Friday, January 31, 2025

Who is the Brigadier?

Once upon a time when Doctor Who was barely on the air for a few years, they introduced a character that was probably meant to be a one-off. But he appeared again the next season. Was the Brigadier meant to be more? Or did the writers think they’d forget about him? One thing is sure, Doctor Who wouldn’t be the same without Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.

Before UNIT and before he was a brigadier, Alistar was a lieutenant-colonel in the British Army. During this time period, he met the Second Doctor and encountered the Great Intelligence and its yeti (and they made it seem for a moment like the would-be brigadier was the bad guy). By the time he encountered the Doctor again, he was formally a brigadier with UNIT, facing off against the Cybermen.


After these two encounters with the Doctor, the Brigadier probably thought he was done with the Doctor (and maybe hoping he was done with him). But after the Doctor’s forced regeneration, the Third Doctor pretty much dropped on his doorstep. While the Doctor was exiled to Earth, he worked for/with the Brigadier as scientific advisor and I can’t express enough how much I appreciate Lethbridge-Stewart’s exasperation with the Doctor–even better when there were multiple Doctors in play during “The Three Doctors”.

TJ and I discussed it on the podcast recently, but I’ll reiterate it here: There was something great about having a consistent human character for the Doctor to come back to, even after leaving UNIT. Year after year and face after face, the Doctor came back to the Brigadier. The trust and rapport between the man and the Time Lord was amazing. And each Doctor portrayed that same on-screen chemistry so well with him.

In later years, though sent off to South America, the Brigadier still held such respect for the Doctor, wishing only for a return salute (according to his daughter). There were a couple times with the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor that that friendly (albeit skeptical) face would have helped. He was certainly a sight for sore eyes when he teamed up with Sarah Jane and her friends to get into the Black Archive. I’m glad that Nicholas Courtney was able to appear that last time in modern Who before his passing. News of the character’s passing was relayed to Eleventh Doctor during “The Wedding of River Song” happened with such reverence, solemnity, and simplicity that I couldn’t have hoped for a better send off. 

And almost just as simply, the torch was passed to his daughter Kate Stewart in “The Power of Three” and Jemma Redgrave has portrayed her with such grace and honor that could only fit the Brigadier’s daughter. I love that, despite the passing of Nicholas Courtney, the legacy of the Brigadier has lived on into Doctor Who. In some ways it makes sense to pass the torch along within UNIT but it makes it even better that his daughter took the mantle of authority, skepticism, and loyalty.

Looking back on the Brigadier, I wonder what the writers originally intended for him alongside the Second Doctor. There’s no way they could have predicted his impact on the Third Doctor era when he first appeared. I love that strong, loyal men and fathers have been portrayed throughout the 60+ years of Doctor Who. Though we never saw Kate Stewart on screen with her father (unless you count the Cyber-Brig), the impact he had is obvious with each appearance she makes. And that makes me want to be even more intentional day by day with my daughters.

So here’s a salute to the Brigadier!

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