History Recap / DoctorWhoS26E1Battlefield

* EnforcedMethodActing: As mentioned on the Trivia page, When the Doctor is trying to get Ace out of the alcove, he's audibly panicking... since the alcove malfunctioned and she ''really'' could have been killed.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: This story is set at an unspecified point in the near future, when the UK has a King as monarch and the five pound note has been replaced by a coin, neither of which has actually happened yet. [[note]]While [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_pounds_%28British_coin%29 officially minted £5 coins]] do exist, they're collectors' pieces not intended for general circulation. A column in ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' that answered reader questions once semi-jokingly suggested that the Brigadier might have been referring to Elvis or just speaking rhetorically, given the context in which he refers to the King. The actual line, on being told it was the Secretary General on the phone is "I don't care if it was the king!"[[/note]]

'''Production code:''' 7N

Written by Creator/BenAaronovitch. This four-episode serial first aired from September 6--27, 1989.

While Bambera and the knight (Ancelyn) get into a fist fight and subsequently get their flirt on, the Doctor sets about convincing Morgaine to stop trying to nuke the planet. Things get a little bit complicated when Morgaine decides to summon an EldritchAbomination to help her out -- but luckily, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is willing to make a HeroicSacrifice and shoot it back to hell. He survives, too, because the writers love him (we do too, so it's okay).

** Doris was first mentioned way back in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders Planet of the Spiders]]".
** Mordred uses the Doctor's own words from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E2TheHappinessPatrol "The Happiness Patrol"]] against him. ''"Look me in the eye, end my life."''

* AffectionateGestureToTheNose: The Doctor boops Ace on the nose while telling her that he's glad she didn't get killed to keep Morgaine from taking Excalibur.

* TakeTheWheel: With the added detail that the passenger is from an alternate universe where they don't have cars, and the driver takes the time to confirm that this is the case before telling him to take the wheel anyway.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Zbrigniev, the UNIT soldier who shows up purely to verify the Doctor’s identity to Bambera, was a former soldier under the Brogadier.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Zbegniev, the UNIT soldier who shows up purely to verify the Doctor’s identity to Bambera, was a former soldier under the Brogadier.

# lets evil witch Morgaine (Creator/JeanMarsh) enter our universe from a parallel dimension where the Arthurian legends turn out to be bit more real than in their’s.

* WhatAPieceOfJunk: Ace's and Shou Yuing's initial reaction to Bessie. As per the trope, they change their tune once they see what it can do.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Morgaine. Her big PetTheDog and KickTheDog moments occur back-to-back without her giving either a second thought. Specifically, she kills a woman by burning out her mind in order to extract all the knowledge she can find about the current situation, and then turns around and cures another woman's blindness in order to cover a bar tab.

* PetTheDog: Morgaine cures Elizabeth's blindness. Admittedly it was because Mordred had all but drunk the bar dry and she probably felt obligated to pay them ''somehow,'' but restoring someone's sight is a lot better than ''some'' of the ways you could repay them when you're an evil witch.
** On the other hand, it comes right after a KickTheDog moment where Morgaine kills and disintegrates Lt. Laval (who was already badly hurt in the helicopter crash), just so that she can absorb Laval's mind and find out more about the situation. Given she later pulls the same mind trick on Bambera and she recovers, it would seem the disintegrating of Laval was just ForTheEvils.

* GoshDangItToHeck: Brigadier Bambera's habit of saying "Oh, sh... ame" could arguably count as this. See also the CasualKink example above. However, WordOfGod is that "Oh shame" is a common exclamation among people of Caribbean origin, which didn't work when a black British actress was cast instead.
* HatePlague: Morgaine casts a spell on Ace and Shou Yuing to make them argue while they're in the protective circle in hopes that they'll break it. However, Ace realises what's happening when she indulges in racial slurs, something that she would not do due racism being her BerserkButton.

* TheBusCameBack: The Brigadier returns for the first time since [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]] six years prior. Thanks to the show being cancelled at the end of this season, this serial would mark his final appearance in the Classic Series (though he ''did'' get to show up in the non-canon charity special [[Recap/DoctorWho30thASDimensionsInTime "Dimensions in Time"]] and the DirectToVideo spinoff film ''Downtime'' during TheNineties).[[invoked]]

* TheBusCameBack: The Brigadier returns for the first time since [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]] six years prior. Thanks to the show being cancelled at the end of this season, this serial would mark his final appearance in the Classic Series (though he ''did'' get to show up in the non-canon charity special [[Recap/DoctorWho30thASDimensionsInTime "Dimensions in Time"]] and the DirectToVideo spinoff film "Downtime" during TheNineties).

* WorldOfHam: Sylvester McCoy and NicholasCourtney meet ana r y of medieval knights.

The Doctor, Ace and Warmsly repair to a [[MyLocal watering hole]] / hotel, where Warmsly bitches about the UNIT hardasses and Ace spends £10 on a lemonade. She also befriends a girl named Shou Yuing. Meanwhile, someone is performing a magic ritual of some sort that

%%* SwordOverHead (Zero-Context Example)

%%* WorldOfHam (Zero-Context Example)

* WeirdCurrency: When the Doctor tips out a handful of change, there's a Franchise/{{Zoid|s}} in among it, which he describes as "a very valuable piece of coinage".

The last one with the Brig. Well, [[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS2E11E12EnemyOfTheBane in the main show, at least]].

* LookBehindYou: When the Doctor was preparing to face the Destroyer (who would very likely kill him), the Brigadier suddenly shouts, "My God, it's a flying saucer!" When the Doctor turns to look, the Brigadier punches him out, then says, "Sorry, Doctor, but I'm MoreExpendableThanYou now!"

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Behind the scenes-example: when noticing that the glass in the water-tank that held Creator/SophieAldred was about to burst and pour the water onto the studio floor, potentially electrocuting her when it touched the live electric cabling, Creator/SylvesterMcCoy had an split-second to warn everyone and he knew that he had to say something that everyone instantly knew was serious and not him as the Doctor Ad-libbing. What did he say?
--> ''[[PrecisionFStrike SHIT!!]]'' -- somebody GET HER OUT!

* GoshDangItToHeck: Brigadier Bambera's habit of saying "Oh, sh... ame" could arguably count as this. See also the CasualKink example above.

* ImprobableWeaponUser: Twice, the Doctor manages to pin Ancelyn's arm with the crook of his umbrella. The first time, he even uses it to threaten Ancelyn with his own sword.

* LookBehindYou: When the Doctor was preparing to face Morgaine (who would very likely kill him), the Brigadier suddenly shouts, "My God, it's a flying saucer!" When the Doctor turns to look, the Brigadier punches him out, then says, "Sorry, Doctor, but I'm MoreExpendableThanYou now!"

* MoreExpendableThanYou: TheBrigadier says this word for word when he takes the Doctor's weapon by force and goes to face the BigBad.

** Elizabeth is so confused by the MoodWhiplash she is left sobbing, "She killed that girl and cured my eyes," over and over trying to process it.

* RidiculousFutureInflation: Lemonade ''still'' does not cost £10, thankfully.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: This story is set at an unspecified point in the near future, when the UK has a King as monarch and the five pound note has been replaced by a coin, neither of which has actually happened yet. [[note]]While [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_pounds_%28British_coin%29 officially minted £5 coins]] do exist, they're collectors' pieces not intended for general circulation. A column in ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' that answered reader questions once semi-jokingly suggested that the Brigadier might have been referring to Elvis or just speaking rhetorically, given the context in which he refers to the King.[[/note]]