A little from Column A, a little from Column B.

Man, the word 'column' looks weird now.

From the Guardian:

The versatile writer Dave Martin, who has died at the age of 72 of lung cancer, left behind a diverse body of work, particularly in two difficult areas: thrillers and children's writing. It was perhaps this refusal to specialise in one particular genre, coupled with the fact that his principal medium was television, that explains why he was not better known. He worked on Doctor Who and was the co-creator of K9, the electronic dog.

Hidden in this obit is some very exciting news: 

Then, in 1979, they struck gold, albeit in a thin disguise, when they created the Doctor's robot dog K-9, who pipped R2-D2 to the post and now, 30 years on, is about to have his own spin-off series.

But... dear God, what have they done to him?