Saint Nicholas

 

Hard to believe that is 10 years to the day since we lost Nicholas Courtney. He passed away on 22 February 2011, at the age of 81.

His role as Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart - the Brig - didn't just shape his career - it shaped his life. And yet it almost never happened.

His first brush with Doctor Who was almost being cast as King Richard in The Crusade (1965). Director Douglas Camfield had not expected Julian Glover to accept the role, and so Courtney was approached to take it on. As it was, Glover did accept, and Courtney had to wait for a future Camfield project to appear in the programme. He was cast as Space Security agent Bret Vyon in the first four episodes of the epic The Daleks' Master Plan (1965 / 66). The character was killed off by his sister, fellow agent Sara Kingdom. She was played by Jean Marsh, who would also have played his sister had he got the King Richard job. According to Courtney, William Hartnell convinced him to change his agent - and he didn't work for a year.

Camfield came calling once again when it came to casting for The Web of Fear. Courtney was offered the role of Captain Knight, who is killed off after four episode, felled by a Yeti in a Covent Garden electronics store. Actor David Langton (famous as the pater familias in Upstairs, Downstairs) was given the role of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart. However, he had to pull out of the role late in the day, and Courtney was promoted from Captain to Colonel. He makes his first appearance in the (sadly still missing) third episode.

Even then, Courtney's future as a regular on the show was not a done deal. When Camfield came to direct The Invasion, written by Script Editor Derrick Sherwin, it had originally been thought that only Professor Travers and his daughter Anne might be carried over from the Yeti story. The new military set-up, UNIT, which was to become a fixture of the Earthbound Season 7, might have had a new commanding officer in charge. As it was, Jack Watling was unavailable, and the BBC were concerned about the payments which would be due if they reused so many characters from writers Haisman and Lincoln. Travers and Anne were dropped, and the Colonel was retained. Rather than hire a new actor who would simply be another version of Lethbridge-Stewart, the production team elected to pay for the already existing character, to be played once again by Courtney.

Season 7 commenced with Spearhead From Space, with the newly regenerated Doctor now exiled on Earth.

Apparently Courtney and Pertwee did not hit it off straight away. Pertwee expressed concerns about Courtney's lunchtime drinking. During the making of Terror of the Autons, Courtney suffered a fit of nerves and missed some of the filming (the quarry scenes in Part Three. An extra doubled for him in some shots. The Brig would never wear white socks).

The friendship with Pertwee did form, and they remained great pals up until Pertwee's death in 1996. It was Pertwee who talked the usually shy Courtney into attending conventions, and Courtney became a regular attendee over the years, practically until the end of his life. His stories became legend - especially the one about the eye-patch.

His most famous line - "Five rounds rapid..." - was almost cut, but Courtney fought to keep it in.

Other great lines were actually ad libs by Courtney (such as "I'm pretty sure that's Cromer...").

The UNIT family, as it was affectionately known, started to unravel with the death of Roger Delgado, and the departure of Katy Manning at the end of Season 10. When Pertwee also said that he would leave at the end of the next season, along with Producer Barry Letts, and Script Editor Terrance Dicks, Courtney suspected that this might be the end for the Brigadier. When Tom Baker took over, and Philip Hinchcliffe became the new Producer, Courtney could see that the show was going to move away from Earthbound stories to more outer space ones. After Baker's first story, the Brigadier was to appear in only one further story in the 1970's - Terror of the Zygons. Courtney got a lengthy stage role, and so was unable to return for The Android Invasion, and none of the UNIT regulars appeared in The Seeds of Doom, despite it being directed by Camfield. The Brigadier was always said to be away in Geneva, to explain his absence.

It would be 1983 before we saw the Brigadier once more - this time retired from UNIT and teaching at a Public School. Courtney was slightly disappointed to learn that he had not been first choice for this story, as it had originally been hoped that William Russell might have come back as Ian Chesterton. As it was, Courtney was actually third choice, as the second choice was the return of Harry Sullivan, as played by Ian Marter.

Courtney's role in Mawdryn Undead led to JNT asking if he would be available for the 20th anniversary story which was planned for that November - The Five Doctors.

Outside of the TV show, Courtney played the Brigadier in two radio plays, alongside Pertwee, and he also appeared on screen in the made-for-video Downtime - an unofficial sequel to the two Yeti stories.

His swan-song on the show was in its final season - in Battlefield. 

It had originally been intended that the character would be killed off in this, which Courtney was okay with so long as it was a heroic demise. As it was, the writer couldn't bring himself to kill off the Brig.

When the series returned in 2005, many fans hoped to see the return of the Brigadier, but this time he was always stuck in Peru, rather than Geneva, in stories involving UNIT.

Courtney did play the Brigadier one final time, but it was to be in The Sarah Jane Adventures (the story Enemy of the Bane). Tragically, we were to lose both Courtney and Lis Sladen within a few months of each other, ten years ago.

The character has not been forgotten since Courtney's death. The Eleventh Doctor just missed saying goodbye to his old friend, who did indeed die in bed as the Seventh Doctor predicted. The Brig's daughter went on to run UNIT, and his portrait is often to be seen in the background in UNIT based stories. The least said about being turned into a Cyberman, the better.

I never met Courtney, but from all the DVD extras, documentaries, commentaries, and published interviews, it's clear that he was a thoroughly nice bloke. He loved Doctor Who, and was always thankful for its place in his life, and his part in its history - which was a huge one.

He'll always be remembered with great affection.