Character Highlight: K9 (Doctor Who)

K9 isn’t the Doctor’s only inorganic companion (Kamelion, we hardly knew ye,) but he is the best known and definitely the most fun.  He’s also, thanks to his post-Four-era connection to Sarah Jane, one of the few classic Who companions to carry over into the modern Whoniverse.  This is everyone’s favorite tin dog.

Despite not being alive, K9 first encounters the Doctor like any other companion does, meeting him in the middle of one of his adventures and then accompanying him on the TARDIS afterwards, first with Leela and then with Romana and later Adric.  He spends the better part of four seasons on the show, which might technically make him the longest-running companing, although his actual presence in the series doesn’t make it feel that way.  For one, he’s always very much a secondary companion – more like Mickey than Rory, despite his longevity on the show – and for another, he’s absent for a handful of stories over the course of his tenure.  The in-story reasons are usually some technical problem or another, circuits in need of rewiring and the like, but I imagine that the real reason is often down to the difficulty of maneuvering the electronic K9 prop over anything less than smooth terrain.

But of course, not much point in talking about the times when he isn’t around.  How ‘bout when he is?  In some ways, K9 is just a movable talking computer, or perhaps a suped-up sonic screwdriver, and his place on team TARDIS is largely functional.  His memory banks store all kinds of pertinent facts he can spout on request, he can analyze everything from data to biological matter, he’s capable of interphasing with most any computer, and he’s equipped with a stun gun.  To a large extent, he’s a fancy gadget that the Doctor and his companions can use to get the job done.

But that’s not all there is to him.  He’s also a character in his own right, even if his personality is very programmed and kind of pedantic.  I like his tendency to take things literally, defining things like “piece of cake” instead of taking them as the idioms the Doctor intends.  He’s also quick to correct anyone who anthropomorphizes him too much, like when he’s asked, “How are you feeling?” after a malfunction is repaired.  He gives occasional input on team TARDIS’s plans and pokes holes in the Doctor’s sometimes-inventive logic.

Plus, there’s just something fun about him being designed to look like a dog.  I love the little details, like his tail being an antenna and what looks like tiny satellite dishes for ears.  The Doctor and co. treat him like both a dog and a computer, and there’s something so endearing about watching the Doctor lose at chess to K9, try to convince him he’s always wanted to be a bloodhound, or call him “my best friend.”  Aw.