R is for... Rattigan

Luke Rattigan was a teenage scientific genius, best known for inventing ATMOS, a system which effectively removed carbon dioxide from vehicle emissions. 

He had begun by inventing new computer software aged only 10, and by 12 he had created the successful Fountain Six search engine.

He used his wealth to set up a private academy in North London, which accepted only the most gifted of students. Much of the work they did was around space exploration, including terraforming technology.

He had secretly entered into a partnership with the Sontarans, who sought to exploit Earth's pollution to turn it into a clone-breeding planet as part of their long-running war against the Rutans. ATMOS was really designed to pump out the gases necessary to change the atmosphere of the planet. 

It also had a built-in satellite navigation system, which could be overridden to eliminate anyone who tried to investigate what Rattigan was doing, such as journalist Jo Nakashima.

General Staal of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet had a flagship in hidden orbit above London, and had set up a teleport unit at Rattigan's academy, as well as another at the ATMOS factory. 

The latter was investigated by UNIT after a number of simultaneous deaths globally, all involving the device.

Rattigan had been promised a new life with his students on the planet Castor 36. 

When ATMOS was activated across the planet, he found that his students were unwilling to abandon their families and follow him. When he reported this to Staal, he was shocked to learn that the Sontarans had never intended to honour their promise.

The Doctor elected to use a terraforming device to destroy the Sontaran flagship, even though it would mean his own death. Seeking revenge, his dreams of a new society shattered, Rattigan swapped places with him at the last moment and activated the device.

Played by Ryan Sampson. Appearances: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky (2008)

• Sampson began his acting career at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, but is best known for long running TV comedy roles, including Brassic and Plebs.
• He was a fictionalised Charles Dickens in The Frankenstein Chronicles, and played Dudley Moore in an episode of The Crown.
• More recently he has been seen as Mr Collins in The Other Bennet Sister.

R is for... Ratcliffe

An East End businessman who led an organisation known as The Association. Ratcliffe had been a supporter of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists before the Second World War, leading to his imprisonment. The Association carried on many of its racist ideals. 

In 1963 he was running a builders merchant business in the Coal Hill area of Shoreditch.

One young member of the Association was Sergeant Mike Smith, who was attached to the Intrusions Counter-Measures Group, a specialist military force.

Together they worked with the Supreme, leader of a renegade Dalek faction, to obtain a stellar manipulator device which had been left in the area by the Doctor. This was the Hand of Omega, which had first helped give the Time Lords the power they needed to begin time travel experiments.

Ratcliffe allowed the Supreme to install its battle-computer in his office. This was operated by a schoolgirl under the Supreme's mental control.

His reward for helping the Daleks was the kind of fascist society he longed for, one in which he would have a leading role to play.

However, a second Dalek faction - loyal to the Emperor - also came in search of the Hand.

Through Mike, Ratcliffe was able to steal the remains of a destroyed Dalek to prevent the ICMG from investigating it. He then located the Hand, buried in a local cemetery, and had it dug up and moved to his yard.

Imperial Daleks attacked and seized it. When it became clear that the Daleks could not be trusted, Ratcliffe and Mike tried to steal the Supreme's time travel device to use as a bargaining chip. The schoolgirl had also been given special powers by the Daleks, including the ability to fire lethal energy bolts from her fingers. As Ratcliffe tried to flee, she killed him.

Played by George Sewell. Appearances: Remembrance of the Daleks (1988).

• Sewell (1924 - 2007) was best known for playing policemen or villains. 
• He came to acting only in his mid 30's through Joan Littlewood's company at Stratford East, after meeting actor Dudley Sutton in a pub. He appeared in the stage productions of Sparrers Can't Sing (and its film adaptation Sparrows Can't Sing) and Oh, What A Lovely War!.
• For Gerry Anderson, he played Colonel Alec Freeman in 17 episodes of UFO. 

R is for... Raston Warrior Robot

One of the most lethal killing machines in the universe, according to the Third Doctor. He and Sarah Jane Smith encountered one in the Death Zone on Gallifrey. It inhabited a cave on the far side of the mountain which loomed over the Dark Tower, tomb of Rassilon. This cave contained spare weapons, though it had many built-in. These included spears, a sword and razor sharp throwing discs. It moved with lightning speed, causing it to appear to vanish as it moved.

In appearance, it had a sleek silver body with a featureless mask. It may have been left over from the ancient war games instituted by Rassilon, or a recent arrival brought into the Zone by President Borusa using the Time Scoop.

The Doctor and Sarah witnessed a party of Cybermen wander into its territory. It quickly destroyed them all. The distraction allowed them to escape, the Doctor taking some steel rope from its cave with which to reach the top of the Tower.

Played by Keith Hodiak. Appearances: The Five Doctors (1983).

• Hodiak Hampden Sears (1950 - 2025) was a Guyana-born actor and dancer.
• He featured in the movies An American Werewolf in London, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Full Metal Jacket and Revenge of the Pink Panther, whilst TV roles included The Chronicles of Narnia and Are You Being Served?.
• The robot's origins are obscure, and the name doesn't help. Is it a robot created by Raston Warriors, or a Warrior Robot created by the Rastons? Or indeed a quite distinct autonomous robotic race?
• The non-fiction BBC book The Monster Vault claims that the name Raston derives from "Rassilon Automaton", suggesting they were created specifically for the Death Zone.
• Ironically, the costume was a reused version of the Cyberman sentinel androids seen in Earthshock.
• The Robot was a late addition to the script, replacing a sequence set in a village populated by Autons.

R is for... Rassmussen

A scientist encountered by the Doctor and Clara Oswald on the Le Verrier space station, which was in orbit around Neptune. In the 38th Century, the human race had sought to maximise productivity by reducing the need for sleep. This was still essential for physical and mental health, but technology had been developed to compress it into a matter of minutes rather than hours. 

Professor Gagan Rassmussen was the inventor of the Morpheus Pod, which rewired the human brain via a carrier wave, allowing its user to achieve a month's worth of rest in only five minutes.

An unfortunate side effect of his improvements to the system was a build-up of rheum in the eye, which gained sentience through the carrier wave. The pod users were then consumed by the resulting organisms, known as Sandmen. Rassmussen himself was a victim, but the Sandman which devoured him was able to take on his likeness.

He then manipulated the rescue party which was sent from Neptune to find out why contact had been lost with the station, creating a seemingly plausible scenario for why he had survived. His plan was to beam the Morpheus carrier wave out across the Solar System to infect everyone and so create more of his kind.

This would be achieved through people viewing the footage from the station, with the carrier wave hidden within the transmission. This was why his contrived narrative had to be exciting and interesting to watch.

The Sandman Rassmussen could not hold his form once the station's gravity shields were destroyed, and he crumbled to dust.

Played by Reece Shearsmith. Appearances: Sleep No More (2015)

• Mark Gatiss wrote the part of Rassmussen especially for his fellow League of Gentlemen star Shearsmith. Gatiss had already featured in the series, twice, as well as writing for it, whilst the third of the Gentlemen - Steve Pemberton - had guest starred in Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead.
• In 2013, Shearsmith portrayed Patrick Troughton in An Adventure in Space and Time, which was written by Gatiss.
• One other Doctor Who connection - again through Gatiss - are appearances in the P.R.O.B.E. spin-off videos, which featured Caroline John as Liz Shaw, and Auton, all produced by Bill Baggs.

R is for... Rassilon

The founder of Time Lord society. A scientist, engineer and later politician, it was he who had harnessed the nucleus of a Black Hole to provide the power source for Gallifrey's initial experiments in time travel. This Black Hole had been the result of an artificially created supernova - detonated by fellow engineer Omega. He had apparently perished in the process, and it was Rassilon who would become known as the first and greatest of the Time Lords - the premier Lord President of the High Council.

He invented a number of objects which would bear his name - some ceremonial and some practical. These included items used in the inaugurations of future Presidents, such as the Sash and Coronet. The President also bore a sceptre-like device known as the Great Key, but the real key was actually the controlling mechanism for a powerful weapon and it was entrusted to the Chancellor.

The Sash was actually designed as a protection against the energies of the captured Black Hole nucleus, whist the Coronet gave its wearer the power to control the minds of others.

In its earliest days, Gallifrey was an interventionist power. Rassilon led campaigns against a race of giant vampires, devising Bow Ships as a weapon against them, and the spider-like Racnoss.

Whilst he went on to become a much loved, almost legendary figure, there were rumours that he abused his power. Another of his creations was the Time Scoop, and this was used to abduct alien beings to fight barbaric games, held in a region known as the Death Zone. He would come to be buried in the Dark Tower at the centre of this region - and it was even said that the other Time Lords had actually deposed him because of his tyranny and imprisoned him there.

Whilst Rassilon had died physically, his life force persisted. On his body was his ring, which it was claimed could bestow upon its wearer immortality. 

Future President Borusa discovered the Time Scoop and - wishing to become President Eternal - used it to hijack various incarnations of the Doctor to clear a path to the Dark Tower for him. 

An image of Rassilon appeared above his funeral bier, which could interact with Borusa and the assembled Doctors.

He granted Borusa his wish - but this was to turn him to living stone, imprisoned for all eternity on the bier.

During the Last Great Time War, the Time Lords resurrected Rassilon to lead them against the Daleks. This was in a younger incarnation, and he was as much a warrior as a scientist and politician. He armed himself with another of his artefacts - a death-dealing gauntlet - and wore armour under his robes.

With defeat on the horizon, he devised an elaborate plan. The Time Lords would ascend to a higher plane of existence, relinquishing their physical forms. Gallifrey remained locked within the Time War, so a bridgehead would be formed with Earth. Here were the last remaining Time Lords out with the time lock - the Doctor and the Master. A secret message was hidden within the Master's mind - a drumming sound composed of four notes, the heartbeat of a Time Lord. He would grow up with this sound in his head, and it would eventually drive him insane. On the last day of the war, just before the Daleks could destroy Gallifrey, Rassilon despatched a physical link to Earth - a gemstone from his staff which the Master would recognise as it was native to their planet. He could then use this to create the bridgehead that would draw Gallifrey out of the time lock and into normal Time / Space - putting the Earth at risk due to its proximity.

The Doctor was able to convince the Master that Rassilon's scheme would spell disaster - helped by the fact that the Lord President showed only arrogant contempt for the Time Lord who had just helped free Gallifrey. The Master fought Rassilon, and forced him back into the time lock, along with Gallifrey.

The planet was not destroyed, however. The combined TARDISes of twelve of the Doctors were able to save the planet by depositing it in a pocket of time at the end of the Universe. 

Rassilon continued to rule. He became obsessed by an ancient legend that stated that Gallifrey would be destroyed by something known only as "the Hybrid". He suspected that the Doctor knew what this was, and so entered into a bargain with the immortal Me to trap him. He would be imprisoned within his own Confession Dial - an object which Time Lords used to store their last will and testament.

After billions of years in a recurring nightmare world, the Doctor was finally able to break free and found himself on Gallifrey. He sought revenge more for the death of companion Clara Oswald - killed during the effort to ensnare him - than for his captivity.

Rassilon sent troops to capture him, but they remembered his actions during the Time War and refused to arrest him. The High Council were then sent to try diplomacy - but the Doctor rejected this. Eventually, Rassilon went to confront the Doctor personally, accompanied by a squad of troops who were ordered to kill him when he refused again to comply.

They rebelled, and Rassilon's power was broken. The Doctor forced him, and the rest of the High Council, into exile.

Played by Richard Mathews, Timothy Dalton, Donald Sumpter. 

Appearances: The Five Doctors (1983), The End of Time (2009/10), Hell Bent (2015).

• Rassilon is first mentioned in The Deadly Assassin, so is the creation of Robert Holmes - though he didn't appear on screen until the 20th Anniversary story, written by Terrance Dicks.
• In his novelisation of The Five Doctors, Dicks stated that Rassilon still lived, but on another plane of existence.
• Spin-off material has a triumvirate leading Gallifrey in its earliest days - Rassilon, Omega and "the Other", who may or may not be the Doctor, but probably is. Though never stated on screen, behind the scenes it was intended that the trio of Time Lords seen briefly in The Timeless Children are they.
• Richard Mathews was a character actor who appeared in the TV classic Children of the Stones and The Satanic Rites of Dracula in a career that spanned almost half a century (1948 - 1993).
• It had originally been hoped that Rassilon would be played by Charles Gray in The Five Doctors - Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever and Mocata in The Devil Rides Out.
• Timothy Dalton will be best remembered as the fourth official James Bond, playing 007 in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill. He was unavailable to reprise Rassilon in Hell Bent due to working in Dublin on Penny Dreadful.
• Donald Sumpter had previously played Enrico Casali in The Wheel in Space, and Submarine Commander Ridgeway in The Sea Devils. He also played the alchemist Erasmus Darkling in The Eternity Trap, one of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• On audio, Rassilon has also been played by Don Warrington (Rise of the Cybermen and Death in Paradise), Terrance Hardiman (The Beast Below and The Demon Headmaster), and Richard Armitage (Robin Hood and The Hobbit trilogy).

R is for... Ransome, Thea

A scientist employed by industrialist Dr Fendelman, who sought to study the human race's earliest origins. During an expedition to central Africa, a skull had been unearthed which analysis showed to be millions of years older than the date currently accepted for the appearance of the human ancestor. 

The skull was brought back to a secluded mansion near the village of Fetchborough, which Fendelman had recently bought to use as a research centre. Along with Thea, he also employed scientists Adam Colby and Max Stael. With the latter, he was conducting secret experiments with a time scanner. He hoped that this would let him see into the distant past, but it was highly unstable.

With the humourless Stael busy with Fendelman, Thea bonded with Adam. 

She began to suffer blackouts, during which she was drawn to the skull. It had a crack in the shape of a pentagram at its crown - a feature which Thea also had.

At one point she collapsed, and several small slug-like creatures appeared briefly on her body. The Doctor recognised these as embryonic Fendahleen which, when fully grown, comprised a gestalt creature with a humanoid core - the Fendahl. 

This creature devoured the life force and if left unchecked would destroy every living thing. The Time Lords thought they had trapped and destroyed it on the fifth planet of the Solar System, blowing up the entire planet and confining the remains within a time loop. However, the core had escaped to prehistoric Earth, wiping out life on Mars on its way there.

The skull from Africa was all that was left of it - and Thea was fated to become the new core.

She was abducted by Stael, who secretly led a local coven devoted to the Fendahl.

Thea was transformed into a golden skinned being who could turn people into Fendahleen.

The Doctor used the time scanner to set up a controlled implosion which destroyed the new Fendahl, then dumped the skull into a supernova to prevent it from ever being resurrected again.

Played by Wanda Ventham. Appearances: Image of the Fendahl (1977)

• Second of three appearances for Ventham in the series. She had previously played Jean Rock in The Faceless Ones, which also featured Donald Pickering. The pair were reunited in 1987 for Time and the Rani.
• She was also considered for the roles of Todd in Kinda, Dr Solow or Lt. Preston in Warriors of the Deep, Jane Hampden in The Awakening, and Queen Katryca in The Mysterious Planet.
• Another notable sci-fi role was as Colonel Virginia Lake in Gerry Anderson's UFO.
• Horror roles include The Blood Beast Terror (1968) and Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1974).
• She is the mother of actor Benedict Cumberbatch, and featured in Sherlock as the consulting detective's mother.

R is for... Ransome, John

Senior salesman with the firm of Auto Plastics. He had helped develop a new doll and had embarked on a sales trip to the USA - only to find himself out of a job on his return. His boss, George Hibbert, had previously promised to make him Sales Director. He went to the factory to protest in person to Hibbert, but was told only that the firm was moving in a new direction. His old laboratory was now a high security area, out of bounds.

Suspicious, he decided to break into the factory later and made it into his old lab. It had strange machinery installed, and one wall was lined with crudely fashioned dummies. He was horrified to see one of these stir to life. Its hand dropped away to reveal a weapon, but he managed to flee. He was spotted by a man named Channing who had taken over the firm by mentally dominating Hibbert. Channing was actually an Auton replica, agent of the Nestene Consciousness which sought to invade the Earth.

Ransome was found by UNIT troops and taken to their HQ where he was interviewed by Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart and the Doctor. They decided to investigate the factory, taking Ransome with them but leaving him at their forward command post. His return to the area was detected by Hibbert, who sent an Auton to destroy him.

Played by Derek Smee. Appearances: Spearhead From Space (1970)

• Whilst he made small appearances in a number of TV series and films, Smee's real passion was for theatre work. He left his personal archive, detailing his 49 year stage career, to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

R is for... Ranquin

Leader of a tribe of Delta Magnans, who had been forcibly relocated from their planet onto its third moon - displaced by colonists from Earth. His people were green-skinned humanoids, whom the colonisers nicknamed "Swampies" due to their natural, marshy habitat. It was the similarity in environment which led to them being placed into a reservation on the third moon.

Ranquin acted as high priest to their god Kroll, who had the form of a gigantic squid-like creature. Legend had it that Kroll had once swallowed a previous high priest, along with their sacred totem.

The entity was now said to sleep beneath the waters of the moon's lagoon.

When the colonists began taking an interest in the rich methane supplies of the satellite, building a refinery offshore close to his village, Ranquin entered into a partnership with a gun-runner named Rhom-Dutt, to supply weapons with which to attack the installation. He was unaware that the gun-runner was really in the employ of refinery manager Thawn, who sought an excuse to wipe out the "Swampies" whom he hated. The weapons would be defective, but still provide the provocation he wanted.

Part of Ranquin's sacred duties were human sacrifices to Kroll. Behind a wall, hidden from view, the victim would be killed by a tribesman dressed as the creature. This fate almost befell Romana, who had come here with the Doctor in search of the fifth segment of the Key to Time.

Kroll proved to be a real creature - wakened from hibernation by the activities of the refinery. The Doctor deduced that it was the cause of the rich methane supply.

Threatened with sacrifice, the Doctor discovered that Ranquin wasn't susceptible to hypnotism.

He eventually led his warriors on an attack on the refinery, and Thawn was killed. Kroll attacked the rig and Ranquin attempted to appease it - only to fall victim to it.

Played by John Abineri. Appearances: The Power of Kroll (1978/9)

• This was Abineri's fourth and final appearance in the programme. He first played Dutch engineer Van Lutyens in Fury From The Deep, before taking on the more substantial role of General Carrington in The Ambassadors of Death. His third appearance was as Railton of the Marine Space Corps in Death to the Daleks. 
• He played Herne the Hunter in Robin of Sherwood, and took on the role of Blake's uncle in the Blake's 7 episode "Hostage" after the death of Duncan Lamont (his co-star in the Dalek story).
• Late in his career, he became well known for playing the butler in a popular Ferrero Rocher advert - ironically set at an ambassador's ball.

R is for... Rani (Chandra)

Rani Chandra moved into Bannerman Road, Ealing, to live opposite Sarah Jane Smith and her son Luke. The Chandras took on the house which had once been home to their friend Maria Jackson. A budding journalist, Rani soon became involved in Sarah's adventures - the first of which involved a sinister clown who was terrorising children. This proved to be the personification of an alien entity, brought to Earth on a meteorite fragment.

Initially Sarah was reluctant to involve another young person in her often dangerous struggles against alien incursions, but quickly came to befriend Rani. So too did Luke's friend Clyde Langer, though he had an issue with the fact that her father, Haresh, was their new headmaster. Her mother, Gita, was a florist.

Rani often struggled to keep her parents from finding out about her new life centred across the street - especially as they usually involved the near neighbourhood or the school itself.

The Chandras had previously lived in the seaside town of Danemouth, where a close friend of Rani had been Samuel Lloyd.

Whilst Sarah was away one weekend, Rani found a pendant at the school which gave its wearers the power to control others. She left it in Sarah's attic, but Clyde allowed his estranged father access to the house and he became possessed by it. Rani, Clyde and Luke called upon Maria - now living in the US - to help track him down.

An entity known as the Trickster - part of the Pantheon of Discord - made repeated attempts to destroy the Doctor through Sarah, and one of these involved tricking her into visiting her home village, when she was still a baby and her parents were still alive. Trapped there, the future was altered - but Rani and Clyde were protected from the changes by one of the Trickster's own devices. In the new timeline, Gita had no daughter.

Gita was later abducted by Mrs Wormwood - really a disguised alien Bane. She was working with a Sontaran renegade to free an ancient power. On this occasion, Rani got to meet and work with Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart.

An encounter with a Judoon officer resulted in Rani and Clyde being punished by being confined to Earth. During this incident, Haresh and Gita were actually confronted by the aliens and questioned by them. Rani pretended to refuse to believe them.

Samuel came back into Rani's life when he contacted her from the children's home he was now living in. He told her about strange activity at the local funfair, which was currently shut down. Having fallen out with Sarah - feeling she treated her like a child - Rani decided to go and investigate on her own. Samuel had tricked her into coming, as an orphan alien named Eve was living in the fairground, protected by its caretaker, Harry. Eve sought only people to play with - controlling their minds to force them into riding the attractions. The others traced her and were able to reunite Eve with her mothership - and she left Earth with Harry and Samuel.

In an alternate future, in 2059, an elderly Rani told this story to a young man. She lived alone in Sarah's old house, a virtual recluse.

The young man turned out to be the son of Eve and Samuel, and the future timeline was restored - with Rani now surrounded by grandchildren.

Rani then got to meet the Doctor himself, nearing the end of his tenth incarnation, when the Trickster used a dying man - Peter Dalton - to ensnare Sarah using an engagement ring capable of hypnotising its wearer. Once married, she would feel compelled to give up her activities. Rani, Luke and Clyde were cut off from Sarah at the wedding venue - trapped in a pocket of time out of synch with the rest of the universe. The Doctor arrived to stop the ceremony.

Rani and her friends got to see inside the TARDIS once the Trickster had been defeated.

After a visit to a haunted house, Rani then encountered the Slitheen and their cousins the Blathereen.

Just before Luke went off to university, he began suffering from nightmares. Soon Rani and the others became part of these dreams. Rani found herself anchoring a TV news broadcast.

After another meeting with Androvax - who had previously escaped from Judoon custody - Rani met the Doctor again, this time in his eleventh incarnation. She had gone with the others to a UNIT base in Snowdonia to attend the Doctor's funeral service. This was all a ploy by a corrupt UNIT officer, in league with the vulture-like Shansheeth, to steal the TARDIS. On this occasion, Rani also got to meet the Doctor's former companion Jo, and her grandson Santiago.

Soon after, Rani and Clyde woke to find themselves apparently the only people left on Earth. They encountered a pair of giant robots who were searching for something. They then came across one other person - a schoolboy named Gavin. It transpired that he was an alien prince, and the robots had been sent to take him home to ascend the throne of his world. After everyone was returned, Sarah told them both that they had not been taken away from Earth due to the Judoon grounding them.

Whilst banned from leaving Earth, Rani could travel in time. A quest from a mysterious shopkeeper sent her to Tudor England, where she found herself a lady-in-waiting to the doomed Lady Jane Grey who had just been crowned Queen of England.

She and Clyde were then duped into changing their allegiance away from Sarah to a new alien-fighter named Ruby. It turned out that she had incapacitated Sarah in order to feed off her, and was an alien herself, recently escaped from a space capsule.

Sarah came to adopt another child - a girl named Sky who had originally been created by an alien race as a weapon of mass destruction.

Clyde then became cursed by an ancient alien artefact, which caused everyone to turn against him - including his own mother and Rani.

Rani and Clyde went undercover as journalists, writing for an over-60's lifestyle magazine, in order to investigate a computer company run by Joseph Serf. They discovered that his miraculous new laptop - the Serfboard - had nothing special about it at all. Serf had actually been killed in an accident and his business manager was using alien slave labour to create a hologram of him - one with hypnotic powers to fool people into thinking the technology was better than it was.

The aliens - Skullions - were freed and taken back home, with the business manager their captive.

As they grew older, Rani and Clyde would come to have romantic feelings towards each other.

Played by Anjli Mohindra, Souad Faress (Older Rani)

Appearances: SJA 2.2 The Day of the Clown (2008) - SJA 5.3 The Man Who Never Was (2011)

• The Chandra family were brought into The Sarah Jane Adventures after the actress playing Maria - Yasmin Paige - decided to leave and concentrate on her education.
• Unlike Luke, and Sarah herself, all of Rani's encounters with the Doctor took place in The Sarah Jane Adventures. She hadn't yet arrived on Bannerman Road during the events of The Stolen Earth.
• Had the series continued, more would have been made of the blossoming romance between Rani and Clyde - nicknamed "Clani" as a couple.
• In spin-off material, the older Rani does become a journalist, and still gets involved with aliens.
• Mohindra later appeared in the Doctor Who story Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror, under heavy prosthetics as the Skithra Queen.
• She also provided the voice of the Mechonoid leader in the animated Daleks serial, part of the "Time Lord Victorious" multimedia event. 
• In 2025 she married Sacha Dhawan, who played the Master opposite Jodie Whittaker's Doctor.

R is for... Rani

A ruthless and amoral Time Lady scientist. She was the same age as the Doctor, so presumably attended the Academy with him.

She left Gallifrey in disgrace after a genetically engineered mouse - part of one of her experiments - bit the Lord President of the High Council.

She eventually found her way to the planet Miasimia Goria, becoming its ruler.

In order to increase productivity amongst its workers, she tampered with their brain chemistry and removed the need for sleep. This had the unfortunate side effect of making them aggressive and unruly. Seeking a compatible humanoid species from which she could extract a chemical to counter this and so calm the populace, she decided on Earth. Its many conflicts could be used to mask her activities.

During Britain's industrial revolution, she set up a base in the northern town of Killingworth - posing as the elderly owner of a bath house serving the local miners.

Once inside, the men were tranquilised with gas and the chemical extracted. The only outward sign was a red mark on the neck - and an increased level of violence and aggression. The area had previously been blighted by Luddite activity, where workers destroyed machinery in the fear that it would take their jobs away from them.

Those who bore the red mark could be killed by her remotely.

The TARDIS was drawn off course to land here - the work of the Master, who sought to interfere with Earth history by disrupting industrial progress.

The Rani found herself caught in the middle of their long-running feud. 

The Master stole the quantity of brain fluid she had already gathered in order to force her into helping him destroy the Doctor. He also helped himself to some chemically impregnated worms which she employed to mentally control people.

The Doctor traced energy signals to the bath house and discovered the Rani's TARDIS there, disguised as a large cabinet.

Posing as a miner, he was gassed and the Rani discovered who he was when she examined his brain.

Later, his companion Peri went into a local wood to find plants for a herbal remedy - unaware that the Rani had planted landmines which transformed their victims into trees.

She was saved by the Doctor, though he almost met the same fate after being captured by miners under the Master's control.

The Rani and Master tried to trap the Doctor in a collapsing mine tunnel. When they tried to leave in her TARDIS, they discovered that the Doctor had sabotaged it. It was sent hurtling forward in time. An embryo T-Rex, kept as a specimen in her ship, began to rapidly grow as centrifugal forces trapped them against the walls...

Some time later, the Rani began working on the planet Lakertya - first enslaving its indolent inhabitants. Their leader, Beyus, and his daughter Sarn were forced to work for her. The Rani was assisted in these activities by the giant bat-like Tetraps, led by Urak.

She had identified an asteroid which orbited the planet as being composed of Strange Matter, which is incredibly dense.

A missile was aimed at this, but she needed a substance strong enough to mount in its warhead - loyhargil. At the same time, she created a huge brain and began kidnapping scientists from across time and space. They would be harnessed to the brain - increasing its intelligence to the point that it would give her the formula for loyhargil. The explosion of the asteroid would not only destroy the planet, but set in motion an elaborate process whereby chronons would form - particles of time. A shell of these would form around Lakertya's remains, and the brain would expand to fill it - becoming a Time Manipulator. The Rani could then use this to interfere in the evolutionary processes of any given planet.

The final scientist she sought, needed to repair her laboratory, was the Doctor. She caused the TARDIS to crashland on the planet, with the fortuitous side-effect of triggering his sixth regeneration. She was able to exploit his post-regeneration trauma - which included amnesia - to get him to work for her. To aid this deception, she impersonated his companion Mel.

The Doctor soon recovered his memories and began to fight against her, aided by a young Lakertyan named Ikona. After being captured, the Doctor's erratic mind almost destroyed the Rani's plan as it confused those already joined with the brain. She was able to get the loyhargil in the end, however.

Eventually, Beyus took a stand against her by sacrificing his life to blow up her base, after the Doctor had meddled with the missile launch sequence - causing it to miss the asteroid.

Urak discovered that the Rani had intended to abandon him and his people when the missile was fired, and so they broke into her TARDIS - now in the form of a low metallic pyramid - and captured her. They planned to take her back to their home planet.

The Rani survived the Time War and the subsequent destruction of the Time Lords by the Master, and soon embarked on a long-term plan to re-establish her race. She arrived on Earth and posed as Mrs Flood - neighbour to the Doctor's companion Ruby Sunday in London's Notting Hill district.

Later, she then moved in next door to his next companion, Belinda Chandra.

She began following them through time and space using a Gallifreyan Time Ring. Seemingly unable to get the TARDIS to land back in London on 24th May 2025, the Doctor used a device he called the Vindicator to take readings at various locations, and these would help guide the ship to the intended date. The Rani then captured these readings herself as part of her ultimate plan. 

After being jettisoned into space during the Interstellar Song Contest, the Rani regenerated. However, this proved to be a bi-generation. 

Mrs Flood remained, whilst a new, younger-looking Rani emerged.

Their relationship was not one of equals, however, as the Mrs Flood incarnation was very much subservient to her new persona.

The Rani travelled to a remote rural area of Bavaria in 1865 and abducted a baby, who was actually the reincarnation of Desiderium - the god of wishes. She turned the child's mother into flower petals, and his father and siblings into animals, using a chemical mouth spray.

Mrs Flood had earlier released from prison a young man named Conrad Clark, who was an enemy of UNIT and the Doctor. He held extreme right-wing views, and wished to see a society which adhered only to his ideology. This world was brought into being as an alternate time-line by the Rani, who used Desiderium to create it.

His world, however, was one specifically designed to collapse under the weight of doubt. When enough people challenged this new reality, the Earth would become inverted - releasing the Underverse.

The Rani was based in the Bone Palace - a huge skeletal structure which straddled London like a spider. She employed Droneguard robots as security, and her equipment was operated by cyborg humanoids who were physically integrated into the systems. There was no sign of her still having a TARDIS.

The Doctor and Belinda had been captured, their memories tampered with so that they would initially believe themselves part of this timeline. The Rani also obtained the Vindicator, which would be used to locate someone within the Underverse - Omega.

The doubt of a Time Lord would be the breaking point for Conrad's world, an event which would trigger the final phase of the Rani's plan. The final destruction of the Earth was repeated each night, until the Doctor was made ready. Once he regained his memories, he warned the Rani that Omega was now a mad god - one whom she would be unable to control. The Time Lords had been rendered sterile after the Master's actions on Gallifrey, and the Rani wanted Omega's pure DNA to help reconstitute the race. On this occasion, the Rani insisted that she never hated the Doctor. In the past she had merely exploited him, or acted against him at the Master's instigation and to prevent him meddling in her work.

The Doctor's warnings proved to be true and, on being released, Omega - now a giant skeletal figure - devoured the Rani. Mrs Flood escaped using the Time Ring, whilst the Doctor used the Vindicator to force Omega back into the Underverse.

Played by Kate O'Mara, Anita Dobson, Archie Panjabi. 

Appearances: Mark of the Rani (1985), Time and the Rani (1987), The Church on Ruby Road (2023), The Legend of Ruby Sunday / The Empire of Death (2024), The Robot Revolution - The Reality War (2025).

• The Rani was created by husband and wife team Pip & Jane Baker. Pip claimed that he had been speaking with a scientist at a party, who pointed out that human beings were simply collections of chemicals - which gave him the idea for a thoroughly amoral scientist.
• Rani means "princess" or "queen" on the Indian subcontinent - the wife of a Raja. It derives from the Sanskrit word rajni.
• The Rani was also employed as the chief villain in the EastEnders / Doctor Who crossover special for Children in Need in 1993 - "Dimensions in Time". In this she was once again played by Kate O'Mara, and the Rani had gained a companion - Cyrian, played by Samuel West (named because JNT had hoped to interest Sir Ian McKellen in the role). The Rani's TARDIS was this time disguised as the Queen Vic pub.
• O'Mara's screen appearances, such as her role in Dynasty, were mainly to fund her theatrical enterprises, specifically works by Shakespeare. 
• She featured in two Hammer Horrors - The Vampire Lovers and Horror of Frankenstein. It was this work which prevented her from taking on the role of Petra Williams in Inferno.
• She was married twice: to Jeremy Young (An Unearthly Child / Mission to the Unknown) and then to Richard Willis (Full Circle). Ian Cullen (Ixta - The Aztecs) was the biological father to one of her children.
• Anita Dobson had already left EastEnders before "Dimensions in Time" was made. She came to fame in the soap playing Angie Watts, landlady of the Queen Vic and wife of "Dirty Den" (Leslie Grantham - Resurrection of the Daleks). She returned for a cameo in the programme's 40th anniversary episode - an hallucination experienced by her daughter.
• She also has a singing career, appearing in a number of stage musicals and had a No.4 hit in the UK in 1986 singing Anyone Can Fall In Love, which was set to the EastEnders theme tune.
• Since 2000, she has been married to Queen's Brian May.
• Archie Panjabi had roles in the British movies East Is East and Bend It Like Beckham, and was later nominated for a number of awards for her performance in the CBS series The Good Wife, which ran from 2009 - 2015.
• Since 2005, nearly every female villain has been rumoured to be the Rani. Steven Moffat teased fans during the filming of Dark Water by having Michelle Gomez declare herself on location at St Paul's to be a Random Access Neural Integrator - or RANI for short. Her real identity was added in dubbing later.
• Scots actress Siobhan Redmond has also played the Rani, on audio.

R is for... Range, Mr

Mr Range was chief science officer on a colony ship which crash-landed on the planet Frontios. This vessel carried survivors from the dying Earth.

Some ten years after the crash, the planet began to be bombarded on a daily basis by meteorites. There were many casualties, and Range took on the additional role of chief medical officer - helping to manage the makeshift infirmary with his daughter Norna. She had been born soon after they arrived here, and her mother was now dead.

Range began to take note of a number of deaths which were unaccountable, keeping this information secret even from his leader, Plantagenet, and Chief of Staff Brazen. The latter was aware of these incidents however, and was keeping the information secret so as not to cause panic. Their society was already fragile, and the slightest spark could trigger anarchy.

Range spoke up for the Doctor after he had helped him tend the injured, and later joined him in an exploration of a cave system beneath the colony - something which Brazen also knew about but suppressed, since he had witnessed the old leader, Captain Revere, apparently swallowed up by the ground here. When the Doctor's companion Turlough suffered a nervous breakdown in the tunnels - the result of contact with creatures named Tractators which his people knew as a race memory - Range helped him back to the surface. Despite being attacked himself by one of the creatures, he went back down when he learned that Norna was in danger there.

Brazen died rescuing Plantagenet from the creatures, but the Doctor rendered them harmless after separating them from their leader, the Gravis. Range was left with his daughter to help Plantagenet re-establish the colony, now safe from the bombardments which had been caused by the Tractators.

Played by William Lucas. Appearances: Frontios (1984)

• Lucas, who died in 2016, had starred as Dr Gordon in the TV series The Adventures of Black Beauty in the early 1970's - a role he returned to in The New Adventures of Black Beauty twenty years later.
• He featured prominently in two science fiction films in 1956 - X the Unknown and The Strange World of Planet X. 1967 saw him appear with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in Night of the Big Heat. He was Inspector Lestrade to Cushing's Sherlock Holmes on TV the following year.
• He made two appearances in The Avengers, including the Terry Nation episode "Invasion of the Earthmen".
• He also starred in ill-fated soap Eldorado - Verity Lambert's only real failure.
• Lucas was called in to play Range after the tragic death of fellow actor Peter Arne, who was murdered shortly after attending a costume fitting for the role.

R is for... Ramo

Ramo was one of the High Priests of the Temple of Amdo in Atlantis. These were the 20th Century descendants of the original city state, which sank beneath the ocean in antiquity.

He hated Professor Zaroff, who had come to Atlantis promising to return the city to the surface to become a great power once more. He distrusted his scheme to achieve this, and was disdainful of his blasphemous opinions about their deity. The Doctor was able to see in him a potential ally - someone who might have the ear of King Thous and who might be able to persuade him that Zaroff's plan would destroy the entire planet. However, the monarch was too much under Zaroff's sway and eager to see his kingdom revived. Ramo was discredited, and sent to the temple to be sacrificed to Amdo along with the Doctor.

Ben, Polly and Jamie were able to rescue them both. Later, Zaroff had been kidnapped by them to stop him putting his scheme into its final phase. The wily scientist feigned illness to escape - killing Ramo with a trident before fleeing.

Played by: Tom Watson. Appearances: The Underwater Menace (1967).

• Watson was a well-known face of stage and screen in Scotland. He is best known for playing the boss of Chief Inspector Taggart - Superintendent Murray - for the first three years of the long-running series.

R is for... Rakweed

When Sarah Jane Smith, Luke, Rani and Clyde were menaced one day by Slitheen, they were rescued by a pair of Blathereen named Leef and Tree. These were a rival clan from Raxacoricofallapatorius, orange in colour, who despised the Slitheen.

Leef and Tree had come to Earth to offer a gift - a flowering plant known as Rakweed, which grew profusely on their home planet. It could be processed to create a highly nutritious foodstuff which could alleviate famine on the planet.

That night, the plant given to Sarah as a sample began to germinate, producing hundreds of spores. Breathing them in, Luke fell dangerously ill. The spores spread out through an open window, and soon the plants were beginning to sprout up everywhere.

Clyde had to sit a science test the next day, and decided to smuggle K-9 into the classroom in advance to help him. Rakweed had established themselves in the lab, and these began to emit more spores.

Sarah was able to use super-computer Mr Smith to work out what was going on. The parasitic Rakweed would soon destroy all life on Earth, as the spores were programmed to eliminate any lifeform which might threaten its existence. 

It transpired that Leef and Tree were actually cousins of the Slitheen, harbouring the same genocidal intent. It was discovered that the plant was susceptible to high frequency sound - noticed when the spores shrank from the school bell. K-9 and Mr Smith were able to replicate and broadcast this frequency across West London to destroy the Rakweed and save Luke.

Blathereen were addicted to the plant and, after gorging themselves on it, Sarah used the frequency to destroy what Leef and Tree had just eaten - blowing them up.

Appearances: SJA 3.6 The Gift.

• Leef and Tree were voiced by Miriam Margolyes and Simon Callow respectively.

R is for... Rakaya

Rakaya was an ancient god-like figure who had been imprisoned in a cell suspended between two stars. She was able to reach out with her mind to connect with the Doctor's companion Graham O'Brien. Because of this, the Doctor decided to mount a rescue mission. As well as Graham, the Doctor's other companions and their friends and family members were being subjected to nightmares, which always featured a sinister figure whose fingers could detach from his hand. These inserted themselves into the victim's ear and induced their dreams.

This was a fellow immortal named Zellin, who had tricked the Doctor into freeing Rakaya. They were both Eternals, who fed on the dreams and nightmares of ephemeral beings, having long ago exhausted their own imaginations.

An ancient race blighted by Rakaya had succeeded in capturing and imprisoning her - but she was now free to cause the human race to have nightmares on which she and Zellin would feast.

The Doctor was able to put her back in her cell, along with Zellin - trapping them forever with a savage creature - a Chagaska - created in the nightmares of a young woman named Tahira, who came from 14th Century Aleppo.

Played by: Clare-Hope Ashitey. Appearances: Can You Hear Me? (2020). 

• The Eternals were first introduced in the 1983 story Enlightenment. 
• Ashitey has appeared in the movie Children of Men, and TV series Doctor Foster.

R is for... Radnor

Commander Julian Radnor was a senior official on the T-Mat matter transportation project. He had previously been involved in rocketry, working alongside the pioneering scientist Professor Daniel Eldred. Earth turned its back on space exploration and concentrated entirely on the new T-Mat system to transport people and goods across the planet. Radnor had foreseen this and moved over to join the project, which caused a rift between him and Eldred.

When the moonbase which housed the vital T-Mat relay station was invaded by Ice Warriors, the system was brought to a halt - causing widespread chaos. In desperation, Radnor turned to his old friend, whom he knew to be working on a secret project to build a new rocket. This would be used to get a team to the Moon who would be able to solve the issues - which were thought to be purely technical at this point.

Initially resistant, the Doctor was able to help Radnor convince Eldred to co-operate. Too old to pilot the rocket himself, the Doctor and his companions volunteered to fly it.

Based in London's T-Mat Control, Radnor had to contend first with alien seed pods arriving, which could suffocate and kill when they germinated, and then with the appearance of an Ice Warrior - sent to ensure that the seeds could establish themselves on Earth and so change the climate to suit the Martian invaders.

Having more of a political role on the project, Radnor had an uneasy working relationship with the ambitious Gia Kelly, senior technician for T-Mat.

Played by Ronald Leigh-Hunt. Appearances: The Seeds of Death (1969).

• Leigh-Hunt would return to the series in 1975 to play another commander - Stevenson - in Revenge of the Cybermen.
• He had earlier played King Arthur in the TV series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, which had starred William Russell in the title role - one which very much influenced his casting as Ian Chesterton.
• He would work again with Wendy Padbury in The Freewheelers, and can be seen in The Omen, which also featured Patrick Troughton.

R is for... Racnoss

The Racnoss were an ancient race of giant arachnids, who plagued the universe in its early history - a period known simply as the Dark Times. They had a voracious appetite for flesh, and were said to be born hungry. 

As they rampaged through the universe, destroying many early civilisations, the Time Lords of Gallifrey decided that something should be done to stop them. They were very much an interventionist race at this point, determined to use their great powers to shape the cosmos and bring order out of chaos. They went to war with the Racnoss and eventually wiped them out - or so they thought. The Racnoss Queen went into hiding whilst one of her spaceships - a Webstar - had wandered into what would become the Solar System. Still forming at this point - some 4.5 billion years ago - gravitational forces caused a new planet to form around the Webstar. This particular Webstar contained millions of the Queen's progeny, which were in a dormant stage. The new planet became the Earth.

In the early 21st Century, the Torchwood organisation began drilling operations beneath the Thames, to the east of London. The Thames Flood Barrier was constructed at the same time, to mask their activities. Torchwood had detected something buried here - which proved to the Webstar.

The Racnoss Queen had also slept through the millennia, but she now returned to resurrect her species by reanimating her children. Torchwood had fallen, and she engaged a human agent named Lance to help her. He worked for a company named HC Clements, which had been a front for Torchwood. 

In order to reanimate her children, the Queen required Huon Particles - an energy source now extinct in the universe, eliminated by the Time Lords as harmful to humanoid life. The Queen had retained some of this energy source and Lance was to secretly dose a co-worker with the particles. The energy would be released, and the host fed to the waking children. The worker selected was a secretary named Donna Noble.

The Doctor became involved with the Racnoss scheme when the Huon Particles in Donna's body caused her to be transported onto the TARDIS, drawn to the ship like a magnet.

The Racnoss Queen had employed the robot Santas, previously used by the Sycorax, to abduct her

Donna was later captured by the Queen but the Doctor was able to rescue her. Instead, the Queen dosed Lance with the particles and used him instead. To stop the newly wakened children from getting to the surface, the Doctor flooded the drilling chamber - draining the Thames - and the Racnoss offspring were drowned.

The Queen fled back to her Webstar - but it was blown out of the skies over London by the army on the orders of politician Harold Saxon (really an incarnation of the Master).

In an alternate timeline experienced by Donna, the Doctor himself drowned achieving the destruction of the Racnoss children.

Played by Sarah Parish. Appearances: The Runaway Bride (2006).

• Parish had previously acted opposite David Tennant in the dramas Recovery and Blackpool, and joked that the pair would eventually end up doing a sitcom together like George and Mildred.
• Other roles of note have included appearances in Merlin, Cutting It, W1A and detective series Bancroft, in which she starred as the title character. She was also a regular in BBC's Atlantis.
• She is married to Primeval star James Murray (who also featured in RTD's Cucumber), and the pair received MBEs in 2025 for their children's charity work.

R is for... Raak

A marine creature native to the planet Thoros Beta, home to the Mentors. One specimen was surgically altered by the corrupt Earth scientist Crozier as part of an experiment to find a new host body for the brain of the Mentor leader Lord Kiv. It was then employed to operate a tidal control machine. When the Doctor and Peri entered the chamber where it worked, it attacked them and the Doctor was forced to kill it with a phaser.

Crozier was alarmed to hear that it had regressed and become aggressive, as this meant that his experiment was a failure.

In appearance it had a bulbous head, clawed tentacles and sharp fangs.

Played by Russell West. Appearances: Trial of a Time Lord - Mindwarp (1986).

Q is for... Qurunx

The Qurunx was a powerful sentient energy form which had almost become extinct throughout the universe. One was being transported through the Toraji system in a space-going train. It was in the physical form of a little girl. The train was hijacked by Cybermen under the command of the Master. A small moon had been converted into a Cyber-conversion planet which had been moved into an orbit around the Earth of 1916, and the Qurunx was required to power this. 

The Qurunx had taken on the form of a child as a defence mechanism - appearing as something which needed protecting.

The Doctor was later able to deactivate its humanoid shield and free it, and in its natural form the Qurunx resembled a mass of glowing tendrils of energy. She ordered it to begin destroying the planet. The Master regained control over it temporarily, and its energies struck the Doctor - triggering her regeneration. The energy form then drifted off into space once the planet had been destroyed.

Played by Neo-Rae Gardener. Appearances: The Power of the Doctor (2022)

Q is for... Quinn

Dr John Quinn was chief scientist at the Wenley Moor research centre, built beneath the Derbyshire countryside. Here, a Cyclotron was being developed which could produce vast amounts of cheap electricity. UNIT were brought in to provide additional security after a series of nervous breakdowns were reported amongst the staff, accompanied by unaccountable power losses. Two of the staff who went potholing in the nearby cave systems were then involved in an incident which left one dead and the other mentally disturbed. Quinn knew the cause of these incidents, but confided only in his friend and fellow scientist Miss Dawson.

He was also a keen potholer, and during one of his expeditions he had discovered a race of intelligent bipedal reptiles, living in a shelter built within the cave system. They were the ancient race of Silurians, who had ruled the Earth before the ascent of the human race. Eager to learn from them, he agreed to assist them in syphoning off power from the Cyclotron to reanimate their hibernating kin - promised scientific secrets in return. He carried out small acts of sabotage, such as tampering with the centre's logbooks so no pattern in the power losses could be discerned.

When one of the Silurians was wounded and forced onto the moors, they sought his help in rescuing it. He was given a summoning device which would attract it to him. After the creature had attacked and killed a farmer at a remote farm, the Doctor and Liz Shaw became suspicious of him as he appeared to have driven well out of his way to visit the scene. UNIT troops then heard the summoning device being activated, and tyre marks indicated that Quinn had been in the vicinity.

The Doctor went to his cottage and found the temperature inside extremely hot, which Quinn dismissed as due to a faulty thermostat - but the scientist had already told Miss Dawson that he had found the Silurian and was going to hold it hostage until its people gave him the knowledge they had promised.

Guessing as much, the Doctor tried to talk him into co-operating with him, but Quinn declined.

The wounded Silurian recovered and killed him.

Played by Fulton Mackay. Appearances: The Silurians (1970)

• Mackay was a strong contender to replace Jon Pertwee as the Fourth Doctor. Producer Barry Letts had met him at a dinner party hosted by Roger Delgado and was impressed by him. However, he was worried that he would give an acting performance as the Doctor, whereas what he really wanted was a natural eccentric whose personality would feed into the role. It became a moot point anyway as Mackay had recorded the pilot for a prison-set sitcom - Porridge - starring Ronnie Barker, and this was to go into series. Mackay became famous for his role as the officious Chief Warden Mr Mackay, also appearing in a movie spin-off and the sequel series Going Straight.
• Other TV roles include an appearance in "The Return of the Cybernauts" for The Avengers, and he was a regular in Special Branch. There were also guest appearances in Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em, Dad's Army and roles in Z-Cars and Coronation Street. He hosted the UK version of children's series Fraggle Rock as the Captain.
• In 1983 he featured in the film Local Hero, appearing opposite Hollywood legend Burt Lancaster and future Doctor Peter Capaldi.
• He died, aged 64, in 1987, and is buried in East Sheen Cemetery. 
• Quinn has the first name Matthew in the novelisation by its writer Malcolm Hulke. His backstory was that he was the son of a famous scientist who bullied him into Physics when he really wanted to be a palaeontologist. He had been married but his wife had died in a car crash.

Q is for... Quillam

Quillam was the sadistic technical director and deviser of programmes on the planet Varos, which had once been a penal colony for the criminally insane. His role was to come up with new forms of torture and execution which would be broadcast to the public as a means of social control. Varos now relied entirely on its mineral wealth - a substance named Zeiton 7, which was essential for space / time vessels. The populace worked under harsh conditions in the mines. The government of the planet were hoping to add the sale of their punishment videos to other planets as an extra source of income.

Quillam's latest experiments were with a transmogrifier, which mutated people into whatever their subconscious desired. Early tests on himself had led to his face becoming horribly scarred, and he wore a mask to conceal his disfigurement. The transmogrifier owed its existence to the observation that the miners grew claws to help them dig better. 

It was tested on the Doctor's companion Peri and her friend Areta, wife of rebel leader Jondar. The latter began to transform into a reptile, whilst Peri became bird-like - assumed to be a desire to fly away from her ordeal.

Pursuing the Doctor and his friends into the very heart of the Punishment Dome, Quillam and the Chief Officer of Varos fell into a trap and were killed - the Doctor having tied up highly toxic vines which were then cut free and swung into their faces.

Played by Nicholas Chagrin. Appearances: Vengeance on Varos (1985)

• Quillam only appears in the second episode of the story.
• Chagrin is the son of composer Francis Chagrin, who wrote the music for The Dalek Invasion of Earth.
• Other TV work included the BBC Shakespeare adaptation of The Comedy of Errors and the 2001 made-for-television version of Murder on the Orient Express.