K-9 and Company?

They're making a K-9 spinoff show.

Some background, to get everyone up to speed. K-9, of course, was the robot dog on the original Doctor Who, and who's had the occasional cameo shot on the New Who and The Sarah Jane Smith Adventures. Thanks to the wild and wonderful carnival that is British IP law, the writers of the script that K-9 originated in own the rights to the character (while the BBC owns the physical design.)

What that means is that Bob Baker gets to make his own K-9 show whether the BBC wants him to or not. Which, really, is pretty cool, all things considered.

Where am I going with this? I'll tell you: they've released an image of what the new K-9 prop will look like. And I'll just say this: I'm no great fan of the old look, but man, how did they manage to find something that looks worse?