Kane (Dragonfire)

Kane and Xana were part of a criminal gang on the planet Proamon. After he was captured by security forces, Kane was exiled to the cold, dark side of Svartos. Once there he became the ruler of the space trading colony, Iceworld, though he secretly hungered for vengeance on his people for banishing him.

As time passed, he persuaded or purchased others as slaves and minions, convincing them to enter his service and carry out his whim. Kane's body temperature was so low, that he could kill humans by simply touching them, though he would die if exposed to direct sunlight or extreme heat. Kane's main henchman was Belazs.

Kane took his own life by exposure to direct sunlight when the Seventh Doctor informed him that Proamon's sun had gone supernova, leaving no-one else on which to take his revenge. (TV: Dragonfire)

Behind the scenes

 * Originally, the character was scripted to be named "Hess." However, around this time (August 1987), the Soviet Union government had announced that they were no longer blocking the release of Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess on humanitarian grounds, an announcement closely followed by the 93-year-old Hess' death by apparent suicide at Spandau Prison in Berlin, West Germany. These events forced a name change to Kane.
 * "Kane" came about because it also had four letters, which allowed the script editor, Andrew Cartmel, to easily replace "Hess" with "Kane" in the scripts. (DOC: Fire and Ice)
 * In 2021, Peel reprised the role in the webcast A Business Proposal for Mel!, which reveals that Kane survived his exposure to sunlight. Decades after the events of Dragonfire, Melanie Bush hosts the reality television series 24 Carat. Kane, introduced as "a visitor from the Ice Colonies", appears on the show to pitch Mr Melty, his patented face peel, which he says is "guaranteed to strip away the ravages of time". Mel rejects his proposal.