Eric Stahlman

Professor Eric Stahlman was the founder and head scientist of the Inferno Project.

Biography
Eric Stahlman grew up in the ruins of post-war Germany (PROSE: Inferno) and became a scientist, founding the Inferno Project. (TV: Inferno) He was known to Dame Emily Shaw, who described him as an "old goat". (AUDIO: The Last Post)

Stahlman was obsessed with completing the project quickly and fought anyone who might delay it — including Sir Keith Gold, Greg Sutton and the Third Doctor. He was infected with Stahlman's ooze and mutated into a Primord. He was killed when the Doctor and Sutton sprayed him with a fire extinguisher. (TV: Inferno)

Appearance
According to one account, Stahlman was a burly man. (PROSE: Inferno)

Behind the scenes

 * "Stahlman" translates from German as "Man of Steel", a pseudonym used by Joseph Stalin.
 * Olaf Pooley was in his mid-50s when the TV story Inferno was filmed. Stahlman growing up in post-war Germany would require the events of the novelisation to be happening in the near future from when it was written (1984), fitting the original intention that the Pertwee era is in the near future; or that he's younger than in the episodes, being in his mid-to-late 40s. Alternatively, as Pooley was born in 1914 you could assume the war is the First World War rather than the second.