May 18: Lost in Time Part Two (SJA) / "Hound of the Korven" (K-9)

No, this episode is just as odd as the previous one.  We don't get much in the way of complications beyond things like being recaptured; instead, this is a way to have adventures in history with the thinnest of plot rationales.

Sarah Jane and the shopkeeper look at the time window. (Lost
in Time Part Two) ©BBC

The Sarah Jane portion has the least to do with a time period, but the stuff with the future echoes (to borrow a Red Dwarf term) is kind of nice.  I also like the subtle idea that, from the future kids' point of view, they were rescued by a ghost (as Emily must have appeared to them).  But other than that, we get Clyde's brush with a Nazi invasion and Rani learning a bit about Lady Jane Grey and what she was like as a person.

It does help that everything is done really well; for such a small amount of screen time spent in different eras, they do a good job of evoking the time periods, both in sets and in performances.  Everyone behaves the way we sort of intuitively expect them to behave, and this helps carry the day in terms of story and such.

But ultimately the plot is just an excuse to have some time travel without the Doctor or the Rift, and they haven't done a great job of disguising it as any more than that.  The shopkeeper is suitably mysterious, but that sense of mystery regarding his true identity and the nature of the chronosteel does mean that there's little there to hang the plot onto.  Fortunately the actors and the direction help carry the day, but it is a story that leaves you wanting something a bit more substantial afterwards.

But now it's on to K-9, which is almost over.  This penultimate episode, "Hound of the Korven", feels at the time like it should be very significant, but while it ends on something of a cliffhanger and changes the nature of our understanding of much of the show, there's still a sense of unresolvedness here (although hopefully the next episode will address that).

It starts well, actually taking some time to address the events of the previous episode, as Darius sees his father trapped in a VR prison after his arrest last time around.  Thorne wants K-9's regeneration unit (which, you may recall, he was also interested in in "Robot Gladiators") and he's willing to return K-9's memory chip in exchange for it.  There's also some stuff involving Lomax, the head of the Department, ordering that the sewers be mined and filled with a stun gas, even though June argues that there are civilians (three guesses who) down there.

The best part, however, might be the reveal that the Jixen (marked as enemy number one since the beginning of this series) are actually benign.  The conversation between the Jixen and Starkey is pretty good in its exploration of this misunderstanding, and the hints that suggest that K-9 was actually being used by the Korven to hunt the Jixen are interesting.  There are also some extra details to suggest that the Jixen aren't bad (such as the fact that their war with the Meron was apparently an effort to reclaim their home), which are welcome.

But once we learn that, we get a stand-off between the Jixen and a Korven-controlled K-9 (of course the memory chip thing was a scam) that only narrowly avoids killing everyone (although we see that K-9 has a sense of humor: after he overrides the Korven programming telling him to explode in the presence of Jixen, he then resumes the countdown just to see how everyone will react.  "Four.  Three.  Two.  One.  Bang," he says).  It's done decently, but it leaves a lot of unresolved questions.  This means there's quite a bit of pressure on the series finale to wrap some of this up.

However, what we get here is reasonably compelling and surprising, and it leaves the viewers wanting more.  It may have taken the entire run, but it really does look like K-9 has gotten to an objectively interesting and worthwhile place.

May 17: "The Last Precinct" (K-9) / Lost in Time Part One (SJA)

I'm not quite sure what to make of "The Last Precinct".  Maybe it's because the last episode was hinting at something bigger down the line, but it feels like some of the stuff we learn here will also become important in the future.  But that's wrapped inside a slightly disconnected plot about Darius's father running a terrorist organization and taking over Gryffen's house and making everyone inside hostages.

Sgt. Pike issues his demands. ("The Last Precinct") ©Screen
Australia, Pacific Film and Television Commission Pty Limited,
Park Entertainment Limited, Cutting Edge Post Pty Limited,
and Metal Mutt Productions Pty Limited

I suppose Sgt. Pike has noble goals -- he was apparently one of the last police officers before the Department switched over to CCPCs, and he wants to put people back into the policing job -- but his methods don't exactly endear him to anyone, breaking into Gryffen's home and threatening everyone.  Just because it turns out that he actually has a good reason to do all this (since apparently Inspector Thorne's been augmenting all the new CCPCs with some form of modified alien technology, the purpose of which is unknown) doesn't mean that we're really on his side or anything, and as the entire crisis is caused by him and his group the Last Precinct, it's hard to feel any sympathy for him -- even though the ending suggests that's what we should be doing.

But despite the shortcomings of the storyline, all the actors are on fine form -- Daniel Webber does a good job as Darius, confronted with the face of the father who left him in favor of his police crusade, while Chris Betts as Sgt. Pike makes it seem like the police being fired genuinely was the worst thing to happen to him.  And while Thorne once again has stuck his fingers into secret pies, at least Jared Robinsen makes him seem quite threatening.

If only the actual plot was more interesting, this would have been a winner.  As it is, the efforts of the actors almost but don't quite elevate this episode.  It should be something more special than it is, what with Darius's father turning up and shenanigans regarding the CCPCs being exposed, but they just can't quite make it.  Still, it's by no means the worst episode K-9 has produced -- it's just not as good as the last one was.

And now it's back to The Sarah Jane Adventures, with the first part of Lost in Time.  This is a bit of an odd beast, to be honest; there's some sort of strange shopkeeper who lures Sarah Jane, Clyde, and Rani to his shop so that he can send them through a "time window", so that they can each retrieve some sort of metal MacGuffin that could catastrophically change the course of history.  So Sarah Jane is investigating "ghosts" in 1889, Rani is waiting on Lady Jane Grey during her nine-day reign as Queen of England, and Clyde is watching Nazis land in Britain on 7 June 1941.  It basically looks like an excuse to play around with three different time periods -- very Whoish, but at this point the special "chronosteel" metal that has the power to change time really does just look like a MacGuffin.  Clyde's the only one who actually sees the piece he's meant to find, as it's powering some secret Nazi weapon (although it's possible the dagger that Rani sees Matilda procure is also chronosteel), while Sarah Jane is more concerned with hearing voices from the future (the "ghosts") and listening as the voices apparently set the locked room they're in on fire in said future.  All while the shopkeeper watches their exploits and frets that "we need the chronosteel now.  And the sands have almost run through.  If Sarah Jane and her friends do not return soon, they'll be trapped in the past.  Forever."

So it's sort of hard to judge this episode, seeing as how we still haven't gotten to the main thrust of the plot by the end of part one.  It does look like an excuse to explore a couple eras of history, which is nice, but even then we haven't gotten a complete handle on these eras yet -- Rani's part is probably the most fleshed out, while Sarah Jane's feels like it could be almost anywhen.  So we'll have to see how the rest of this story pans out...

May 16: The Empty Planet Parts One & Two (SJA)

Not that was really any doubt, but the nice thing about The Empty Planet is that it ably demonstrates that Clyde and Rani can carry a story pretty much on their own.

It's an effectively eerie idea, having the entire planet essentially abandoned -- it brings to mind movies like 28 Days Later (as well as Doctor Who's own takes on the subject, including The Dalek Invasion of Earth and Invasion of the Dinosaurs), with its cities devoid of life. Even if these moments in this story don't quite reach those same heights (as, other than a shot of a quiet London skyline, we don't get shots of famous landmarks looking abandoned), it's still very well done.

The first part focuses more on this feeling of isolation and abandonment, as Rani and Clyde try desperately to find anyone else at all still around. There's an interesting sense of chemistry between the two of them in a way that we haven't really seen before -- almost a romantic quality. This might partly be because they keep bringing up the "Adam & Eve" stuff, but it's still a new side to the characters. It's not the entire thrust of the episode, however, as they also encounter one other boy, Gavin, who was left behind, even if they can't figure out why he too remained.  "Is Gavin normal, though?" Clyde wonders.  "When I was alone, I thought I was the only one left.  It was horrible.  If I'd seen anyone else, even if it was Chris Moyles, I would have run towards them, not away, like Gavin did.  Wouldn't you?"  "Yeah," Rani replies.  "But when you were that age, sixth form kids looked big and scary."  "I'm not big and scary," Clyde argues.  "And that flat, apart from one photo, was there anything that said a kid lives here?  No kids' DVDs lying around, no photos of them with him.  And his room, it was like a cell.  No computer games or anything.  Isn't that weird?"  "Then we should feel sorry for him, not start judging him," Rani responds.  "He lives a really rubbish life, and what's our first reaction?  Oh, maybe he's an alien.  What are we?"

Gavin with the two robots. (The Empty Planet Part Two) ©BBC

And then we get some genuinely impressive robots tracking them down -- they're a really great design and they're very well realized.  Their appearance also changes the nature of the story somewhat. It's no longer just about being alone, it's also about avoiding the robots. Although it seems the robots aren't actually evil -- they're just trying to find the heir to the throne of their homeworld, which is Gavin. (I guess they thought he'd be easier to find if they got rid of all the humans?) But it takes a while for our heroes to realize that, so we get some nice chases and some fun disbelief dialogue from Gavin, as he tries to keep up with what Rani and Clyde are saying, as they try to work out why they were left behind, bringing up time travel and the TARDIS and the Judoon, while Gavin just listens on in sort of amazement.  "You keep saying these really stupid words," he says at one point.  "If you're so clever, why can't you just go out and stop the robots?"  But of course that's what happens.  It's a good move, making Gavin as much an innocent as anyone else in this story -- no one has any sinister motives, and it all ends very happily.

So overall this is a nice little story focusing on Clyde and Rani, the "hangers-on" of Sarah Jane's group, who nevertheless prove to be more than capable of handling this latest problem. The Empty Planet is a fun story with a satisfying plot and a pleasing resolution.

May 15: Death of the Doctor Part Two (SJA) / "Angel of the North" (K-9)

(Today marks the 500th day I've been watching Doctor Who and writing this blog about it.  I haven't missed a day yet; I'm pretty proud of that...)

The Shansheeth really are a great creation, aren't they?  Their heads appear to be animatronic, with only limited movement, but because the design is so expressive they get away with it -- and I love how they seem to have a sort of hunched back.

In terms of plot, Death of the Doctor Part Two isn't terribly exciting.  The Shansheeth capture Jo and Sarah Jane and force them to remember the TARDIS key so that they can access the TARDIS and head out into the universe and "stop death" -- apparently this branch of the Shansheeth are tired of being the galaxy's undertakers.  (And, interestingly, Davies is going to return to this idea of stopping death very soon -- but that's for another day.)  And that's about it for evil plans.  In terms of story, however, this episode has a lot going for it.  We get the UNIT base being locked down, while the Groske tells them to follow him, only to find that's so they can get to his pizza before it gets cold.  "What?  I thought you had a plan," Clyde exclaims.  "Shansheeth too scary," the Groske replies.  "We hide."  We also get Jo and Sarah Jane accompanying the Doctor back to that red place, the Wasteland of the Crimson Heart, so that the Doctor can properly travel to Earth without swapping with Clyde, where they all have a nice conversation, as Jo wonders why the Doctor never came back, only to learn that the Doctor had been looking in.  "Because you're right, I don't look back," he tells her.  "I can't.  But the last time I was dying, I looked back on all of you.  Every single one.  And I was so proud."  It's a touching moment, and I really like the idea that David Tennant went back and looked in on all of his companions, not just the tenth Doctor ones, at the end of The End of Time.  And then there's the quick conversation between the Doctor and Clyde:

CLYDE: Even your eyes are different.  It's weird, cos I thought the eyes would stay the same.  Can you change colour or are you always white?
DOCTOR: I could be anything.
CLYDE: And is there a limit?  How many times can you change?
DOCTOR: Five hundred and seven.

(from The Sarah Jane Adventures Transcripts - Death of the Doctor, part two)

(Although of course now we know that the Doctor was simply being flippant with his response to Clyde, as "The Time of the Doctor" confirmed.)

The Doctor, Jo, and Sarah Jane in the TARDIS. (Death of the
Doctor Part Two) ©BBC

Everyone's on fine form here, and while the memory weave plot looks like an excuse to use a slew of clips from old Doctor Who, new Doctor Who, and The Sarah Jane Adventures, the clips are all incredibly brief (although they did manage to slip in Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell from The Three Doctors, in addition to the various Pertwee, Baker, and Tennant clips) and serve the narrative (as opposed to the clip show K-9 recently gave us in "Mind Snap").  Plus it really is incredibly exciting for some reason to see the old stuff referenced in the new.

But then that's sort of the heart of the story.  Doctor Who under Russell T Davies was always a show that retained the same basic concept and spirit of the original while constantly looking forward.  This, however, feels like his love letter to the old days, a way to reunite old friends and learn about the fates of others.  "I do a little search sometimes," Sarah Jane says, when Rani wonders about other past companions of the Doctor.  "I can't be sure, but there's a woman called Tegan in Australia, fighting for Aboriginal rights.  There's a Ben and Polly, in India, running an orphanage there.  There was Harry.  Oh, I loved Harry.  He was a doctor.  He did such good work with vaccines.  He saved thousands of lives.  And there's a Dorothy something.  She runs that company, A Charitable Earth.²²³  She's raised billions.  And this couple in Cambridge, both professors.  Ian and Barbara Chesterton.  Rumour has it, they've never aged.  Not since the sixties.  I wonder."  Even if all these characters couldn't be there in person, they're still around in spirit.  It's a beautiful idea, and the whole story is filled with this sense of love for the old days.

It may not have the most exciting plot, but it's carried off with great style in what proved to be Russell T Davies' only time writing for the eleventh Doctor.  That sense of joy and love and adventure means that Death of the Doctor is definitely a winner.

But now it's back to K-9.  "Angel of the North" is also by Bob Baker, but this one's not a clip show.  No, instead Baker has decided to write a surprisingly interesting episode that plays with much of what the series has established.  This is a good thing.

Thorne and his CCPCs take Gryffen outside in a special
agoraphobia-proof suit. ("Angel of the North") ©Screen
Australia, Pacific Film and Television Commission Pty Limited,
Park Entertainment Limited, Cutting Edge Post Pty Limited,
and Metal Mutt Productions Pty Limited

The premise is simple: something is causing havoc with both the STM and K-9, and Gryffen thinks it's linked to the crashed alien spacecraft that the STM originally came from -- there might be a piece of the machine still there.  But as the ship is located in Canada and K-9 doesn't seem particularly interested in checking it out, Gryffen has to resort to other ways of getting to the ship.  This means confronting his agoraphobia and finding a way over there.  (Oddly, everyone in the episode keeps talking about heading north, as if Canada had somehow moved to north of London.)

The thing that's most striking about the episode is how seriously it takes things.  There's little of the standard children's TV approach that has often characterized K-9 up to this point; instead, characters behave as they would behave as people, instead of as cyphers of some kind.  Thus Gryffen's agoraphobia is a plot point, Starkey's bravery is treated as self-evident, with little need for congratulation, and Thorne (and the Department) finally make sense in this context, as they're interested in the alien technology for their own ends, rather than just being behind every plot because that's their plot function.  And we get some tantalizing hints for the future: the STM is a Korven ship, with a whole mess of Korven still on board, and (oddly) K-9 seems to be connected in some way, and Thorne is taking orders from his shadowy boss Lomax, who seems far too interested in the STM -- particularly in light of the revelation regarding the Korven...  It's also really nice to get into some new sets, as Gryffen, Starkey, and K-9 wander through frozen corridors, pursued by Thorne and by Korven.

It's slightly tempting to say that K-9 has been building up to this point, but that's not really true: K-9 hasn't really been building to anything up to this point, but suddenly they've started to snap some things into focus.  By giving us a better-written episode than we've been getting and playing with some of the established pieces, Bob Baker and the production team (led by director James Bogle) turn out a surprisingly engaging episode that starts to hint at the idea that maybe it was a worthwhile endeavour to make this series.  Is it too much to hope that this feeling will last?







²²³ The fact that the acronym for A Charitable Earth is ACE suggests that this is indeed the seventh Doctor companion -- as does the reference to "Dorothy something", a sly joke regarding the question of Ace's surname.  The story goes that the original intention was to give her the same last name as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, which would be Gale (and this makes sense in the larger context of the names in Dragonfire), but when Paul Cornell, writing the New Adventure No Future, asked someone what Dorothy's last name in The Wizard of Oz was, that someone misremembered it as "Bucket", so Cornell, in conjunction with Kate Orman -- who was working on the upcoming novel Set Piece -- chose "McShane" instead, as they weren't going to make Ace's last name be Bucket.  All fine and good until BBC Books got the novel licence --  at which point they commissioned Mike Tucker and Robert Perry to write a couple books.  Tucker and Perry, unaware of the "McShane" name chosen by the Virgin authors, went with the original intention of Gale -- which meant that for a while Ace was running around with two surnames, depending on who you asked.  Mark Michalowski eventually resolved this in his novel Relative Dementias by establishing her full name as Dorothy Gale McShane.

May 14: "Mind Snap" (K-9) / Death of the Doctor Part One (SJA)

It's been a while since Bob Baker wrote for Doctor Who or any of the spin-offs, and during that time he's done a fair bit, including cowriting three Academy Award-winning Wallace & Gromit films.  But now he's finally gotten his K-9 spin-off off the ground (after spending 12 years trying to get the thing going), and after 21 episodes Bob Baker has finally cowritten an episode of this series.

And so what do we get?  A sodding clip show.

So that's a first, I guess; none of the other shows have ever done a clip show before -- lots of retrospectives and things, sure, but nothing inserted into the main run of the series.  But because it's a clip show, it's hard to really discuss this.  The framing story (K-9's mind is scrambled by the STM, so Gryffen and Starkey have to try and help him remember who he is) is fine enough, and the clips are well chosen, but there's still little to engage with here.  This is a way for the show to save money, pure and simple, and while these sorts of episodes may have been (marginally) acceptable in the 1990s and earlier, as a way for viewers to see clips and fondly remember the stories they came from, now with the Internet and streaming video services and cheap DVDs, clip shows are largely redundant.

I guess in terms of achieving the episode's goals this story is a success -- there don't appear to be many awkward clips that K-9 wasn't actually present for or revisitations of any truly painful moments, and it does serve as a somewhat useful reminder if you've forgotten aspects of the show.  And I assume it did save them the money they were hoping for.  But by just about any other standard, "Mind Snap" falls well short of the mark.

But now we're back to The Sarah Jane Adventures.  After cowriting the first episode, Russell T Davies has stayed away from contributing scripts to the series -- but now he's finally back with Death of the Doctor.  It's a nice hook, suggesting that the Doctor is dead, even if it's not one we actually believe (if nothing else, the main series is carrying on, so it's unlikely they'd let their main character be killed in a spin-off) -- but what works well here is that Sarah Jane refuses to believe it either.  And to Davies' credit, he does a good job of having it both ways: having us believe that there's something going on with the Doctor's "death", but maybe wondering that Sarah Jane is simply in denial.

Jo and Sarah Jane try to work out who would want to fake the
Doctor's death. (Death of the Doctor Part One) ©BBC

However, the most wonderful thing about this first episode is the appearance of Katy Manning as Jo Jones (née Grant).  From her first, slightly scatterbrained entrance, she slips effortlessly back into the role, and her interactions with Elisabeth Sladen are pure joy.  You also get the sense that, after five years of Russell T Davies reining in his fanboy tendencies on Doctor Who (for fear of alienating the casual audience), he's finally allowed himself to cut loose.  So we get references to Peladon, Azal, Zygons, Daleks...  Davies even sneakily has Jo reminisce about her visit to Karfel, as mentioned in Timelash.   But we also get a little bit of sadness as well, after Sarah Jane lets slip that the Doctor came back and saw her more than once -- something that apparently never happened to Jo.  "Oh, he must have really liked you," Jo says, with happiness and wistfulness equally mixed in one of the best line readings ever.  And you also get a hint of sadness from Sarah Jane, as she listens to Jo's stories of how she married Professor Jones, had seven kids and twelve grandchildren ("Would you believe number thirteen is on its way?"), and has spent her whole life traveling the world and standing up for what's good and right.  Jo is someone who met the Doctor and turned her experiences into action almost immediately, while Sarah Jane needed to see him again to realize what she should do.  It's a nice touch.

And, happily, the end of this episode sees the Shansheeth (who've been orchestrating this funeral) reveal their true colors, followed by the appearance of the eleventh Doctor, who swaps places with Clyde:

RANI: That's the Doctor?
JO: What Doctor?  The Doctor?  My Doctor?
SARAH JANE: Yeah, well, he can change his face.
JO: I know, but into a baby's?
DOCTOR: Oi!  Imagine it from my point of view.  Last time I saw you, Jo Grant, you were, what, 21, 22?  It's like someone baked you.

(from The Sarah Jane Adventures Transcripts - Death of the Doctor, part one)

Clyde seems worse off, stuck on a red dusty planet with some sort of device counting down, but the Doctor is able to take more action on Earth.  Well, in theory, but the cliffhanger has him transfixed and in pain by a Shansheeth device...

May 13: The Vault of Secrets Parts One & Two (SJA)

The previous story was interested in exploring some of the common nightmares that people have and putting them into a different context.  The Vault of Secrets, by contrast, is more of a good old-fashioned romp.  It's effectively a sequel to last series' Prisoner of the Judoon, with some elements from the "Dreamland" cartoon thrown in for good measure.  And so we see the return of Androvax, trying to rescue members of his race who are in suspended animation and being held by the Men in Black.

The Men in Black. (The Vault of Secrets Part One) ©BBC

The Men in Black have made a smooth transition from CGI creations to live action -- not that it was exactly a hard transition, given their nature, but it's still done well.  Plus it's nice to see some love for the somewhat neglected cartoon.  (Even if that's probably because Phil Ford wrote both that and this.)  They're a much more compelling threat here than they were in "Dreamland" as well, since they're actually the main...well, "villains" is too strong a word, but that's the function they're fulfilling for a good chunk of time.  No Viperox here to steal their thunder.  It also helps that Angus Wright does a great job of being cold and imposing as Mister Dread, the leader of the Men in Black.

And interestingly, we also get an attempt to reframe Androvax's character.  He's still rather unpleasant to deal with, but he's not as evil as he was the last time.  Instead he has the noble goal of trying to rescue the last surviving members of his species before he dies, and while he may be going about achieving that goal in the wrong ways (taking over people and stealing what he needs without remorse), that doesn't make what he's trying to do any less honorable.  Of course, the fact that the planet will be destroyed by his actions does mean that he needs to stopped, or another solution found, but at least his heart is in the right place.

But the best thing about The Vault of Secrets is that it never loses its underlying sense of fun.  From Sarah Jane disrupting a NASA Mars rover before it captures an image of a pyramid (thus providing us with a quick in-joke) to Clyde quoting Terminator 2 to Gita dragging Haresh to the British UFO Research and Paranormal Studies Society (B.U.R.P.S.S.), the overwhelming feeling this story gives off is one of playfulness.  It's clearly having a good time with all these ideas, and it's hard not to feel the same way as a viewer.  And we even get a happy ending, with Androvax able to take his people away without the Earth being destroyed.  It's not a deep, philosophical episode, but The Vault of Secrets is an entertaining episode that will leave a smile on your face.

May 12: The Nightmare Man Part Two (SJA) / "Robot Gladiators" (K-9)

The Nightmare Man is now free, but he doesn't seem to be interested in immediately taking over the world; he's more interested in flexing his powers a bit, which involves giving nightmares to Rani and Clyde as well as Luke.  This also touches upon some deep childhood fears: Clyde's nightmare involves being unsuccessful and forgotten, taunted by Sarah Jane as a senile bag lady, while Rani's involves turning on the people she considers friends, exposing them on television as a journalist.  They're both realistic nightmares that still tie in with the main story, and so they're very successful as a result.

The Nightmare Man is pulled into a nightmare of his own creation.
(The Nightmare Man Part Two) ©BBC

And it's fitting, in what appears to be Luke's final story as a main member of the cast, that the main message is that Luke, Clyde, and Rani are unstoppable as a team: "This world has faced so many nightmares but there's always been someone there to stop them," Luke tells the Nightmare Man.  "Us.  You know, I was so scared because I thought my mates wouldn't be there for me.  Never mind Oxford, they followed me into my nightmares.  Three kids breaking down the walls of dreams to be together.  Something no one's ever done.  Because together, we're unbeatable."  It's a positive message, telling us that friendships are the most powerful thing in the universe, and it's a message that's worth hearing more often, I think.  It also means that Luke can head to Oxford, secure in the knowledge that his friends are still with him, even if they're not in the same location.

This is a strong opener for series 4, with a thoughtful script, a sufficiently scary enemy, and some great acting from the regulars.  It's a reaffirmation of what makes this show so good, and it's a great sign of what the future has in store for The Sarah Jane Adventures: even if Luke won't be around as much, the team on Bannerman Road will still be a force to be reckoned with.

Over on K-9, "Robot Gladiators" opens with a surprisingly ambitious sequence for the series: trying to make things look both like a fun entertainment show (the captions) and a sort of film noir/gangster film.  They actually continue down this road for a while, with each of the gang heading undercover in Frankie Maxwell's illegal robot fighting ring to find some evidence that they can use to shut it down.  It's actually quite fun, and while K-9's initial complaints about being stuck with primitive robots are amusing, even he warms up to them.

K-9 and the Pain Maker square off in the ring. ("Robot Gladiators")
©Screen Australia, Pacific Film and Television Commission Pty
Limited, Park Entertainment Limited, Cutting Edge Post Pty
Limited, and Metal Mutt Productions Pty Limited

Sadly, it does get less interesting when we learn who's really behind things (no prize for guessing who), although there is a nice moment where Thorne contemptuously wonders if they thought their ruse was remotely believable -- as I was wondering the same thing (since isn't Jorjie meant to be 14?), this was nice confirmation that at least someone was thinking about things.  But the whole thing is apparently a ruse to gain access to K-9's regenerative capabilities: the Pain-Maker will either beat K-9 up or blow him up, but either way the Department wants access.  Of course it doesn't work and everything ends well, but to its credit, "Robot Gladiators" does leave us with a lingering question: how exactly did Thorne know about K-9's capabilities?  Is Gryffen's house bugged?  Or is there a spy in their midst?  This is a question that will hopefully be explored in the future, but as for now it's left unanswered.

For the first half, "Robot Gladiators" is a surprisingly good episode that's actually trying to do something a bit different.  As a result, it's not surprising that when it slips back into the tired old routine at the end we feel a sense of disappointment.  But, at least for a little bit, K-9 flirted with being something different, and the result was better than normal.