Cult Spy Icon #10: The Brigadier

Five rounds rapid! First appearing to battle the Yeti on the London Undergound in the 1968 adventure ‘The Web Of Fear’, as a mere Colonel, Alastair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart soon rose through the ranks to become a Brigadier.

In charge of UNIT (The United Nations Intelligence Taskforce), the Brigadier was a recurring presence on Doctor Who during the Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker eras. He often worked with the mysterious Time Lord to help fend off alien threats towards the Earth, giving The Doctor vital militarial backup when force was required. However, the two didn’t always see eye to eye. In ‘The Silurians’, the Brigadier’s decision to blow up the underground lair of the original inhabitants of Earth was met with abject disgust by The Doctor.

A true British gent, his moustache was truly dignified in an era before any camp connotations became involved with this form of facial hair. Unflappable, he played a large part in ensuring his home planet wasn’t overrun with the likes of Cybermen, Axons and the Loch Ness Monster. His presence was felt most in the early 1970s, when the Third Doctor’s Tardis was rendered inoperable by the Time Lords and the traveller was earthbound. Alongside the likes of Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates, the Brigadier formed part of the UNIT family that became part of the furniture on Doctor Who for a couple of seasons.

Appearances in the 1980s were sadly sparse, although we did learn that he became a schoolmaster following his retirement from UNIT. Fittingly, he played a key role in the final season of the original run of Doctor Who with a part in the 1989 story ‘Battlefield’. Originally due to be killed off in an epic, selfless battle with The Destroyer, old Alastair was luckily spared and lived on. Come on Russell T Davies – give him one last send-off in the new Doctor Who - rapid!