RIP Nicholas Courtney

Or, if you don't know who that is, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. And if you don't know who that is, go away and watch some more classic series Doctor Who.

Doctor Who's story is full of heroes. Some of them are clear and easy to acknowledge. Pretty much anyone who played the Doctor becomes a hero, sometimes because they were just great at it, sometimes because the odds were stacked against them, and sometimes because they were great at it and the odds were stacked against them. Furthermore, some companions become legends. Other heroes are, at least outside of the introverted and sometimes strange world of Doctor Who fandom, are relatively unsung. The brilliant Nicholas Courtney would be one of those. Because his portrayal of the Brigadier - a regular of the series in the early 1970's and an occasionally recurring character (and general legend) through the rest of the series - was always entertaining, watchable and pitched perfectly, no matter what the script was like or how big or small his role was.

And if you still don't know why, I'll hand you over to Steven Moffat, Chief Writer and Executive Producer of one of Britain's most successful TV shows:

'I only met Nicholas Courtney once and very briefly - but he was as kind and generous and funny as his reputation suggests. And on screen, his perfectly pitched performance as the Brigadier carved a very special place in the history of Doctor Who. Not just because he could be grave and funny at the same time, and wise and silly in the same moment, and not just because you could still love him when he was clearly in the wrong, or because he could point a gun at you and still somehow twinkle - but because out of all the people the Doctor has met, in all of space and time, Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was the only one who was ever his boss.

Somewhere out there, the Doctor just got a little lonelier.'