K9: Alien Avatar

K9: "Those cyborgs give all us robots a bad name."

Has anyone ever described a point in the life of a TV series as when it ducked the shark?

I mean we all know what 'jumping the shark' means (the point at which a show becomes significantly worse and never recovers), but I think it ought to have an antonym. Some shows recover and keep on improving, you know.

In this episode, the makers of K9 appear to have had a serious rethink about what they're up to, and had a go at launching the show a second time. And succeeded.

"ducking the shark". Hmm, 498 results on Google. (in 0.25 seconds - thanks for that)

In this episode, suddenly there's a whole story packed in there, with umpteen scenes and everything. Location work is all over the place. Characterisation and acting is turned up to about 300%. Jorjie's mum and Drake are back, but with a lot more effort gone to over explaining who they are, what they do, and how to play it.

Even Gryffen gets to voice some sort of explanation for why he hasn't left his house in 12 episodes. This was vaguely alluded to in the first episode, but here he openly acknowledges to us that he's just plain afraid. (this despite his making it onto location at one point, which alas does not match the studio set of his steps that it's doubling for) (must have been the back door)

K9 enters the pipe to the factory, which by a staggering coincidence is the same pipe from which he exited the wardrobe in Fear Itself. Without wishing to imply anything about its usual quality, this show appears to have real love of sewage.


I will admit to not being too clear on the whole tale that was locked away in here, but blimey there was a lot more of it than usual, making this edition feel longer in a great way. After so much happening, there's a real sense of resolution to events at the episode's conclusion.

I'm actually starting to believe in and connect to these characters, even despite the continued reliance upon dubbing as a substitute for just recording the dialogue clean in the first place.

At episode #12, if this were a series of The Sarah Jane Adventures then this would have been the last instalment. As it is, this series is 26 episodes long, so we have 12 more!

I'm genuinely looking forward to the next one.