Home > Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

Lethbridge-Stewart first appeared in the Patrick Troughton Season 5 serial The Web of Fear , where he was a Colonel in the Scots Guards. By his next appearance in the Season 6 serial The Invasion , he had been promoted to Brigadier and was working with UNIT.

Lethbridge-Stewart at first appeared to be a stereotypical by-the-book martinet. Very often, the Doctor felt frustrated at working with him because the Brigadier's typical response to any threat was to shoot at it (a catchphrase of his was, "Five rounds, rapid"). In turn, Lethbridge-Stewart was skeptical of the strange phenomena and super science the Doctor habitually encountered, and was just as frustrated with the Doctor's eccentricities. However, over the years the two developed a close working and personal relationship, as well as mutual respect for each other's abilities.

The Brigadier always faced the unknown with unflappable British aplomb. He has shown himself to be a true warrior in combat, ruthless when he has to be, and heroic in the face of the often overwhelming odds that he and UNIT faced over the years. He eventually retired from the military to teach mathematics at a British public school in 1976 ( Mawdryn Undead).

Most of the stories of the Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who were set on Earth and heavily feature UNIT and the Brigadier. While not as ubiquitous in the following years, he has appeared alongside nearly every subsequent Doctor through to the Seventh DoctorSylvester McCoy (born August 20, 1943) is a British actor. He is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who the last before the programme was cancelled in 1989. He was born, as well as with the Eighth DoctorPaul McGann (born November 14, 1959) is an actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer in which he played the lead role. Following on from that part, he was cast as the eponymous "I" in Bruce Robinson's cult film comedy, Withnail and I in the Doctor Who audio series produced by Big Finish ProductionsBig Finish Productions is a British company that produces audio plays based on British cult science fiction properties. They are best known for their Doctor Who line; other properties include 2000 AD characters Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog, The Tomorrow. He did not appear alongside the Sixth DoctorColin Baker (born June 8, 1943) is a British actor who is best known for playing the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who''. Playing the Doctor from 1984 to 1986, he had a mass of curly fair hair in the series, but they met in the charity special Dimensions in TimeDimensions in Time was a charity special of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that ran in two parts on November 27 and 28, 1993. They were the only dramatised episodes to celebrate Doctor Who 's 30th anniversary, the show having bee and the Big Finish audio play, The Spectre of Lanyon Moor. Courtney also played the Brigadier in two BBC Radio 4Radio stations 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of chiefly spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It is broadcast on 92 95 MHz FM and 198 kHz longwave; and via DAB, satel Doctor Who plays, The Paradise of Death ( 19931993 is a common year starting on Friday and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003 Events January January 1 Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic.) and The Ghosts of N-Space ( 19961996 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty''. Events January January 5 Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone Jan), alongside Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.

Little was shown of Lethbridge-Stewart's life outside UNIT in the television series, although Planet of the Spiders revealed he was in a relationship with a woman called Doris. It was Courtney's own belief that the Brigadier was married, and that he and Doris were having an affair. Some of the spin-off novels featuring the Brigadier corroborate this belief. The spin-off UNIT videos Downtime and Daemos Rising feature Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, the Brigadier's daughter by his first marriage.

The novels, though not considered canonical, also expanded his background, giving Lethbridge-Stewart another offspring. While on duty in Sierra Leone as a young lieutenant, Lethbridge-Stewart met and was intimate with a local girl named Mariatu, the daughter of a village chief. Unknown to Lethbridge-Stewart, she had a son which she named after him. This was hinted at in Ben Aaronovitch 's novelisation of his 1988 serial Remembrance of the Daleks, which featured quotes from a fictional history of UNIT written by a Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart in 2006. In the 1992 New Adventures novel Transit (also by Aaronovitch, and set in 22nd Century), the Doctor meets the adopted daughter of General Yembe Lethbridge-Stewart, one of Mariatu's descendants. This daughter, also named Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart, went on to become a recurring character in the New Adventures.

Lethbridge-Stewart's last television appearance was in 1989, in the Sylvester McCoy Season 26 serial, Battlefield , where he was seen to be retired and married to Doris. 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. In what might have been his finest hour, Lethbridge-Stewart served as his world's champion as he faced down and killed the demonic Destroyer armed only with his service revolver and a load of silver-tipped bullets.