L is for... Lamia

Madam Lamia was the chief surgeon to Count Grendel of Gracht, on the planet Tara. Hers was actually a technical role, as she built and maintained androids. The planet had suffered from a terrible plague in the past, and the labour shortage had been filled with an android workforce. 

She and Grendel had enjoyed a romantic interlude in the past and whilst he had never considered it at all serious, she still carried a torch for him.

When Grendel discovered Romana on his lands, suffering from a sprained ankle, he had her brought to Lamia to repair - believing her to be an android replica of the Princess Strella whom she closely resembled. She was intrigued by the Key to Time segment which Romana was holding, and attempted to define its nature.

When the Doctor began interfering in Grendel's machinations to seize the Taran throne, he had Lamia create an android copy of Romana which was programmed to kill him in a trap set up in a summer pavilion on his estate. The Doctor managed to evade this assassination attempt. When Lamia ran out of the pavilion a trigger-happy Gracht soldier shot her dead.

Played by: Lois Baxter. Appearances: The Androids of Tara (1978).

• Baxter, who turned 75 this year, was a regular fixture in British TV drama in the 1970's and '80's, in series such as When The Boat Comes In, as well as a run in Coronation Street. She is married to David Savile, whose Doctor Who guest credentials include The War Games, The Claws of Axos and The Five Doctors.
• In Greek mythology Lamia was a female monster who devoured children, a character who later evolved into a nocturnal daemon. She had been beautiful once, but had physically changed as she mentally failed to cope with the loss of her own children to Hera, queen of the gods.