Chap With Wings…Five Rounds Rapid

Ah, The Brigadier and those immortal words, “Jenkins, chap with wings five rounds rapid” in response to an animated gargoyle in The Daemons.

Born: December 16, 1929, Cairo, Egypt.

Nicholas Courtney worked with more Doctors than any other actor.

He played Security Agent Bret Vyon with William Hartnell’s First Doctor but is immortalized as first Colonel, then  Brigadier, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.

He appeared with every “classic” Doctor except Colin Baker (Dimensions in Time The Comic Relief Special is not canon but he was appearing with The Sixth Doctor as The Brigadier).

He even got to play his own evil alternate universe Double- The Brigade Leader in Inferno.

Nicholas Courtney passed away in February 2011 just months before Lis Sladen. His last on screen Whoniverse was in a Sarah Jane Adventures episode, Enemy of the Bane (2008) opposite Lis herself..

The Brigadier’s Death was mentioned on screen just months after it happened.

Marvel Comics’ Excalibur featured an organisation called W.H.O. (the Weird Happenings Organisation) run by a Brigadier Alysande Stuart. She is similar to Kate Stewart who appeared in the Eleventh Doctor episode “The Power of Three”. Her twin brother Alistaire was WHO’s “scientific advisor” (the role the Doctor had in UNIT). A character named “Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart” had earlier appeared in three panels of Uncanny X-Men #218, supervising the arrest of the Juggernaut in Edinburgh, where he also calls out to a “Sergeant-Major Benton” at one point.

The Brigadier was referenced in name in the ABC Family show the Middleman. In the episode “The Clotharian Contamination Protocol,” Wendy and The Middleman go to check out a returned Voyager probe. However, a nearby NASA listening station team also arrives. Using their random IDs, and due to the quick thinking of the Middleman, they are intimidated into leaving. As they go, the Middleman calls out the other team’s lead, “Mr… Lethbridge-Stewart, if that is your real name!”

Then the Brigadier’s daughter Kate (created in a Fan Video) appeared with Matt Smith’s Doctor in Power of the Three.

He’s part of the fabric of Doctor Who.

The character is Legend. The Man was too.

Nicholas Courtney was a very gentle soul and a proper English gentleman at Conventions. He was one of the most popular people to have at a Convention. He was quite the storyteller too. And he was slated to be back at Gallifrey in 2012 until his death in 2011.

He was at my very first Gallifrey One Convention in 1992 and he was at the TARDIS 21 in Chicago.

The Brigadier, like the Doctor, was always there in my early days.

And he is also deeply missed. 2011 was a bad year for me as two of my favourite people and characters died. My mother also passed away in September (it will be two years on the 29th).

But the legacy lives on…so enjoy…and Celebrate the greatness of Nicholas Courtney and his best mate, The Brigadier.

Bret Vyon in Dalek Master Plan

Season 5

• The Web of Fear (Episodes 3 – 6)

Season 6

• The Invasion (Episodes 2 – 8)

Season 7

• Spearhead from Space
• Doctor Who and the Silurians
• The Ambassadors of Death
• Inferno

Season 8

• Terror of the Autons
• The Mind of Evil
• The Claws of Axos
• Colony in Space (Episodes 1 & 6)
• The Dæmons

Season 9

• Day of the Daleks
• The Time Monster (Episodes 1 – 4, 6)

Season 10

• The Three Doctors
• The Green Death

Season 11

• The Time Warrior (Episode 1)
• Invasion of the Dinosaurs
• Planet of the Spiders (Episodes 1 – 2, 6)

Season 12

• Robot

Season 13

• Terror of the Zygons

Season 20

• Mawdryn Undead

20th anniversary special

• The Five Doctors

Season 26

• Battlefield

30th Anniversary Charity Special

• Dimensions in Time

The Sarah Jane Adventures

• Enemy of the Bane

 

Nicholas Courtney, Roger Delgado (The Master) and Brian Blessed (Ycanos)

In an episode of “Randall and Hopkirk Deceased” (1969)