L is for... Lester

Lieutenant Bill Lester was second-in-command of Nerva Beacon, which had been placed in orbit around an asteroid that had entered the Solar System near Jupiter. The beacon was designed to alert deep space vessels to this new navigation hazard.

Among the military crew was a civilian exographer named Kellman who had conducted a survey of the asteroid, which had been given the name Neo Phobos. He renamed it Voga. 

Soon, a virulent space plague broke out and rapidly killed most of the crew. Only Lester, Commander Stevenson and Kellner were left alive. The beacon was visited by the Doctor and companions Sarah and Harry. They had been here before - in its far future, when they had left the TARDIS.

It soon became apparent that Kellman was working with the Cybermen to deliberately poison the crew using a Cybermat. Three crew were to be kept alive as they were needed to transport powerful Cyberman bombs to the heart of Voga. They could not deliver these themselves as the asteroid was mainly composed of gold, and this metal was lethal to them. Voga was all that remained of a planet which had supplied human armies with the metal to help them win the Cyberwars.

The Doctor was forced to accompany Lester and the Commander with the bombs attached by booby-trapped straps to their backs. Realising that the heavy gold concentrations would disrupt the Cyberman monitoring equipment, they decided to double back and attack their Cyberman guards with handfuls of gold dust. When this looked like failing, Lester sacrificed himself by triggering his booby-trap. The Cybermen and their bomb trigger were destroyed in the blast.

Played by: William Marlowe. Appearances: Revenge of the Cybermen (1975).

• Marlowe had previously appeared as convict leader Harry Mailer in The Mind of Evil.
• There is no truth to the popular fan myth that he was the husband of Fernanda Marlowe, who played UNIT's Corporal Bell in The Mind of Evil and in The Claws of Axos.
• He did, however, go on to marry Kismet Delgado - the widow of Roger Delgado, the first Master.