Whovian background secrets revealed!

[selenak]

Here I was listening to Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier) and Caroline John (Liz Shaw) doing the audio commentary for Spearhead from Space, in which they were charming and warm, when up came the following two jewels of dialogue:

a) After she teased him about the Brig's ineptness around women, Nicholas Courtney told Caroline John that the Brigadier was, in fact, married twice, to Fiona and to Doris (whom we meet in Battlefield and who gets referenced earlier in Planet of the Spiders).

Caroline: Well, what became of Fiona?
Nick: She was finally fed up and gave him an ultimatum. Either her or the Doctor. And he chose the Doctor.


b) somewhat later, as we get a full figure shot of the Brig from behind:

Nick: Ah, look at that. Very unflattering. My bottom looks awful.
Caroline: No, you have a great butt!
Nick: Really? Doesn't it...
Caroline: No, really. I love men's butts! Yours looks great.


Our Mr. Courtney also wins at knowing Doctor Who trivia, not surprisingly since he worked with all the Doctors, while poor Caroline laments that she never got to travel in the TARDIS, being on the show only for one season and an exclusively earthbound exile season.

...you know, there would be a Brigadier essay up at idol_reflection. Why isn't there? With a subsection on Why The Brigadier Totally Pwns Jack Harkness. And no, I can't write it myself. I still have some of the Tom Baker episodes with him in them to watch.

Comments

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

With a subsection on Why The Brigadier Totally Pwns Jack Harkness.

Do you think they ever met? I don't think the Brig would've been particularly impressed with Jack, or with Jack's inevitable attempt to seduce him. In fact I think their working relationship would have gone way downhill after Jack's hand 'accidentally' ended up on the Brig's backside. Jack, conversely, would have probably thought the Brig is too repressed and desperately needs to loosen up and have a good shag. But Jack probably would have respected the Brig's professional competence and not interfered with it.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Do you think they ever met?

I think it's possible, considering in the 60s, 70s and 80s when the Brig was on active duty with UNIT, Torchwood was around with Jack as a freelance agent and there could have been conflict of interests. I have a tentative idea of some the reporters in "Spearhead from Space" who got alerted by the greedy hospital employee that they had a mysterious alien there attracting the attention of Torchwood - and TW was on the lookout for both aliens in general and the Doctor in particular, remember - which might have lead to a visit by Jack. Who would not have impressed the Brigadier, as you say. And the Brig would definitely felt he needed to protect the Doctor from those Torchwoodians (given that we do see in canon several instances where he fibs with the truth or lies to ministry folk or the annoying official of the week about the Doctor being a human consultant) and would have stared down any request to talk to Mr. Smith. Whether Jack would have figured out this Doctor was several generations away from the one who knows him anyway (but it's hard to see how he could be, given that Nine didn't exactly give either him or Rose a guided illustrations of "regenerations in my past") and would have wandered back to Cardiff or would have tried to charm the Brig into relenting, who knows.

But Doctor aside, they definitely would have clashed the first time one organization interfered with what the other worked on.

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

would have stared down any request to talk to Mr. Smith

I can so see that! Leading to Jack's undying resentment of UNIT for keeping him away. I still need to see the Torchwood episode in which UNIT gets slandered, but I wonder how far back the bad blood goes between the two organizations and if it really could be traced back to a Brigadier/Jack rivalry.