C is for... Clent

Leader Clent was in command of the Brittanicus Base, which housed an ioniser designed to help stem the flow of the glaciers during an Ice Age of the year 5000 AD. Ionisers had been set up on every continent, and most were reporting success whilst Clent's team were slipping behind. This was partly due to his having fallen out with his chief scientist Penley, who had stormed out. Penley felt that Clent was over-reliant on the base's computer and lacked the courage to take risks or act on his own initiative. Clent was primarily a bureaucrat, who panicked when faced with conflict.
His assistant, Miss Garrett, idolised him, but he did not seem to notice this.
The Doctor arrived just as the ioniser was about to explode. When he resolved the problem, Clent offered him the role Penley had abandoned.
When another scientist named Arden found what appeared to be a prehistoric man frozen in the ice, Clent permitted him to dig it out and bring it back to the base, even though this would delay the project. The figure proved to be an alien - an Ice Warrior who had crashed into the glacier in ancient times.
Clent was faced with a problem. If the alien's ship was still intact in the glacier, the ioniser might cause its engines to explode. He sent Arden and Jamie after the Ice Warrior, Varga, after he had returned to life and abducted Victoria. Clent later found his base invaded by Ice Warriors. Penley decided to rejoin the base, insisting that Clent use the ioniser at full power to halt the advance of the ice. Clent turned to the computer, but it could give no answer as its programming did not allow it to sanction something which might destroy it. Penley pressed ahead, and the ioniser not only stopped the ice but blew up the Ice Warrior spaceship without causing a nuclear explosion.
Clent welcomed his scientist back onto the team and set about writing his report. He was very proud that he wrote all his own reports.

Played by: Peter Barkworth. Appearances: The Ice Warriors (1967).

• Barkworth was famous at the time for appearing in The Power Game. He claimed to have taken the role of Clent to please his children who were big Doctor Who fans.
• He went off to film Where Eagles Dare soon after, and sent the Doctor Who production team a postcard from Austria pointing out that he was now working in real snow.