Today one of my childhood heroes has died.
As a boy growing up in the 70’s in the UK Doctor Who was always one of my favourite shows – my first Doctor was Jon Pertwee and with him came a supporting cast that remains one of the best ever. His tenure stuck on Earth was improved and enhanced by the presence of U.N.I.T and at the very heart of that grouping was Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. A man to whom no alien incursion was a problem – he was a calm, pragmatic, military man with military solutions and in many ways he was the perfect foil to the Doctor. Watson to his Holmes, Jim Gordon to his Batman.
The Brigadier, along with Benton and Yates made the transition from Pertwee to Tom Baker something that my seven year old mind could handle and I always yearned for a return to UNIT as Tom Baker continues his travels through time and space, but it never really happened.
Nicholas Courtney appeared with Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy in the series proper and was always a joy to watch. His portrayal of Lethbridge-Stewart showed depth, integrity and an amazingly fine tuned comedic timing.
He was someone who had fallen into the grinding machine that was ITC in the 60’s appearing in The Champions, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Avengers and The Saint and would possibly have remained as one of those character actors that you continued to see throughout the seventies and eighties – always dependable but never quite a star. However he was cast in a Hartnell story ‘Dalek Master Plan’ and so impressed that he was cast with Troughton in Web of Fear as Colonel Leth-Bridge Stewart and from there he became as important a part of Doctor Who as anyone or anything else. My only real gripe with the new series is that they never got him to appear, though he did appear in the Sarah Jane Adventures and was name checked on a number of occasions in New Era Who. And in many ways it’s good that he is the quintessential old soldier and that the dream of many ‘new fans’ of seeing the Brigadier die on screen never happened.
Old soldiers never die after all.
It might be true that he made a career out of Doctor Who, appearing in fan made productions, Big Finish audios etc and never quite managed to recapture that magic that made him such a household name but when someone plays the part so well then it is never anything less than a joy to see or hear them doing it again and it was nice to hear or see him appear with every actor who played the Doctor apart from Christopher Eccleston and Matt Smith.
An actor of great warmth and generosity (he was the only Doctor Who cast member to attend the funeral of Anthony Ainley) and someone that I will miss.
It is not everyone that can sell lines such as the famous “Chap with wings, five rounds rapid” while wearing a false moustache and facing a BBC stuntman in a grey leotard with false wings and a gargoyle mask but the late Nicholas Courtney could.
Cushing1967
