Talk:Nicholas Courtney

Source needed for the stroke reference

You'd have thought that Nicholas Courtney suffering a stroke in 2009 would have been major news in the fan sites, etc. But the only source I can find for this is this wiki and Wikipedia, and sites referencing these sources. Yet Outpost Gallifrey's Doctor Who News Page and Doctor Who Magazine made no reference to this. Nor does The Writer's Tale. I'm not necessarily saying the information is bogus, but we really need to indicate a source here. Is there any interview, media, etc. to indicate that he did indeed suffer a stroke in 2009? 68.146.64.9 13:19, January 20, 2011 (UTC)

I applaud your desire for a citation, but he actually did suffer a stroke. This is confirmed on the Big Finish podcast by Nick Briggs. CzechOut ☎ | ✍ 14:16, January 20, 2011 (UTC)

Removed dubious statements

Going along with the above user's statements, I've removed the whole paragraph from which that reference came and am placing it here for further examination:

As of 2009, having first appeared in 1965 (The Daleks Master Plan) and last appeared in 2008 (Enemy of the Bane), Nicholas Courtney has the second longest gap in between first and last appearances with a 43-year difference and was first until Zienia Merton who first appeared in 1964 (Marco Polo) and after a 45-year gap appeared in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith. Coincidentally, Nicholas Courtney was also due to appear playing the Brigadier as part of Sarah Jane's wedding party, and was looking forward to a filmed reunion between Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and The Doctor, but suffered a stroke around that time which made filming his scenes impossible. He has since made a full recovery.

The problem, for me, isn't just the lack of citation on the health condition, but all this mess about the "gap". On several other pages where such gaps are concerned, we don't measure from Doctor Who to a spin-off. The gap of interest is the gap between Doctor Who appearances, not DWU appearances. Also the gap is usually measured as that between the last appearance in the classic series and the first appearance in the new series — not the gap between first appearance in the classic series and last appearance in the new series. Thus, the measurement would begin from Battlefield, not DMP. In any case, though, there is no "gap" for him, because he hasn't appeared in BBCW DW. What we would say, I think, is that he returned to playing the Brig for the first time since 1989. And if we were to count all DWU appearances, and not just DW ones, Peter Davison's gap (1984-2007) would be bigger than Courtney's (1989-2008). (The only way Courtney wins is if we count from Dimensions in Time, which this wiki views as non-canonical.) CzechOut ☎ | ✍ 13:34, January 20, 2011 (UTC)

• I was just about to remove it too - thanks for the fast action! I also removed it from the episode article, or to be more precise I reworded it as a rumor under the myths section, as this seems appropriate. If someone comes along and says "Well, it was reported in such-and-such a newspaper, then cool, we can put it back, but as it stands now, this sort of thing generates damaging rumors. I also stand corrected - it is not mentioned in his Wikipedia article, which is also a sign the info may not be accurate. Re: the gap issue, unless something changed this wiki does consider the Big Finish audios to be canonical, in which case we'd have to also account for the numerous audios Courtney has recorded as the Brig in the last decade, so I agree the waters are sufficiently muddied. I get the point being made by the statement, but it can be reworded. 68.146.64.9 13:36, January 20, 2011 (UTC)

Well, no, the gap being talked about is solely a televised one, which is rather more significant than a gap between one's last appearance on a BFA. And it's not about canonicity, except with the narrow issue of DIT, simply because DIT is a bit of television that has been deemed to not actually be DW by this wiki.

I don't think this paragraph can be reworded so that it imparts any special meaning to the Courtney "gap". Were we to allow the DW-DWU gap measurement, Courtney would be pretty far down on the "gap" list at a mere 19 years. Trevor Laird, just for a start has him beat. So does Louis Mahoney, David Troughton, and, really, every one of the actors who appeared in 1963 and 2005 versions of Doctor Who. By my reckoning, he's at best got the 20th-biggest gap, if you allow Zienia Merton in on the fun. Once you get that far down the list, it's no longer a particularly remarkable thing. I remember back in 2006, we used to get all excited by the appearance of someone from the old series. So Pauline Collins and Elisabeth Sladen were Big Damn Deals. But now it's happened regularly enough that it's hardly worth mentioning, unless they've got a serious, four-decade gap. CzechOut ☎ | ✍ 14:09, January 20, 2011 (UTC)

Citations for stroke business

I've found the following citations for the stroke:

• From sarahjanetv.blogspot.com, the SJA equivalent of the doctorwhonews.com site we use on our front page
• Though it comes from a forum, this is an eyewitness report from someone who attended the Regenerations 09 convention and heard Courtney himself talking about having a stroke. I know it's not admissible as a source, really, but I think it does at least point us towards an event at which Courtney publicly admitted having a stroke.

You're right, though. It is pretty thin on the ground. Lots of hits for "nicholas courtney + stroke" (and other variations), but nothing really substantial. I have no doubt that it happened, but it's hard finding a really good source for it. Sadly, and this may sound crass, we're probably not going to get a rock solid citation on it until an obit. CzechOut ☎ | ✍ 15:55, January 20, 2011 (UTC)

Its sad he died.

I'm pretty sad that he died. he was the best companian for The Doctor. We shall miss him terribly :'(