Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was mentioned a number of times in The Legend of Ruby Sunday.
Doctor Who has paid a touching tribute to the late Nicholas Courtney in the series’ latest episode, The Legend of Ruby Sunday.
Courtney, who passed away in 2011, played character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, one of the founders of UNIT. He first appeared in The Web of Fear in 1968, acting alongside Patrick Troughton’s second Doctor.
While first reluctant to help the Doctor on his various adventures, the Brigadier eventually became one of the Doctor’s greatest friends and often made appearances during the introduction of Jon Pertwee’s Doctor and beyond.
In The Legend of Ruby Sunday, there are several references to the beloved Brigadier, with the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and the Brigadier’s daughter Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) reminiscing together.
Arriving at UNIT HQ, the Doctor introduces Ruby (Millie Gibson) to Kate, saying: “I knew Kate’s dad – he was the best of men.”
Later in the episode, Kate and the Doctor reminisce about the Brigadier, with Kate remembering: “My father… he’d tell me stories about you when I was a kid. He’d sit there in the firelight, telling tales of the Doctor, his eyes shining.”
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Courtney’s final appearance in Doctor Who was in 1989’s Battlefield in which he starred opposite Sylvester McCoy as the seventh Doctor.
The sci-fi series paid tribute to Courtney in 2011, in The Wedding of River Song, announcing that the Brigadier had died.
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