One of the longest-standing characters in the Doctor Who canon, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was first introduced as a mysterious character in the 1967 story The Web of Fear, during which the then-Colonel encountered the Second Doctor and helped him defeat a Yeti invasion of London's Underground. A year later, when the character returned in The Invasion, he had been promoted to Brigadier and was in charge of the British branch of UNIT (initially United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, but renamed Unified Intelligence Taskforce after 2005), a paramilitary organization created to combat alien menaces on Earth.The Brigadier worked closely with the Third Doctor when the Time Lord was exiled to Earth by his people, giving him an (unpaid) position as UNIT's scientific adviser, and providing the Doctor with lab facilities to work on repairing his disabled ship, the TARDIS. He also assigned two assistants to help the Doctor - Dr. Elizabeth Shaw and, later, UNIT agent Jo Grant.The Brigadier and the Doctor had a testy relationship, but the Doctor continued to work with UNIT after his exile was lifted, although less-frequently than before. Soon after his regeneration into his fourth body, however, the Doctor ceased working with the Brigadier and was openly resentful when Lethbridge-Stewart summoned him in Terror of the Zygons.In 1977, Lethbridge-Stewart suffered a breakdown that resulted in the loss of many of his memories of UNIT - in particular his memories of the Doctor. Leaving UNIT for medical reasons, he became the headmaster of a school, where he remained until 1983 when he encountered the Fifth Doctor. The Doctor helped the Brigadier regain his memories, and it transpired that he lost them as a result of a time paradox created when the Brigadier of 1983 was sent back in time and briefly met his younger self from 1977.Afterward, the Brigadier renewed his association with UNIT and was taking part in an anniversary celebration when he encountered the Second Doctor. The two were subsequently abducted and transported to the Death Zone on Gallifrey, during which the Brigadier encountered several of the Doctor's early incarnations (all of whom he'd met at some point before), remarking, Splendid chaps, all of you. The Brigadier was next shown in the late 20th or early 21st century (the exact time setting of the 1989 story Battlefield is left ambiguous) when, now married to his beloved Doris and approaching retirement, he assisted his UNIT successor, Brig. Bambera, and the Seventh Doctor in defeating an incursion by the Arthurian villain Morgana.The Brigadier's activities after this have only been sporadically chronicled on screen. A 1995 made-for-video independent film, Downtime, reunited him with former associates (via the Doctor) Victoria Waterfield and Sarah Jane Smith.The early 21st century saw the technically retired Brigadier continue to be involved with UNIT affairs. At the time of an attempted Sontaran invasion (thwarted by UNIT and the Tenth Doctor), the Brigadier was on special assignment in Peru. He returned in time to help Sarah Jane Smith prevent another invasion by the Bane, but subsequently returned to Peru, which prevented him from taking part in adventures with Sarah Jane that would have introduced him to the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors.The exact timeframe of the Brigadier's death is unknown. (In the expanded universe of original novels, he regained his youth sometime after 2010 and lived to the end of the century.) All is known is the Eleventh Doctor, himself facing the spectre of being killed at Lake Silencio in April 2011, attempted to contact the Brigadier for a visit, only to be told his old friend had passed away. In real life, this scene was added to the episode The Wedding of River Song in order to acknowledge the death of actor Nicholas Courtney. Show less «