L is for... Lytton

Lytton was a native of the moon Riftan 5, which orbited the planet Vita 15. The people of Riftan were known throughout the cosmos as mercenaries - selling their military skills to the highest bidder.

Lytton was employed by the Dalek Supreme to assist with a raid on a remote space station. The Kaled scientist Davros was being held in cryogenic suspension here. The Dalek attack failed, and Lytton insisted his more subtle approach was needed. He succeeded, after flooding the station with a toxic gas.

Lytton commanded a squad of fellow mercenaries, which included Replicants - artificial replicas of people created by the Daleks. The Daleks had a base on late 20th Century Earth, in the London dock area. Lytton and his men would don police officer disguises to visit this base.

Once Davros was freed, Lytton urged an immediate withdrawal, but the Supreme rejected this advice - intent on pleasing Davros in order that he would help them in their war against the Movellans.

The Dalek strategy proved once again to be the wrong one. Davros turned against them, and a Replicant named Stein, who had rebelled against his mental conditioning, self-destructed the station (blowing up the Dalek ship which was still docked alongside.

Lytton and two of his men had escaped down to the London dock area, where the Doctor had destroyed the remaining Daleks using Movellan gas. Lytton and his men disappeared into the city in their policeman guise.

Some time later, Lytton was under investigation by the genuine police. He was believed to be behind a number of robberies. Lytton had set up an SOS beacon, which the TARDIS picked up. 

Lytton put together a team including an explosives expert, supposedly to break into a major bank via the sewer system. His real plan was to establish contact with the Cybermen, who had a base beneath London. They were planning to change history to prevent the destruction of their original home planet of Mondas. They would then destroy their adopted homeworld of Telos, which still retained a population of Cryons, its native peoples.

The Doctor discovered that Lytton was secretly employed by the Cryons. He was to use his criminal gang to destroy the Cyberman time-ship, which they had stolen, and so prevent them from saving Mondas. This would force them to halt their plans for Telos.

Lytton was captured by the Cybermen before his gang could complete their work. He was partly converted but managed to help the Doctor defeat the Cyber-Leader and their Controller before dying.

Played by: Maurice Colbourne. Appearances: Resurrection of the Daleks (1984), Attack of the Cybermen (1985).

• The novelisations of the two stories in which he features give slightly different first names - Gustav and Gustave, despite both being written by his creator, Eric Saward.
• In Attack, the Doctor talks of his regret at misjudging Lytton, and seems to know all about him - despite the two never actually meeting at any point in Resurrection.
• Colbourne, who died in 1989 aged only 50, first came to fame in the series Gangsters, written by Philip Martin (Vengeance on Varos / Mindwarp). To the general public he was best known for yacht business drama Howard's Way.
• Amongst the other actors considered for the role of Lytton were Patrick Stewart, Paul Darrow, John Rhys-Davies, Timothy Dalton, David Warner, Anthony Valentine and Brian Blessed.
• Colbourne had previously been considered for the role of Bulic in Warriors of the Deep.