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For their paramilitary operations based in the United Kingdom, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, later Unified, managed a British contigency; (PROSE: The Ambassadors of Death, The Secret Lives of Monsters, UNIT, AUDIO: The Coup, et al.) it was often just referred to as UNIT and its relavent acronyms, (TV: The Invasion, The Christmas Invasion, The Sontaran Stratagem, et al.) however upon the need to disambiguate it from other UNIT branches, it went by more specific names, such as: the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (British Section); (PROSE: The Ambassadors of Death) and later, UNIT UK. (PROSE: Bullet Time, The Shadows of Avalon, Island of Death, Battlefield) The British contingency shared its principles and operational values with its parental body, to protect humanity, no matter the cost. (PROSE: UNIT History: Fighting the Unknown)
was the British contingency of the transnational paramilitary organisation known as UNIT, led by Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart from its formation until the late 20th century.
History
20th century
Formation
- Main article: User:Epsilon the Eternal/Formation of UNIT
There existed many accounts of the formation of UNIT and their United Kingdom contingency. According to some accounts, UNIT was formed in the response of the "London Event", (TV: The Invasion, PROSE: The Scales of Injustice, The Ambassadors of Death, The Secret Lives of Monsters, UNIT, et al.) while according to other accounts, UNIT was formed directly by Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart who went over the British government's heads to the UN Security Council to have a permanent Special Operations force to deal with alien threats, (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy, Fear of the Web) while according to a third account, it was set up in 1958 by Farquhar and Prentis. (TV: Survivors of the Flux)
UNIT's Golden Period
- Main article: User:Epsilon the Eternal/UNIT's Golden Period
After Lethbridge-Stewart
The period of time that was retroactively described as UNIT's "golden period", the late 1960s to the ealy 1980s, was subject to some claims that UNIT was still operating fully during the 1980s. (PROSE: UNIT History: Fighting the unknown, TV: The Lost Boy) From the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, UNIT's activities would gradually decline due to the smaller amount of threats to humanity at that time; UNIT's size also decreased, in part due to less personnel being available from world governments, reducing the taskforce to "a hard core of operationally experienced higher ranks and a still very active non-conventional R&D Corps." (PROSE: UNIT History: Fighting the unknown)
UNIT was involved in the 1995 Bonnybridge Cigar Confrontation, which was a larger incident in their relatively quieter period of operations. (PROSE: UNIT Hsitory: Fighting the unknown)
In the late 1990s, UNIT, Corporal Ives and Colonel Muriel Frost, helped the Seventh Doctor and Ace investigate a potential UFO that caused the crash of a German pilot during World War 2. After Ives and Frost helped the Doctor to confirm that a UFO, or rather a Q'Dhite Mind-Treader, was involved, however Ace was kidnapped by Alex Evening, who had found the Mind-Treader some time prior to the Doctor's investigation, and had used the Mind-Treader to build a world of his own which he took Ace to. The Doctor, Ives, Frost, and a company of UNIT soliders went in the Doctor's TARDIS to this world, where they fought Alex and the beings he created, with UNIT sustaining large casualities. (COMIC: Evening's Empire)
21st century
2000s
Despite UNIT's decrease in size over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, UNIT would begin to expand rapidly again in the early 2000s due to the sheeer increase in "extra-territorial threats." Following their re-expansion, (PROSE: UNIT History: Fighting the unknown) UNIT adopted a controversial attitude towards civil rights and civil liberties, (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem)[1] all in the name of "Homeworld Security". According to Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart in the mid-2000s, he believed UNIT's focus on Homeworld Security "[was] the trouble with UNIT these days. Too many buzzwords, too many directives." (TV: Enemy of the Bane) UNIT even established a secret prison where detainees could be held without charges being pressed or without the usual rights of prisoners. (TV: Fragments)
In 2004, (PROSE: Rise of the Dominator) the UK division of UNIT faced being shut down and replaced with domestic group the Internal Counter-Intelligence Service (ICIS). When it became clear ICIS were brutal and dangerous, Lethbridge-Stewart and Colonel Emily Chaudhry deliberately revealed UNIT's remit to the press - stating UNIT had faced over two hundred invasions - and the existence of Silurian ambassadors. (AUDIO: The Coup) This was viewed as a hoax, but it forced the government to leave UNIT in charge of alien matters, leading to uneasy co-existence with ICIS.[source needed]
Toshiko Sato was imprisoned by UNIT, without trial or appeal, after she stole blueprints for a sonic disruptor from the Ministry of Defence, despite having done so under duress. UNIT refused to communicate with Sato, intending to make an example out of her, but she was eventually released when Jack Harkness recruited her to work for Torchwood Three, even then with the condition she'd work for Torchwood for five years. (TV: Fragments)
At sometime prior to the 2009 Sontaran invasion, UNIT changed its name from United Nations Intelligence Taskforce to Unified Intelligence Taskforce. UNIT retained its traditional logos, even though they displayed the now-technically incorrect initialisation "U.N.I.T." (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem) The UN had come to publicly deny any connection with UNIT, forcing the secretive military organisation to alter its name. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters)
2005
Prior to late January 2005, a fifty-strong squad of UNIT troops, all equipped with standard DL/3 class X-hazard chemical survival suits, were stationed in the Russian Steppes for a five day period for an investigation of reports of extreme chemical pollution. Thirteen personnel would die, protecting the local population. Captain Martin Berry would later spoke out about the tragic loss of those soldiers in a press briefing embargoed until 31 January 2005, filed by Corp M Osborne. (PROSE: UNIT's Position on the Skaniska Incident)[2]
The 2005 Auton invasion of Earth, (TV: Rose) an attack known to high-ranking UNIT officers as Operation Mannequin (PROSE: Operation Mannequin) but referred to as The London Incident by UNIT to the press, (PROSE: UNIT's Position on The London Incident) took place on 5 March (TV: Aliens of London, AUDIO: One Rule, PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters, et al.) or 26 March. (PROSE: UNIT's Position on The London Incident, Operation Mannequin)
Several UNIT officers coordinated clean-up efforts shortly after the attack: Staff Sergeant A. Frederick and Capt Panos Karpidas dealt with information-based clean-ups, both using misinformation other similar tactics, with Frederick focusing on the press and Karpidas on the public; Lt David Judd focused on preventing any footage captured being shared on the internet; and Sgt Catherine Petts and her personnel focused on physical clean-up to the damage caused by the "mannequins" and the Consciousness. Frederick tried to "seed" a false theory to the press, that the mannequins only appeared to move due to the mannequins being made from faulty plastic with bubbles inside, leading the air inside to expand in reaction to a gas explosion, (PROSE: Operation Mannequin) and she also filed an embargoed press briefing to 28 March, which evasively ignored the allegations of the attack being mounted by terrorists or robots, and completely denied that it was in any way evidence of alien life existing. (PROSE: UNIT's Position on The London Incident)
On 10 March, UNIT issued yet another press briefing, this time about a computer virus named "RUFFCUT". (PROSE: Computer Virus File Sharing Alert)
In early 2005, UNIT issued one press briefing which noted the upcoming transistion to British Summertime. (PROSE: The Clocks Go Forward)
UNIT released an embargoed press briefing on 31 March 2005, filed by Staff Sergeant A. Frederick, about Major A Highway's plan to reorganise UNIT's pan-territorial activities in America into a single site operation, (PROSE: UNIT's New York Operation Expansion) the New York UNIT HQ. (TV: The Stolen Earth, COMIC: The Fountains of Forever)
2006
Info from TV: World War Three needs to be added.
After the Slitheen craft crashed into Big Ben and into the River Thames on 6 March 2006 (TV: Aliens of London) or 28 June, a group of UNIT officers discussed what to do in a operations board on a private part of the UNIT website; Major Jenny Maguire believed that containment of the situation was pointless, especially as the government was being uncooperative, however Staff Sergeant Annie Frederick advised that they wait out the crash in case if was a hoax. Over the course of the day, Corporal J Frinkstein posted updates about the situation, informing them of the advancements found on the craft and the "space pig", (PROSE: Operation London) which were conducted by UNIT, in assistance from Torchwood Three's Toshiko Sato, standing in for Owen Harper, at the Albion Hospital. (TV: Aliens of London, Exit Wounds) UNIT then sent a delegation, including the Ninth Doctor and Muriel Frost, to a gathering of experts to 10 Downing Street, (TV: Aliens of London) as requested by the government, (PROSE: Operation London) however all of the experts were electrocuted by the Slitheen family, though the Doctor survived. (TV: Aliens of London) By the end of the day, Frederick informed the other officers that "he" had arrived, and the UNIT officers had differing opinions on his presence. While the UNIT officers didn't know about the Slitheen at the time, (PROSE: Operation London, Number Ten) it would later become known to UNIT of their involvement, which was recalled by Sam Bishop when he confronted another group of Slitheen with Christina de Souza. (AUDIO: Death on the Mile) Major Jenny Maguire had to tell the UK-based families of the deaths of the experts, with Geneva taking care of the rest. (PROSE: Number Ten)
to be added (TV: World War Three) Jones later claimed that the destruction of 10 Downing Street was a terrorist attack. This was repeated in a press briefing issued by UNIT. (PROSE: Number Ten Pays Tribute to UNIT)
A group of at least three Groske were stranded on Earth. UNIT found and recruited them. (TV: Death of the Doctor)
In July 2006, many Schlechter Wolf artillery shells were excavated during renovations to the refurbishings of the Northern and Jubilee lines of the London Underground. UNIT issued a press briefing about the dangers on 28 July. (PROSE: Unexploded WWII Bomb Warnings)
to be added (TV: Boom Town) UNIT issued a press briefing about the Cardiff Earthquake, saying that the clean up was successful, though a number of people were missing (including Blaine), and that UNIT's Scientific Advisors had all agreed that the plans for the Blaidd Drwg plant should be abandoned. (PROSE: Cardiff Earthquake)
After the attack, UNIT issued another press briefing, confirming the existence of aliens. (PROSE: Alien Life)
2007 - 2009
On 4 June 2008, (GAME: Earth, Sun and Moon) after Luke was separated from Sarah Jane Smith as part of Dax Fex Fize and Bloorm Vungah Bart Slitheen's scheme, Sarah Jane was questioned by (TV: The Lost Boy) Robert Lines, the Chief Inspector of West Ealing Police. (PROSE: The Lost Boy) He had obtained a file from UNIT on Sarah Jane, (TV: The Lost Boy) that used information from the UNIT website. (PROSE: UNIT History: Fighting the unknown)
2010s
to be added
22nd century
By 2119, UNIT was still operational. When the Twelfth Doctor used his psychic paper, it showed he was from UNIT, and later, Mason Bennett expressed a desire to work for UNIT, but doubted he would be suited for it. (TV: Under the Lake)
Footnotes
- ↑ The Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Terms of Use on the U.N.I.T. website also provided a concerning attitude towards the public, where they absolved themselves from responsibility from any harm caused to the public by any alien threats and that failure to comply with their legal procedure can result in changes to statutory rights.
- ↑ The UNIT News page on the U.N.I.T. website would provide further details about the Skaniska Incident, stating that Captain Martin Berry (now spelled Martin Bury) had been promoted to Major and placed in charge of the Geneva B Company following the success of the Skaniska Incident.