Colonel Archer was an officer in the British Army.
He was in command of the bomb disposal squad sent with Professor Laird to investigate a threat discovered in the London docklands — namely strange canisters discovered by builders in a warehouse. This turned out to be samples of the Movellan virus sent by the Daleks to Earth in 1984 for safekeeping.
Archer was killed by Lytton's "policemen" and replaced by a Dalek duplicate, which was killed fighting Daleks loyal to Davros. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)
Behind the scenes
- In Eric Saward's novelisation of the story, Archer's first name is given as Patrick. This was not derived from any information given in the televised version.