P is for... Plantagenet

Young and inexperienced leader of the Earth colony settlement on the planet Frontios. He had been forced to take over on the disappearance of his father, Captain Revere. It was he who had brought their spaceship to this new world - only to see it crash-land due to extreme gravitational forces. Since then, the colony was barely able to sustain itself as the planet was under constant meteorite bombardment. Supplies were strictly rationed, and dissent was growing. Plantagenet was assisted by his father's right-hand man, Brazen, who was an authoritarian figure - but they struggled to maintain order.

When the TARDIS brought the Doctor and his companions Tegan and Turlough to Frontios, Plantagenet and Brazen at first suspected them of being behind the bombardments, which they did not believe to be natural. During one of these attacks, Plantagenet was struck and seriously wounded. 

It was said that Frontios buried its own dead, and Captain Revere had himself vanished on an expedition into tunnels beneath the colony. Plantagenet was gripped by a powerful gravitational force and dragged from his sickbed, then sucked down under the ground.

He found himself prisoner of the Tractators - creatures capable of manipulating gravity and responsible for the meteorite attacks. They sought to pilot Frontios through space and were tunnelling extensively to achieve this - making use of captives from the surface, living or dead. Plantagenet was harnessed to one of their tunnelling machines. He was saved by the Doctor and Brazen, who sacrificed himself to free him from the machine. The Doctor was ultimately able to stop the Tractators by separating them from their leader, the Gravis. Plantagenet could then begin to establish the colony as originally planned, his position strengthened by his recent experiences in the eyes of his people.

Played by: Jeff Rawle. Appearances: Frontios (1984)

• Plantagenet is named after the powerful dynasty which ruled England between 1154 (Henry II) and 1485 (Richard III).
• Rawle is best known as the title character in the TV series of Billy Liar, and as George Dent in newspaper comedy Drop The Dead Donkey - though his biggest role internationally was as Amos Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
• An early TV role was in the celebrity game show Whodunnit, which was hosted by Jon Pertwee.
• He returned to the world of Doctor Who in 2009 when he played museum curator Lionel Harding in Mona Lisa's Revenge, one of The Sarah Jane Adventures. In 2013 he then played the original associate producer on the series, Mervyn Pinfield, in the 50th Anniversary origins drama An Adventure in Space and Time.