UNIT HQ, City of London

This topic might have a better name.

Perhaps this should be UNIT HQ (The Star Beast), since UNIT HQ (The Power of the Doctor) was also located in the City Of London. Unless this is a combined page for both, we need some way of differentiating between the two.

Talk about it here.

UNIT HQ, City of London
Type:	Skyscraper
Location:	City of London, London
Made by:	UNIT
First appearance:	The Star Beast
Appearances:	TV: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"] PROSE: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (novelisation)"] WC: Incoming Transmission - February Update Video [+]Loading...["Incoming Transmission - February Update Video (webcast)"]

By late 2023, the branch of UNIT that operated in the United Kingdom had its headquarters (TV: The Star Beast ^[+]Loading...{"timestamp":"00:49:15","1":"The Star Beast (TV story)"}) located in the City of London, near the Gherkin. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac ^[+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Everything Changes","page":"71","chaptnum":"3","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"}) It had a helipad. (TV: The Star Beast ^[+]Loading...{"timestamp":"00:49:15","1":"The Star Beast (TV story)"})

History

This section's awfully stubby.

Information from TV: The Giggle ^[+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"] and PROSE: The Giggle ^[+]Loading...["The Giggle (novelisation)"] needs to be added.

The previous headquarters was destroyed during the Master's Dalek Plan when Tegan Jovanka and Kate Stewart initiated the structural termination system to implode the building and entomb the Cybermen lead by a cloned Ashad. (TV: The Power of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"])

The UNIT HQ was among London's skyline (TV: The Star Beast ^[+]Loading...{"timestamp":"00:49:15","1":"The Star Beast (TV story)"}) by the November 2023 UFO incident. (PROSE: The Star Beast ^[+]Loading...["The Star Beast (novelisation)"])

In February 2024, Sergeant Darren, located in UNIT HQ, received a transmission across time from his friend and coworker Sasha, who had been stranded in the Dark Times by an encounter with the Entity. After they ascertained her coordinates, UNIT called the Doctor in as "reinforcements", and he managed to rescue her, bringing it back to the 21st century; Darren then proudly reported that she was "safe and sound in UNIT HQ" to his commander. (WC: Incoming Transmission - February Update Video ^[+]Loading...["Incoming Transmission - February Update Video (webcast)"])

Behind the scenes

File:LeadenhallStreet.jpg

Leadenhall Street in the real world; the exact location of the UNIT HQ in the DWU.

To Ace's left is 11 Leadenhall Street (Starbucks) and 12 Leadenhall Street (Lloyd's building) and to her right is 122 Leadenhall Street (UNIT HQ in the DWU, the Leadenhall Building in the real world). The UNIT HQ in The Star Beast ^[+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"] is located in the middle of this street.

This UNIT HQ, going off the on-screen geography seen in The Star Beast ^[+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"], appears to be located the financial district of the City of London. However, upon analysing the position further, it makes less sense as it can be seen that the Scalpel and 40 Leadenhall Street are located to the immediate area east, the Leadenhall Building north, the Lloyd's building and Willis Building to the south, and the construction site of 1 Leadenhall Street to the west, thus placing the skyscraper in the middle of Leadenhall Street.

Furthermore, the UNIT HQ seen in The Power of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"] is located where the Leadenhall Building is in real life; the road Ace parachutes down towards is Leadenhall Street. The Star Beast (set in late 2023) creates a minor continuity issue by showing that the Leadenhall Building is among London's skyline, despite that tower being non-existent during The Power of the Doctor (set in 2022). The Star Beast also posits that UNIT was able to clear the site of their imploded HQ, deal with the Cyber-Warriors entombed within, and construct their new tower all in the space of a year.

Additionally, the mini-episode The Promise ^[+]Loading...["The Promise (webcast)"] — released in 2019 and set approximately around that time — showed the City of London as it exists in the real world, including the Leadenhall Building, not the building occupied by UNIT in The Power of the Doctor.

Prior to the airing of The Giggle, the images of both the newly bigenerated Fifteenth Doctor, first seen in the trailer following The Power of the Doctor, and the Fourteenth Doctor preparing to "regenerate", as seen in the trailer following Wild Blue Yonder ^[+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"], were modified to remove the appearance of UNIT HQ.

Location information

Loading map...

{"minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"mappingservice":"leaflet","width":"300px","height":"200px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"zoom":15,"defzoom":14,"layers":["OpenStreetMap"],"image layers":[],"overlays":[],"resizable":false,"fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":true,"cluster":false,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clustermaxradius":80,"clusterspiderfy":true,"geojson":"","clicktarget":"","imageLayers":[],"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":51.5128408,"lon":-0.08146655382754633,"icon":""}],"imageoverlays":null}

Though it's possible that a real world location doesn't exist in the same geographic space in the Doctor Who universe, such cases are few and far between. Thus, the map to the right is probably a good indicator of the DWU location of UNIT HQ, City of London.