Posted in: BBC, Disney+, TV | Tagged: doctor who, jemma redgrave, kate stewart

Doctor Who: Let's Give UNIT Head Kate Stewart a Proper Celebration

In honor of Jemma Redgrave's birthday, here's a proper celebration of UNIT head Kate Stewart and her history in Doctor Who canon.

Oh look, it's a new BBC Doctor Who compilation video highlighting UNIT leader Kate Stewart… that doesn't have enough Kate Stewart in it! Come on, BBC! What's up with the person or people who cut these videos together? Didn't they read the brief? Or is this another cry for help? Or were there just too many scenes and shots of Kate Stewart firing her gun, and that's not something the BBC wants to encourage in kids? That's reasonable. It's Jemma Redgrave's birthday this week, and the BBC likes to celebrate anything Doctor Who to keep an eye on the show while we're all waiting for season two to premiere on the BBC and Disney+. And Kate Stewart is interesting enough to talk about and celebrate in Doctor Who lore. Here's a proper appreciation of Kate Stewart without all those scenes of the Doctor taking over.

The History of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart was first introduced in 1995 in Downtime, an unofficial fan-produced shot-on-video adventure written by Marc Platt, who had written for the Seventh Doctor's run and several Virgin novels, and directed by Christopher Barrie, who directed several episodes of Doctor Who in the 1980s. Kate was younger, in her early thirties, and a single divorced mother resentful of her father, the Brigadier (Nicholas Courteney), for their family breaking up because of his work in the military that took him away from home. She was unaware at the time that he was working for UNIT and dealing with threats from outer space.

Beverly Cressman originally played her in this and its follow-up, Daemos Rising, in 2004. Yes, these unofficial stories were fan fiction, albeit written and directed by people who worked on the series and featuring actors playing their characters. Downtime ends with Kate shooting dead the baddie with the gun her father left her, so there's a precedent for her getting trigger-happy later when she's UNIT leader on Doctor Who.

In Daemos Rising, Kate becomes the lead character as she battles an old enemy of her father's from his UNIT days.

Kate Stewart in the New Doctor Who

By the time showrunner Steven Moffat brought her to Doctor Who and made the character canon, he abbreviated her name to Kate Stewart, perhaps because that's easier for new fans to remember. He also cast Jemma Redgrave as an older, more seasoned and less angry Kate, now the senior scientific advisor and leader of UNIT. Kate has a lot of fans now, especially amongst female fans who grew up watching the modern era of Doctor Who. She's one nepo baby who earned the job. The TV series has cleverly kept quiet about whether Kate's son and ex-husband are canon so that fans of the original video stories can keep that in their head-canon. Kate is supposed to be competent, smart, and able to think five steps ahead, at least when the TV writers remember she is – until they need to make her stupid and trigger-happy to make the Plot happen. If you want to see how competent and capable she truly is, you're better off checking out the UNIT spinoff audio dramas from Big Finish.

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