10 Times Doctor Who REFUSED To Give Fans What They Wanted
3. Bringing Back The Brigadier
Even though it was a reboot, Russell T Davies' 2005 revival of Doctor Who wasted no time in bringing back old elements. The Autons were the first villains, and UNIT briefly appeared in Aliens of London/World War Three. And yet, despite this, the legendary head of the organisation, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart never appeared in the new series.
Given the Doctor's psychological trauma from the Time War, a story that paired the Ninth Doctor with an equally battle-scarred Brigadier would have been fascinating. Sadly, it wasn't to be. The Brigadier was always "in Peru", which increasingly sounded like a euphemism for actor Nicholas Courtney's ill health. He did get to appear in the Sarah Jane Adventures and was due to appear alongside David Tennant in another SJA episode, but unfortunately Courtney was too ill to take part, sadly dying months later.
When the Brigadier did eventually re-appear in Doctor Who, it was in the hugely controversial Death in Heaven, in which the character's corpse was reanimated as a Cyberman to save the Doctor and Kate Stewart from Missy's machinations. There was a also a brief vocal cameo in Flux, but it doesn't make up for the fact that this legendary Doctor Who character never got to share a scene with any of the 21st century Doctors.