Hilda Winters Hilda Winters was a member and leader of the Scientific Reform Society , a group secretly planning to take over Earth . Twenty years later , she made numerous attempts to destroy Sarah Jane Smith , and eventually , the city of London . Biography . Ms . Winters was acting as the Director of the National Institute for Advanced Scientific Research , when she was asked by UNIT to give journalist Sarah Jane Smith a tour of their facilities , and to display their Experimental Prototype Robot K1 . When Winters demonstrated its inability to kill by asking it to terminate Sarah ' s life , the robot became confused , claiming that such an order conflicted with its prime directive . Within a few days it became clear that Winters was also the leader of the Scientific Reform Society , a group that felt the world should be forcibly ruled by the scientific elite . The group used the robot to obtain the nuclear missile codes of all nations in order to blackmail the United Nations with the threat of a nuclear holocaust . Winters and the other Society members retreated to their nuclear bunker , with the Robot defending them . However , the Robot accidentally disintegrated its creator , sending it into a rampaging confusion . The Fourth Doctor shortly defeated the robot , got into the bunker with UNIT ' s help , and reprogrammed the Society ' s computers before any nuclear missiles could be launched . Winters and the Scientific Reform Society members were caught and arrested . ( TV : " Robot " ) After serving fifteen years in prison for her crimes , Winters was determined to exact revenge on Sarah Jane by framing her for a terrorist attack on the London Underground and the murder of Claudia Coster , although she hired henchmen to carry out her work so that Sarah Jane wouldn ' t detect her presence . ( AUDIO : " Test of Nerve " ) After this , Winters contracted Christian Abbotly to disrupt a peace conference in Romania using a deadly new experimental sound technique . When Sarah Jane showed up to investigate the first death resulting there , Winters expanded the contract to include her . Again , Sarah Jane solved and foiled the plot , but Winter ' s role in the affair went undetected . ( AUDIO : " Ghost Town " ) At this point Winters took the affronts personally , and vowed to see Sarah Jane dead by whatever means necessary . First she had some associates break into Sarah ' s house and steal the non - functional K9 Mark III , then worked to frame Sarah for the planned release of Brucella bacteria into the India n water supply . During this time , Hilda and Sarah Jane encountered each other for the first time since 1974 . Hilda ' s plan was once again foiled , but she escaped to continue her vendetta elsewhere . ( AUDIO : " Mirror , Signal , Manoeuvre " ) Three years later , Sarah Jane received news that Hilda had died whilst under arrest , and felt a slight remorse for her , even though she considered Winters one of her greatest enemies . Sarah received a letter shortly afterward from Hilda , warning her about the Crimson Chapter of the Orbus Postramo , and that the Book of Tomorrows was opening . ( AUDIO : " Buried Secrets " ) It was later revealed that Winters was a member of the Crimson Chapter , sent to test whether Sarah Jane was the herald described in the Book that would help bring about the prophesied End of Days . When Ms . Winters took the job a bit too personally , she proved herself a liability to the Chapter , and they had her killed for it . ( AUDIO : " Fatal Consequences " )