K9 “The Eclipse Of The Korven”

Wait, was the finale actually…good?

I may have made that joke before, but then this final episode actually was much improved. Some blubbering aside at the end where it looks like K9 might be dead (he isn’t), this episode actually largely worked for me, and this series as a whole didn’t work much for me. Instead, there was a fairly exciting plot where the only things I can really mock are the sizes of crowds, where the employees of the Department can be rounded up and it only looks like maybe a dozen people work there and a Korven invasion is, like, three guys.

Instead, it gives almost everybody in the main cast something to do as Inspector Thorne uses K9’s regeneration circuit to make a giant, indestructible alien monster with a lot of bad breath, and then tricks K9 and the Professor into inadvertently helping. Thorne, it turns out, is part alien himself, and it comes down to everybody to do something. Darius fetches June from her new office (she got demoted between episodes), and June not only has a giant gun, but the pair get back to the mansion in time to turn on some crucial equipment. Jorjie and Starkey go to Department headquarters, almost share a kiss (given the ages of the actors at the time of filming, probably a good thing they didn’t), and give a largely out-of-power K9 the boost he needs to stop the giant monster. And, worthy of a true Doctor Who series, K9 saves the day using his brain instead of his nose beam before he loses all power and shuts down.

Oh, and the Professor leaves his house because he’s the only one who A) knows how to shut the computer at Department HQ down and B) is therefore the only one who can. He knows the password, spoken verbally, and uses it despite knowing he has to both go outside and possibly never see his family again. Thorne didn’t think he would because of his family and agoraphobia, but this final episode had all the characters stepping up, so of course Thorne was wrong about, oh, everything. I even really liked the rousing speech the Professor gave himself before stepping outside and taking a determined walk.

I somehow suspect had there been more episodes that the Professor’s family might have had other ways to return to him.

Plus, K9 figures out integrating his mechanical parts into an organic being is a bad idea, something that always bothered me. And since the thing is a hodgepodge of alien DNA, K9 just needs to activate the Jixen DNA to oppose the Korven DNA to take the thing out, with the monster conveniently landing on top of Thorne and presumably killing him just off-screen.

So, really, a show that was intended for kids and didn’t do much for me actually got somewhere close to what I might have wanted in its last 25 minute episode. Not exactly enough to make me think back fondly on the show itself, but it did do that much right at least. 7 out of 10 Power Ranger refugee villains, and remember, that’s barely passing for me.

Regardless, I have put it off long enough. Time to get back to the Doctor and see how the Thirteenth turned out.