Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart's ancestry goes back to Scotland, according to dialogue in Terror of the Zygons (1975). He first encounters the Second Doctor in The Web of Fear (1968), when Lethbridge-Stewart is a lieutenant-colonel in the Scots Guards commanding a British Army detachment sent to investigate the Yeti in the London Underground. By his next appearance in The Invasion (1968), he had been promoted to brigadier and was working with UNIT. When the Doctor was forcibly regenerated and exiled to Earth, Lethbridge-Stewart gave him a position as UNIT's scientific advisor after he helped defeat the Auton invasion. Other military members of UNIT included Captain Mike Yates, Sergeant Benton and Royal Navy Lieutenant Harry Sullivan. Most of the stories about the Third Doctor were set on Earth and feature UNIT and the Brigadier heavily. While not as ubiquitous in following years, he appeared alongside every subsequent Doctor in the original television series run, excluding the Sixth Doctor, with whom he appeared only in the 30th anniversary special, Dimensions in Time in 1993. Although Lethbridge-Stewart first met the Doctor in his second incarnation, he also met and worked with the First Doctor in the opening serial of the 10th anniversary season, The Three Doctors and again in the 20th-anniversary special, "The Five Doctors". He eventually retired from the military to teach mathematics at an English public school in 1976, as seen in Mawdryn Undead (1983). The Brigadier and the Sixth Doctor, as well as later incarnations of the Doctor, have been paired in numerous spin-off productions (see Other appearances). As one of the most popular recurring supporting characters in the television series, the Brigadier is often listed among the Doctor's companions. He is listed as such by the BBC and is included in a book by John Nathan-Turner's (a former producer of Doctor Who) discussing all the Doctor's companions. Lethbridge-Stewart's last appearance in a Doctor Who television episode was in 1989, in the Seventh Doctor serial Battlefield. Called out of retirement to deal with an other-dimensional invasion of armoured knights led by Morgaine, he found himself once again at the Doctor's side. Lethbridge-Stewart served as his world's champion as he faced down and killed the demonic Destroyer of Worlds armed only with his service revolver and a load of silver-tipped bullets. (Battlefield was stated to be a few years into Ace's future but not a specific date. The Virgin New Adventures books place it in 1997.) Little was shown of Lethbridge-Stewart's life outside UNIT in the television series. Planet of the Spiders referred to a relationship with a woman called Doris. By Battlefield, he was married to her (played by Angela Douglas). It was Courtney's own belief that the Brigadier had been in a previous marriage to a woman named Fiona, and that he and Doris were having an affair; his first marriage ended due to his work. Although Lethbridge-Stewart never appeared in the revived series, the character is still alive during the Tenth Doctor's tenure. In the spin-off programme The Sarah Jane Adventures story Revenge of the Slitheen, Sarah Jane Smith says to "give [her] love to the Brig". In the Tenth Doctor episode "The Poison Sky", the Doctor mentions that he could use the help of "the Brigadier". He is then told that "Sir Alistair" is "stranded in Peru", indicating that the Brigadier has been knighted by this time. The first film footage from the classic era to appear in the revived era was his photograph displayed in the slow pan across Sarah's attic in the opening scene of The Sarah Jane Adventures première, Invasion of the Bane. In 2008, Courtney again reprised the role in a The Sarah Jane Adventures story, Enemy of the Bane, and confirmed his knighthood repeatedly: Major Kilburne and Sarah Jane each address him as "Sir Alistair" and he later introduces himself fully as "Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart" to Mrs. Wormwood. This episode refers back to the Peru mission as there is mention of him being de-briefed about it. Sarah Jane asks Lethbridge-Stewart to assist her in accessing UNIT's "Black Archive", a top secret alien artefact facility first alluded to by Douglas Cavendish to Sir Alistair's daughter in Dæmos Rising. Sarah Jane prefers to avoid seeking official clearance, to avoid awkward questions about Luke, her artificially-grown son. In his old age, the Brigadier has developed a dislike for the new way UNIT works and often refers to events that happened in "his day". He walks with a walking stick now, but is seen driving a Bentley T-series to UNIT's "Black Archive". His wife (presumably Doris) is mentioned in this episode. The Brigadier assists Sarah Jane and Rani in escaping UNIT and later confronts a Bane disguised as a UNIT officer, shooting him dead with a gun hidden within his cane. In The Sarah Jane Adventures story The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, Clyde Langer tells Peter Dalton that the Brigadier cannot make it to the wedding because he is back in Peru. It had been intended by the production team that Lethbridge-Stewart would indeed appear in the story and meet the Tenth Doctor, but Courtney was recovering from a stroke and unable to take part. He is reported to be in Peru for a third time in Death of the Doctor (2010). Clyde describes him as being Sarah Jane's oldest friend; Sarah Jane met both the Doctor and Sir Alistair in the first episode of the Third Doctor serial, The Time Warrior (1974). In 2009, Courtney reprised the role for a final time in the short film Liberty Hall, an extra for Mawdryn Undeads DVD release. The film is a seven-minute mockumentary where a fictional journalist interviews the Brigadier about his life. The Brigadier discusses his marriages with Fiona and Doris, and mentions his daughter Kate and grandson Gordon (referencing Downtime). He states that his most recent encounter with the Doctor took place in 2000, when he was on unofficial UNIT business in Malebolgia in the United States (referencing the Eighth Doctor audio drama Minuet in Hell). He concludes, "So, now I've hung up my uniform for good... unless I hear that a blue police box has been found somewhere, and then, don't you worry, I'll be ready!" Sometime later, the Brigadier becomes ill and is moved into a nursing home. In 2011's "The Wedding of River Song", the Eleventh Doctor rings the nursing home to have the Brigadier made ready for a trip; a nurse regretfully informs him that the Brigadier died peacefully "a few months ago" and had spoken well of him often, insisting a glass always be kept ready for him in case he turned up. The Doctor is visibly shattered by the news, which forces him to realise that he can't avoid his predestined death. In the 2014 episode "Death in Heaven", Missy (the regenerated female Master) resurrects the Earth's dead as flight-capable Cybermen. The Brigadier's daughter Kate is apparently killed falling from a plane during a Cybermen attack. Overcoming his programming, the converted Danny Pink commands the Cybermen to sacrifice themselves to thwart Missy's plan. The Doctor prepares to execute Missy, but is preempted by a lone surviving Cyberman, who seemingly vaporizes her with a forearm-mounted ray-gun. Finding that the Cyberman has rescued Kate, the Doctor realizes it is the converted Brigadier, saying "Of course! Earth's darkest hour, and mine. Where else would you be?" Overcome with emotion, the Doctor salutes him – something Kate said her father had always wanted – and the Brigadier fires his leg jets and flies away. What happens to him afterward is left unknown. In the 2017 Christmas special "Twice Upon a Time", the First and Twelfth Doctors unwittingly intervene when Testimony, an organization in the far future that collect memories from those about to die, retrieve a seemingly-innocuous captain in the First World War from the moment before his death, the temporal anomaly of the two Doctors resisting their imminent regenerations disrupting Testimony's efforts to return the captain to his scheduled death. The Doctors are able to bend the rules and return the captain to a point a couple of hours after he was taken out of time, in time for his life to be saved by the Christmas truce. Before he returns to time, the captain reveals that his name is Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart, suggesting that he is a relative of the Brigadier. Although not confirmed on-screen, Gatiss later confirmed in an interview with Radio Times that the character is one of the Brigadier's grandfathers. List of television appearances ==Other appearances==