The Graff Vynda-K, often referred to simply as the Graff, is the main antagonist of the Doctor Who story "The Ribos Operation".
He was portrayed by Paul Seed.
Biography
The Graff was the ruler of the planet Levithia. He fought for the Cyrrhenic Alliance in a series of wars, but during his absence, he was deposed by his people, who had tired of his tyranny, and replaced by his half-brother. He found he had few friends, growing bitter, and was left with only a small amount of troops, led by his loyal general Sholakh.
The Graff was approached by Garron, who claimed to be a representative from a mining company and offered to sell him the pre-industrial planet Ribos. In fact, Garron was a confidence trickster with no rights to the planet, but made it seem attractive with a fake mineralogical report claiming the planet was rich in jethryk, a mineral used to power star cruisers. The Graff dreamed of using the jethryk to hire a mercenary army to retake his home planet. Garron further enticed him by having his associate Unstoffe plant a lump of jethryk in the Riban trophy case, then pose as a guard and tell him it came from a lost mine. The Graff agreed to give Garron a deposit, which would be kept under guard by the local guard (or Shrieve) captain.
However, the Graff began to realise there was more to Garron than met the eye when he discovered his room was bugged. He took Sholakh and the rest of his men and captured Garron, also capturing the Doctor and Romana after mistaking them for his accomplices. He considered killing them immediately but was distracted when he was summoned by the Captain, who revealed Unstoffe had stolen both his gold and the jethryk. The Captain used a local witch, the Seeker, to track Unstoffe to the concourse. The Graff had his men cover the exits, ready to kill everyone there, but Unstoffe had already fled to the catacombs. Since no-one had ever returned from there, the Captain considered the matter closed, unwilling to risk his men to recover the Graff's gold.
The Graff prepared to search the catacombs with his own men and Sholakh suggested they enlist the Seeker. When the Captain delayed summoning her, the Graff casually killed one of the Captain's men as a warning. The Seeker agreed to help them but predicted all but one of their party would die. With her guidance, they located Garron and Unstoffe, and killed Binro, an old man who had helped Unstoffe. Taking the gold and jethryk, the Graff prepared to kill the two confidence tricksters, but an attack by one of the Shrievenzale beasts, coupled with the Captain using a cannon to seal the catacomb entrance, caused a rockfall that killed all the Graff's men and cut them off from Garron and Unstoffe.
Driven mad by the death of Sholakh, his only friend, the Graff recalled the Seeker's prophecy and promptly killed her, intending to be the sole survivor. He gave the Doctor, disguised as one of his men, a bomb and prepared to leave him behind in the catacombs. The Doctor managed to switch the primed bomb for the jethryk and the bomb went off in the Graff's pocket, killing him.
