WHATEVER HAPPENED TO... THE BRIGADIER, part two

Chris McKeon returns for the second part of our look at the Brigadier's presence in Nu Who, detailing the events that led to his triumphant return in 2008!

As 2007 began fans knew a few things about the upcoming series three: there would be Daleks, there would be Martha, there would be Jack, and there would be Saxon. But there was still no sign of the returning Brigadier to claim his presence on our screens. But then with a printed battle cry Lethbridge-Stewart made a triumphant return in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine issues 378-380, The Warkeeper’s Crown. This three-part comic reunited the ‘seventy-odd’ Lethbridge-Stewart, clad once more in his military uniform, with the Tenth Doctor (incidentally donning his blue costume for the first time in public) in a wild-paced romp against orcs, dragons, demons, and harpies.

Two old friends reunite - but not on TV!

This comic, for me, and I am convinced for others, was a heaven-sent joy. At last we saw the Brigadier in action with the Doctor of the new series. It was an equal excitement to what I had experienced when Nicholas Courtney had teamed with Paul McGann’s Doctor in the Big Finish audio Minuet in Hell some six years previously, except this time the action was visible, albeit unmoving on the printed page. The story itself was fun and engaging and even managed to touch on the Brigadier’s consideration that his oldest, most peace-keeping friend was now a veteran of war.

Other fans at the time had a two-fold reaction to the Brigadier’s return: excitement and, like me, another equally potent emotion; anticipation. Could the comic return of Lethbridge-Stewart be a harbinger for his television revival, perhaps even as early as series three? Sadly, although the 2007 series was a wonderful collection of stories (perhaps my favourite group since the program returned to television), which featured not only the known quantities of Martha, Jack and the Daleks, but also the welcome return of the Macra and the Master, UNIT was only used as a plot-device in the series finale, and there was not even a single mention of the Brigadier.

The summer of 2007 passed kindly but a little heavily for me as a Doctor Who fan. I think this may have been the nadir of my Brigadier hopes, in part ironically because of his return in the comics; for if Lethbridge-Stewart had returned already off-screen in a media that required only an artist’s hand and a writer’s words then perhaps was there less incentive to recall the then 77-year-old actor to reprise his television role? And then, on 24 September, 2007, something small but significant happened in the then newly-produced Doctor Who spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures.

It was the closing minutes of Revenge of the Slitheen. Sarah Jane Smith, along with her teenage friends from Bannerman Road, had just defeated the Slitheen, and she had received some help from friends in UNIT and was giving them a thank-you call. It was then that she said the words which shook fandom from its summer slumber: ‘Give my love to the Brig.’ Now there was no onscreen appearance of the Brigadier, no voice-over from Nicholas Courtney, but there was his presence, his location, his affirmation: the Brigadier was alive, was active, and was…somewhere close. This affectionate nod recalled several wonderful Brigadier-related moments from that series’ debut episode Invasion of the Bane on 1 January, 2007, including a UNIT-era photo of the Brigadier (alongside an image of the old-fashioned stalwart Harry Sullivan) pinned on the wall in Sarah’s secret attic headquarters, and a moment when Sarah considered naming her newly-adopted son Alistair. I was personally crushed she chose Luke instead and I am confident that I was far from alone in that sentiment.

Colonel Mace and the Doctor miss the Brigadier.

Once more the forums began to buzz with excitement over the potential return of the Brigadier: his character had been mentioned on-screen in the new series era for the first time, so was there any chance this was a sign of his impending return? When it emerged that UNIT, fighting against the Sontarans, would be making a full return to television during series four of Doctor Who in 2008, the pitch of many fans’ excitement exponentially increased. On 3 May, 2008, during the frenzied events of The Poison Sky, the second part of UNIT’s two-part return, David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor muttered a rather marvellous line: ‘At times like this I could do with the Brigadier.’ And then UNIT’s then-commander Colonel Mace eulogized the Brigadier, or rather ‘Sir Alistair’ and revealed a gold mine of information: ‘Unfortunately he’s stranded in Peru.’

I honestly feel this was the watershed moment for Doctor Who fans hoping for the Brigadier’s return. Close on the heels of Sarah’s affectionate shout-out to her old friend, there in the parent series was a direct reference not only to the Brigadier’s past but to his then-current whereabouts! Although the rest of the 2008 series came and went without a further mention of the Brigadier, fans at the time were brimming with hope that all these little mentions and nods to Lethbridge-Stewart were signs of his coming home to television. A Radio Times interview with Nicholas Courtney published on 1 April 2008 gave no hints for the Brigadier’s future in Doctor Who, but it gave a clear window into the then 78-year-old actor’s thoughts on the prospect: ‘If the script were right, I’d love to do one story. It’d be great fun. And they’ve brought back Sarah – of course, Lis Sladen is still very pretty. And the Master.’

And so fandom hoped for a wonderful uncertainty, but not for long. In late June, 2008, set reports and photos from the filming of The Sarah Jane Adventures’ series two finale episodes declared a certainty: Sir Alistair had returned. At long last Nicholas Courtney’s Brigadier was recalled to active service to assist Sarah Jane Smith and her friends against a sinister Sontaran/Bane alliance in the two-part adventure Enemy of the Bane. These episodes, filmed in June and July of 2008 and broadcast on 1 and 8 December of that year (just days before Courtney’s 79th birthday) were a joy to behold. Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (a Knighthood he received in the 1997 novel The Dying Days) was on our screens once more. He was older, he was slower, he walked with a cane and left most of the action to Sarah and her teenager friends, but he was still the Brigadier through and through and he could fire a great shot!

Brigadier Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart returns - at last!

It was a dream made true: the Brig was back even if the Doctor could not be there, too. But now fans had hope for their long-awaited onscreen reunion. Fans had onscreen evidence, a precedent, a certainty that the Brigadier had returned and could return again, and this time with the Doctor. As 2008 drew to a close some small rumours began circulating that Sir Alistair would indeed return to The Sarah Jane Adventures series three. Around Christmas time there were further rumours that the old soldier would feature in a story centred on Sarah’s disastrous wedding and that the Doctor would be an unexpected guest.

As 2009 dawned there was a very special sense of hope and gladness in fandom both old and new, a sense that good things had come and better things were yet to come. And the best thing of all was that Sir Alistair had returned and he would return again.

And then, he didn’t. And for reasons far worse than I ever expected.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO... THE BRIGADIER, part one

Our Brigadier theme continues with a new three-part article looking at the Brigadier's presence, or lack thereof, in the series since it returned in 2005, with guest contributor, Chris McKeon...

I am a Doctor Who fan. Although this is always special to say in late 2014 it is nothing unique to state – since the program’s return to television in early 2005 (or really mid-2004 if you were lucky enough to see Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper filming in person) practically everyone in the world is either a fan of the show or will be tomorrow. It’s just that popular to be a Who fan in modern life.

I can remember very clearly when it wasn’t. I may be one of many today, but not too long ago I was the only person in my school, my city, maybe even (as I probably flattered myself), my entire country, who proudly claimed to be a Doctor Who fan. Although these days I don’t attract so much constant attention to myself about my personal program preferences, I still think I am one of the few American twenty-somethings who was an active and unashamed Who fan during the series’ barren Wilderness Years, or as real-life calls it, the 1990s.

Bret Vyon, descendent of the Brigadier?

So if there is anything I can claim rightfully, it is I am a lifelong Doctor Who fan. I am also a never-say-die supporter of the series’ arguably (but in my opinion there is no such argument) greatest supporting character: Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.

Anyone who reads this article probably already knows who the Brigadier is and that he was portrayed on-screen and in audio adventures by the late and sorrowfully missed Nicholas Courtney. Therefore I need not rehearse in detail Courtney’s roughly forty-six year association with the program, during forty-three of which years he played Lethbridge-Stewart (if someone reading this wonders what Mr Courtney was doing with Doctor Who before there was a Brigadier and UNIT, I recommend a fun internet search with the words ‘Bret Vyon’). 

I will take a moment, but only a moment, to describe how much I love the character. Never mind that my formative years watching the program were the repeat airings of Jon Pertwee’s UNIT Years, where the Brigadier and other stalwart UNIT friends helped the Doctor and companions defeat monsters, madmen and the Master; never mind that while watching every story between Planet of Evil and Snakedance not an episode passed that I didn’t wonder (as Tom Baker’s Doctor forcefully demanded in The Seeds of Doom) ‘Where’s the Brigadier?’. Never mind that when Lethbridge-Stewart finally returned in Mawdryn Undead my heart swelled with joy; and certainly never mind that when the adventure Battlefield reached my screens something special happened that made my less than ten-year-old self leap across the room. If I may, I will recreate the moment here in prose (please keep in mind I somehow missed the opening scene at first viewing).

“This is a nice story. Future knights and that lady from Willow and Ace and Merlin is the Doctor. And there’s now a grey-haired man with a moustache in a military uniform. Wait, that grey-haired moustache man looks like – IT’S THE BRIGADIER!”

Never mind all of that (although I will always remember it). I love the Brigadier’s character so much because he reminds me of my Dad and my Grandpa, men I hope to emulate in my life. My Dad I still have. My Grandpa I don’t, not since March of 2002. That was a sad day that I had to accept emotionally, and which I have, but as long as Nicholas Courtney (whom as I grew up I became happily aware was a kind and good man deservedly beloved by countless people) and his Lethbridge-Stewart character were both still alive I felt, in some small way, that I still had a part of Grandpa (who amongst many things was a World War II naval veteran) still alive with me.

Memories of good people sweeten my life; in fact, I think those flavoured memories are what keep me alive and happy. So let’s take a trip down a recent alley of Memory Lane, through a brief corridor I saw as leading to something special, which really led to something more bitter than sweet, but which I now feel may one day have a sweeter, if uncertain future.

Wind back the clock just over eleven years to 25^th September, 2003. On this date the world heard the official announcement of Doctor Who’s approaching return to television. Now for me this date of destiny was deferred to 8^th June, 2004, when I learned about the good Doctor’s return in a postcard from a friend (I was serving as a church missionary during 2003 in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas and so was mostly removed from all matters science fiction). But from that day onwards I was more than excited, I felt liberated, almost vindicated: all those teenage years of waiting and hoping and defending the good Doctor with the honest, heartfelt anticipation that one day I would hear of his imminent – and I considered inevitable – return had finally proven the adage of waiting for good things.

The Brigadier and the woman from WILLOW

First and foremost on my mind were all the old friends and foes that would return to reunite with the Doctor. I was honestly never worried about the chances of creatures like the Daleks, Cybermen or the Master – I was nearly certain those most frequent of villainous favourites would drive children behind their sofas once more. In fact, although I wanted all of the great monsters and allies to strike the screen again (and some of those greats have only recently arrived to terrorise; is there no love for Ice Warriors and Zygons?) these are the few characters that I felt were either secure in their returns, simply because to me without their presence Doctor Who almost cannot be Doctor Who:

• The Daleks
• The Cybermen
• The Master
• Davros
• The Time Lords
• The Brigadier

Almost from the beginning the Daleks proved their essentiality to the series’ renaissance in the spring on 2005. On 5^th March, 2005 I was happily surprised to see the Autons return even before the horrible pepperpots, but seeing the Nestene soldiers awaken in a manner shatteringly similar to their first appearance in Spearhead in Space made me long for the stalwart presence of the Brigadier even more. UNIT’s brief cameo in the Aliens of London/World War Three two-parter did nothing to make me forget that Nicholas Courtney’s signature role was absent from the main proceedings of the 2005 series. And this absence worried me, for although Lethbridge-Stewart was undoubtedly on my list of ‘must-returns’ to Doctor Who, I could not then nor can I now deny that his space on that most wanted list came with not only the most heart-warmth but also the least guarantee.

As Doctor Who series one aired on television I enjoyed the Doctor, the companion, the new TARDIS interior, and the new monsters. But my familiar face-longing thoughts kept returning to what Craig Hinton told me at the January 2005 Gallifrey One Los Angeles convention, when I asked him if he thought the producers would ask the then 75-year-old Nicholas Courtney for one more go. I will never forget the sad look in Craig’s eyes as he sighed and said: ‘Well, he’s not getting any younger’. I wanted to hope that what Craig really meant was that the almost-elderly Courtney and his enduring Lethbridge-Stewart were far too valuable to the program to delay their reappearance. But when series one ended with no Brigadier in sight or mention, and a departing Doctor who never (and still has not) met his best military friend, I began to find it hard to ignore that Craig had really meant something else.

Still, Doctor Who was on television again and with a cliffhanger ending that meant there would be more stories to tell. With the casting announcement of the then relatively unknown but highly promising David Tennant in the role of the Tenth Doctor, the future of the series seemed bright with expanding horizons. By the time series two debuted on 15^th April, 2006 fandom was aware of not only the returning Cybermen (another checked for my ‘must-returns’) but also the welcoming home of former 1970s companions Sarah Jane Smith and K9. And their return was a spiking moment of rising hope for me: for not only were two long-departed companions crossing paths with the Doctor again but they were returning after decades of absence and the series was not afraid to show it: Sarah was middle-aged; K9 was rusted and broken down. And as I enjoyed a healthy dose of Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker nostalgia, I felt a swell of hope that if one UNIT-era companion could return then so could another, even a then 76-year-old man called out of retirement. Surely Lethbridge-Stewart could return.

And then, he did. Just not quite in the way I expected.

Part two... soon!

THE HISTORY COLLECTION

Original Cover Art

More Doctor Who novel reprints are on the horizon. Following the Doctors Collection of 2013 and the Monster Collection of 2014, BBC Books are set up to release the History Collection in February 2015. So far four books have been added to the banner, two of which were previously published by Virgin Books in the mid-1990s and have been out of print for over fifteen years.

These two novels are Paul Cornell's Human Nature (originally published in 1995), voted best ever Doctor Who novel by the readers of Doctor Who Magazine. This novel holds a unique place in Doctor Who prose history as the only novel to be adapted into a TV story. It was adapted by Paul Cornell in 2007 for the third series of the revived show. Originally it featured the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield, a companion created exclusively for the Virgin Books New Adventures series, and has since had a long and successful life in her own series of audio dramas produced by Big Finish. Which brings us nicely to the second reprint...

Gareth Roberts' The English Way of Death has been highly regarded since its initial publication in 1996, perfectly capturing the tone and style of season seventeen. The rights to the story have recently been purchased by Big Finish and an audio adaptation is due for release next year.

Original Cover Art

Two books previously published by BBC Books in the early-2000s finish off the History Collection. The first is the Third Doctor novel, Amorality Tale by David Bishop (originally published in 2002), which stands as the only original novel thus far to be set during season eleven and feature Sarah Jane Smith as companion.

The fourth, and currently final, novel being reprinted in the 2001 Sixth Doctor book, The Shadow in the Glass, which is another off-TV meeting between the Sixth Doctor and the Brigadier and sees them travelling back to World War II and an adventure with Adolf Hitler. This book was written by then BBC Books' editor Justin Richards and his predecessor, Steven Cole.

COMPANIONS GRAPHIC BY MORGANBLUEBOX

Check out this amazing infographic by fan morganbluebox featuring all of the Doctor's companions from the TV series.

You can see a bigger version and order a full size print here.

COMPANIONS

A brand new Doctor Who book is now available from Candy Jar Books for pre-order. Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants is an unofficial and frank guide of the Time Lord’s adventures in space and time. Drawing on plots from the TV series as well as other media, this book is fascinating reading for fans of both the classic and current series of Doctor Who.

To coincide with the launch of the book the publisher, Candy Jar, is asking fans to vote for their favourite Doctor Who companion. The results will be released when the book is published in June. To vote go to:

www.candy-jar.co.uk/companions/index.html

Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants provides readers with an in-depth account of each Doctor's fellow travellers.

Andy Frankham-Allen has been a Doctor Who fan since his childhood and has relished the opportunity to write this book in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the series. Andy, who penned several Short Trip stories for Big Finish, feels the time is right for a more detailed look at the journey of the Doctor Who companion. He said: “It's been a long time since there's been an honest and frank look at the Doctor's journey and the lives he changes. This book will challenge the notion that he always takes the best.”

Gary Russell, former Doctor Who Magazine editor, Big Finish producer, BBC script editor and Doctor Who novelist, has provided the book’s foreword. Garysaid: “Of course there have been books about companions before – but few of them go into this amount of detail, display this amount of in-depth knowledge and above all, this amount of love. As a celebration of everything that makes the Doctor’s (and therefore our) best friends unique and special, this book is essential.”

Signed copies of the book are now available to pre-order from the Candy Jar Books website (www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/companions.html) for no additional charge.