United Nations Intelligence Taskforce

The United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (also known as UNIT) is a fictional military organization from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Operating under the auspices of the United Nations, its purpose is to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to the Earth.

The roots of the organization in the mythology of the Doctor Who universe lie in two extraterrestrial incursions. The first, taking place in 1963, was related in the 1988 Seventh Doctor serial Remembrance of the Daleks. In that incident, two Dalek factions fought a battle in London over the alien artifact known as the Hand of Omega. They were defeated by a company of infantrymen from the RAF Regiment, commanded by Group Captain "Chunky" Gilmore, along with help from the mysterious Time Lord known as the Doctor. Gilmore also had the assistance of a Scientific Advisor, one Dr. Rachel Jensen. The model of a specialized military force with scientific assistance would form the basis of the future UNIT.

The second incursion, as seen in the 1968 Second Doctor serial The Web of Fear, was an attempt to take over London by a disembodied entity known as the Great Intelligence, using robotic Yetis and a deadly cobweb-like fungus. Another small group of British infantrymen, led this time by Colonel Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart of the Scots Guards beat back the attempted conquest in the tunnels of the London Underground, again assisted by the Doctor.

Following the Yeti Incident, the United Nations became aware that the world faced threats from extraterrestrial sources, and with the space program sending probes deeper and deeper into space, Mankind had drawn attention to itself. Consequently, the United Nations established UNIT with the mandate to monitor and combat any such threats. Lethbridge-Stewart was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and put in charge of the British contingent, also known as Department C-19.

The newly formed UNIT's baptism of fire was an invasion by the Cybermen, in the 1968 serial, The Invasion. UNIT repulsed this, once again with the Second Doctor's help. After this, Lethbridge-Stewart became convinced of the necessity of scientific advice in battling extraterrestrial threats, and recruited Dr Elizabeth Shaw from Cambridge. Coincidentally, the Third Doctor had been exiled to Earth by the Time Lords, and he agreed to join UNIT as its Scientific Advisor - just in time to help defeat the Autons (Spearhead from Space).

UNIT's status is supported by enabling legislation that allows it to assume emergency powers when necessary. Although it operates under the authority of the United Nations, its members are seconded from the host country's military and are still obligated to obey that chain of command. Lethbridge-Stewart, for example, reported to the UK Ministry of Defence and the Prime Minister. However, where such orders conflict, appeals can be made to the United Nations in Geneva.

UNIT first operated out of an office building in London and subsequently moved to a headquarters in the country that had been built over the ruins of a priory (Pyramids of Mars). Its personnel have a wide range of weaponry to call on, some custom-made to combat specific threats. Among these are armor-piercing munitions for use against robots and Daleks, explosive rounds for Yetis, silver-tipped rounds for werewolves and vampires, and gold-tipped rounds for use against the Cybermen.

Prominent members of the British contingent of UNIT included Captain Mike Yates, Sergeant Benton, Jo Grant and later, Lieutenant Harry Sullivan. When the Doctor's exile was lifted, his association with UNIT became more sporadic, especially after his regeneration into his fourth incarnation. However, the organization continued to execute its mandate to investigate and combat alien activity. Eventually, Lethbridge-Stewart retired in 1976 (Mawdryn Undead), and was succeeded by Colonel Crichton (The Five Doctors). The last appearance of UNIT in the television series was the 1989 Seventh Doctor serial, Battlefield, where the British contingent was commanded by Brigadier Winifred Bambera, and Lethbridge-Stewart was called out of retirement to help defeat an other-dimensional invasion of armored knights led by Morgaine.

UNIT dating

The exact years in which UNIT operates are never made precisely clear and there has been much confusion and continuing fan debate on this subject. No television story actually featuring UNIT gives a clear date onscreen. Several other stories offer dates, but they have a habit of contradicting one another, whilst a whole host of unused dialogue and scenes, internal production memos, books by the contemporary creative teams and other media have all combined to confuse the matter further. It is not even clear when the contemporary production team intended the stories to be set as different contributions on different occasions confuse one another.

The following precise, or near precise, dates are established in dialogue:

• In the 1968 story The Web of Fear it is said that 1935 was "over forty years ago", thus making it at least 1975. In The Invasion, the first story to feature UNIT, it is said that the events of the earlier story took place "about four years ago", making it 1979 at the earliest. This would place the UNIT stories featuring the Third Doctor and the Fourth Doctor in the 1980s.
• In the 1975 story Pyramids of Mars, the Doctor's companion Sarah-Jane states "I come from 1980". This would place the Third and Fourth Doctor UNIT stories in the late 1970s.
• In the 1981 spin-off K9 & Company Sarah-Jane has been back on Earth for some years, with the Doctor having left a present for her in 1978. This would place the relevant UNIT stories in the mid 1970s at the very latest.
• In the 1982 story Time-Flight, which has a contemporary setting, the Doctor wonders if Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart has become a General by now, implying that it is several years since his time in UNIT.
• In the 1983 story Mawdryn Undead it is established that Lethbridge-Stewart retired in 1976 (and was not promoted to a General) and worked at a British public school from 1977 until at least 1983. The story features two timezones - 1977, which features celebrations of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, and 1983, which is repeatedly confirmed as taking place "six years" later.
• In the 1989 story Battlefield the Brigadier has now retired completely and the Doctor tells his companion Ace (from the late 1980s) that they are "a few years in your future".

In addition to this there are many other clues that just confuse the picture.

• Some stories feature calendars but this can contradict one another The Green Death features two, one which says the story is set in February in a leap year when February 29 falls on a Sunday (1972 is the only one in the 1960s-1990s) but another says April.
• Politics wise, the stories offer a very different picture from the time when they were transmitted. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is called "Jeremy" in 1973's The Green Death (intended to be Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe who never attained that position) and is a woman in 1975's Terror of the Zygons. (In the much later Battlefield the monarch is a King.) The United Nations is more interventionist than its 1970s real-life counterpart, whilst the Cold War at times is on the verge of turning into World War III in some of the earlier stories, but by Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Robot the Cold War is over. Mao Tse Tung is however alive at the time of 1971's The Mind of Evil and in real life he died in 1976.
• With a few exceptions, none of the stories attempt to predict future fashions or technology, except when it is central to the plot. The result is that the stories look very strongly like the 1970s.
• On the occasions that money is mentioned, most amounts given correspond to those in use at the time, such as 1970's Doctor Who and the Silurians featuring pre-decimal currency whilst it costs 2 pence for a telephone call in 1976's The Seeds of Doom, even though in real life the United Kingdom adopted decimal currency in 1971 and was subject to significant inflation. In the later Battlefield, a vodka and coke, a glass of lemonade and a glass of water in a village pub costs 5 pounds (paid for with a £5 coin).
• The technology displayed on occasion is significantly more advanced than reality. The United Kingdom has a fully functional space programme that is able to send missions to Mars and Jupiter. Laser guns are in development in 1974's Robot and then used by UNIT in The Seeds of Doom. Many of the science establishments seen are engaged in extremely advanced research.
• The BBC has a third channel, BBC 3, in 1971's The Dæmons. In 1971, the BBC had only two terrestrial channels (though had aspirations to launch a third channel in subsequent years). The actual BBC Three, a digital channel, was only launched in 2003.

Published books, contemporary interviews, publicity material and behind the scenes documents all point to a degree of uncertainty amongst the production team as well. For example:

• A document during the making of The Invasion by director Douglas Camfield states that he assumed the story was set in 1976.
• The Radio Times and an announcement at the start of the original transmission of the first episode of The Invasion state that the story takes place in 1975. Announcements and publicity material were normally produced by the series' production office, usually by the script editor.
• In a pair of 1969 interviews then producer Derrick Sherwin and newly cast Doctor Jon Pertwee told the press that the series (and thus the UNIT stories) would be set in a near future time when things such as space stations would become reality, with Pertwee confirming this would be in the 1980s.
• An recorded but not used line in 1971's The Claws of Axos discusses comets due in the period 1969-1975, strongly pointing to an early 1970s setting for the story. By this time Sherwin had moved on as producer.
• The 1972 book The Making of Doctor Who, written by then-Script Editor Terrance Dicks and regular writer Malcolm Hulke, dates the 1970 story Spearhead from Space to 1970. However the second edition of 1976 (rewritten by Dicks alone, after he had stepped down as Script Editor) does not specify a date.
• The 1974 novelisation of The Sea Devils, also by Hulke, refers to North Sea Oil starting to be exploited in 1978, indicating an early 1980s setting for the story.
• The 1981 Writers' Guide for the proposed series of K9 & Company stated that Sarah's travels with the Doctor (i.e. from The Time Warrior to The Hand of Fear) took place between 1973 and 1976.
• The 1983 story Mawdryn Undead was originally written with a different former companion in mind and much has been made of how this generated the UNIT dating "mistake", though other early 1980s stories and the above mentioned guide support Mawdryn Undead's dating of the story.

The spin-off novels in the New Adventures and the Missing Adventures line written in the 1990s took the editorial view that the television stories were set some time in or around the 1970s and left it down to individual authors to decide on dates. This resulted in a number of contradictions - for example the events of The Invasion have been variously dated to the late 1960s, mid 1970s and late 1970s.

External links

• The U.N.I.T. Files (http://www.whoniverse.org/unit/index.php)