Trusty Doctor Who companion K9 gets his own mini boxset this month with the release of K9 Tales – a 2 disc set containing his debut story The Invisible Enemy and spin-off K9 & Company in which he stars alongside Elisabeth Sladen.
A brutally honest commentary accompanies K9 & Company which also has a couple of short features and pdf versions of Radio Times listings and four K9 books written for younger readers.
In The K9 Files cast and crew look at the making of the special and K9’s adventures in print but with his appeal to younger fans it seems daft that there’s no mention of his appearances in the new Doctor Who series or the Sarah Jane Adventures.
If you can avoid cringing there’s also a short interview with K9 himself in which he discusses how he was cast in the series and answers questions about his life.
For many older Doctor Who fans the main attraction of this release will be The Invisible Enemy which includes a commentary by actors Louise Jameson and John Leeson, co-writer and K9 creator Bob Baker and visual effects designer Mat Irvine who also all feature in Dreams and Fantasy – a look at the making of the story.
Joining Irvine for a talk about designing and building K9 is Tony Harding plus there’s also contributions by director Derrick Goodwin and K9 operator Nigel Brackley.
In Visual Effect Ian Scoones joins Irvine for a talk about designing model effects for this and other stories. I suspect many will find this the most interesting extra on either of the discs – there’s a fair bit of detail on how the models were built and filmed and it has to be said that the shuttle and base effects created for the story remain impressive by today’s standards.
Rounding things off is are some trailers plus extracts from Blue Peter, some timecoded behind the scenes footage and PDF Radio Times listings for the original transmission.
Even the RRP of £29.99 would make this good value but as ever your favourite online retailer is bound to be offering it cheaper making it a great buy to stick on the shelves for when the current series comes to an end in a few weeks.
Doctor Who: K9 Tales hits the shops June 16th and can be pre-ordered from the Seen It store.