UNIT

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For other uses of UNIT, see UNIT (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox Organization

UNIT or Unified Intelligence Taskforce (formerly known as the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) was a military organisation which operates under the auspices of the United Nations. Its purpose was to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to the Earth. UNIT was not the only alien defence organisation, but it was the one with which the Doctor has historically had the closest personal involvement.

History

Roots and predecessors

There was an early 20th century counterpart, called LONGBOW. This world security organisation was set up by the UN precursor, the League of Nations. LONGBOW dealt with the occasional extraterrestrial incident, but was disbanded after it, and the League, failed to prevent World War II. (NA: Just War)

The roots of the organisation itself, however lay, in previous alien encounters. The Intrusion Countermeasures Group headed by Group Captain Ian Gilmore, which got involved in the Shoreditch Incident served as a specialised military force with scientific assistance would seem almost a trial run for UNIT, though not an international organisation. Though Gilmore did have two scientific advisors (serving a function much like third incarnation of the Doctor and Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw would serve later), the seventh incarnation of the Doctor did most of the work, here, on the technical end. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

A second significance was the takeover of London by the Great Intelligence, using robot Yetis and a deadly cobweb-like fungus. Assisted by the Doctor, another group of British infantrymen, led this time by Colonel Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart of the Scots Guards beat back the Yeti from the tunnels of the London Underground. (DW: The Web of Fear) UNIT themselves would later consider this to be the main origin of the organisation. (WEB: unit.org.uk)

20th century

Early history

Formation

The United Nations was by now ever more aware that the world faced threats from extraterrestrial sources and that with the space programme sending probes deeper and deeper into space, mankind had drawn attention to itself (DW: Spearhead from Space). Unable to get the British government to form a permanent special operations force for alien threats, Lethbridge-Stewart went over their heads to the UN Security Council, who proved more receptive. (MA: Who Killed Kennedy) The UN established UNIT with the mandate to investigate, monitor and combat such threats. At the suggestion of Gilmore from the ICMG (MA: The Scales of Injustice), Lethbridge-Stewart was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and put in charge of the British contingent, organisationally known as Department C19 within the British government (DW: Time-Flight).

Lethbridge-Stewart implied on one occasion that he joined UNIT after it had already existed for at least a short period of time. (DW: Terror of the Zygons)
The Lethbridge-Stewart years

One of UNIT's first missions was an intensive invesigation of International Electromatics; this turned violent, with UNIT agents being eliminated during invesigations and UNIT itself launching a helicopter raid to liberate prisoners at an Electromatics' facility. With the help, again, of the Doctor, UNIT discovered the company was a front for a Cybermen invasion and was able to defend against it. (DW: The Invasion).

Following this, Lethbridge-Stewart became convinced of the necessity of scientific advice in battling extraterrestrial threats, and recruited Liz Shaw from the University of Cambridge. Coincidentally, the Doctor, now in his third form, had been exiled to Earth by the Time Lords. The Doctor agreed to join UNIT as its Scientific Advisor just in time to help defeat the Autons (DW: Spearhead from Space).

When the Doctor's exile was lifted (DW: The Three Doctors), his association with UNIT became more sporadic, especially after his regeneration into his fourth incarnation. (DW: Planet of the Spiders, Robot)

Though the Doctor did return to Earth with Sarah Jane Smith, he would work less and less with the Brigadier and more with such other officers as Colonel Faraday (the Brigadier having gone to Geneva) (DW: The Android Invasion) and Major Beresford (DW: The Seeds of Doom). The Doctor, however, never officially left UNIT. (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem)

As a United Nations group, UNIT often saw use as security at peace conferences (DW: Day of the Daleks, The Mind of Evil) and the British contingent had foreign soldiers such as Sergeant Zbrigniev (DW: Battlefield).

UNIT would often face hostility in its operations, particularly when investigating research facilities and companies. A common tactic used against UNIT were appeals by administrators to any contacts they had in the Westminster government, which either forced Lethbridge-Stewart to back down or go over the government's heads to Geneva. (DW: The Invasion, The Green Death)

After Lethbridge-Stewart

Lethbridge-Stewart retired in 1976 and went to teach mathematics at Brendon School. At some stage, Benton and medical officer Harry Sullivan also left (DW: Mawdryn Undead). He was succeeded by Colonel Charles Crichton (DW: The Five Doctors).

The Doctor re-united, in his seventh incarnation, against an invasion by Morgaine and her armoured knights. The British contingent was commanded by the younger Brigadier Winifred Bambera. Lethbridge-Stewart was called out of retirement to assist Bambera and the Doctor. (DW: Battlefield) This version of the Doctor would, again, assist the UNIT officer Muriel Frost in the late 1990s in their struggle against the Mandragora Helix. (DWM: The Mark of Mandragora, Evening's Empire)

At some point in the late 20th, early 21st century, a book on the history of UNIT was published (though it's not known how much if any information on the organization's activities is included). (SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?)

The 21st century

In at least the late 20th and early 21st centuries, UNIT maintained a small division based in the United States, led by Brigadier General Adrienne Kramer. (EDA: Vampire Science)

At some point, the UK division of UNIT was facing being shut down and replaced with domestic group ICIS (Internal Counter-Intelligence Service). When it became clear ICIS were brutal and dangerous, Lethbridge-Stewart and Colonel Emily Chaudry deliberately revealed UNIT's remit to the press (stating UNIT had faced over 200 invasions) and the existence of Silurian ambassadors; while this was viewed as a hoax, it forced the government to leave UNIT in charge of alien matters, leading to uneasy co-existence with ICIS. (BFA: The Coup)

Unknown to UNIT, their leader Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood was an ICIS plant who had been deliberately groomed to assume leadership of their rival. (BFA: The Wasting) ICIS' involvement in an attempted coup (BFA: The Longest Night) and murderous attempts at framing UNIT (BFA: The Wasting) led to their shutdown, however; in the process UNIT thwarted the coup and stopped a worldwide pandemic, unfortunately losing temporary commander Colonel Timothy Dalton in the process. Colonel Chaudry was given command of the UK contigent, though this was later handed to Colonel Alan Mace under unknown circumstances.

Before 2006, UNIT had been involved in multiple situations without the Doctor, including the Fourth Reich, the Guatemala "big locust" Problem, Operation Plainsong, the Skaniska Incident and the Jersey Tollgate Situation. 2005 saw the organisation increase its New York presence centered around a New York Liason Office, allowing immediate UNIT briefing of the UN General Assembly. They also had been hosting annual conferences for several years. An officer named Major Jenny Maguire had had previous experience with the Doctor, who had annoyed her in unknown circumstances. (http://www.unit.org.uk and http://www.unit.org.uk/secure/, password "badwolf").

In 2006, UNIT sent a delegation to a gathering of experts to 10 Downing Street in response to a spaceship crashing in the River Thames. All of the experts were electrocuted by the family Slitheen. The identities of the advisors killed were not known, although one bore the name "Frost" on her jacket. (DW: Aliens of London)

This may or may not have been Muriel Frost. Frost would have been somewhat older by this time and she and the Doctor showed no familiarity with each other.

By this time, UNIT and the Torchwood Institute were aware of each other to the extent that the former group asked for, and got, the assistance of Torchwood 3. (DW: Aliens of London).

In Christmas 2006, UNIT had a command center located in the Tower of London which was under the command of Major Blake (DW: The Christmas Invasion). UNIT maintained some contact with Torchwood 3, even after the Battle of Canary Wharf. Torchwood 3's leader, Jack Harkness, would occasionally confer with the heads of UNIT and once asked for and received the help of Martha Jones, a medical doctor and former companion of the Doctor's, who he and the Doctor had suggested for a position with UNIT. (TW: Reset)

Possibly, given Torchwood's pro-British, nationalistic, outlook, Torchwood agreed to have contact only with the British division of UNIT. It is also possible that Jack Harkness' less hostile Torchwood 3 may have better relations with UNIT than Torchwood 1.

By 2008 UNIT operated a floating aircraft carrier airship, the Valiant, which was mainly designed by British Minister of Defense (and secretly the Master in disguise) Harold Saxon. (DW: The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords)

Simultaneously, in the name of "homeworld security", UNIT adopted a questionable attitude towards civil rights and liberties, which the Doctor found disquieting (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem). UNIT maintained a secret prison. Here a small number of detainees could be held without charges needing to be pressed or without the usual rights of prisoners. This suggests UNIT has a somewhat more malevolent side than other recorded encounters may suggest. Among those kept at one time as prisoner by UNIT was Toshiko Sato; she was only released when Jack Harkness and Torchwood 3 convinced her to work for them (TW: Fragments).

Sarah Jane Smith remained in friendly contact with UNIT, leading to its involvement in cleaning up an attempted Slitheen plot. (SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen)

At some point prior to the 2009 Sontaran invasion, UNIT changed its name from United Nations Intelligence Taskforce to Unified Intelligence Taskforce, although the UN still contributed funding to the organization. UNIT retained its traditional logos, however, even though they displayed the now-technically incorrect initialization "U.N.I.T." Prior to the invasion, Jones was tasked with alerting the Doctor when the preparations for the invasion were discovered (DW: The Sontaran Strategem). Apparently, now-Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart still had some involvement with UNIT at this time (DW: The Poison Sky).

Following the defeat of the Sontarans, UNIT began reverse engineering some technology scavenged from the aliens, and launched Project Indigo to create a backpack-sized teleportation device. Jones was seconded as medical advisor for the project (which was top secret, although Harkness found out about it), and stationed at UNIT's base in New York City. UNIT also developed a contingency plan called the Osterhagen Project; in the event of global conquest that seemed unending, three out of five UN facilities would end humanity's suffering by destroying the planet with nuclear weaponry under Earth's crust. (DW: The Stolen Earth) (DW: Journey's End)

Following the relocation of the Earth and two-dozen other planets to the Medusa Cascade, UNIT went on high alert, and then to a war footing as the Daleks invasion began. Both the Valiant and the New York headquarters were overrun by Daleks and apparently destroyed, and the United Nations surrendered soon after. Martha Jones, however, escaped using the Project Indigo device, maintaining possession of an Osterhagen key in the process. (DW: The Stolen Earth) She used Project Indigo to reach the German Osterhagen Station, with the Chinese and Liberian stations already active, but was teleported away by the Daleks before the bombs could be triggered. The Doctor later asked her to have the Project dismantled (though whether she is successful in doing so is unknown). (DW: Journey's End)

Rivals

One division within the Central Intelligence Agency headed by a man known only as Control was a rival of sorts to UNIT. (PDA: The Devil Goblins from Neptune) A few years later, another American, Bill Filer, would, however work on friendly terms with UNIT (DW: The Claws of Axos).

In Britain, UNIT would come into conflict with a domestic anti-alien agency named ICIS (Internal Counter-Intelligene Service), who possessed a dangerous nationalist agenda. While not running into conflict with them, they were viewed with contempt by both The Forge (who investigated alien incidents for the purposes of reverse-engineering xenotechnology) and MI6. Under Director Woodrow, MI6 became aware of an alien incursion in London, but deliberately did not mention it to UNIT and tried to handle the situation themselves; this inadvertently led to the agency being massacred by Cybermen and an unprepared Earth being assaulted. (DWM: The Flood)

UNIT would appear to share some of the same goals of the Torchwood Institute. The extent of their working relationship, if any, prior to the Battle of Canary Wharf remains unclear, although it's known that Jack Harkness was able to negotiate for the release of Toshiko Sato from a UNIT prison (TW: Fragments) and later send her to investigate an apparent alien presence near No. 10 Downing Street (DW: Aliens of London). There is little if any record of interaction between Torchwood and UNIT during the time the Doctor was closely associated with UNIT in the 1960s, 70s or, some would say, the 80s.

Beyond the 21st century

By the 26th century, and Human expansion into the galaxy, UNIT has evolved into a secret society called the Unitatus. (MA: Cold Fusion) Unitatus survived at least until the 30th century (NA: So Vile a Sin)

Also in the 26th century, Bernice Summerfield (who had assisted the original UNIT, encountered an organisation called the Knights of Jeneve. The Knights may or may not be connected with UNIT, given that "Jeneve" appears to be a corruption of "Geneva". The Knights were founded in the 23rd century. (BNA: Dragons' Wrath)

Headquarters and command centres

UNIT had a command centre established in the cargo hold of a C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft and could use the plane itself as a mobile base. (DW: The Invasion).

The British branch of UNIT later operated out of an office building in London (DW: Spearhead from Space). It also maintained a mobile headquarters in the form of a large bus-like vehicle that could be driven to the site of an incident. (DW: The Dæmons) The HQ subsequently moved a number of times, finally settling in a building in the country that had been built over the ruins of a priory (DW: Pyramids of Mars).

In late 2006, UNIT had a base located in the Tower of London. (DW: The Christmas Invasion) It was still in use in 2009. ((DW: The Sontaran Stratagem)

Branches outside of Great Britain

  • During the time of the Doctor's exile to Earth and attachment to UNIT as scientific advisor, UNIT's headquarters were said to be located in Geneva, Switzerland. Years later, Martha Jones was briefly attached to Geneva when UNIT was tasked with handling security for the CERN project (BBCR: Lost Souls)
  • The French division of UNIT was known as NUIT (or Nations Unies Intelligence Taskforce). (NA: The Dying Days)
  • The Russian division was named ОГРОН or OGRON. This stands for Operativnaya Gruppa Rasvedkoy Obyedinyonnih Natsiy, which roughly translates as United Nations Reconnaissance Operations Group.(PDA: Emotional Chemistry)
  • South-East Asia possesses a multi-national UNIT contingent, UNIT-SEA. (PDA: Bullet Time)
  • Germany's Kriegeskind Castle was converted into a UNIT base when the organisation was formed, acting as both a research base and military outpost. The base was destroyed following a paranormal outbreak. (BFA: Old Soldiers)
  • UNIT has Osterhagen Stations in Germany, Argentina, Liberia and China.
  • UNIT possessed a Liason Office in New York City, which began expanding in 2005. (http://www.unit.org.uk/press/newyork.shtml) By 2009 this had become a major base in the heart of the city, carrying out projects like Project Indigo. The base was later heavily damaged, if not destroyed, by the Daleks. (DW: The Stolen Earth)

Organisation

UNIT's status was supported by enabling legislation that allows it to assume emergency powers when necessary. Although it operated under the authority of the United Nations, its members are seconded from the host country's military and are still bound to obey that chain of command. Lethbridge-Stewart, for example, reported to the Ministry of Defence and the Prime Minister (DW: Terror of the Zygons). However, where such orders conflict, appeals could be made to Geneva. Due to the international nature of the organisation, it was sometimes viewed with suspicion by local military and national security agencies, who felt that it might impinge on their sovereignty. UNIT's existence was known to the public, but mainly as a security organisation; its actual agenda was classified, some believing it to be some kind of covert counter-terrorist unit.

Equipment and uniforms

Equipment

Its personnel had a wide range of weaponry to call on, some custom-made to combat specific threats. Standard weaponry of today's UNIT is, G36c Assault Rifle, .45 USP Pistol sidearm, M4A1 Assault Rifle and AT4 Rocket launchers. As the Brigadier explained to the Doctor, these are armour-piercing munitions for use against robots, explosive rounds for Yetis, silver-tipped rounds and gold-tipped rounds for use against Cybermen (DW: Battlefield). UNIT had a laser rifle at its disposal to deal with a Krynoid, though the weapon did not manage to kill it (DW: The Seeds of Doom)

Uniforms

During its early stages, UNIT troops and officers wore one-piece beige coveralls with berets (DW: The Invasion). Later, they reverted to uniforms not unlike that worn by the British Army, with the addition of UNIT badges (DW: Terror of the Autons). In the 1990s they retained the standard military look, with the addition of a blue cap (with blue representing the United Nations) (DW: Battlefield). Finally, UNIT troops adopted a paramilitary all-black look, with crimson caps. High-ranking officers wore service dress (TW: Fragments, DW: The Sontaran Stratagem). As an alternative, officers could wear a black version of service dress with the red cap (DW: Turn Left). (On a purely personal level, Jack Harkness of Torchwood 3 found the red cap look very appealing and asked Martha Jones if she could get him one TW: Reset)

Divisions

UNIT maintained a number of specialised departments. One, the Paranormal Division, in which Lieutenant Hamlet Macbeth investigated psychic powers and phenomena (NA: The Left-Handed Hummingbird). It also maintained the Warehouse, a place to store alien artefacts; security breaches at this and similar facilities are handled by the Containment Team. (BBV: Auton) Internal affairs are handled by the Internal Security Division. (BBV: Auton 2: Sentinel)

Call signs

UNIT used a variety of call signs and code words for their agents. The most common call sign was ‘Greyhound’. By convention the senior officer (usually Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) was Greyhound One (DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs). Other Greyhounds included Martha Jones, (Greyhound Six, DW: The Sontaran Stratagem) and Ross Jenkins ('Greyhound Forty’, DW: The Sontaran Stratagem). The commander of operations was often called ‘Trap 1’, with both Lethbridge-Stewart (DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs) and Colonel Mace (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem) using the call sign at times. An alternative term is ‘Watchtower’ (DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians).

More unusual were the call signs used during the first World Peace Conference which were based on planets of the Sol system, with the Brigadier as "Jupiter" and Mike Yates as "Venus" (DW: The Mind of Evil). Lieutenant Richards, commanding a missile convoy, was designated ‘Salamander Six-Zero’. Brigadier Bambera, in the same operation, was ‘Seabird’. (DW: Battlefield)

Helicopter call signs have included ‘Windmill 347’ (DW: The Mind of Evil), ‘Eagle’ (DW: The Green Death) and ‘Uniform November Nine-Zero’ (DW: Battlefield), whilst the Valiant was ‘Hawk Major’ (DW: The Poison Sky).

Alternate timeline versions

  • The Doctor visited one timeline in which humans had made peace with the Silurians after the Wenley Moor incident at the cost of the lives of the Brigadier and an earlier version of the Doctor himself. In this universe, United Races Intelligence Command or URIC had replaced UNIT. An alternative version of Muriel Frost headed the organisation. (DWM: Deadly Genesis)
  • Another alternate outcome of the Wenley Moor incident saw the Silurians conquer Earth, with the remnants of UNIT fighting a vicious insurgency against them. (NA: Blood Heat)
  • In another timeline, the Doctor's TARDIS materialised not in England in an earlier part of the 20th century but in Hong Kong in 1997 where a retired Brigadier now lived. The absence of the Doctor had left UNIT alone to face off against threats to Earth; while Earth had not fallen, the damage and chaos on Earth had been extensive, and the Brigadier was seen as a paranoid joke. For a number of years, a trapped Master had acted as a UN Scientific Advisor. (DWU: Sympathy for the Devil)
  • A deliberately altered timeline saw UNIT fighting a counter-insurgency against a British anarchist terrorist group named Black Star. A plainclothes division named Broadsword had been created. (NA: No Future)
  • In several possible future timeline, UNIT is replaced further into the 21st Century. In one, it's replaced by the more militant UNISYC (United Nations Intelligence Security Yard Corps). (EDA: Alien Bodies) In another, it is superceded by the global military PRISM. (PDA: The Indestructible Man)
  • In the Donna's World alternate timeline, UNIT soldiers retrieved the dead body of the Doctor following the Christmas Star incident, and later a division of UNIT worked with Rose Tyler to reverse-engineer the TARDIS and allow Donna Noble to go back in time and restore the proper timeline. (DW: Turn Left)

Behind the Scenes

In 1984, a comedic stage play titled Recall UNIT: The Great Tea-Bag Mystery was produced, written by Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates) who also reprised his character in the play. The cast included Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier and John Levene as Sergeant Benton and was performed between 20th August and 24th August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

BBV Productions have made a trilogy of videos featuring the Autons and UNIT, although they feature none of the original members.

An alternate version of UNIT and the Brigadier (played once again by Courtney) appeared in the Doctor Who Unbound audio play, Sympathy for the Devil, produced by Big Finish Productions.

In December 2004 Big Finish released Time Heals, the first of a new series of UNIT audio plays, featuring a retired General Sir Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart as an advisor to a new generation of officers. A preview episode, The Coup, had Lethbridge-Stewart finally breaking decades of secrecy by informing a press conference of UNIT's true purpose as humanity's first line of defence against the unknown (although, as it turned out, the general public believed this to be a hoax). The series also introduced another rival division, this time within the British government, the Internal Counter-Intelligence Service, or ICIS.

Following the broadcast of the 2005 series, in his regular column in Doctor Who Magazine #360 (August 2005), executive producer Russell T. Davies explained that the United Nations were no longer happy to be associated with the organisation, and its full name could not now be used. However, the "UNIT" and "UN" abbreviations can be used, as long as it is not explained what the letters stand for. It is unclear how this affects UNIT appearances in the various spin-off media. The modified "Unified Intelligence Taskforce" name was first uttered on screen in The Sontaran Strategem, although the same episode includes a line of dialogue indicating the United Nations still supports UNIT with funding; in addition, the acronym as shown on the organisation's insignia still nearly defines U.N.I.T. as separate words.

The UNIT vehicles and the mobile headquarters used in many of the adventures from (1969-1975) were BBC outside broadcasting vans used by the BBC production unit.

List of known UNIT personnel

Scientific advisors

Medical officers

See also

External links

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