M is for... Morgus

Morgus was a powerful and influential businessman from the planet Androzani Major. He was Chair of the Sirius Conglomerate, making him one of the five richest men in the galaxy. He could also trace his lineage to the founding families who first colonised the planet.

Utterly ruthless in his business dealings, he was prepared to destroy one of his own factories with many lives lost, just to increase demand and reduce labour costs. The unemployed were sent to work in labour camps - with him benefitting from this.

The rich and powerful of Androzani Major had come to rely on a substance called Spectrox, derived  from a plant on the neighbouring minor world, to increase longevity. 

However, a war had broken out between the government and a scientist named Sharaz Jek, who had taken over Androzani Minor with an army of androids. Morgus and Jek had once been business partners in exploiting the Spectrox, but Morgus had attempted to kill him in order to secure a monopoly of the supply.

Jek survived, horribly scarred by a boiling mud-burst, and now the pair were sworn enemies. Jek was being supplied with weapons by a gun-runner named Stotz - and Morgus was secretly financing this in order to prolong the conflict. He hoped that the government forces would kill Jek before his role was uncovered.

When the President made it known that he was contemplating peace talks with Jek, Morgus engineered an accident in which he was killed. When he flew to Androzani Minor to take personal charge of military operations, however, his secretary Krau Timmin betrayed him - revealing all his secrets and usurping control of his businesses.

Determined to kill Jek and steal his Spectrox stock then flee, he encountered his old enemy in his headquarters - but it was he who was killed.

Played by: John Normington. Appearances: The Caves of Androzani (1984).

• Normington (1937 - 2007) returned to the series in 1988 as the census taker Trevor Sigma in The Happiness Patrol.
• He also featured in the Torchwood episode Ghost Machine.
• Morgus' famous asides to the camera came about by accident, when Normington misunderstood a stage direction from Graeme Harper. He loved the effect and kept them in.