April 27: "Curse of Anubis" / "Oroborus" (K-9)

Yep, "Curse of Anubis" is technically another episode that aired before last time's Who episode.  Same deal as before.

K-9 flanked by two Anubians in the redecorated police station.
("Curse of Anubis") ©Screen Australia, Pacific Film and Television
Commission Pty Limited, Park Entertainment Limited, Cutting Edge
Post Pty Limited, and Metal Mutt Productions Pty Limited

This is a rather offbeat episode of K-9, without being obviously that way.  The basic premise of K-9 being worshipped as a great liberator by an alien species is an interesting one -- it's nice that they keep getting mileage out of mining K-9's forgotten past, as it's an idea with a lot of life to it.  As such, it's interesting to hear from the Anubians of how K-9 came to save them from slavery and is now revered as a hero in their culture (to put it mildly).  The pictures in their book are well done as well -- they're beautiful to look at as well as looking appropriate for their race.²¹⁶

It does go a bit bonkers, however; the idea of the Anubians controlling Gryffen's mind isn't too bad -- and the clothes and makeup he's in as a result are outrageously wonderful -- and the way both Starkey and Jorjie fall under the Anubians' control does raise the stakes quite a bit, but it's frankly bizarre that K-9's behavior is explained away not as also being under some form of control, but rather as being so deep in thought that he's simply oblivious to the Anubians' conquering ways.  This seems at odds with what we've started to come to expect from K-9, even if it looks like it's there to allow Darius to be the hero of the hour, because he frankly has never seemed that oblivious, no matter how deeply he searches his memory banks.  Oh, and while it's improbable that Darius would be able to work out how to fly the Anubian spaceship, it's still nice to have him ultimately save the day, as he's been somewhat overlooked in that department up to this point.  Plus it lets us enjoy the hilarious sight of CCPCs leading the Anubians away in handcuffs.

It's a fun episode, even if there's not too much depth going on -- but as an episode of K-9 (a show not exactly distinguishing itself with its appeals to deeper connections) it fits in perfectly well.

The other episode today, "Oroborus", is an interesting one because it plays with the idea of time.  It's filtered through K-9's "kid's show" filter, so anyone expecting a serious or thoughful exploration of the topic should look elsewhere, but within the confines laid down this is a nifty concept.  We get a creature, the Oroborus, that not only consumes time itself, but conceals its presence by selectively editing time itself, so that people don't remember seeing it.  Starkey is immune from this because apparently his parents ran experiments regarding alien immunization on him, and this apparently includes the Oroborus's abilities.

I like how there's a sense of paranoia being fostered in this episode by no one remembering the time loops except Starkey, which leads to the other accusing him of lying and sabotage.  There's been a sense of comfort about Starkey's arrangement recently, and it provides a good bit of drama to see that upended, even if we know it'll be put back right by the end of things.  We also get a chance to see Starkey save the day by luring the Oroborus (which is a frankly impressive CGI creature, particularly given how cheap much of the rest of the show often looks -- compare with the Anubian spaceship from the previous episode) into the space-time manipulator's field, which is a good bit of work.

Like "Curse of Anubis", this isn't a particularly ambitious episode, but it does have clever moments that help sustain interest over its 25 minutes.  It's also nice to see a script that isn't completely reliant on somewhat convenient and/or ludicrous events to wrap things up -- there's a sense of convenience, sure, but it's signposted rather than coming out of left field.  "Oroborus" is thus a reasonably strong entry for K-9.







²¹⁶ Intriguingly, their book contains pictures of a Sea Devil and an Alpha Centaurian (from the two Peladon stories).  The Sea Devil is particularly interesting because it suggests that some of the Earth Reptiles left Earth before the rest went into hibernation.  And look, a Silurian spaceship turns up in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", unwittingly giving support to this.