Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart

Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
Lethbridge-Stewart as he appears in the movie
Other Version(s)	Anastazy Lubica-Stugocki 🇵🇱 Erik Långström 🇸🇪
Aliases	Brigadier Colonel
Species	Human
Place of Origin	Earth
Family	Doris Lethbridge-Stewart (Spouse)
First Appearance	The Web of Fear
Latest Appearance	Doctor Who
Date of Death	3446
Place of Death	Karn
Created by	Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln
Main Actor	Nicholas Courtney
Other Actor(s)	Maurice Brooks

The following article is written from an In Universe perspective.

Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart — often called the Brigadier or the Brig — was one of the founders of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Through his work, he became a trusted ally of the Doctor, as well as a personal friend.

A turning point in his life was the Great Intelligence's invasion of London, where he met the Second Doctor and Anne Travers and was inspired to defend Earth from alien threats.

Lethbridge-Stewart grew close to the Doctor's third incarnation in the several years they spent together combating alien incursions during the Doctor's exile on Earth. After the Third Doctor's regeneration — which the Brigadier witnessed — the Doctor became more distanced from Alistair and UNIT. After several adventures with later incarnations of the Doctor, the Brigadier retired from UNIT and became a teacher at Brendon Public School.

Lethbridge-Stewart eventually left Brendon and returned to working with UNIT, having many more encounters with the Doctor and extraterrestrial menaces.

Alistair eventually died when a time distortion caused him to switch places with an Alien pilot in a crashing ship. The crash killed him instantly.

Biography 

Early Life

Old Spence's" influence caused Alistair to finally enlist at Sandhurst Military School. He became acquainted with fellow student Billy Rutlidge. (DW: The Invasion)

In 1954, he was a lieutenant stationed in Sierra Leone. While lost there, Lethbridge-Stewart met Mariatu, the daughter of a chieftain. Unknown to him she bore him a son, Mariama. (DW: Transit)

At some point he joined the Scots Guards and was stationed for a time at Aldgate. (DW: The Green Death)

Some time in the 1960s, eleven years before the spider invasion, he had a romantic encounter with Doris in a Brighton Hotel. (DW: Planet of the Spiders)

First contact and return to Bleode

Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, while serving in Libya with the Scots Guards 2nd Battalion, was called back to England on the request of his old mentor and friend, Colonel Spencer Pemberton, to assist with the London Event. He replaced the deceased Colonel Pemberton, who was killed in hand-to-hand combat with a Yeti. He and Driver Evans were the sole survivors of a Robot Yeti ambush at Holborn before heading down to the London Underground to take command. It was at this time that Lethbridge-Stewart first met the Doctor, in their second incarnation, Lethbridge-Stewart showed a quick, decisive manner - though with a brief moment of shellshock after losing a second platoon in a running battle - and a ready acceptance of events, even believing the story about the TARDIS from the start. (DW: The Web of Fear)

The UNIT Years

UNIT was duly organised, with Lethbridge-Stewart promoted to Brigadier and appointed head of the United Kingdom branch. (DW: The Invasion)

Four years after the Yeti invasion, UNIT investigated the mysterious activities of electronics industrialist Tobias Vaughn. Vaughn was allied with the Cybermen in their attempt to conquer Earth. With the help of the Second Doctor and his companions, the Brigadier and his men thwarted them. (DW: The Invasion)

Having found the Doctor's help to have been invaluable, the Brigadier set out to recruit a full-time scientific advisor to UNIT. He approached Dr Elizabeth Shaw, who was initially sceptical of both the offer and the idea of aliens. At the same time, he re-encountered the Doctor, who had been forced to regenerate into his third incarnation and exiled to 20th century Earth by the Time Lords. The Brigadier took on the new Doctor as UK UNIT's scientific advisor, with Liz Shaw acting as his assistant. He and the UNIT troops were then aided by the Doctor and Liz in stopping an invasion by the Nestene Consciousness. (DW: Spearhead from Space)

He and the new Doctor lacked the easy rapport they had enjoyed during the Doctor's previous incarnation. Their relationship was further strained when Lethbridge-Stewart ordered Corporal Nutting to set off explosive charges around the Wenley Moor Silurian colony, after promising the Doctor he had no hostile intentions towards them, killing the Silurians, (DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians)

The Brigadier was observing the recovery mission of Mars Probe 7 when suddenly they lost contact with the astronaut. He later encountered the Ambassadors and learned that General Carrington had met them several years ago and planned to expose them live on public television in order to scare the general public, the Brigadier with help from the Doctor, Liz and UNIT troops managed to stop him. (DW: The Ambassadors of Death)

The Brigadier set up a temporary base of operations at an experimental drilling project designed to penetrate the Earth's crust, he and UNIT were tasked with providing security. He later attempted to help Liz look for the Doctor after he had mysteriously vanished. (DW: Inferno)

The Brigadier employed Jo Grant as the Doctor's new assistant. Along with Captain Yates, they were immediately plunged into another Nestene invasion of Earth where the Brigadier met the Master for the first time. (DW: Terror of the Autons)

Lethbridge-Stewart oversaw UNIT when it provided security for a World Peace Conference, while the Doctor investigated an unusual machine at Stangmoor Prison. However, both their jobs coincided, as the Master had devised an elaborate plan to disrupt the conference — first through an assassination attempt and then through a hostage situation at the prison. With the Doctor trapped inside, the Brigadier and UNIT infiltrated Stangmoor to retake control and rescue the hostages. However, the Master's allies within the prison hijacked a missile as well. Due to some careful bargaining by the Doctor, the Master was distracted enough for UNIT to destroy the Machine and the missile, although the Master managed to escape. (DW: The Mind of Evil)

UNIT troops took charge of a crashed spaceship near the Nuton Power Complex in south east England. The Brigadier accompanied the Doctor, Jo, Government Minister Horatio Chinn and some scientists in gaining access to the ship and encountering the, seemingly benign, Axons. They then presented their new material Axonite which could do many wondrous things but it was Chinn who gained possession of the Axonite before any negotiations could be started. It became clear that the Master was helping the Axons to invade the Earth and UNIT troops fought many battles against the now hideously tentacled beings. They were only stopped when the Doctor managed to put a time loop around their ship. (DW: The Claws of Axos)

When the Doctor and Jo investigated an archaeological dig in the village of Devil's End, they discovered the Master masquerading as the local vicar. With them and other members of UNIT in the village the Brigadier was unable to access Devil's End because of a heat barrier which had been generated by the Master. He and his men eventually gained entry through the barrier, but could not pass the animated gargoyle Bok, who was unaffected by gunfire and a bazooka shot. When Bok was rendered immobile after the Dæmon Azal's powers turned against himself, the Brigadier and UNIT managed to arrest the Master and take him away to stand trial for his many crimes. (DW: The Dæmons)

While in talks over an international incident, the Brigadier arranged an investigation into the "ghost" that delegate Sir Reginald Styles had apparently met at Auderly House before the delegates arrived for the World Peace Conference. After the Doctor drove off in the Brigadier's Land Rover to follow some 22nd century guerrilla fighters, the Brigadier took part in the Conference. When the Doctor returned from the 22nd century, the Brigadier and UNIT helped repel a Dalek attack. The Brigadier evacuated Auderly House, as Shura's dalekanium bomb would have killed all the delegates inside, sparking World War III. (DW: Day of the Daleks)

The Brigadier oversaw an attack on the Newton Institute in an attempt to stop the Master from controlling Kronos and time. (DW: The Time Monster)

Although the Brigadier and the Third Doctor's relationship improved to a close friendship over time, the Doctor's formal ties with UNIT began to gradually fade when his exile ended. (DW: The Three Doctors) When Jo Grant left UNIT to get married, the Doctor lost another tie to the organisation. (DW: The Green Death, The Name's Shakespeare, William Shakespeare)

The Brigadier invited the Doctor to a scientific research centre to find out what happened to the leading scientists that had vanished there. The Doctor found them (DW: The Time Warrior, Now Those Days Are Gone) in the 13th century, (DW: The Sontaran Experiment) and returned the scientists home. (DW: The Time Warrior, Now Those Days Are Gone)

dinosaurs started appearing in London and the Brigadier and UNIT had several skirmishes with various dinosaurs. It soon became clear that Captain Yates was working with the people making the dinosaurs appear. These were a group of scientists and politicians called Operation Golden Age who wanted to take humanity back in time to prehistoric Earth and start again. At another point the Brigadier was relieved of command by General Finch (another of the conspirators), but, having regained command of UNIT and the Doctor having stopped the Golden Age project from going ahead, Lethbridge-Stewart arranged for Yates an "extended sick leave and a chance to resign quietly". (DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)

Sarah and the Brigadier witnessed the Doctor regenerate into his fourth incarnation after battling the Eight Legs on Metebelis III. (DW: Planet of the Spiders)

Eager to leave Earth for further travels, the newly regenerated Doctor did help UNIT defeat the K1 Robot before taking off in the TARDIS with Sarah and Lt Harry Sullivan. (DW: Robot) Not completely having abandoned the Brigadier, the Doctor had left him a space-time telegraph to contact him in case of emergency. (DW: Revenge of the Cybermen) Even so, the Doctor was openly resentful when the Brigadier used it to summon him back to Earth for the destruction of an oil rig, which he initially considered a trivial matter. After defeating the Zygons, who had been behind the attack, the Doctor and Sarah again left in the TARDIS. (DW: Terror of the Zygons)

After UNIT

Late 1970's and early 1980's

Lethbridge-Stewart retired from UNIT and the army. He took a post as an A-level maths teacher at Brendon Public School.

In 1977, the Brigadier saw and touched hands with his own future self from 1983. The time differential shorted out, causing an energy discharge. The Brigadier fell unconscious and spent the next six years in a state of partial amnesia, having forgotten ever meeting the Doctor (DW: Mawdryn Undead)

The Brigadier was attending an anniversary reunion of UNIT when, along with the Second Doctor, he was captured and transported to the Death Zone on Gallifrey. They eventually found their way through to the Tomb of Rassilon, where the Brigadier was also reunited with the Third Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Tegan Jovanka. He knocked out the Master when he appeared shortly later, after which Rassilon returned him to Earth. (DW: The Five Doctors)

The 1990's

By the 1990s, Lethbridge-Stewart had married his second wife, Doris, with whom he had a memorable holiday years before. (DW: Battlefield)

The Brigadier came out of retirement briefly to help UNIT and its new commander, Brigadier Winifred Bambera, deal with an invasion from a parallel universe by the sorceress Morgaine. Once again, he met the Doctor, now in his seventh incarnation. Together they defeated Morgaine. Lethbridge-Stewart distinguished himself during these events, singlehandedly taking on the Destroyer and dispatching him, armed only with a revolver loaded with silver bullets. (DW: Battlefield)

Death

To be added. (MOV: Doctor Who)

Legacy

As he lay dying, the Fourth Doctor imagined the Brigadier calling his name. (DW: Logopolis)

When the Daleks probed the Fifth Doctor's mind, a memory of Lethbridge-Stewart appeared on the screen. (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks)

Alternate timelines

A parallel Earth had its own version of the Brigadier, Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart. Loyal to the fascist leader who governed his version of Britain, the Brigade Leader was the antithesis of the Brigadier. He was shot and killed by his lieutenant, Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw, while trying to force the Doctor at gunpoint to help him escape his doomed Earth. Unlike Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart lacked both a moustache and his left eye. (DW: Inferno)

In an alternative timeline where the Silurians had killed the Third Doctor and taken over the Earth, the Brigadier and the remains of UNIT continued to fight them over the next twenty years. He realised who the Eighth Doctor was quickly after only a few moments, and asked the Doctor how he could be in front of him when it was known he was dead.

After the Doctor averted his plan to destroy the Silurians with nuclear missiles in 1994, he agreed to begin negotiations with them.

Lethbridge-Stewart was killed along with all the other inhabitants of that universe when the Doctor time rammed his TARDIS with the one he acquired there, destroying that universe. This was because the energy used by the alternate timeline shortened the existence of the main universe by billions of years. (DW: Blood Heat)

Personality

Lethbridge-Stewart was a strong-willed, strict military man who was dedicated to his job. (DW: The Web of Fear) He was initially skeptical about the idea of an alien invasion, but after his encounter with the Yeti and the Great Intelligence his mind was changed. (DW: The Web of Fear, The Invasion) However despite becoming aware of extraterrestrial lifeforms, the Brigadier sometimes found it hard to understand what the Doctor was talking about. (DW: The Claws of Axos, The Time Monster) He initially refused to believe that the Third and Second Doctors could exist at the same time, initially believed that the inside of the TARDIS was some kind of illusion created by the Doctor using UNIT equipment and was initially convinced that the Second Doctor had moved UNIT HQ to a beach on Earth. (DW: The Three Doctors)

Lethbridge-Stewart had a strong working relationship and friendship with the Doctor. (DW: The Web of Fear) Though the two occasionally clashed and disagreed with each other (DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Green Death), he trusted the Doctor's judgement and believed that he knew what he was talking about. (DW: Day of the Daleks) The Brigadier had a strong admiration for the Doctor, occasionally remarking, "Wonderful chap, all of them." (DW: The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors)

Lethbridge-Stewart did not approve of any jokes or amusement from his staff while on duty. (DW: Inferno, The Mind of Evil) He disliked the idea of putting everyone on alert for the Master on the basis of a dream, fearing that UNIT would be made a laughingstock. (DW: The Time Monster)

The Brigadier was happy with retiring, even saying on a couple of occasions that he was too old for getting wrapped up in the Doctor's adventures. (DW: The Five Doctors, Battlefield) However he would willingly return if the Doctor was involved as he felt it was his duty. (DW: Battlefield)

Lethbridge-Stewart had very old-fashioned views when it came to women. While he was perfectly happy to hire Liz Shaw and Jo Grant as UNIT scientists (DW: Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons), he believed that women should not get themselves into dangerous situations as he felt it was a job for men only. (DW: The Invasion, ect) He also wasn't fond of the idea of doing the gardening or the cooking. (DW: Battlefield)

Physical Appearance

During his initial encounter with the Doctor, Lethbridge-Stewart appeared as a tall, young man in his late thirties. (DW: The Web of Fear) By the time of the incident with the Giant Maggots, he had started to look middle-aged. (DW: The Green Death) By the time of his death, Lethbridge-Stewart resembled an elderly man in his early seventies. (MOV: Doctor Who)

Hair and grooming

During his first meeting with the Doctor and his time in charge of UNIT, Lethbridge-Stewart had short black hair. (DW: The Web of Fear) By the time he met the Fifth Doctor, his hair had started to turn grey. (DW: Mawdryn Undead) It had turned fully grey by the time he met the Seventh Doctor. (DW: Battlefield) By the time of his death, Lethbridge-Stewart's hair had turned silver. (MOV: Doctor Who)

During his career, the Brigadier sported a black, clipped moustache. (DW: The Web of Fear)

Other Information

Alternate Versions

See Anastazy Lubicz-Stugocki.

See Erik Långström.

• The Sixth, Ninth and Tenth Doctors are the only three incarnations prior to his death that the Brigadier had no on-screen interaction with, although the Brigadier in Blood Heat was an alternate version.

Parodies and Pastitches

• A parody of the Brigadier portrayed by Peter Glaze appeared in a Doctor Who parody sketch titled Hello my Dalek, which was featured on the BBC children's show Crackerjack.
• Another parody of the Brigadier appeared in a corporate video advertising Zanussi. This video was produced in 1981 and also featured Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor.
• The Brigadier and Sergeant Benton made a brief appearance in an issue of the Marvel Comics series Uncanny X-Men.
• The Marvel Comics series Excalibur introduced two characters, Alistaire Stuart and Brigadier Alysande Stuart of the Weird Happenings Organisation (W.H.O?) The two characters names were a nod to the Brigadier and the organisation was a nod to both UNIT and Doctor Who.
• In the Italian comic book series l matrimonio di Sergej Orloff (2013), Martin Mystère volume 330, Lethbridge-Stewart makes an appearance alongside UNIT.

Behind the Scenes

Creation

Colonel Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart was originally to appear only in The Web of Fear as a supporting character. He was the creation of writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, to whom royalties had to be paid whenever the character was used, although it is a matter of public record that such credit and payment was rarely given. The character remains the copyright of Mervyn Haisman (via his Literary Estate run by his granddaughter, Hannah Haisman) and Henry Lincoln.

Almost killed off

Before the 2003 movie, there was one previous occasion where the Brigadier was meant to be killed off. During development of the Season 26 story Battlefield, Ben Aaronovitch originally had the Brigadier dying in the explosion that occurred after he shot the Destroyer, however Aaronovitch couldn’t bring himself to actually kill him off so rewrote the ending.

List of Appearances

Doctor Who Season 5 (1967-1968) The Web of Fear Season 6 (1968-1969) The Invasion Season 7 (1970) Spearhead from Space Doctor Who and the Silurians The Ambassadors of Death Inferno Season 8 (1971) Terror of the Autons The Mind of Evil The Claws of Axos Colony in Space (cameo) The Daemons Season 9 (1972) Day of the Daleks The Time Monster Season 10 (1972-1973) The Three Doctors The Green Death Season 11 (1973-1974) The Time Warrior (cameo) Invasion of the Dinosaurs Planet of the Spiders Season 12 (1974-1975) Robot Season 13 (1975-1976) Terror of the Zygons Season 20 (1983) Mawdryn Undead 20th Anniversary Special (1983) The Five Doctors Season 26 (1989) Battlefield Season 31 (1994) Blood Heat Season 37 (2000) Who Killed Kennedy? (cameo)

Movies 2003 Doctor Who (cameo)