Fear Itself was the sixth episode of Series 1 of K9. It featured K9's curiosity about emotions.
Synopsis[]
London is out of control. Riots erupt because of a strange, irrational fear that fills the air. The focal point of the paranoia is in an old junkyard where a strange alien consciousness is at work.
Plot[]
Darius is in a junkyard when he is approached by two strange vagrants. They say the junkyard belongs to them and tell him to leave, then lock him in a wardrobe. He grabs onto a bar in the wardrobe and finds himself holding on for his life over a bottomless pit. Back at the mansion, Gryffen and Starkey are frightened for no clear reason. They are not the only ones feeling this. There are news reports of mass stampedes and riots across London. Darius arrives at the mansion, terrified after his ordeal.
Darius is shocked to find the junkyard is on the news and the two vagrants are being interviewed. Drake interrupts the interview when they start talking about a monster. Darius says there is an alien in the hole. K9, Darius, Starkey and Jorjie go to the junkyard, only to find CCPCs patrolling it. K9 distracts the CCPCs by alerting them to a violation of Department Regulation 29d: use of unapproved sandwiches at a picnic.
When Drake arrives to find the CCPCS gone, they decide to hide in the wardrobe anyway. Darius refuses because of his earlier experience. They understand his fears when he again holds onto the bar and nearly falls. K9 saves him. Drake agrees with K9, asking them if they saw the alien. As they leave, Drake shouts to the alien, refusing to acknowledge his fear. Back at the mansion Gryffen shows the team news items about the spread of fear. Gryffen tells the team that Darius is claustrophobic.
At Department HQ, Drake tells June about the alien inside the wardrobe. Back at the mansion, Starkey and Jorjie try futilely to scare K9 to make him understand fear. At the junkyard, June finds nothing in the wardrobe. Drake insists there is an alien. When Starkey investigates the wardrobe, he determines, "Your own fear makes you see the hole". He is taken away by two CCPCs to a cell. He is met by Drake, who show signs of paranoia though still refusing to acknowledge his fear.
K9 decides they have go to the junkyard and prove the fear isn't real. K9 goes to the hole and finds nothing, but Starkey and Gryffen temporarily lose contact with K9. He sees a Jixen but registers no data; Starkey tries to convince him it's not real. Drake decides to arm a bomb and destroy the wardrobe. K9 believes the Jixen is not real and it vanishes. Starkey and Jorjie return to the mansion to warn Gryffen to tell K9 to get out, but they feel the explosion. K9 escapes. Drake tells the creature he has won and destroys the wardrobe with his mechanical hand.
K9 reveals he felt the bomb was coming and Jorjie congratulates him on experiencing a feeling. The team have a group hug.
References[]
To be added
Story notes[]
To be added
Continuity[]
- A wooden box that is bigger on the inside in a London junkyard is reminiscent of the Doctor's TARDIS in TV: An Unearthly Child.
- A Jixen last appeared in TV: The Bounty Hunter.
- Alistair Gryffen refers to the Great Fire of London in September 1666. Unbeknownst to him, it was caused by the overloading of a Terileptil weapon. The resulting explosion destroyed a bakery in Pudding Lane, triggering the fire. The Fifth Doctor played a major role in these events. The Doctor had visited London during the Great Fire on two earlier occasions in his personal timeline. During the Doctor's first incarnation, the TARDIS had materialised in London, specifically outside the burning house of George Mortimer, shortly after the Great Fire began. The First Doctor proceeded to rescue George, his wife Helen and their children Ida and Alan and took them on a trip to the Andromeda Galaxy in the far future. Arriving shortly before his future self's departure, the Fourth Doctor, in the company of Sarah Jane Smith, was wrongly accused of having starting the fire. It is possible that, for a brief period after the First Doctor's arrival in 1666, that there were three separate incarnations of the Doctor co-existing in the same time frame and in close proximity to one another. The Doctor's involvement in the fire remained a source of embarrassment for him in his sixth incarnation.
Home video releases[]
This episode is featured in the following DVD sets:
- Series One complete box set, released in Australia on 29 September 2010.
- A "vanilla" DVD called The Bounty Hunter, containing Regeneration, Liberation, The Korven, The Bounty Hunter, Sirens of Ceres and Fear Itself, released in Australia on 29 September 2010.
- K-9: Series 1: Volume 1, containing episodes 1–12, released in the UK on 31 January 2011.
- K9: Ultimate Collectors Edition, containing the full first series, scheduled for release in the UK on 11 June 2011.
