10 Doctor Who Flops The BBC Has Buried

6. The K9 Spinoff Series

Doctor Who K9 spinoff series
Network Ten

When K9 returned to Doctor Who in the second series of the revival, it was hoped that we'd continue to see more of the beloved robo-mutt. And we did! The very next year, K9 appeared in a spinoff show that was adored by fans and was a ratings hit, cementing his position as one of the greatest Doctor Who companions ever.

We're talking, of course, about The Sarah Jane Adventures, because the words "adored" and "hit" cannot be used to describe the other K9 spinoff we're actually here to talk about.

K9 (as it was titled) is the TV equivalent of a knock-off food brand. Sure, it did star K9, and it was even developed by Bob Baker, the man who co-created the cyber-dog way back in the 1970s. But on the other hand, the show wasn't considered a part of Doctor Who canon, it was produced without any input from the BBC, and K9's hideous redesign made him look like a discount, wannabe version of our favourite talking pooch.

That redesign was one of many sticking points fans had with the show, and a second series never materialised. It was a baffling decision to go ahead with this elseworlds spinoff in the first place, because fans were already getting a K9 fix on The Sarah Jane Adventures - y'know, that proper, official Doctor Who spinoff - and with no support from the BBC, this particular K9 outing was doomed from the start.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!