Doctor Who: The Legacy of Time: The Third Doctor and Kate Stewart

Today, we look at the exciting idea of Kate Stewart meeting the Third Doctor and Jo Grant in next year’s The Legacy of Time. But who else could she meet in this story?

When Doctor Who: The Legacy of Time was announced on Monday, it confirmed something that had been rumored for a while. Namely, that Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) will meet the Third Doctor (Tim Treloar) and Jo Grant (Katy Manning).

There’s a lot of potential with this idea. What leaps out instantly is the clash of both Classic and New Who, as two distinct eras of UNIT collide.

This won’t be the first time that we’ve seen this, not exactly. In last year’s UNIT: Assembled, members of UNIT Classic and New grouped together to fight the Silurians. Only in that case, we were catching up with those original members many years after they had left the service.

But in this case, Kate is travelling back in time to meet a younger version of the team. It’ll be interesting to see how they’ll work together. How much has UNIT changed over the years? Will Kate find the Seventies (or was it the Eighties?) more difficult to work in?

Of course, there’s bound to be at least one member of UNIT that Kate would want to see, more than any other…

Next year, Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) will meet the Third Doctor (Tim Treloar) and Jo Grant (Katy Manning) in next year’s The Legacy of Time.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The Brigadier

Across The Third Doctor Adventures with Tim Treloar so far, we haven’t heard anything from the Brigadier. Considering just how iconic Nicholas Courtney was, as well as how relatively recent his passing is, that’s more than understandable.

But you have to wonder: how will The Legacy of Time address the Brigadier? Usually, whether set on Earth or not, the audio stories start immediately away from the UNIT base, so the Brigadier wouldn’t need to feature at any point. But with Kate in the same time period as when her father was in charge, it could be interesting to hear how it would affect her.

So we need to ask the crucial question: could the Brigadier appear in this story? If Big Finish have re-cast the role, it could be a very bold move. Perhaps even bolder than re-casting the Third Doctor. Seven years is a long time, but it’s still more recent than two decades, which was how long Big Finish waited to recast Jon Pertwee’s iconic Doctor.

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Also, unlike the Doctor, no one else has ever played the Brigadier. It’s an incredibly iconic character for Doctor Who. Would Big Finish surprise us with a re-casting? Perhaps not. But they could do something else to bring the character back: re-use existing audio clips.

It wouldn’t be the first time that they’ve done this. For the fortieth anniversary story Zagreus, they surprised us by using Jon Pertwee audio clips from the fan film Devious. And for the final Jago & Litefoot story, to compensate for the loss of Trevor Baxter, one of the two leads in the series, dialogue from previous box sets was used and carefully edited.

The only problem would be that Big Finish would likely be restricted to using their own audio stories for the Brigadier only. And there were very few that featured the character. Certainly, not enough for more than a very brief cameo appearance at best.

But it would be great to explore the more emotional side of Kate Stewart. We’re certainly more likely to get that when she learns she’s in a time when her father is still alive. So I look forward to finding out exactly what happens when she meets the definitive UNIT team of Classic Doctor Who next year.

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Are you curious to hear how this clash of two eras will turn out? Do you think the Brigadier could have a key role in this episode, or perhaps appear in a cameo? Let us know in the comments below.

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