|
|
 |
|
The
Brigadier
(1968, 1970 - 1975, 1983 & 1989) |
|
Nicholas
Courtney |
|
Son of a diplomat Nicholas Courtney was born in Egypt
and grew up in various countries. At the age of 18
he was called up for National Service, as a private,
which lasted for 18 months. He then attended the Webber
Douglas Drama School for 2 years followed by a period
in repertory theatre. Appearances in television then
followed including the part of Mavic Chen in the 1965 Doctor
Who story "The
Daleks' Master Plan". He was then
cast to play the part of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart
in the 1967 story "The
Web of Fear" and then, as The
Brigadier, in the 1968 story "The
Invasion". He continued
to play this part throughout the whole of the Third
Doctor's era and then off and on until 1989. He has
also appeared on stage, in various films and on television
including The Avengers, Juliet Bravo, All
Creatures Great and Small and Sink or Swim.
He has also played the part of The Brigadier in the
Reeltime Pictures video production Downtime in
1995 and also in the Children in Need charity special "Dimensions
in Time". He also provided the linking material in
the video release of "The Invasion" and has also returned
to the role of The Brigadier in two radio plays, along
with Jon
Pertwee and Elisabeth
Sladen, and also in the Big Finish Production's
audio stories "The
Spectre of Lanyon Moor" and "Minuet in Hell" as
well as the UNIT range of audio stories.
In 2008 he reprised his role as The Brigadier in the Doctor Who spin-off show The
Sarah Jane Adventures.
Unfortunately Nicholas Courtney died, after a short illness,
in February 2011 at
the age of 81.
|
|
Nicholas Courtney has the unique distinction of being the only actor to have
appeared with all of the first eight Doctors. He was with the First
Doctor in "The
Daleks' Master Plan" (as Bret Vyon), "Dimensions in Time" with Colin
Baker and he also met the Eighth
Doctor in the Big Finish Audio play "Minuet
in Hell" and again in "Zagreus".
Actually Nicholas Courtney has actually worked with nine actors who have
played The Doctor as he also took part in two Big Finish Audio stories
that David Tennant was also involved in (albeit before David Tennant became
the Tenth
Doctor). These were Doctor Who Unbound #2: "Sympathy for
the Devil" and "UNIT: The Wasting".
|
|
|
|
 Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
was the Commanding Officer of the British branch of the United
Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). However, his first appearance
was as a Colonel during the Yeti's second invasion attempt in
the 1968 story "The
Web of Fear". It was during this
story, while in the deserted London underground, that he met
The Doctor and they became good friends. Soon after this story
he was promoted to Brigadier and was given the command of the
newly formed UNIT, having been a key played in persuading the
UN to form an organisation to deal with threats like the Yeti
after their last attack.
 |
| The Web of Fear |
|
His next encounter with The Doctor was in
the 1968 story "The
Invasion". He instantly involved
The Doctor in helping him sort out the Cybermen's attempt
to invade Earth and during this story their friendship is
strengthened. As The Doctor was still in his second
incarnation it is not surprising that when they meet again, after The
Doctor was forced to regenerate, that he did not recognise
him. However, when he was finally convinced that this stranger
is The Doctor he was quick to persuade him to become UNIT's
scientific adviser, even though this post had already been
offered to Liz Shaw. In exchange for The Doctor's continued
assistance at UNIT, The Brigadier allowed him to use UNIT's
resources in his attempt to repair the TARDIS. He even supplied
The Doctor with an Edwardian roadster which The Doctor named
Bessie, and which he retained for The Doctor's use even
after The Doctor and he had retired from UNIT. They made
a good team mainly due to their mutual need for each other,
despite The Brigadier’s decision to resort to a military
solution causing conflict with each other at times, although
The Doctor came to accept that his friend only resorted
to such methods when he was sure that there was no other
choice.
It
was also during this period that he became heavily involved with
the renegade Timelord known as The
Master. The capture of The Master
became one of The Brigadier's crusades as he too was humiliated by
The Master just as much as The Doctor was. The Brigadier was also
involved with Autons, the Silurians - this encounter causing particular
damage to his relationship with The Doctor as he destroyed the Silurian
base despite The Doctor’s belief that the two sides could work
together -, Omega, an invasion of dinosaurs and of course the Daleks.
Unfortunately, these events resulted in the breakdown of his marriage
to his wife Fiona as he was unable to tell her the truth about his
work with UNIT, resulting in the two of them divorcing during The
Doctor's attempts to make peaceful contact to a newly-awoken group
of Silurians in "The
Scales of Injustice". The two never
successfully reconciled, although The Brigadier did go on to make
peace with his daughter Kate during the events of "Downtime";
he even learned that she had named her son after him.
 |
| The Invasion |
|
The Brigadier appeared throughout the whole of the Third
Doctor's era and so became use to The Doctor's eccentricities, ranging from his unusual stories about meeting historical figures to his unique approach at dealing with strange problems. However, nothing could have prepared him for the events of Omega’s assault on the universe, where The Brigadier not only had to accept that he had actually travelled to an alien world in the TARDIS - to the extent that he was initially convinced they had arrived in Cromer -, but was forced to accept the return of the Second Doctor, initially assuming that The Doctor had simply been messing around with the TARDIS and caused his body to revert back to its previous form. Although Benton supported The Doctor’s story, The Brigadier continued this belief until he saw the Second and Third Doctors together, noting after witnessing the First Doctor that he didn’t know when he was well off, and reflecting after the earlier Doctors had departed that one Doctor was more than enough ("The
Three Doctors"). While this story marked the end of the Doctor’s exile to Earth, he continued his service with UNIT for the rest of his third incarnation, until he was forced to regenerate again after his battle with the Giant Spiders, The Brigadier witnessing the transformation before his very eyes with a solemn observation of ‘Well, here we go again!' he muttered ("Planet
of the Spiders").
The Brigadier came from an old Scottish family with a
long military tradition and, as expected, he was always
neatly dressed in uniform and with his neatly trimmed moustache
he is the typical perception of a British Army officer.
He has a keen and flexible mind... which was fortunate considering
the many encounters with alien species and his close association
with The Doctor!
 |
| Spearhead From Space |
|
He was fiercely patriotic and his first initial response
to any alien attack was to shoot it or blow it up, with his typical response of 'Jenkins. Chap with wings, there. Five rounds rapid' ("The
Dæmons") reflecting his habit of shooting first and asking questions later, as well as being a stickler for military correctness, although he was willing to put protocol aside if the situation was urgent enough. Despite
a rather abrupt manner and a clipped voice he would never
ask his troops, or his fellow officers under his command,
to do something dangerous that he was not be willing to
do himself. This resulted in him getting fully involved
directly and he would often been seen in the thick of a
battle. 'I am not entirely desk bound yet you know' he comments
in "Terror
of the Autons". He was willing to do
whatever was necessary despite knowing that The Doctor would
disagree with some of his actions, most notably in his dealings
with the Silurians. As The Doctor comments in the story "Terror
of the Autons" 'I sometimes think that the term "Military
Intelligence" is a contradiction in terms'.
 |
| The Dæmons |
|
He remained a steadfast, though often bemused, friend
to The Doctor despite their many confrontations ('Pompous,
self-opinionated idiot, I think you said, Doctor!' he commented
in "Inferno" after The Doctor's attempt to leave
Earth, via the TARDIS console, failed). However, he mellowed
with age and his relationship with The Doctor became less
and less abrasive, The Brigadier regularly demonstrating
a willingness to accept The Doctor’s recommendations
even when faced with contradicting orders from his superior
officers. When The Doctor's exile to Earth finally came
to an end The Brigadier was forced to get use to The Doctor
wandering off more and more in the TARDIS, although he always
had faith that The Doctor would be available in a real emergency. Although The Doctor ceased to regularly return to UNIT after he regenerated into his fourth incarnation, despite the many changes to The Doctor's appearance and character over his subsequent incarnations, their friendship stayed as strong as ever, The Doctor consistently regarding The Brigadier as the best soldier he knew and UNIT often calling upon him when circumstances required The Doctor’s aid.
 |
| Robot |
|
As his job at UNIT progressed it became more politically orientated and he had to spend more time in Geneva, the main Headquarters of UNIT. The Brigadier was still present in Britain when the Third Doctor was forced to regenerate after his confrontation with the Giant Spiders ("Planet of the Spiders"), even helping the newly-regenerated Fourth Doctor choose his new outfit ("Robot") and supervising UNIT's efforts against the powerful Zygons ("Terror of the Zygons"). However, during The Doctor's next two televised encounters with UNIT ("The Android Invasion" and "The Seeds of Doom"), The Brigadier himself was absent, requiring The Doctor to work with new military officials such as Colonel Faraday and Major Beresford. After missing an opportunity to help The Doctor deal with a new Kraal invasion aided by The Master ("The Oseidon Adventure") and the Lurons' attempt to infiltrate human civilisation ("The Valley of Death"), The Brigadier had an out-of-sequence encounter with the Ninth Doctor when new anti-alien organisation Albion Defence tried to supplant UNIT as the United Kingdom's anti-alien defence group ("Official Secrets"). Fortunately, The Doctor and The Brigadier were able to prove that recent monster attacks were actually caused by Albion Defence to try and discredit UNIT, with UNIT nurse Tara Misha claiming to work for Albion Defence to expose their crimes. Some time after this, The Brigadier encountered the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice
Summerfield as The Doctor's
old foes, The
Meddling Monk and the Vardans, attempted to
conquer Earth, The Meddling Monk having attempted to turn
UNIT against The Doctor by implanting hypnotic suggestions
in recently-supplied virtual reality training equipment.
Fortunately, The Brigadier's Buddhist meditations - having
converted to Buddhism inspired by The Doctor's example -
rendered him and Sergeant
Benton immune to the hypnosis,
as he was able to recognise and resist the subliminal messages
in the VR equipment. Despite The Doctor's best efforts,
The Meddling Monk managed to get himself appointed UNIT's
new scientific advisor, allowing the Vardans to attack Earth.
The Doctor managed to drive the Vardans away, but not before
The Brigadier was shot by one of The Meddling Monk's allies. Fortunately, Ace was able to make contact with a Chronovore whom The Meddling Monk had been using to change history,
and, having freed the Chronovore, managed to change history
so that The Brigadier was saved. Knowing that The Brigadier's
brand of soldiering wouldn't work in the decade to come,
The Doctor hypnotised The Brigadier to retire from UNIT
for his own good, also making him forget their last adventure.
 |
| The Five Doctors |
|
As far as The Brigadier was concerned, his next involvement with The Doctor is not until the 1983 story "Mawdryn
Undead",
when The Doctor has regenerated into his fifth incarnation.
It is then that we learnt that The Brigadier had eventually
retired from military life and, in 1977, had gone to teach
'A' Level maths at a public school. It is here that he met
Tegan
Jovanka, who was one of the Fifth
Doctor's assistants,
and found himself, along with Turlough, one of the schoolboys,
on an alien space ship. It is here that not only did he
meet the Fifth Doctor but his future self from 1983, the
result of which caused a discharge of time and his apparent
nervous breakdown and amnesia (Relating to anything connected
to his meetings with The Doctor in UNIT) from 1977 to 1983. He met The Doctor again the day before an annual UNIT reception
that he had been invited to attend. At first it is another unexpected
visit by the Second Doctor but he soon finds himself in the Death
Zone, on the Time Lords home plant Gallifrey. It is here that
he assisted four incarnations of The Doctor to defeat Borusa,
a paranoid Time Lord and meets up with some of The Doctor's other
companions and The Master. Despite all of these events he has
now become conditioned to accept the strange situations that he
found himself in, easily accepting the presence of the multiple
Doctors, saying that they're 'Splendid fellows... all of you',
and subsequently helping The Doctors take The Master by surprise
during the final confrontation in Rassilon's Tower ("The
Five Doctors").
 |
Heart of TARDIS
(Dave Stone) |
|
While officially retired, The Brigadier visited UNIT in preparation for another meeting, which resulted in him being kidnapped as part of an attempt to lure The Doctor into a trap ("Heart of TARDIS"). When the Fourth Doctor received a message about this abduction, he explicitly chose to try and help rescue his friend rather than investigate a potential threat to the universe caused by a temporal rift that the Time Lords were concerned about (Although both situations were resolved when it was revealed that the two were connected, as The Brigadier's abductors had created the rift and wanted The Doctor's help sealing it ("Heart of TARDIS")). On another occasion The Brigadier was captured when trying to investigate the company SeneNet, which turned out to be a front for the latest invasion by the Nestene Consciousness, but he was saved by the intervention of the Sixth Doctor and new companion Melanie Bush ("Business Unusual"), even prompting one of the Consciousness's minions to turn against it when the man revealed that he had been a soldier of UNIT during a past mission.
 |
| Battlefield |
|
After The Brigadier assisted The Doctor's other old companions Victoria Waterfield and Sarah Jane Smith in stopping the latest invasion of the Great Intelligence ("Downtime"), he met The Doctor again when the Seventh Doctor and UNIT found themselves facing Morgrain and her knights at Carbury, Morgraine originating from another dimension where she would come to know The Doctor as Merlin in his own relative future ("Battlefield"). Recalled from his retirement in the country with his new wife Doris, The Brigadier nearly sacrificed himself to stop the powerful demon, the Destroyer, by shooting it with silver bullets, but he survived the demon's destruction. Subsequently rejoining UNIT as an advisor, he helped the Eighth Doctor and Bernice
Summerfield fight off an Ice Warrior invasion of Britain ("The Dying Days") and later made contact with the Fifth Doctor on UNIT's behalf while investigating terrorist bombings in Los Angeles in "The King of Terror" in 1999, which turned out to be the work of two alien races going to war around Earth.
 |
The Shadow in the Glass
(Justin Richards & Stephen
Cole) |
|
Still officially retired, he was also sent by UNIT to investigate odd events around Lanyon Moor in an unofficial capacity, which led to him assisting the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe in averting the destruction of Earth by a Tregannan ship when its only surviving pilot was lashing out at Earth in a fit of rage ("The Spectre of Lanyon Moor"). A short while later, after seeing a recording of imp-like creatures that were invisible to the naked eye, he contacted the Sixth Doctor for assistance, and ended up helping The Doctor face a Fourth Reich led by the secret son of Adolf Hitler, although this mission tragically resulted in the death of new companion Claire Aldwych ("The Shadow in the Glass"). Continuing to operate as a discreet investigator for UNIT, The Brigadier decided to look into a strange myth that seemed to be responsible for traumatised and missing hikers on the Scottish mountain of Ben MacDui ("The Grey Man of the Mountain"), which led to a chance meeting with the Seventh Doctor and Ace. While the 'Grey Men' turned out to just be the natives of an alternate universe that appeared on this plane via a rift on the mountain, which The Brigadier mused could have been handled by UNIT on their own, he appreciated this meeting with The Doctor, even inviting The Doctor and Ace to join him and Doris for Christmass.
 |
Minuet in Hell
(Alan W Lear
and Gary Russell) |
|
On a later assignment, The Brigadier was sent to America to oversee the joining of new state Malebolgia (officially this was due to his role in creating a new Scottish Parliament, but this detail may have been part of his cover). During his time in Malebolgia, The Brigaider was soon concerned at the actions of Brigham Elisha Dashwood, a television evangelist with discreet political ambitions ("Minuet in Hell"). While touring Dashwood's institute for the insane, The Brigadier discovered an amnesic Eighth Doctor, whose memories had become fractured between lunatic Zebediah Doe and journalist Gideon Crane; both of them remembered different aspects of The Doctor's life, but neither could be certain which one was the real Doctor. Dashwood was soon revealed to be part of a twisted Hellfire Club who believed that he had made contact with demons, and had chosen The Doctor's current companion, Charley Pollard (also temporarily amnesic) to become his Queen in the Hell he was intending to bring to Earth by allowing her to be possessed by a demon. Fortunately, Zebediah realised that he was the real Doctor in time to restore his full memories, and subsequently worked with Gideon Crane and The Brigadier to expose Dashwood's plans on live television before he was banished to the dimension of the creatures he'd been trying to summon. When a group of alien soldiers came to Earth looking for a leader against their enemies, they drew on the Tenth Doctor's knowledge of Earth to identify The Brigadier as the planet's greatest soldier ("The Warkeeper's Crown"), but The Brigadier rejected this 'offer' to lead their soldiers and helped The Doctor disrupt the technology that created the aliens' clone soldiers.
 |
The Shadows of Avalon
(Paul Cornell) |
|
Some time after this, during the events of "Happy
Endings", The Brigadier,
now dying of old age, was invited to the wedding of the Seventh Doctor's companion
Benny, where The Doctor restored his old friend's memories of his confrontation
with The Meddling Monk, and promised to care for The Brigadier's family after
he was gone. During an attack by The Master, who was attempting to create a new
body for himself, The Brigadier was killed while saving the life of one of the
guests, but thanks to the aid of the former Timewyrm, he was brought back to
life in a younger body. Unfortunately, The Brigadier didn't have long to enjoy his newfound youth before Doris died in a boating accident ("The Shadows of Avalon"), leaving him in a funk that continued until he, the
Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner and Compassion were accidentally pulled into the
dream world of Avalon - inhabited by a Celtic people who had been relocated by
the Time Lords in the past. With the TARDIS destroyed in the transfer, The Brigadier
remained distant from The Doctor, not even telling his old friend about the loss
of his wife, but, in the end, during the war between the humans and the Silurians
of that world - sparked off by Time Lord agents seeking to trigger Compassion's
transformation into a Type 102 TARDIS - The Brigadier finally accepted that life
was only what it was because nothing lasted forever, and, even if he could keep
Doris alive forever, it wouldn't be really living if he wasn't able to properly
treasure the good times they spent together. As the tear between the two worlds
closed, The Doctor and Fitz departed in the transformed Compassion, while The
Brigadier remained in Avalon with its ruler, Queen Mab, who he'd developed feelings
for during his time there (Although he eventually returned to Earth to die of
old age in 2050s ("The King of Terror")).
 |
The Sarah Jane Adventures
"Enemy of the Bane" |
|
The Brigadier's regression in age doesn't appear to match up with his subsequent references and brief appearances in the modern series, but this can be attributed to the Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords disrupting some elements of The Doctor's personal history and thus the lives of his companions. As a result, "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky" and "Death of The Doctor" made reference to The Brigadier as an active figure in UNIT despite his age, while "Enemy of the Bane" saw him assisting his old friend and fellow former companion Sarah Jane Smith infiltrate UNIT's Black Archive to steal a scroll that was being sought by an alien race called the Bane, who had kidnapped
Sarah’s genetically-engineered adopted son Luke (Sarah
didn’t want to go through official channels as she
feared the consequences of drawing attention to Luke’s
existence). Once again, The Brigadier made it clear that
he was still a capable soldier regardless of his age, shooting
one of the Bane disguised as a UNIT soldier with a gun concealed
in his cane and expressing a strong dislike for UNIT’s
current methods.
When he received news of his death ("Let's Kill Hitler"), the Eleventh Doctor decided to spend his last hours looking in on his old friends, but when he called The Brigadier's home to check if he could visit, he learned that his oldest friend had passed away peacefully some months ago. Although The Brigadier's nurses assured The Doctor that he had always spoken warmly of the Time Lord, even leaving a second glass of brandy out each night in case The Doctor decided to visit, The Doctor was clearly deeply affected by this news, recognising how time could catch up even with him as old friends ceased to be there any longer ("The Wedding of River Song"). He even went on to attend The Brigadier's funeral, where he witnessed Liz Shaw, Jo Grant, Sergeant Benton and Captain Mike Yates along with his second, third, sixth, seventh and ninth incarnations ("Shroud of Sorrow").
 |
| Dark Water/Death in Heaven |
|
Although he had assumed that his death ended his association with The Brigadier, the Twelfth Doctor was given a final chance to see his old friend when the latest plot of the resurrected Master featured humanity's dead being converted into an army of Cybermen to spread out across the universe. Despite having been reanimated as a Cyberman himself, The Brigadier's love for his planet, his daughter and his friend proved strong enough to overcome the Cyber-programming, allowing him to save his daughter Kate - the current head of UNIT, although she went by Kate Stewart to ensure that she wouldn't receive any favours - when she fell out of a plane during the struggle. When the Cyber-army was commanded to destroy itself by Danny Pink, the converted boyfriend of The Doctor's current companion Clara, The Brigadier remained behind to watch his friend, killing The Master in order to spare The Doctor or Clara from having to do it. Deducing the identity of the last Cyberman when he discovered that Kate had survived, The Doctor, noting that The Brigadier would never be anywhere else but by his side when Earth and The Doctor faced their darkest hour, gave The Brigadier the final salute his friend had always wanted, The Brigadier nodding in acknowledgement before he departed to destroy himself with the other Cybermen, continuing his long tradition of saving Earth alongside The Doctor ("Dark Water/Death in Heaven").
Even with The Brigadier gone, The Doctor has formed a new but seemingly strong relationship with his daughter Kate, the two first meeting when the Eleventh Doctor was investigating mysterious cubes that had landed on Earth ("The Power of Three"). Despite Kate's military background, she ran the organisation with a focus on scientific research rather than purely military-based tactics, commenting that her father had taught her to focus on science based on his friendship with The Doctor. Even in their first meeting, The Doctor and Kate were grateful for the chance to work together as they analysed the cubes, Kate noting that he was as remarkable as the tales she had heard from her father, The Doctor in return assuring Kate that she was just as exceptional as The Brigadier. As the two have continued to work together, with Kate meeting three Doctors when they drew up a treaty between Earth and the invading Zygons ("The Day of The Doctor") as well as appointing The Doctor president of Earth to coordinate their efforts against The Master's Cybermen army, it seems as though the legacy of The Doctor's friendship with The Brigadier would go beyond The Brigadier's own life, with his daughter upholding the values that The Brigadier had always sought to defend. When circumstances led to the First Doctor and the Twelfth Doctor meeting as they each contemplated dying rather than regenerating ("Twice Upon a Time"), their meeting resulted in an army captain from the First World War being drawn out of his original place in time just moments before his originally-scheduled death. The captain eventually accepted that he had to be returned to his home time, but introduced himself as Archibald Lethbridge-Stewart, suggesting that he was The Brigadier's future grandfather, with the Twelfth Doctor managing to 'tweak' history so that he was spared from his original death by returning him to reality a couple of hours later than when he departed so that he arrived just as the Christmas Truce was declared.
Throughout The Doctor's life, The Brigadier remained The Doctor's oldest non-Time Lord friend, and his friendship has long been one of the few constants The Doctor can rely on in any time, regardless of whatever situation it is they face. His influence was so powerful that, when the TARDIS created a holographic avatar during the "Zagreus" crisis, it chose The Brigadier's physical form to communicate with The Doctor and his current companion Charley Pollard, reasoning that The Brigadier was someone who had been important to both of them (Admittedly, this was a TARDIS that had been corrupted by the energies of anti-time, but it was freed of that influence eventually, and it still says a great deal about how much The Brigadier meant to The Doctor). On a later occasion, the Eleventh Doctor attempted to infiltrate an American military operation in 1963 by disguising himself as then-Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, donning a military outfit and a fake moustache; while this plan failed when an inquiry revealed that the real Lethbridge-Stewart was on manoeuvres in Salisbury Plains, it is still significant that The Doctor defaulted to ‘impersonating’ The Brigadier when he needed a military disguise ("Shroud of Sorrow").
|
