We definately got the better story. The one above doesn't seem as fun and I can't imagine the reaction killing the Brig would have got from fans. Saying that though, was he as popular back then or is it more of a hindsight thing?
He was popular back then, but he'd pretty much disappeared from the scene - he hadn't been in the last two stories to feature UNIT (The Android Invasion, Seeds of Doom) so maybe killing him off seemed a logical step. I'm just glad they didn't.