H is for... Hobson

"Hobby" to his friends, Jack Hobson was the British commander of the multi-national scientific team which ran the Gravitron programme from a base on the Moon in the year 2070. He was a blunt, straight-talking Yorkshireman, who didn't suffer fools gladly. The Gravitron was designed to control the weather on Earth by manipulating pressure fronts. When the Doctor and his companions arrived on the Moon, drawn off course by the machine, they found the base in a state of crisis. Crew members were being struck down by a mysterious illness - their medical officer Dr Evans one of the first to succumb. A series of faults were also plaguing the Gravitron, and the dome was suffering a number of minor pressure falls.
Whilst Jamie recuperated from an accident in the medical bay, Hobson asked the Doctor to investigate the illness, whilst he and his crew fought to bring the Gravitron back under control. The situation deteriorated when sick crewmen started to go missing from the medical bay. Polly claimed that she had seen a Cyberman, but Hobson refused to believe her. He threatened to throw the Doctor and his companions off the Moon if they didn't come up with an answer to the illness. It proved to be of alien manufacture - a virus which attacked the nervous system, created by the Cybermen. They had broken into the base to poison the sugar supply. The sick men were then taken to one of their spaceships to be mentally conditioned to operate the Gravitron for the Cybermen - to be used to destroy the surface of the Earth. Hobson helped the Doctor to align the Gravitron along the surface of the Moon, so that it could send the Cybermen and their ships hurtling into space.

Played by: Patrick Barr. Appearances: The Moonbase (1967).

H is for... Hobbes

Professor Winfold Hobbes regarded himself as an expert on the planet Midnight, whose surface was bombarded by lethal X-tonic radiation which meant no life could possibly exist there. Hobbes was one of the passengers on the heavily shielded Crusader 50 tour of the planet which the Tenth Doctor took. This was Hobbes' fourteenth such trip. He was accompanied by one of his students, Dee Dee Blasco. After the Doctor had sabotaged the in-flight entertainment system, and encouraged the passengers to talk to each other, Hobbes delivered an impromptu lecture on Midnight. However, once the Crusader vehicle came under attack from an invisible entity, which could take over people's bodies, Hobbes became sucked into the mounting paranoia of the tour group - causing him to turn on Dee Dee and to agree to throw the Doctor out of the vehicle when it appeared that the entity had taken him over. When the crisis was over, he was left ashamed of his actions.

Played by: David Troughton. Appearances: Midnight (2008).

• David Troughton is, of course, the son of Patrick Troughton, the Second Doctor. He appeared in the series during his father's tenure - first in a minor extra role as a guard in The Enemy of the World, and then in the more substantial role of Private Moor in The War Games. He returned to the series during Jon Pertwee's time as the Doctor, to play King Peladon in The Curse of Peladon. He was sharing digs with future Doctor Colin Baker at this time.
• Before Paul McGann became the Eighth Doctor, Virgin Books had planned to regenerate the Seventh Doctor in their 'New Adventures' range, and approached Troughton to use his image as their new Doctor.
• Troughton only stepped into the role of Prof. Hobbes at the last minute, after the actor who was to play him - 'Allo 'Allo's Sam Kelly - broke his leg.

H is for... Hitler

A Teselecta justice machine was sent back in time to punish Adolf Hitler, the German Fuhrer, at a point just before his death. The machine arrived several years too early, in 1938, but the attack was interrupted anyway when the TARDIS crashed through Hitler's office window and struck the disguised Teselecta. Mels, a friend of Amy and Rory, had hijacked the ship and decided that they should use it to go back and kill the dictator. Hitler attempted to shoot his would-be assassin, but the shot missed and hit Mels instead. Rory punched the Fuhrer in the face then locked him in a cupboard. Mels then regenerated into River Song.

Played by: Albert Welling. Appearances: Let's Kill Hitler (2011).

• Although he has only appeared in the TV series once, Hitler has been referenced in the programme on a couple of occasions (e.g. De Flores in Silver Nemesis suggests that the Fuhrer possessed the bow of the Nemesis statue), he has featured prominently in spin-off books and audios.

H is for... Hippias

A young nobleman of the city of Atlantis, Hippias had once been a lover of the queen, Galleia. One day he witnessed the disappearance of High Priest Krasis from the Temple of Poseidon, and took this to be a sign that the deity Kronos was to return. He alerted King Dalios of what he had seen. Whilst the old king feared the release of Kronos, knowing it would be the doom of Atlantis, Hippias and some of the younger nobles argued that it would mean the return of greatness to the city. When the Master arrived in Atlantis, and began to woo Galleia, Hippias became jealous. The queen was able to manipulate him into going to the temple to steal the great crystal of Kronos so that the creature would be freed. However, the crystal was guarded by a fearsome Minotaur. Hippias saved Jo Grant from it, but at the cost of his own life.

Played by: Aidan Murphy. Appearances: The Time Monster (1972).

H is for... Hinks

Ostensibly chauffeur to Dr Stevens, head of Global Chemicals new Welsh refinery, Hinks was really employed as the director's general henchman. He would carry out any task asked of him - even if it meant breaking the law and putting lives at risk. It was Hinks who sabotaged the coalmine lift machinery when Stevens heard that Jo Grant and a miner were going to go down into the pit to rescue another miner - all to conceal that Global Chemicals was pumping its toxic industrial waste products into the mine workings. When the Doctor broke into the refinery to locate some welding equipment Hinks captured him but his efforts to overpower him failed when he came up against the Doctor's Venusian aikido skills. When news reached Stevens that a giant maggot egg had been found by UNIT and was being held at the Wholeweal Community, Hinks was sent to steal it. The egg had hatched, however, and Hinks was bitten by the maggot which emerged from it. The infection rapidly killed him.

Played by: Ben Howard. Appearances: The Green Death (1973).

H is for... Hindle

Junior officer attached to a survey unit on the planet Deva Loka. He was an unimaginative man, who tended to adhere rigidly to regulations. It was becoming increasingly clear to one of his colleagues, Todd, that Hindle was suffering from growing psychological problems, but his commanding officer, Sanders, could not see this. Rather, he often bullied and belittled his junior officer. After Saunders had set off on a solo exploration mission, he placed Hindle in charge. Hindle discovered that he could control two native hostages they were holding - members of the Kinda tribe - by use of a mirror. He began threatening Todd and the Doctor, and had them imprisoned. As he became more and more paranoid he decided to self-destruct the survey unit dome - fearing that the jungle itself was going to attack them. Adric found that he could have a limited amount of influence by humouring Hindle, and pretending to go along with his plans. Hindle reverted to a child-like state, and continued to control the dome even after Sanders returned, as he had had his mind altered by a Kinda artefact, and was now almost as child-like as his junior. The Doctor and Todd were able to trick Hindle into looking into the Kinda artefact - a small box - and its powers reset his mind, rendering him rational again.

Played by: Simon Rouse. Appearances: Kinda (1982).

• Rouse is best known for his long-running role as DCI, then Superintendent, Meadows in the ITV police series The Bill, in which he appeared over the course of two decades. His fellow long-serving The Bill star, Jeff Stewart, who played PC Reg Hollis, also appeared in Kinda, playing the malevolent Dukkha, though the two never had any scenes together.

Louis Mahoney (1938 - 2020)

I was saddened to hear yesterday of the death of actor Louis Mahoney, who has passed away at the age of 81 (on 28th June). He made three appearances in Doctor Who, and is one of that select group of actors who has appeared in both the classic era of the show and its revival.
His first appearance was as a newsreader in the first episode of Frontier In Space, in 1973. Although only a small role, this was groundbreaking in that the UK did not have any newscasters from ethnic minorities at the time. The story was directed by David Moloney, and he used the actor again for the more substantial role of Ponti in Planet of Evil in 1975.
His last appearance on the programme was in 2007, when he played the older version of Billy Shipton in Blink, visited on his deathbed by Sally Sparrow.

Another well known role was as the doctor in the classic Fawlty Towers episode "The Germans".
Born in The Gambia in 1938, he moved to London in the 1950's. He was one of the first black actors to join the Royal Shakespeare Company, and for a time was vice chair of the actors union Equity. He founded the 'Performers for Equality' group within Equity, to defend the union's stance on boycotting Apartheid South Africa, and did a lot of campaigning in general to support actors from ethnic minority backgrounds.
RIP.