Web of Fear 2.0

by Harry on October 30, 2013

The Web of Fear: Episode 4, at 1.13, you get the first, known, extant, moving image of Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. At 8.13, he establishes why he will be with the Doctor for the rest of his life.

What are you doing on November 23rd (assuming you are not in the UK)? I’m considering buying basic cable for a single month. The eldest daughter is pushing hard, and time is ebbing away.

{ 8 comments }

1

rea 10.31.13 at 12:15 am

The rest of his life? And he never got promoted beyond Brigaddier?

2

Harry 10.31.13 at 2:31 am

Ha! We’ve had this conversation before.

https://crookedtimber.org/2011/02/23/the-brigadier-is-dead/

My understanding is that he, um, ended up doing something very hush hush. Not that what he was doing as Brigadier was particularly public (though, notably, in Web of Fear the whole of London seems to have been evacuated, so it is hard to see how they kept that quiet).

3

Billikin 10.31.13 at 3:34 am

Ah! Doctor Hu, I presume.

4

Paul M. Cray 10.31.13 at 1:27 pm

Lethbridge-Stewart was a colonel in “The Web of Fear”. He had been promoted to brigadier by the time of “The Invasion”. “Mawdryn Undead” indicates he had retired from the army by 1977, but, of course, given the UNIT dating controversy, we have no real idea when he was promoted, although it is likely that he was active in UNIT for perhaps 8 years or so. As a child in the 1970s, having studied the seminal “Radio Times Doctor Who Tenth Anniversary Special” carefully, I did wonder whether he might be promoted to major general at some point. I am sure he would have been the very model of a modern one. I don’t know if the Brig would reasonably have been disappointed not to be promoted given his years in the rank and the number of times he saved the nation and the planet.

5

Harry 10.31.13 at 1:46 pm

He was knighted. I don’t know what the official explanation was. “Assistance with immigration policy”?

6

mds 10.31.13 at 3:57 pm

(though, notably, in Web of Fear the whole of London seems to have been evacuated, so it is hard to see how they kept that quiet)

I suspect they didn’t keep it quiet, but rather concocted a plausible cover story: marsh gas, an especially large contingent of obnoxious tourists, or even something completely wacky like a civil defense exercise based on some purely Earth-based nation-state pointing nuclear missiles at London.

(Oh, and thanks for using a Tube map lunchbox in that brilliant plan, Eleven. Otherwise, we’d never have been able to enjoy this story.)

7

Shatterface 10.31.13 at 8:04 pm

We had underground stations closed last year because of a ‘gas leak’…

I’m part of two Doctor Who groups and I might watch the anniversary with either of them – or just watch it at home.

I live in the same house (formerly my Nan’s) were I watched my first episodes back in 1971 and my widescreen HD TV occupies the same space that my Nan’s black & white set did so there’ll be a sense of continuity.

A better sense of continuity than UNIT dating anyway…

8

Shatterface 10.31.13 at 8:21 pm

I suspect they didn’t keep it quiet, but rather concocted a plausible cover story: marsh gas, an especially large contingent of obnoxious tourists, or even something completely wacky like a civil defense exercise based on some purely Earth-based nation-state pointing nuclear missiles at London.

UNIT used to issue D-Notices – but they didn’t have to contend with Wikileaks and Twitter.

Incidentally, Malcome Hulke’s novelisation of Doctor Who and the Silurians (retitled Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters) was the first book I ever read willingly and started my life-long love affair with reading. Hulke and Terrence Dicks in particular should really be commemorated for their contribution to childhood literacy.

Hulke’s novel features a xenophobic ex-major who was dismissed from the army after executing an unarmed IRA suspect. This was long before the Stalker affair. Makes the social commentary of the Russell T Davies era (slimming fads and reality TV) look kinda limp.

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