Although footy season is not that far away, and I need to get practising the Woof! Woof! Woof! for my beloved Bulldogs, I am actually not talking about that.

No self-respecting collector of Dr Who models would be without this one!

K9 — occasionally written as K-9 or K•9 — was the designation given to a series of intelligent, dog-like robots who served as companions of Professor Marius, the Fourth Doctor, Leela, Romana, the Mistress, Sarah Jane Smith, Tom Baker, Luke Smith, Starkey, Ace, the Tenth Doctor, and the Thirteenth Doctor.

Most models of K9 addressed whoever was directing them as “Master” or “Mistress” depending upon gender, and used the formal “affirmative” and “negative” rather than “yes” and “no”; and when unable to answer a question would say “insufficient data” instead of “I don’t know”. They were programmed to be both loyal and logical, with a penchant for taking orders literally, almost to a fault. Their striped collars, which sported a blank dog-tag, mirrored the Fourth Doctor’s trademark scarf.

Tomorrow the Papal Mainframe.