The Fourth Doctor only meets the Brigadier twice
Thoroughly knowledgeable fans will know this already, but it surprised me that Nicholas Courtney’s character, the Brigadier, such a huge part of the late Troughton and entire Pertwee eras, only stars twice opposite Tom Baker. He gives the Doctor valiant support in ‘Robot’ and ‘Terror of the Zygons’. After the first story of Tom Baker’s second season in the role in 1975, we won’t see the Brigadier again until 1983, when he makes up for lost time by appearing twice. Lethbridge Stewart is such an iconic character, and so often mentioned even in stories in which he doesn’t appear, that he is kept alive in viewers’ minds as an off-stage character. Of course, UNIT would return, in the fantastic ‘The Seeds of Doom’ and the less glorious ‘The Android Invasion’, but sadly neither outing heralds the return of Nick Courtney. Despite their sparse on-screen collaborations, Courtney and Baker would remain good friends right up to the former’s death in 2011.
