K is for... K1

 

K1 was Professor Kettlewell's prototype robot, designed for work in hazardous areas, or with materials dangerous to man. He developed it whilst working at the scientific research centre known as the Think Tank. K1 was far in advance of other robots in that it had been programmed with aspects of its creator's mind.

Think Tank harboured a fascist group known as the Scientific Reform Society, led by the centre's director, Hilda Winters, and her deputy Jellicoe. They wanted to force the world to adopt their beliefs, and used the robot to help achieve this. It was employed to steal components needed to construct a powerful energy weapon, which had also been developed by Think Tank. Once each piece had been seized, the K1 was then sent to steal a set of global launch codes for nuclear missiles, which were being held by a British civil servant.

The SRS planned to blackmail the world's governments with the launch codes.

Sarah Jane Smith had come face to face with the robot when she visited Think Tank and been shown how it was programmed with the prime directive - to serve but never to harm human beings. Sarah showed the robot concern when Winters tried to get it to breach the directive, a kindness which it remembered.

Kettlewell had left Think Tank to pursue his independent researches, and claimed that orders had been left to have the K1 dismantled. On hearing that this has not happened, and the robot has killed people, Kettlewell warned that its prime directive must have been tampered with, which could drive it insane.

It transpired that Kettlewell was still involved with the SRS, and complicit in their schemes. The newly regenerated Doctor knew that only he could have altered its circuits to bypass the directive.

Armed with the disintegrator weapon, the robot was tasked with guarding the bunker in which the SRS had made their base. Sarah and Harry Sullivan were being held hostage here.

In the confusion of an attack by UNIT troops, the robot accidentally killed its creator, This drove it mad, and it abducted Sarah. Only she would be allowed to live as it launched the world's missiles. The Doctor was able to halt this using a failsafe, then he went to the professor's home in search of a weapon to use against the robot. 

Whilst he was away, the Brigadier used the disintegrator on the K1. Instead of destroying it, K1's special metal absorbed the energy and it began to grow to colossal size.

The Doctor found a metal-corroding virus which Kettlewell had devised. A solution of this was thrown over its foot and, despite it huge size, the virus reduced it to normal proportions, and rusted it away to nothing. Sarah was upset, realising that it had been intrinsically good but abused by others.

Played by: Michael Kilgarriff. Appearances: Robot (1975).

• The robot was designed by future Oscar winning costume designer James Acheson. 
• Despite being composed of aluminium strips to reduce weight, it still gave Kilgarriff problems - the joints cutting his arms and legs and the weight leading to him being unable to move his legs the morning following one of the studio dates.
• The SRS have a symbol based on the robot's face. 
• Kilgarriff had previously appeared in the programme as the Cyber-Controller in Tomb of the Cybermen, and as an Ogron in Frontier in Space.
• Writer Terrance Dicks based his story on King Kong. He always referred to K1 as "my robot" and used to visit it at the Museum of the Moving Image on London's South Bank, where it could be seen through the window near the entrance.
• Below, K1 at the Doctor Who Experience: