P is for... Pope, Elton

Elton Pope's first encounter with the Doctor took place when he was just a child. He came downstairs one evening to find his mother dead - killed by an Elemental Shade - and the Doctor standing over her. He had arrived too late to save her. 

As an adult he witnessed the attack by Autons in March of 2005, and the arrival of a rock-like spaceship over London at Christmas 2006.

His childhood memories led Elton onto a path of obsession about the Doctor, and he would later come to join a group of like-minded individuals who met on a regular basis at an old library building in London. The group came to be known as LINDA - London Investigation 'n' Detective Agency.

Over time their obsession with the Doctor diminished as they became good friends and shared their various interests. Elton was a big fan of The Electric Light Orchestra and got his new friends to form a band to play some of their hits. 

Then, one day a man named Victor Kennedy arrived. He too was obsessed with finding the Doctor and argued with them that they had lost their original purpose. He reorganised them along more efficient lines which they followed, even though it was less fun. Elton actually had a second meeting with the Doctor, accompanied by Rose Tyler, in a warehouse by the docks. However, he was so shocked by the encounter that he failed to capitalise on this - much to Kennedy's annoyance.

His attempt to inveigle himself into the company of Jackie Tyler proved more successful as she took a romantic shine to him. However, he decided that he wanted her as a friend but she discovered that he had an ulterior motive in befriending her.

Members of LINDA stopped coming without explanation, leaving only Elton and his girlfriend Ursula Blake left. They discovered that Kennedy was really an alien being which Elton dubbed an Abzorbaloff. He had been absorbing the missing group members and sought to do the same to a Time Lord.

Ursula was absorbed and Elton was on the point of meeting the same fate when the Doctor and Rose intervened. The Doctor was able to partially save Ursula - as a face in a paving stone. (The least said about the nature of their relationship thereafter, the better...).

Played by: Marc Warren. Appearances: Love & Monsters (2006).

• Warren first came to fame in crime drama The Vice, closely followed by the popular con-man series Hustle. More recently he has played the title role in the revamped Van Der Valk.
• In 2015 he took on the role of principal villain in the BBC's The Three Musketeers, after Peter Capaldi left to become the Doctor following its first season.
• At Christmas 2006 he played Count Dracula in a BBC adaptation, co-starring Sophia Myles, Tom Burke and David Suchet.
• Had Jessica Hynes had been unavailable for her cameo as Verity Newman in The End of Time, it was planned that the Doctor would instead have revisited Elton Pope.