I like the way you're thinking. If we take the Trope Namer as the definitive example than this archetype would be the respectable official guy that helps the unusual/out there/abnormal hero with the monsters and what not. A foil sort of thing. That's what I see.
It isn't all that clear that this is only about a trope personified in one specific character in one specific show who incidentally happened to hold the British Army rank of Brigadier.
This is valid, yes, and should be incorporated - the character of Lethbridge-Stewart is fairly richly defined and has unique-ness in its context. But the character is rooted in Real Life, which is what makes it a trope - the role and rank of Brigadier, or equivalent, is a phenomena in all arms of military service, be it Air Commodore (RAF), Commodore or Rear-Admiral (Royal Navy) One-Star General (US Army and Marines). This particular rank in the military throws up some odd and memorable characters in literature and TV, et c, and these should be noted as examplars of the type. The idea that it encompasses the Peter Principle in the military - people too good to be colonels and not good enough to be full Generals - should be discussed. There's enough source material.
Perhaps real life examples should be averted - the story about the former husband of Camilla Parker-Bowles is funny and has some truth to it, but it is a little cruel and refers to currently living people (See Discussion). It may also be worth noting that while the trope is generally taken to mean a bumbling pompous ineffectual Colonel Blimp promoted past his ability (and Lethbridge-Stewart manifested a little of this) this isn't always the case; the officeer who led Britain's land forces in the Falklands was only a Brigadier and he completely smashed an Argentinian army larger than his own. (Lethbridge-Stewart had a streak of this sort of Badass too).
Elderly curmudgeon and awkward person. Professional old fart.I always understood this trope as being a muggle with authority over a muggle institution who helps the hero (who is personally involved in the supernatural) against non-muggle threats. Basically Supporting Leader with the difference that he and the hero are on different levels of the setting. I think it's a split worth making.
Stories don't tell us monsters exist; we knew that already. They show us that monsters can be trademarked and milked for years.I agree with everyone above who says that this is just Reasonable Authority Figure, but IN THE MILITARY! I don't feel that it has any potential to stand as its own trope; a Reasonable Authority Figure is often in the military (especially in more pro-war eras, like WW 2 films from the 50's), but there's nothing that particularly makes them distinct from any other Reasonable Authority Figure.
The trope description also has serious issues in that it lists a bunch of related tropes, but qualifies most of them by saying "sometimes" and "often" — none of them except for Reasonable Authority Figure actually seem to apply to significant portions of the trope list, though; it feels like people were thinking of one or two specific characters when they wrote it, but I don't agree that that description describes an identifiable archetype.
In particular, "skeptical of the monster of the week" is the second sentence, yet the vast majority of the examples that I recognize don't qualify for it at all. Most of them don't strike me as Five Rounds Rapid kinds of guys, which is the next sentence. Most of them are not paired with a Technical Pacifist, either. And I don't think that this is trope decay — I think the issue is that this is simply not a distinct trope from Reasonable Authority Figure in any way.
The description strikes me as a random assortment of tropes that sometimes come up in relation to military figures (both good and bad), especially in sci-fi settings; but I don't think they come together to form a distinct trope or character archetype the way the description tries to say they do.
edited 27th Apr '15 1:11:12 AM by Aquillion
