like John Leeson's voice.