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| “ | I didn’t want any favors. Though he guided me even to the end. “Science leads”, he always told me. Said he learned that from an old friend. | „ |
| ~ Kate Stewart |
Katherine Sally "Kate" Lethbridge-Stewart (known professionally as Kate Stewart) is the Chief Scientific Officer and Head of UNIT, serving as a supporting character in Doctor Who, and the main protagonist of audio drama spin-off UNIT: The New Series. She was the daughter of Fiona and Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and the mother of Gordy and another child.
Kate spent her youth not knowing of her father's activities with extra-terrestrial beings, believing whole-heartedly that his life consisted of a boring and simple military job. In the BBV films, Kate would not begin to scratch the true surface of her father's life until years later when she shared an encounter against the Great Intelligence with him. She spent some time investigating UNIT and her father's ties to it.
Kate would joined the organisation, rising to its top position and changing it to be a more scientific, peaceful group. As leader of UNIT, Kate encountered the Doctor many times during encounters between Earth and alien threats, becoming similar to the Doctor as her father had been. She was at the forefront of the peace treaty between humanity and Zygons on Earth. As well as this she has encountered she has encountered alien threats with her own team.
She played by English actresses Beverley Cressman in BBV's films, and Jemma Redgrave within Doctor Who.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Katherine Sally Lethbridge-Stewart was born to Fiona and Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart three years into their marriage, which lasted eight years. As a child, her parents never told her of her father's work at UNIT; she was only aware that he was a military man and was under the impression that it was a boring job. She would often pretend that his absences were due to him having amazing adventures rather than the boring military operations that she believed he was involved in.
Due to her mother blaming the Brigadier for their separation, Kate grew estranged from her father. By 1989, she was attending a college in Reading, having left home to gain independence, and shared a house with her best friend, Cecilia Hunter. She became attracted to her science teacher, Jonathan James, and, surprised to find that the attraction was mutual, they began dating despite the college's rules.
In December 1989, Kate discovered that she was pregnant and, so as not to ruin Jonathan's career, opted out of college. The couple visited the Brigadier to inform him of the pregnancy but, after witnessing an attempt on her father's life, Kate realised that she could not allow her father to be part of her child's life. She left without having told him of her pregnancy. On 25 September, 1990, she gave birth to a son whom she named Gordon James Lethbridge-Stewart, with "Gordon" coming from her grandfather and "James" from Jonathan.
Downtime[]
In 1995, Kate and Gordon were harassed by students of the New World University, who believed that she might be able to lead them to the Brigadier. Frightened, she reconnected with her father and briefly fought alongside him and Sarah Jane Smith against the New World group. Following the Great Intelligence's defeat, she entered into a friendlier relationship with her father and ensured that he could have a relationship with the grandson whom he had not previously known about.
Daemos Rising[]
In October 2003, Kate received a message from Douglas Cavendish and joined him in investigating a haunting. Arriving at Cavendish's isolated cottage, she faced Mastho and discovered that the Sodality had revived and transported him through time for their own purposes. This meant that the threat to the present was neutralised.
Kate later married and had a second child, but later she divorced.
Reorganising UNIT[]
Guided by her father and instilled with the mantra that "science leads", a belief for which the Brigadier credited the Doctor, Kate joined UNIT, going by "Kate Stewart" to avoid unwanted favours and so that she would be judged on her own merits. She rose to the position of Chief Scientific Officer and dragged the organisation "kicking and screaming" to her vision of its scientists leading, a process which she did not find especially fun.
During the Year of the Slow Invasion, Kate freighted Shakri cubes from all over the world for testing and learnt little about them. After detecting a spike of artron energy, Kate met the Eleventh Doctor and, some days later, summoned him and Amy Pond to the Tower of London via his psychic paper. She attempted to warn the governments of the world of the cubes when they started their countdown and, once the incursion was over, she bid farewell to the Doctor, who had worked out that she was the Brigadier's daughter.
The Day of the Doctor[]
UNIT had in its possession a picture of Kate with River Song whilst the latter was wearing her Demons Run garb, as well as a photo of Kate with Clara Oswald from her "previous visit".
She ordered the airlifting of The Doctor's TARDIS to London, to the agitation of the Eleventh Doctor. Kate summoned him there under the royal orders of Elizabeth I, giving him a sealed letter from the Queen and proving her credentials by showing him the impossible painting Gallifrey Falls No More within the National Gallery.
The letter decreed that the Doctor be made curator of the Under Gallery and that he be summoned should there be any disturbance there. Kate led the Doctor and Clara Oswald to the scene of the disturbance. There, she showed them more paintings, all landscapes with glass on the floor next to them. When the Doctor jumped through a time fissure and met the Tenth Doctor and the War Doctor. Clara attempted to follow him before Kate restrained her. As she left the room to request important UNIT files, Kate was accosted by a Zygon who had escaped through one of the paintings and then took her image and pretended to be the real Kate to Clara Oswald. Petronella Osgood saved her from the Zygon nest. Kate, along with McGillop and Osgood, confronted their Zygon doppelgangers in the Black Archive. Kate ordered the countdown to detonate the Archive with a nuclear warhead which would not only prevent the Zygons from having control of the many weapons stored there but would also destroy London in the process. The Zygon used Kate's voice to stop the detonation, but Kate countermanded the order.
Kate and her Zygon counterpart bickered over the detonation, before the War, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors triggered the Black Archive's memory modifiers to confuse everybody in the room as to whether they were a Zygon or a human. The two Kates stopped the countdown, and negotiated a peace treaty.
Actions with the Twelfth Doctor[]
Death in Heaven needs to be added
When Missy returned and froze all the planes on Earth, Clara came to UNIT and Kate helped her contact Missy. Kate and UNIT went to investigate a Zygon invasion that broke out after a splinter group decided a peace treaty with humans was unacceptable. She was determined to bomb the rebel Zygon settlement, but the Doctor convinced her that this would only make the situation worse – threatening to radicalise every peaceful Zygon on the planet.
Kate followed a lead to Truth or Consequences in New Mexico to try and find the root of the uprising. Here she encountered the one remaining inhabitant of the town, police sheriff C. Norlander, who explained how the trouble started – the accidental revelation of a young Zygon in true form who "hadn't learnt to preserve his body print" had caused panic, distrust and violence within the human population. As the truth of what had really occurred began to dawn on Kate, she realised that Norlander was, in fact, a Zygon rebel agent.
She was then attacked but managed to kill the Zygon, before taking its place to fool the High Command. Kate was present in the Black Archive when the Twelfth Doctor forced her to become an ambassador for the human race in an attempt to negotiate a new peace treaty alongside the Zygon High Command leader Bonnie in which a standoff occurred involving the Osgood Box. However, her memories of the Box were soon erased.
Going dark[]
By 2017 as seen in Survivors of the Flux, Kate was aware that Prentis, or rather the Grand Serpent, was alien and threatened to expose him in 2017 when he informed her that he would be conceding defeat and permitting UNIT's activities to be wound down. When she returned home, she narrowly survived an assassination attempt and called Osgood, telling her that she was "going dark" before breaking her phone.
In 2018, UNIT was dealing with budget issues brought on by Brexit. By New Year's Day 2019, UNIT operations were still suspended due to financial disputes, and the Thirteenth Doctor was unable to contact Kate about an ongoing Dalek threat. Kate attended Sarah Jane Smith's memorial on a "bright, cold Spring day", where she discussed Sarah Jane with other guests, giving Sarah Jane's son Luke Smith "the biggest hug", and helped fight the Jackals of the Backwards Clock to foil the Trickster's revenge plot.
In 2021, as seen in The Vanquishers, Kate led the human resistance against the Sontarans, hiding in the Williamson Tunnels and in possession of the Doctor's TARDIS. She met the Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin Khan, Dan Lewis, Eustacius Jericho and Joseph Williamson and brought them up to speed with the occupation, informing them of their presence in Chile and their fondness for chocolate. When The Grand Serpent came looking for her, she and Inston-Vee Vinder exiled him through a portal and, following the Sontarans' defeat, she said goodbye to the Doctor and said that she hoped that she would see her again.
The Power of the Doctor[]
to be added
The Giggle[]
to be added
The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death[]
Personality[]
Kate disliked the use of weapons, refusing to take a gun from Sarah Jane Smith when offered. When she took over UNIT, she enacted great changes to favour scientific approaches over military means.
Kate believed that "science leads", though "science needs to remember to carry a gun sometimes."
She believed herself and Osgood to be UNIT's greatest scientific minds. She usually let Osgood use the call sign Greyhound Two.
She refused to treat her people as pawns, but when dealing with the Master, recognised that it was more important to define deaths based on the loss of practical resources and potential allies as appealing to the Master on moral grounds would be pointless. She was still willing to put herself in harm's way however, as seen when she surrendered herself to Ashad to try to protect her men and buy time to defeat the Cybermen.
Appearance[]
Kate had ice-blonde hair and features sharpened by intellect and alertness.
Trivia[]
- Kate is not above kidnapping the Doctor or stealing the TARDIS to get his cooperation. Though she finds it rude to barge in without proper explanation.
- In 2013, she appropriated the TARDIS, unaware the Doctor was in; resulting in him falling out the door and hanging on until the TARDIS was loaded for landing.
- In 2014, she knocked out the Twelfth Doctor to inograte him as President if the Earth.
- In 2023, she didn't try sending a message to the psychic paper or callin the TARDIS. UNIT soldiers escorted him via helicopter.
- The only time Kate has admitted she was over her head and weary from it was during the Giggle. She outright hugged the Doctor, as if needing the comfort of a wise elder.
Behind the scenes[]
- The character of Kate Stewart was created by Marc Platt for the 1995 direct-to-video story, Downtime. Beverley Cressman portrayed the character. A younger version of Kate appeared in the 1996 Virgin Missing Adventures novel The Scales of Injustice by Gary Russell. She would reappear, again played by Cressman in Dæmos Rising. In 2012 she appeared in the Doctor Who television story The Power of Three, almost twenty years after the character was created. Kate's appearance in The Power of Three marked the first time that a character created for an independent spin-off production appeared in the main series, and followed the on-screen debut of Prof Arthur Candy who originated in the spin-off short story, Continuity Errors.
- Kate Lethbridge-Stewart was originally planned to appear in the home video Auton with her father and Cavendish. However, Nicholas Courtney had to drop out of Auton due to a bout of depression and this led to Kate being written out (causing a falling out between Cressman and writer Nick Briggs at the time).[1] A first draft of Auton 2 also featured Kate.[2]
- Kate Stewart was also intended to appear in The Pyramid at the End of the World. Her role was replaced with the Secretary General, who then died.[3]
- Jemma Redgrave, who is naturally a brunette, plays the role of Kate with blonde hair matching Beverley Cressman's portrayal of the character.
- The in-universe article A Brief History of the Lethbridge-Stewarts, available as a download from the Lethbridge-Stewart website, says Kate joined UNIT in 2004, following the events of Daemos Rising, at the behest of her father.
External links[]
References[]
- ↑ Downtime: The Lost Years of Doctor Who by Dylan Rees, chapter 16
- ↑ Downtime: The Lost Years of Doctor Who by Dylan Rees, chapter 19
- ↑ Tardis Eruditorium
[]
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