Showing posts with label Nicholas Courtney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nicholas Courtney. Show all posts
Monday, 4 April 2011
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Nicholas Courtney: The Returning Hero
December, 1974. A new Doctor. A new era. But the same old Brigadier with Tom Baker's debut as the Doctor in Robot giving little hint of the huge changes that lay ahead... Nicholas Courtney was back as the Brig and for the moment it was business as usual with the Doctor/Lethbridge-Stewart relationship seeming as strong as ever.
Indeed, Nicholas would later recall how quickly he and Tom Baker struck up a firm and what proved to be an enduring friendship. The two clearly worked well together and the scenes featuring both the Brigadier and the Doctor are amongst Robot's stand out moments. Although UNIT didn't feature in the rest of the Fourth Doctor's first season, Nicholas was back for Terror of the Zygons, a 4-part story that finished on 20 September, 1975. But following this, the Brigadier would be off our screens until 1983.
In his autobiography, Nicholas recalled that whilst filming Terror of the Zygons he suspected it would be the Brigadier's final appearance. Doctor Who was returning to its roots which meant fewer stories set on late twentieth century Earth and less opportunity for the Doctor to help out UNIT and the Brigadier. Nicholas took advantage of Lethbridge-Stewart's absence to return to the theatre. Throughout the 70s he appeared in an impressive array of stage shows - with the legendary Celia Johnson in a West End production of The Dame of Sark, Kate O'Mara in the thriller Double Edge and opposite Bernard Bresslaw in the farce, There Goes the Bride. He played the lead in Michael Frayn's Donkey's Years and the narrator for a touring production of The Rocky Horror Show. He appeared in TV productions including a comedy by Galton and Simpson and somehow found time to feature in a number of radio dramas. The Brigadier may have hung up his peaked cap, but Nicholas Courtney remained a busy man!
Seven years after Terror of the Zygons, Nicholas took a call from Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner. Would he be interested in resurrecting the Brigadier? Nicholas was back as Lethbridge-Stewart in Mawdryn Undead, this time playing opposite Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor. His return was universally applauded and showed that the public's affection for Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier had never dimmed. In 1983 the show marked its twentieth anniversary with the celebratory special, The Five Doctors. The Brigadier's absence would have been unthinkable and sure enough, Nicholas was involved, playing the majority of his scenes opposite Patrick Troughton, the Second Doctor.
Five years later Nicholas found himself in Brighton with John Nathan-Turner discussing the death of the Brigadier. The producer wanted to give the character a grand send-off in an Arthurian adventure that would eventually open the show's twenty-sixth season and although Nicholas agreed, it turned out that recording dates clashed with another project that was desperate for his involvement. Nicholas later recalled that his love of Doctor Who was one factor that swayed him, and so it was that he turned down the other job and returned to Doctor Who one last time.
The story became Battlefield and co-starred Jean Marsh who had featured in Nicholas' very first Doctor Who outing over twenty years earlier. Fortunately, the end of the adventure was re-written. Nathan-Turner realised that so much was happening at the story's climax that the Brigadier's death would not receive the focus it deserved. And so the old soldier lived to fight another day! On 27 September, 1988, Nicholas Courtney made his final appearance in Doctor Who. We left Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in contented retirement, living in a huge house with his wife, Doris. In his final scene he is with the Doctor (by now played Sylvester McCoy) and having saved the world once again, the two old friends are content to simply spend a little time together.
It certainly felt like the natural end for the Brigadier, but for Nicholas Courtney and the character he made famous, there would be much more drama ahead!
Source BBC Dr who
Friday, 25 February 2011
Nicholas Courtney: A Soldier in Time
After his first appearance in Doctor Who, Nicholas returned to the stage before playing Bill Page in the 1966 thriller, Watch the Birdies. Although this was his first lead in a television serial, he became a familiar face on the small screen throughout the 1960s, appearing in classic shows such as The Avengers, The Saint, Callan, The Champions and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) where he starred opposite Roger Delgado, soon to be famous as the Master.
Director Douglas Camfield brought Nicholas back to the world of Doctor Who in 1968 for the Second Doctor adventure, The Web of Fear. Originally down to play the short-lived Captain Knight, Nicholas ended up with a promotion when the actor due to appear as a certain colonel dropped out. And so on 17 February, 1968, Nicholas Courtney appeared as Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart for the first time. Shortly afterwards it was decided that the character should be elevated to Brigadier and become a regular as the head of UNIT's UK branch with the Doctor operating alongside the organisation. The premise was tested in the Cyberman story, The Invasion. It worked well and when Doctor Who returned in 1970 for the Third Doctor's debut season, Nicholas was onboard as a regular.
As Doctor Who's Lead Writer and Executive Producer, Steven Moffat, recently noted, 'Nicholas Courtney... as the Brigadier carved a very special place in the history of Doctor Who. Not just because he could be grave and funny at the same time, and wise and silly in the same moment, and not just because you could still love him when he was clearly in the wrong, or because he could point a gun at you and still somehow twinkle - but because out of all the people the Doctor has met, in all of space and time, Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was the only one who was ever his boss.'
The Brigadier was a military man with a heart, frustrated by the Doctor but fond of him. His scenes with the Time Lord were always a treat with Nicholas delivering beautifully nuanced performances, deftly conveying humour and gravitas as the moment demanded. He became an integral part of the Third Doctor's era and the show's central relationship for most of that period - the Doctor, his companion, the Brigadier and a handful of lower ranking soldiers - became affectionately known as the UNIT family.
For the Third Doctor's swansong, Planet of the Spiders, the Brigadier was scripted as entering the final scene as the Doctor was mid-regeneration, demanding to know what was going on. Appropriately enough it was Nicholas who suggested the version that was ultimately shot. In this, Lethbridge-Stewart is with Sarah Jane when the Doctor collapses and begins to change. As the Fourth Doctor appears before them, the Brigadier declares, 'Well, here we go again!'
Director Douglas Camfield brought Nicholas back to the world of Doctor Who in 1968 for the Second Doctor adventure, The Web of Fear. Originally down to play the short-lived Captain Knight, Nicholas ended up with a promotion when the actor due to appear as a certain colonel dropped out. And so on 17 February, 1968, Nicholas Courtney appeared as Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart for the first time. Shortly afterwards it was decided that the character should be elevated to Brigadier and become a regular as the head of UNIT's UK branch with the Doctor operating alongside the organisation. The premise was tested in the Cyberman story, The Invasion. It worked well and when Doctor Who returned in 1970 for the Third Doctor's debut season, Nicholas was onboard as a regular.
As Doctor Who's Lead Writer and Executive Producer, Steven Moffat, recently noted, 'Nicholas Courtney... as the Brigadier carved a very special place in the history of Doctor Who. Not just because he could be grave and funny at the same time, and wise and silly in the same moment, and not just because you could still love him when he was clearly in the wrong, or because he could point a gun at you and still somehow twinkle - but because out of all the people the Doctor has met, in all of space and time, Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was the only one who was ever his boss.'
The Brigadier was a military man with a heart, frustrated by the Doctor but fond of him. His scenes with the Time Lord were always a treat with Nicholas delivering beautifully nuanced performances, deftly conveying humour and gravitas as the moment demanded. He became an integral part of the Third Doctor's era and the show's central relationship for most of that period - the Doctor, his companion, the Brigadier and a handful of lower ranking soldiers - became affectionately known as the UNIT family.
For the Third Doctor's swansong, Planet of the Spiders, the Brigadier was scripted as entering the final scene as the Doctor was mid-regeneration, demanding to know what was going on. Appropriately enough it was Nicholas who suggested the version that was ultimately shot. In this, Lethbridge-Stewart is with Sarah Jane when the Doctor collapses and begins to change. As the Fourth Doctor appears before them, the Brigadier declares, 'Well, here we go again!'
And with those prophetic words, a new era was being ushered in, for Doctor Who and for Nicholas Courtney...
Source - BBC Dr who
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Nicholas Courtney RIP - Five Rounds Rapid
On Tuesday evening (22/02/12011) Nicholas Courtney sadly passed away, he was born on 16th December 1929 as William Nicholas Stone Courtney he played Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in Dr who for many years and was also in Sarah jane adventures. His first story was Web of Fear and his last was Battlefield as Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.Way before that he was also in The Daleks' Master Plan, where he played Space Security Agent Bret Vyon opposite William Hartnell as the Doctor in 1965
Rip Nicholas Courtney he will be sadly missed by many
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