K is for... Kellman

Kellman was a geologist and exographer assigned to Nerva Beacon, in orbit around a large asteroid which had appeared in the Solar System near Jupiter. It had been named Nova Phobos, but Kellman had renamed it Voga. He had visited the asteroid's interior, setting up a transmat system between it and the beacon.

He maintained that no life could exist on Voga, but had secretly made contact with its inhabitants, the Vogans. Many years ago Earth had fought a great war against the Cybermen. The cyborgs were susceptible to gold, which plated their breathing systems and suffocated them. Voga was renowned as "the planet of gold", and it provided large quantities of the metal which allowed the humans to win the war. Voga had been attacked and blown apart before hostilities ended. This asteroid is all that remains of the planet. One of the Vogan leaders was Vorus, and he entered into a plot with Kellman to lure the Cybermen survivors to attack Voga by taking over the beacon. Vorus would have a missile aimed at the spacecraft to destroy them. Kellman would then contact the Cybermen offering his services to them - acting as a double agent. 

They provided him with Cybermats, which would be used to spread a deadly disease throughout the beacon's crew. Only a handful of humans were to be left alive, and they would be used to carry powerful bombs to the heart of Voga.

When the Doctor arrived on the beacon with his companions Sarah and Harry, he quickly realised that they were facing an artificial illness. Sarah was infected by a Cybermat, and the Doctor decided to send her to Voga by transmat - the process filtering out the alien pathogen. However, Kellman had sabotaged the system. The Doctor threatened him with a remote controlled Cybermat to force him to hand over the missing component.

His double dealing was soon exposed after he made an excuse to travel down to Voga once the Cybermen had taken the beacon. His motive in all this was greed - having been promised Vogan gold.

Forced to help head off the bomb party, he was killed by a rockfall.

Played by: Jeremy Wilkin. Appearances: Revenge of the Cybermen (1975).

• James Bond fans will recognise the hairbrush radio transmitter which Kellman uses to contact the Cybermen. It had previously featured in the film Live And Let Die.
• Wilkin was a regular performer in Gerry Anderson productions - appearing on screen in UFO and Space: 1999, and providing voices for Thunderbirds, Joe 90 and Captain Scarlet.
• He also played the villainous Dev Tarrant in the opening episode of Blake's 7.