H is for... Hayter, Professor

Professor Hayter of Darlington University was a passenger on a Concorde supersonic aircraft which was captured by a time distortion in 1982 and sent back to prehistoric times. The passengers and crew were all subjected to an hypnotic influence which made them believe that they had arrived where they were supposed to be, but Hayter was able to resist this mental conditioning. He believed that they had actually been abducted by the Soviet Union and were in Siberia. When the Doctor arrived he was informed of what had really happened, which he initially found hard to believe. The temporal distortion had been created by the marooned Master, who required slave labour to access the hibernation chamber of the alien Xeraphin, who had fled to Earth after their planet was destroyed in a cosmic war. Within the chamber, they had evolved into a single biomass which contained their collective intelligence. The Doctor wanted to communicate with this life-form, but it would be dangerous to do so. Professor Hayter volunteered instead. His body was destroyed, but his mind was absorbed into the biomass. Later, the Xeraphin took on Hayter's form to help guide the TARDIS back to their pyramid, after it had been sabotaged and sent into a temporal orbit, with Concorde Captain Stapley and his crew trapped on board.

Played by: Nigel Stock. Appearances: Time-Flight (1982).

• Stock was best known for his role as Dr Watson in the BBC's 1960's adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes stories, appearing first opposite Douglas Wilmer as the Great Detective, then Peter Cushing.
• One of his last roles was as the title character in the BBC's 1985 adaptation of The Pickwick Papers, part of the Classic Serials series produced by Barry Letts and script edited by Terrance Dicks.
• He is the only person other than Patrick McGoohan to have played Number 6 in the original series of The Prisoner (in the episode Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling).