Kate Stewart

Kate Stewart, born Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and nicknamed "Tiger" by her father, was the daughter of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and his first wife, Fiona. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice)

Biography
Fiona and Alistair had Kate three years into their eight-year marriage, circa 1973.

As a child, Kate was never told of her father's work at UNIT with aliens. She was only told that he was a military man. She would often pretend that he was off to have an amazing adventure when really she knew he was off to do boring military operations. (HOMEVID: Downtime)

At the time of the Wenley Moor Silurian incident, Kate was five years old. It was during this mission that Alistair realised that he was an inadequate father for her. The secretive nature of his work with UNIT prevented him from being consistently present in her life. His long absences from home caused Fiona to leave him. Alistair guessed that she and Kate went off to at least initially live somewhere close to Chichester, the home of Kate's maternal grandparents. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice)

Eventually, she grew estranged from her father. (HOMEVID: Downtime) In the early 1990s, Kate had a son, Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, with a man who chose not to help raise their child. She and Gordon made their home aboard a houseboat moored on an English river.

Because the cult based at New World University believed she might be able to lead them to the Brigadier — whom they thought possessed a locus vital to the Great Intelligence — she and Gordon were harassed by students who staked out her houseboat. Frightened, she reconnected with her father in 1995 and briefly fought alongside him and Sarah Jane Smith against the New World group. After the Great Intelligence was again defeated, she entered into a friendlier relationship with her dad, and ensured that Alistair could have a relationship with the grandson he had not previously known existed. (HOMEVID: Downtime)

In 2004, Kate encountered Mastho, one of the last Daemons. (HOMEVID: Dæmos Rising)

Kate dropped the name "Lethbridge" when she joined UNIT so as to be judged on her own merits and not be the beneficiary of favouritism. She eventually rose to the post of Head of Scientific Research, and re-oriented UNIT as a military organisation led by its scientists. (TV: The Power of Three)

Behind the scenes

 * Kate Stewart was created by Marc Platt for the direct-to-video story, Downtime, released in 1995. Her early life was chronicled the next year by Gary Russell in the novel, The Scales of Injustice.  Chris Chibnall depicted her middle-aged life in The Power of Three, almost twenty years after the character was created. Kate's appearance in The Power of Three marks the first time that a character created for an independent spin-off production has appeared in the main series.
 * Andy Pryor's choice of Jemma Redgrave looks like a plausibly aged Beverley Cressman. It appears that they worked to do this on purpose, as Jemma Redgrave is a natural brunette.

Kate Stewart