UNIT

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

...great people" - The Doctor

"How d'you know them?" - Rose Tyler

Mickey Smith - "Cos he's worked for them. A conversation in London, 2006

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.

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)

From around 2008 on, UNIT possessed at least two flying carrier ships, the Valiant (DW: The Sound of Drums) and the Starling (DWM: The Age of Ice), which could be used as bases. The Valiant was destroyed in the 2009 Dalek invasion.

Branches outside of Great Britain

Organisation

In the early 1970s, UNIT was overseen by a Commander-in-Chief in Geneva. (REF: The Making of Doctor Who)

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.

Despite the change of name to the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, the United Nations still retained a measure of command over UNIT, calling it to yellow alert prior to the 456 incident, for example (TW: Children of Earth: Day One).

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

20th century

Early in its history, UNIT troops and officers wore one-piece beige coveralls with berets (DW: The Invasion through DW: 'Inferno). They reverted to uniforms not unlike that worn by the British Army, but with the addition of UNIT badges (DW: Terror of the Autons through The Seeds of Doom).

This may apply only to UNIT troops stationed in Great Britain, where the Doctor worked as scientific advisor.

In the 1990s they retained the standard military look, with the addition of a blue cap (with blue representing the United Nations) (DW: Battlefield).

21st century

By 2006, UNIT troops had adopted a paramilitary all-black look, with crimson berets. (DW: The Christmas Invasion) High-ranking officers wore service dress (Either British Army No2 Dress or US Army Class A) (TW: Fragments, DW: The Sontaran Stratagem,The Stolen Earth). As an alternative, officers could wear a black version of service dress with the UNIT Beret (DW: Turn Left). (On a purely personal level, Jack Harkness of Torchwood Three 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) A warehouse known as the Black Archive. (SJA: Enemy of the Bane)

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 affair. In this universe, United Races Intelligence Command or URIC had replaced UNIT. An alternative version of Muriel Frost headed the organisation, following the death of the Brigadier in a bomb attack; this world's Doctor was killed in the same attack. (DWM: Final 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)
  • The fascist Earth the Doctor visited during the events DW: Inferno had it's own version of UNIT: The Republican Security Forces.
  • In another timeline, the Doctor's TARDIS materialised in Hong Kong in 1997 where a retired Brigadier was now living. 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 Donna's World, 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

Assistants

Medical officers

Others

See also

External links



v • e
UNIT stories
TV
Doctor Who
Major
Minor
Torchwood
SJA
PROSE
U.N.I.T.
website
UNIT Press
Briefings
Operations
Board
Candy Jar UNIT series
Operation Wildcat and Other Stories
Operation Fall-Out and Other Stories
More to be added
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