Talk:Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
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The hyphenation of the name on the photo caption appears not to agree with the hyphenation elsewhere. Lethbridge-Stewart is the hyphenated surname, is it not?
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[edit] Rank in The Web of Fear
I changed his rank in The Web of Fear from colonel to lieutenant colonel for these reasons:
- You can't be a (full) colonel in the Scots Guards, or in any other regiment; the highest regimental rank is lieutenant colonel. Past that rank, the officer is deemed to have left his parent regiment and joined the staff. (You can be colonel of a regiment, but that is an appointment rather than a rank, and usually held by a general (often retired), or, in the case of Guards regiments, by a member of the Royal Family: the current Colonel Scots Guards is Field Marshal HRH The Duke of Kent. The role includes presiding over regimental events, sounding out potential new officers, and pursuing the interests of the regiment in the corridors of power: it does not extend to chasing Yeti round the London Underground.)
- Having officially left his regiment, the full colonel no longer wears its distinctive insignia; e.g. its headgear is replaced with a cap bearing the badge of the Staff College, Camberley (see the main picture of the Brig in the article). The BBC have a photo-novel of this story, made from screen-shots of the original series; in them, L-S is quite clearly wearing regimental headgear, with what could be the Scots Guards' cap badge on it (see here for an illustration).
- The rank insignia of a full colonel is two "pips" and a crown; that of a lieutenant colonel, one pip and a crown. L-S's insignia is hard to make out in the photo-novel, but he appears to be wearing a total of two indistinct blobs on his shoulder tabs, rather than three.
- There is no contradiction with the story's dialogue. In speech, the rank's full form is rarely used as a title: Lieutenant Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart would almost always be addressed as and referred to as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart.
About four years (from L-S's POV) pass between this story and The Invasion, allowing enough time for his promotion first to full colonel and then to brigadier —assuming he isn't promoted straight to brigadier from lieutenant colonel, which I understand does, or did, sometimes happen. — Franey 10:08, 5 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Regiment
I was wrong: whatever L-S is sporting on his hat in The Web of Fear, it's not the badge of the Scots Guards.
It's clearly supposed to be a cap-badge of some sort though. I think it's a thistle. Have a look at this and this.
At the time of broadcast, line infantry soldiers wore the cap badge of their brigade rather than their regiment. If L-S's badge is a thistle, the most likely candidate is the Lowland Brigade, whose badge was a thistle encircled by a belt, superimposed on a St Andrew's Cross (picture). Maybe the belt and cross simply can't be seen in the screen-shots; maybe L-S's badge is an accepted variant; or maybe the producers made a mistake, or deliberately invented their own badge.
Composition of the Lowland Brigade varied over time, but in 1966 it comprised
The only "primary source" I can find that puts L-S in the Scots Guards is The Dying Days. Anyone got any other references? — Franey 15:08, 5 August 2005 (UTC)
- Nice research. The only fly in the ointment is that the writers never let reality get in the way of making things up - we know the Whoniverse differs from ours in many ways, so the idea that the Scots Guards did have a Colonel regimental rank and had a thistle for a badge is not that much of a stretch. What I've tried to do in my latest edit is present what we have been told and what the "real world" state of affairs is, and leave it for the reader. See if it works. --khaosworks 15:24, August 5, 2005 (UTC)
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- You're absolutely right, and thank you for pandering to my pedantry. Changing the Brig's rank and regiment is nothing compared to shifting his entire career 5–10 years back in time: maybe we can blame the Key to Time affair, or Operation Golden Age, or any number of other examples of ill-advised temporal mucking-about. (But I still reckon that's a lieutenant colonel's insignia in the screen-shots.) — Franey 21:42, 5 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Lieutenant L-S
I recall there was one episode where one of the more recent doctors (number 7 or 8) goes back to Earth in the early 1960s and meets up with someone who is supposed to Be Brig L-S but at a much earlier rank and age. The Dcotor is calling the character "Brigadier", and the character angerily asserts he is only a Lieutenant (or maybe a Captain). Anyone remember the episode? -Husnock 14:00, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
- You're thinking of Remembrance of the Daleks, but it wasn't Lethbridge-Stewart, but a character named Group Captain Gilmore. ---khaosworks (talk • contribs) 14:19, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
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- Who does get to meet the Brigadier in the prologue to the novelisation of Downtime, trivia fans. Terrible, terrible book, mind. Angmering 18:38, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Scottish
Is the Brig established as Scottish in the TV series, or is this something from recent spin-offs such as The Island of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space? Tim! 12:00, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
- He wears his clan kilt in Terror of the Zygons. --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 12:59, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Appearances
I've finally finished the list of appearances, which is more difficult for the Brig and other UNIT characters than for common-or-garden companions. It's possible, if not likely, that I've missed some — I'd appreciate it if others could check to see if there are any glaring omissions or errors. Thanks. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 04:49, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
