Alan Mace

Colonel Mace governed the British division of UNIT in 2009.

Upon first meeting the Doctor, he was awe-struck and saluted him, but as the operation went on he became more irritated by the Doctor's cavalier approach and dismissal of the military's tactics. When the Sontarans revealed themselves, he clashed with the Doctor when UNIT tried to launch a nuclear strike on the Sontaran warship, and was later forced by the Doctor to call a full retreat from the ATMOS factory when the Sontarans began slaughtering the soldiers present.

Mace coordinated the UNIT counter offensive to regain the ATMOS factory, having the soldiers rearm themselves with rad-steel coated bullets (preventing the Sontaran's field that negated copper bullets) and calling in the Valiant to clear the gas around the area. When beginning this operation, he finally snapped at the Doctor over his "lack of faith".

He personally killed Sontaran Commander Skorr with a pistol; rather than shoot the Sontaran from behind, he demanded that he face him before shooting him, showing that he was an honourable combatant. After the defeat of the Sontaran plan, he shared a kiss with one of his captains, Marion Price. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky)

By the time of the 456 incident in September 2009, Colonel Mace was stationed in Vancouver. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One) He was still in Vancouver in June 2011. (PROSE: The Forgotten Army)

Position: Head of the British division of UNIT
Years: 2009
Preceded by: Emily Chaudhry
Succeeded by: Augustus Oduya

Parallel world

On Christmas Eve 2007 in a parallel world, Private Harris reported to "Trap One", informing him that the Tenth Doctor was dead. (TV: Turn Left)

PERSONALITY

When he first met the Doctor, Mace saluted him, having a great deal of respect for him. However, their views and tactics clashed greatly, the Doctor believing in science first and trying to get Mace to hold back as he believed they didn't stand a chance against the Sontarans in the position they were in, while Mace wanted to go on the offensive. Though Mace did reluctantly tell his men to fall back following the demise of Ross Jenkins and his men, he was getting more and more frustrated by the Doctor, especially when the Doctor accused him of being undiplomatic over his reaction to seeing a Sontaran for the first time only for the Doctor to insult the Sontarans' honour mere seconds later, eventually tension reaching boiling point over his "lack of faith" while planning a counterattack. However, Mace took no offence when the Doctor earlier remarked at wishing the Brigadier was there (instead of him), Mace calling the Brigadier a fine man, if not the best. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky)

Mace showed himself to be quite clever while attempting to prove the Doctor wrong, using rad-steel bullets and the Valiant's engines to counteract the Cordolaine signal, which only affected copper, and clone feed gas respectively. Mace also showed himself to be an honourable combatant during the counterattack that followed; when he appeared behind Skorr, he asked the Sontaran to "face me, sir", before shooting him, refusing to just shoot him in the back. (TV: The Poison Sky)

Behind the scenes

His first name of "Alan" given on Page 129 of REF: The Time Traveller's Almanac.