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Doctor Who speculation: Will Kate Stewart meet her father again in The Legacy of Time?

By James Aggas

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Yesterday, Big Finish announced major news that the character of the Brigadier had been recast. Could this lead to a huge moment for Kate Stewart in the upcoming anniversary special The Legacy of Time?

Back in August, Big Finish announced an incredibly special release. To celebrate twenty years of making Doctor Who adventures on audio, Big Finish will be releasing The Legacy of Time, a six-part story featuring all the surviving Classic Doctors, a huge number of companions from several eras, and even major characters from the New Series.

It’s this clash between Classic and New that will be the really big draw for this box set. Particularly as one of the episodes will feature Kate Stewart and Osgood from the modern era of UNIT meeting the Third Doctor and Jo!

We’ve already covered why this is so exciting before. Not just because of the idea of Kate working with an earlier incarnation of the Doctor, one that she would’ve heard so many stories about from her father. But because there’s someone else she could meet, someone she would have surely missed: Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Her father.

However, while this would be a sweet and emotional reunion, to say the least, there was one thing missing that made me doubt whether it would happen. Specifically, an actor for the Brigadier. Original actor Nicholas Courtney had passed away back in 2011, and unlike the Third Doctor, no one had been recast in the role for Big Finish’s adventures.

Until now.

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. But could she also meet someone even more important to her…?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Tributes to an iconic character

Yesterday, Big Finish announced the major news that the role of the Brigadier had been recast, with actor and impressionist Jon Culshaw taking on the role. Not only would this finally allow the original UNIT team to feel more complete. But it also provides an excellent opportunity for The Legacy of Time to include a moment that would be hugely emotional, at least if it was done right.

The New Series has given us a few little tributes to the Brigadier since Nicholas Courtney’s death. The first and still best one was the Doctor finding out about his best friend’s death in The Wedding of River Song. It’s an incredibly low-key moment that’s handled absolutely beautifully.

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In the next series, we were introduced to his daughter Kate for the first time in The Power of Three. Again, this worked really well towards honoring the character. Along with continuing the family legacy of the Lethbridge-Stewarts in UNIT, it also provided the Doctor with the start of a new UNIT family.

However, by the time we got to Death in Heaven, the tributes weren’t quite so good. Particularly with bringing the corpse of the Brigadier back as a Cyberman. That felt misjudged, to say the least.

But Kate meeting her father when he was young, and the Brigadier seeing just how brilliant her daughter will become, has the potential to be the best way of honoring the character yet. For this reason, I really hope he appears in The Legacy of Time.

Admittedly, Jon Culshaw isn’t shown in the cast list just yet. But the official page also says that “more cast details” are to follow, so we can certainly keep our fingers crossed.

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Would you like to have Kate meet her father once more? Do you think Big Finish could do justice to such a huge moment? Let us know in the comments below.

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