Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart
Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart (Inferno Earth), as the name "Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart" has also been applied to our Brigadier in, for example, the Inferno novelisation
Talk about it here.
- You may be looking for Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, the inhabitant of another universe.
Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart was an alternate version of the Brigadier, where he worked as a Brigade Leader for the Republican Security Forces in a parallel universe.
He was in charge of security at the Eastchester Scientific Labour Camp. (TV: Inferno)
The exact circumstances of his lost eye were unclear to him. (PROSE: I, Alastair)
Biography[[edit]]
Early life[[edit]]
Alastair was born in 1929 on Earth in a parallel universe that existed between Inferno Earth and N-Space. Both of his parents were killed in bombing raids, sometime between 1940 and 1945, when an alien power attacked the Earth. He was saved from that world by Colonel Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart from N-Space and Major James Lethbridge-Stewart from Inferno Earth. His travel across realities cost him his left eye, and he arrived on James's world in 1959, still only 15 years old, having travelled from his native universe in 1945. Alastair was brought to the attention of Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, the Director of External Security, who had lost his son Alistair, Alastair's counterpart, some twenty-one years earlier. (PROSE: The Schizoid Earth)
Living in the Inferno dimension[[edit]]
Alastair aged faster than other individuals on the Inferno Earth. He was indoctrinated by his stepfather, the British Republic's External Security Director, into becoming "the perfect fascist". (PROSE: Ashes of the Inferno) This involved mental torture, drugs, and barrages of propaganda. Once converted, he joined the RSF. He wished to supplant his higher-ranking brother. (PROSE: I, Alastair)
Unlike his counterpart, the Brigade Leader was clean-shaven. He believed firmly in the British Republic, and its Leader. If anyone spoke out or mocked it, he would call it treason at once. (TV: Inferno) He was more dour than his counterpart but underneath this veneer of control was a mess of insecurity: he was afraid people were laughing at him, resorted to yelling and violence to assert authority, and took glee in dominating people that tested him. (PROSE: I, Alastair)
Rising in the ranks[[edit]]
He served with the expeditionary force in Aden as Column Leader, where he carried out brutal punishment raids to suppress the locals.
After Aden, he transferred to the Security Directorate of the RASF and found it — to his annoyance — used by Party figures against each other, reporting their rivals and children of rivals for "crimes". Upper classes refusing to acknowledge his authority left him furious. His superiors were impressed by his work and willingness to get his hands dirty, but Party politics prevented him being promoted; disgruntled about this, he plotted to steal his brother's job as Operation Mole-Bore.
Shortly after he ended up in a relationship with his world's Sally Wright, he was tasked to investigate a major terrorist attack and uncovered the Resistance's involvement with an extraterrestrial power. He prevented a Resistance attack on Battersea Power Station but, under orders from his father, allowed some damage to undermine the Director of Internal Affairs. Alastair discovered too late that Wright was a leader in the Resistance, but was able to work out their plan to bomb the New People's Parliament during his father's coronation as the new leader (having 'arranged' the death of the previous). He was able to stop that and, left shaken aftwards, killed Wright, and his father promoted him to Brigade Leader.(PROSE: I, Alastair)
The Inferno Project[[edit]]
Years later, he'd finally ended up in charge of the newly renamed Inferno Project. He captured and interrogated the Third Doctor, who had just arrived from his own universe. At first he seemingly had trouble believing the Doctor's story of having come from another dimension.
It eventually became clear that the Doctor had been telling the truth and the penetration of his Earth's crust would devastate the planet beyond recovery. During the eruptions, he began to lose his cool, and became panicky. He even got into a brawl with Greg Sutton. He threatened to shoot the Doctor unless the Time Lord rescued him, Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw and Dr. Petra Williams, but instead Section Leader Shaw shot him dead to save the other Earth. (TV: Inferno)
A vision of Alastair was seen by James Gore in the days leading up to and following the Inferno Project. This prompted James to visit the shed where the Third Doctor had travelled across universes, where he witnessed the Brigade Leader's death and was himself killed. (PROSE: Ashes of the Inferno)
Behind the scenes[[edit]]
- Nicholas Courtney, of course, played the part without the Brigadier's trademark (false) moustache.
- Dialogue in Inferno only refers to the Brigade Leader by his rank and surname, but not by his first name.
- In one of the few direct and unambiguous Nazi analogies in Inferno, the Brigade Leader's rank insignia was inspired by that of an SS Brigadeführer. According to The Schizoid Earth the Republican Security Forces was established in Germany in 1959, suggesting the RSF initially used surplus SS rank badges from German government stores for the senior ranks to reduce costs and retained the basic pattern afterwards. Other ranks and junior officer rank insignia, such as Platoon Under-Leader (sergeant) and Section Leader (lieutenant) use more typically British-style patterns.
