UNIT website
The UNIT website was the official website of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. It contained pages on the history of the organisation, in which it was mentioned that the founding event of UNIT's history was the 1968 London Underground Incident, details of press releases, publications and conferences.
There were also two secure areas on the site, password-protected, one originally being "bison" but later changed to "UNIT HAS BEEN NOTIFIED THE PASSWORDS HAVE BEEN CHANGED!!", containing non-interactive UNIT forum threads about various events up to the Sycorax invasion of Earth in 2006. The other secure section allowed for remote flying of missiles, with the password " UNIT HAS BEEN NOTIFIED THE PASSWORDS HAVE BEEN CHANGED!! ".
The secure areas became inactive after March 2009 but came back in 2011.
Secure Login
The Ops Board section included operational reports. The central figures included Major Jenny Maguire, taciturn commanding officer and someone with a past with the Doctor (he annoyed her), and Staff Sergeant Annie Frederick, who handled press relations.
- Operation Mannequin revealed there was disruption of communications during the Nestene's move (speculated to be protecting itself from radio wave attacks) and that as few cameras were working, little footage was taken of the Autons. Four hundred thirty people died and nearly a thousand were injured. UNIT's cover story was that there was a gas explosion and that due to faulty plastic, some shop dummies contorted in heat and were believed to "move" (Frederick admitted few people would swallow this); to provide disinformation, secret operatives bombarded radio stations with obviously fake stories of talking dummies and waxworks attacking (and others claiming they saw nothing). (DW: Rose)
- London Contact had UNIT irritated by the government's "useless" response, as if they didn't want to contain the situation; they sent one of their expert EVA teams from Geneva to "show willing". When the Ninth Doctor arrived, Maguire and Frederick were annoyed. The aftermath of Number Ten showed UNIT shellshocked by the loss of their team and the scale of the Slitheen attack, and Maguire called in for a meeting at the temporary offices of the PM in Westminster. Maguire referred to Harriet Jones as "the acting PM’s some woman I’ve never heard of with my mother’s hair-do". (DW: Aliens of London / World War Three)
- Briefing: Rose Tyler revealed that UNIT were aware she was the current companion and had compiled a dossier on her. As a result, they discovered Mickey Smith's whoisdoctorwho.co.uk website and were distraught and surprised to discover how much he knew; their security codes were quickly changed. Sgt Catherine Petts, dossier compiler, reported that Pete Tyler's death "appear[s] to be a temporal event. I’ve had a look through, and it even appears fleetingly on our files (1987/11-Be3a)", indicating UNIT had seen Reaper attacks before. [source needed]
- Guinevere One introduced Major Blake as UNIT reacted to the missing satellite and the Sycorax debate, with Blake snarking that he bet Jones would use it as an excuse to visit Tower Ops. Project Rooftop had the aftermath: mass looting had broken out because of the shattered windows but was brought down by the police; UNIT deactivated Blackberry devices across the UK while they tried to get their press statement straight, made worse by only inexperienced junior staff being present at Fleet Street during the holidays; there was a decision to continue covering up UNIT's previous forty years and act like the Sycorax were a surprise. Jones ordered that UNIT claim the ship blew up of its own accord and not to mention Torchwood's laser weapon, while UNIT wondered what it was. Jones also requested to speak at Major Blake's funeral. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
Behind the scenes
The website dates the London Underground Incident as having happened in 1968. This would give credence to the theory that the Second Doctor's earlier and later adventures with UNIT occurred in the late 1960s through to the early to mid 1970s, rather than at later dates. However, this statement completely ignores the dialogue of The Web of Fear, which firmly places the serial in at least the 1970s.
