U.N.I.T. (tie-in website)

U.N.I.T.
Main character(s):	UNIT
Main setting:	United Kingdom, 2005-2006
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC
Writer:	BBC Web Team
Release details
Release date:	April 2005
Doctor Who tie-in websites
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You may be looking for the in-universe website.

In April 2005 the BBC launched the U.N.I.T. website to coincide with the 2005 series of Doctor Who, one of several websites created at that time. While the website domain seems to have been bought by the BBC in 23 November 2004, the earliest archives of content on the site is from late April of 2005, around the premiere of TV: World War Three. On 20 April, the Doctor Who website added a link to the U.N.I.T. website, visible as "Alien Hotline", after the site updated to focus on World War Three.

The website contained a mix of narrative and non-narrative prose fiction, all told from an in-universe perspective, as if you were reading the very pages on the in-universe website itself. The website prominently featured many references to the original and early revival eras of Doctor Who. Currently, non-narrative information is treated as an invalid source on this Wiki, so sources from this website vary in validity.

Contents

UNIT History

Main article: UNIT History: Fighting the unknown (short story)

This webpage gives an overview of the history of UNIT.

UNIT Press Releases

Main article: UNIT Press Briefings (series)

This webpage gives a list of press briefings released by UNIT to the public.

UNIT Conferences

Main article: UNIT Conferences (feature)

The page announces a conference to be hosted by UNIT.

UNIT Publications

Main article: UNIT Publications (feature)

A list of new publications published by UNIT is given.

UNIT News

Main article: UNIT News (feature)

The news webpage reports on several topics.

Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Terms of Use

Main article: Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Terms of Use (feature)

This webpage acts as a disclaimer for UNIT.

Secure Login

Operations Board

Main article: Operations Board (series)

Main article: Untitled (U.N.I.T. website video game)

On the website, there is a password entry point. There are three passwords, each with a different purpose.

• "bison" is the password to enter the operations board
• "badwolf" later replaced "bison", but it was eventually reverted back to "bison"
• "buffalo" allows access to a missile launch page, with other links to other private UNIT information

Notes

• Prior to the BBC's usage of the domain, the url unit.org.uk belonged to a group of artists.
• While large portions of the website indirectly reference alien incidents, and by extension, confims that they undeniably exist, the UNIT Press Briefings somewhat contradict this where the alien incidents, both pre- and post-Rose, are covered up. Though the final UNIT Press Briefing, Alien Life, shows UNIT explicitly confiming the existence of alien life.
  • Similarly, the short story UNIT History: Fighting the unknown acknowledges the UK's 1970s Mars missions, however, the website also directly ties into The Christmas Invasion, which entirely ignores the 1970s Mars missions.
• The stories on the website attributes dates to both the classic and revival era UNIT stories; while the dates given to classic stories align with a common dating practise of setting them on their respective broadcast dates, the dates given to the revival era stories are more arbitary and inconsistent. Some are said to occur on their broadcast dates, such as the date given for TV: Rose being 26 March – the real world broadcast date – it gives seemingly random dates for other stories, such as 28 June 2006 for TV: Aliens of London in PROSE: Operation London, it is neither the real world broadcast date of the story (which was 16 April) or is consistent with the "one year later" setting of Aliens of London (as it therefore should be around 26 March 2006, logically) or even consistent with the date given for TV: World War Three in PROSE: Number Ten Pays Tribute to UNIT, which was sometime prior to 26 May, setting the second part of the Slitheen duology about a month before the first part.
  • A possible explanation, though speculative, is inferred from PROSE: Rose Tyler — Major Jenny Maguire, upon learning of Mickey Smith's ownership of www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk, suggests planting misinformation on the website, and while this is seemingly denied by Staff Sergeant Annie Frederick, the insertion of misinformation could've been agreed to offsite.
• The characters Annie Frederick, M Osborne, and C Jones seem to be either be homages and/or self-inserts of Annie Frederick, Michelle Osborn, and Claire Jones, all employees of the BBC in 2005.

The United Nations' Legal Actions

Notably, the disclaimer page had a direct link to the United Nations website, however, after the launch of the website, the real UN began to take legal action. They firstly faxed BBC lawyers, requesting the name to be changed, however the lawyers misinterpreted this as a hoax and they displayed the fax in a kitchen in pride. Their pride soon turned to panic when the UN threatened imprisonment under the Geneva Convention, and the main website editor at the time, James Goss, emailed Russell T Davies, fearing extradition. Script editor Helen Raynor quickly came up with the new name, the "UNified Intelligence Taskforce", and the disclaimer on the site was made more prominent at the behest of the UN. Thus, this was the catalyst for the name "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce" to be changed to the "Unified Intelligence Taskforce" in all later appearances.

External links

• unit.org.uk via the Wayback Machine