Talk:Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

Rank in The Web of Fear

I changed his rank in The Web of Fear from colonel to lieutenant colonel for these reasons:

• You can't be a (full) colonel in the Scots Guards, or in any other regiment; the highest regimental rank is lieutenant colonel. Past that rank, the officer is deemed to have left his parent regiment and joined the staff. (You can be colonel of a regiment, but that is an appointment rather than a rank, and usually held by a general (often retired), or, in the case of Guards regiments, by a member of the Royal Family: the current Colonel Scots Guards is Field Marshal HRH The Duke of Kent. The role includes presiding over regimental events, sounding out potential new officers, and pursuing the interests of the regiment in the corridors of power: it does not extend to chasing Yeti round the London Underground.)

• Having officially left his regiment, the full colonel no longer wears its distinctive insignia; e.g. its headgear is replaced with a cap bearing the badge of the Staff College, Camberley (see the main picture of the Brig in the article). The BBC have a photo-novel of this story, made from screen-shots of the original series; in them, L-S is quite clearly wearing regimental headgear, with what could be the Scots Guards' cap badge on it (see here for an illustration).

• The rank insignia of a full colonel is two "pips" and a crown; that of a lieutenant colonel, one pip and a crown. L-S's insignia is hard to make out in the photo-novel, but he appears to be wearing a total of two indistinct blobs on his shoulder tabs, rather than three.

• There is no contradiction with the story's dialogue. In speech, the rank's full form is rarely used as a title: Lieutenant Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart would almost always be addressed as and referred to as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart.

About four years (from L-S's POV) pass between this story and The Invasion, allowing enough time for his promotion first to full colonel and then to brigadier —assuming he isn't promoted straight to brigadier from lieutenant colonel, which I understand does, or did, sometimes happen. — Franey 10:08, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

Regiment

I was wrong: whatever L-S is sporting on his hat in The Web of Fear, it's not the badge of the Scots Guards.

It's clearly supposed to be a cap-badge of some sort though. I think it's a thistle. Have a look at this and this.

At the time of broadcast, line infantry soldiers wore the cap badge of their brigade rather than their regiment. If L-S's badge is a thistle, the most likely candidate is the Lowland Brigade, whose badge was a thistle encircled by a belt, superimposed on a St Andrew's Cross (picture). Maybe the belt and cross simply can't be seen in the screen-shots; maybe L-S's badge is an accepted variant; or maybe the producers made a mistake, or deliberately invented their own badge.

Composition of the Lowland Brigade varied over time, but in 1966 it comprised

• The Royal Scots;
• The King's Own Scottish Borderers;
• The Cameronians;
• The Royal Highland Fusiliers.

The only "primary source" I can find that puts L-S in the Scots Guards is The Dying Days. Anyone got any other references? — Franey 15:08, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

Nice research. The only fly in the ointment is that the writers never let reality get in the way of making things up - we know the Whoniverse differs from ours in many ways, so the idea that the Scots Guards did have a Colonel regimental rank and had a thistle for a badge is not that much of a stretch. What I've tried to do in my latest edit is present what we have been told and what the "real world" state of affairs is, and leave it for the reader. See if it works. --khaosworks 15:24, August 5, 2005 (UTC)

You're absolutely right, and thank you for pandering to my pedantry. Changing the Brig's rank and regiment is nothing compared to shifting his entire career 5–10 years back in time: maybe we can blame the Key to Time affair, or Operation Golden Age, or any number of other examples of ill-advised temporal mucking-about. (But I still reckon that's a lieutenant colonel's insignia in the screen-shots.) — Franey 21:42, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

Lieutenant L-S

I recall there was one episode where one of the more recent doctors (number 7 or 8) goes back to Earth in the early 1960s and meets up with someone who is supposed to Be Brig L-S but at a much earlier rank and age. The Dcotor is calling the character "Brigadier", and the character angerily asserts he is only a Lieutenant (or maybe a Captain). Anyone remember the episode? -Husnock 14:00, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

You're thinking of Remembrance of the Daleks, but it wasn't Lethbridge-Stewart, but a character named Group Captain Gilmore. ---khaosworks (talk • contribs) 14:19, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Who does get to meet the Brigadier in the prologue to the novelisation of Downtime, trivia fans. Terrible, terrible book, mind. Angmering 18:38, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Scottish

Is the Brig established as Scottish in the TV series, or is this something from recent spin-offs such as The Island of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space? Tim! 12:00, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

He wears his clan kilt in Terror of the Zygons. --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 12:59, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

Appearances

I've finally finished the list of appearances, which is more difficult for the Brig and other UNIT characters than for common-or-garden companions. It's possible, if not likely, that I've missed some — I'd appreciate it if others could check to see if there are any glaring omissions or errors. Thanks. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 04:49, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Hyphenation or not

The hyphenation of the name on the photo caption appears not to agree with the hyphenation elsewhere. Lethbridge-Stewart is the hyphenated surname, is it not? [Unsigned post by IP 62.252.224.17 on 19 May 2005]

From recollection the series credits are inconsistent on this and as most Who writings just have "the Brigadier" it's not received the level of attention that some uncertainties get. Does anyone have access to a clear source one way or the other as to which form is either correct or the majority usage on the credits? Timrollpickering 13:14, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure which is used more often in the credits, but for what it's worth the BBC's website uses "Lethbridge-Stewart". My instinct is that that's the most common form. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 14:37, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Re-Call UNIT

Shouldn't the voice-over Courtney recorded for Richard Franklin's stage play, Re-Call UNIT--The Great Tea Bag Mystery (or whatever; I did this off the top of my head, since it's not going into the article) be mentioned here somewhere? And BTW, Colin Baker wrote a short-short story for Doctor Who Magazine Special [subtitled UNIT Exposed], Winter 1991, in which the Sixth Dr. and the Brig. cross paths, although neither realizes it. Want me to get my copy and add the specifics? Ted Watson 22:35, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

UPDATE: I just added Baker's story, but will wait for a decision about the play. Ted Watson 19:06, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

UPDATE: Getting close to two years on this one. Surely somebody here feels one way or the other on this. --Tbrittreid (talk) 20:55, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Nicholas Courtney interview

Since it's always useful to have reliable sources which are independent of the subject, this Radio Times interview might have some content which could be added to the article. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 01:46, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Alistair or Alastair?

The BBC's website gives his first name as Alastair. Doctor Who: The Seventies and other print resources say Alistair. Who's right, and which should we use? —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 20:51, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Official source, every time DBD 23:15, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

It's always been Alistair since the 1960s, the "Alastair" is clearly a mistake.Blaine Coughlan (talk) 22:12, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Not really. Doctor Who Magazine #436 has a small article answering (page 13) this very question and it's one of these messes with usage all over the place. According to DWM no forename was given at all until 1972 when the first edition of The Making of Doctor Who (by Terrance Dicks, then the script editor, and Malcolm Hulke, then a regular writer) stated it was "Alastair". Two years later it was first used onscreen in Planet of the Spiders (co-written by Barry Letts, then the producer), with the script again using "Alastair". The 1970s Target novelisations again go for "Alastair". The ones featuring the character are mainly by Dicks, but with Hulke and Letts producing the only other ones printed in the decade (although I don't know if they actually used the name), that's quite a strong control on the use of the spelling.

However come the 1980s and there was a lot more fan literature about, a lot of which used "Alistair". This usage started to seek into some but not all of the novelisations, with the result that the book of The Five Doctors (by Dicks) uses "Alastair" but Mawdryn Undead (by Peter Grimwade) uses "Alistair", as well as into other licensed spin-off guides. The 1981 edition of the Programme Guide (by Jean Marc Loficer) uses "Alistair". The confusion just grew.

The name was never spelt onscreen in the series until 2008 - until then the character was always credited as either "Colonel/Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart" (with or without hyphen, another minefield of usage) or "The Brigadier". His appearance in the Sarah Jane Adventures is credited as "Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart".

Basically "Alastair" may have been the only spelling in use for many years at the start but nowadays it's a mess and I'm not sure there's any real "correct" answer that would be universally accepted. Timrollpickering (talk) 19:00, 2 July 2011 (UTC)

New appearance in Sarah Jane Adventures

Concerning the Brig's forthcoming in appearance in Sarah Jane Adventures, the link given as source doesn't work anymore because the article got moved to the archives. There's no direct link I can find, but this one at least gets you to the month, and you can find the article if you scroll down a bit:

http://www.gallifreyone.com/news-archives.php?id=7-2008

I don't know what protocol is for updating this kind of change tho'. If there even is one. ^_^ Solarbird (talk) 18:18, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

The Hornet's Nest

An (anonymous IP) editor just added a story, "The Hornet's Nest" to the audio section, under BBC radio rather than Big Finish commercial market recordings as I would have expected. I freely admit that I haven't heard of this one, it is not mentioned in the text, and it's link shows red, i.e., no article. Does it actually belong in the BBC radio list or in BF? --Ted Watson (talk) 21:27, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

UPDATE for the record here: Editor Cumbersnatch has now completely removed that title. I'll assume that he (or she) knows what "he" is doing. After all, Amazon.com has no such title as a Dr. Who-related audio (I should have checked that before launching this thread!). --Tbrittreid (talk) 18:44, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

UPDATE 2: This has a Wiki-article now, Hornet's Nest (Doctor Who). It says this was produced by BBC Audiobooks and apparently released one CD at a time. No mention of the Brig among its characters (Tom Baker returns as Doctor #4 and Richard Franklin as Yates), so for the record, I guess this is settled. --Tbrittreid (talk) 20:55, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Further mentions

The Brigadier is mentioned by the Doctor and Jo Grant in Frontier in Space and by Harry Sullivan in The Ark in Space. --124.176.87.222 (talk) 11:28, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

Companion?

I was suprised this wasn't already on this talk page. I was wondering whether the Brig was, by Wikipedia standards, classed as a companion. I don't think he's been offciailly classed as one, but he hasn't been not classed as one. One arguement is he never travelled in the TARDIS (with the exception of a few instances, the Three Doctors being one), but now, with the new series, we have to consider the fact that many 'companions' also have not traveled in the TARDIS (mainly, if not exclusivly, specials companions). Personally I think he is. At the very least I think he deserves a place on the Companion Navbox. Opinions, guys? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Imagine Wizard (talk • contribs) 19:47, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

I myself believe him to be a companion, but until we can find some sources, I don't think we can really add it into the article. Harry Blue5 (talk) 21:05, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

Doesn't the BBC Classic Series page list him as one?~Zythe^{Talk to me!} 14:25, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

Some sources list him and some don't. Interviews with Letts and Dicks imply that he's a supporting character for the, then, new earthbound format they inherited from the previous production team. DonQuixote (talk) 17:08, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

Jemma Redgrave, not Vanessa Redgrave

Am I the only one to notice Kate Stewart links to Vanessa Redgrave and not Jemma Redgrave on the main Article page??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jemma_Redgrave

Timelord2067 (talk) 06:48, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Honours and Medals

Inspired by this post on the UNIT Uniforms blog. Pages about Dad's Army characters often have a small section about their gallantry awards. Could we have one for Sir Alistair? Robin S. Taylor (talk) 00:22, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

See MOS:WAF DonQuixote (talk) 00:26, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

As a corporal

In Series 13, Episode 5 of Doctor Who (2005-22), Survivors of the Flux, with Jodie Whittaker playing the Doctor, at approx 22:00 there is a scene at UNIT HQ with an opening title "1967 England". We see an officer called Farquhar and Prentis/The Great Serpent coming down a staircase.

Off camera in the background we hear: "Lethbridge Stewart here, I want a call to the RAF, please."

Farquhar: "That's our new corporal. Brought him in after we missed the whole thing at the Post Office Tower. He's a shouter. But he's very good. Keeps everyone on their toes."

I'm not enough of a Who-fan to piece together the implications of this with regards to canon or alternate universes and realities. Just passing it on.

I'm enough of a military historian, however, to know that corporal to brigadier is not a quick or likely progression, though it has happened. I'll let someone more qualified call the shots on this... TomboPC (talk) 13:26, 3 July 2024 (UTC)