Dr Who

[Courtenay]

Was there someone inside K9 Courtenay...

Who's "K9 Courtenay"??

[pete9012S]

"I have come in peace..."

[pete9012S]

"Get back - or I will blast you with my spud gun!"

[Courtenay]

[pete9012S]

Nice one K9Courtus!!

[Paul Austin]

The spin-off novels describe TomDoc as looking in his thirties. This is very generous by Season 18, I think...

[Stephen]

K9 was obviously there for the kids, but I actually found him quite scary! Not exactly terrifying, but there was definitely something disturbing about a dog that could talk in an electronic voice and could shoot you with a laser gun!

[Paul Austin]

DWM reprinted the Doctor Who writers guidelines from 1980. They state that K9 should only be used as a tool of the Doctor's, not as an autonomous character.

[KEVP]

In the story, K9 was a robot. There wasn't somebody inside him, and he wasn't remote controlled.

The K9 prop was remote controlled. It was WAY too small to have someone inside. K9 was originally just supposed to be for one story--"The Invisible Enemy". The BBC commissioned an outside company to make the prop. But it ended up being really expensive. So to get their money's worth, the BBC decided to keep K9 on for many many stories.

kevp

[pete9012S]

I'm sure there was someone inside K9 to make him/her/it more anthropomorphic.

If I remember correctly,even the very small actor could not actually stand upright,but had to lay down horizontally to actually fit inside the prop.

[Courtenay]

Here's what Wikipedia says about him:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-9_(Doctor_Who" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

The initial idea for realising K-9 was to use a small actor inside a robotic Dobermann costume, but that was rejected in favour of a radio-controlled prop, designed by Tony Harding and made by the BBC Visual Effects Department. The Radio Control Model Centre in Harlington Middx owned by Derek Wales was commissioned to build the electronics into the first original basic shell and consequently the centre operated the dog on set for the BBC.The robot suffered from numerous technical problems during its time in the series, often malfunctioning because the radio controls interfered with the cameras and vice versa. On location, K-9 also proved unable to traverse uneven terrain, and shots had to be conceived with this in mind. Workarounds included using a concealed piece of twine to pull the character along (this string can be clearly seen in a shot of K-9 on Brighton Beach), or laying wooden planks on which it could roll.

I would love to see a video of "K-9 Out-takes"!!

[pete9012S]

I think that was the official story - given to the public to hide the true nature of the claustrophobic almost air less conditions the small actor worked it.

The situation was made even worse for the poor chap as the canteen would insist on supplying him copious amounts of egg sandwiches - not funny.

[Courtenay]

Could be

[pete9012S]

No could be about it.

He insisted on smoking and the naked flame caused the very first K9 to explode via methane.
The persistent occupant - who insisted that he was a genuine Thespian,then somehow managed to inhabit the very slightly larger K9 wearing breathing apparatus.

[walter raleigh]

Yes, I've heard about this too Pete. I believe he was originally hired as a Dalek operator but his feet were too short to reach the pedals. The BBC didn't want to just dismiss him for fear of being accused of discrimination, so the role of K9 was cooked up as a compromise.

As you say he regarded himself as a 'proper actor', and insisted on reading all of K9's lines himself, using a contraption he'd devised out of a child's kazoo. Unfortunately, combined with his broad Brummie accent, this rendered all K9's dialogue unintelligible, and the estimable John Leeson was hired at great expense to become 'The Voice Of K9', as the credits have it.