N is for... Noah

Despite the origins of the name being lost in the distant past, Noah was the nickname given to the commander of a space ark designed to house a select group of human survivors in the far future. His real name was Lazar. Solar flare activity had scorched the Earth, and so several thousand people, along with samples of flora and fauna, had taken to an adapted space beacon - Nerva - to be held there in suspended animation. They would wake up automatically once the surface of the planet had regenerated.

However, an alien Wirrn Queen infiltrated the Ark and damaged some of its systems - including the reanimation equipment. It planted its egg within one of the sleeping crew members - technician Dune - before dying from wounds inflicted by the station's defence mechanism.

The Doctor repaired the damaged systems and the crew began to wake up, thousands of years later than intended. Noah was to be one of the first to wake, but further Wirrn damage to the power systems complicated this. He was horrified to find intruders on the Ark, as the survivors had been carefully selected for genetic purity. He refused to heed the Doctor's warnings and shot him with a stun gun before going alone to examine the solar stacks. There, he was bitten by a Wirrn larva. 

He rapidly began to mutate, inheriting the memories of other Wirrn victims such as Dune. He killed one of his technicians and began working to secure the sleeping humans as a food source for the hatching creatures. His human self attempted to reassert itself, and at one point he pleaded with medic Vira - his intended partner - to kill him.

Due to his position as commander, he came to lead the emerging Wirrn once he fully mutated into an adult creature. Noah demanded that Vira abandon the sleepers for his swarm, but later launched an attack on the Ark's service rocket. This was fired into space, taking all of the Wirrn with it. The craft then exploded after Noah bade Vira farewell. She and the Doctor realised that he had deliberately failed to stabilise its engines - thanks to the last vestige of his humanity.

Played by: Kenton Moore. Appearances: The Ark in Space (1975).

• Moore had previously featured in the programme in 1964. He is the Roboman who is seen to throw himself into the Thames in the opening moments of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. (It's Moore who is seen from the front, until stuntman Peter Diamond takes over).
• Whilst "Noah" comes from the builder of the biblical Ark, the character's real name also derives from the Bible - from Lazarus, the man brought back to life.