Vikram Shindi

Colonel Vikram Shindi, also known simply as the Colonel, was a member of UNIT under Kate Stewart's leadership.

Early life
In his youth, Vikram Shindi played rugby. (AUDIO: Hosts of the Wirrn) He joined UNIT and met Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart when he visited to welcome new recruits despite being retired. (AUDIO: Armageddon)

Shindi lost friends to the Daleks during his career (AUDIO: The Dalek Transaction) and was fully aware of the struggle that Kate Stewart had in demilitarising the organisation. (AUDIO: Power Cell) Like the Lethbridge-Stewarts, Shindi's family knew exactly what to do when there was an alien invasion. (AUDIO: Armageddon)

The Nestene invasion
Shindi and his men dealt with a crocodilian in the River Severn and admonished Josh for his recklessness afterwards, telling Kate that he was unsure about keeping him at UNIT. He went with Josh and Petronella Osgood to recover what transpired to be a Nestene energy unit and destroyed it with Nitro-12 whilst Josh went after Jacqui McGee. (AUDIO: Vanguard)

Shindi headed to UNIT Central Control in Geneva to get permission to move in on Simon Devlin, but they refused without evidence of his direct involvement in the Nestene invasion. (AUDIO: Earthfall)

After Shindi had a satellite do a sweep of Devlin's headquarters, Josh investigated the central block and got the evidence Shindi needed for a synchronised raid of Devlin's facilities around the world. Shindi was attacked by cables when the energy unit from the Gobi Desert hijacked a computer, but Osgood isolated it and caused it to fade away. (AUDIO: Bridgehead)

Shindi fought against the Autons when the invasion began and went with Kate to Black Archive 5 for the anti-plastic. He returned to the Tower of London to regroup with Osgood, Josh and Jacqui and helped Josh power up Osgood's directed energy beams, after which he drove through the plastic dome around Devlin Futuretech in a truck. He and Osgood evacuated the building and he was shot by an Auton and presumed dead. (AUDIO: Armageddon)

Recovery
Shindi survived the attack (AUDIO: Power Cell) and Osgood gave the medics pointers on nanosurgery to ensure that he would make a full recovery. (AUDIO: House of Silents) Whilst he recovered, somebody whom Kate had no say in took his place. (AUDIO: Power Cell) Due to her feelings of guilt, Osgood did not visit him whilst he recuperated. (AUDIO: House of Silents)

Sir Peter Latcham asked after Shindi when he met Kate. He was still recovering from his injuries during the dealings with Lyme Industries (AUDIO: Power Cell) and, when Dokan told Josh about his subservience to the Kamishi masters, he said that Shindi would love him. (AUDIO: Ice Station Alpha) Shindi was eventually able to return to work in a wheelchair. (AUDIO: House of Silents)

Silent exodus
Kate sent Shindi to observe Helena Faversham's residence to investigate unusual energy pulses. He tried to tell Osgood about having seen a Silent kill a homeless man before forgetting about it and later recorded Miss Faversham talking to one. He played the recording for Kate, ensuring that they remembered it by writing himself notes, and listened as Kate and Josh raided the house. Mustering the strength to walk again, he and Osgood went to the house and were knocked out by the Silents just as the soldiers were. (AUDIO: House of Silents)

After Kate forgot about the Silents, she reassigned Shindi. (AUDIO: Square One)

Shindi joined Kate at the British Rocket Group during the Unified Space Platform mission and took Jacqui McGee back to London when she came trespassing. She asked him to try to remember the Silents, which he began to when he and Josh found items related to them in the stores. Realising that they had forgotten about them, he called Captain Hallett and his men and fought the Silents at Mission Control, killing many of them and preventing some from escaping Earth. Afterwards, he decided that, like Kate, he would put a picture of a Silent on his desk to ensure that he did not forget them again. (AUDIO: In Memory Alone)

The Auctioneers
When Jastrok and his Silurians besieged Great Britain with Krelix's hybrids in the 2010s, Shindi was at a summit in Geneva with the Prime Minister, as well as Professor Elizabeth Klein and several other members of UNIT. (AUDIO: United)

With the identity of "Vikram Revi", Shindi went to Monte Bosque with Kate, Osgood and Josh and found that Maria Gonsalves had a Dalek in her possession. Having encountered Daleks before and lost friends to them, Shindi's mood turned dark. He and Kate were tricked into taking the Dalek mutant into the jungle in search of others of its kind, allowing the mutant to escape and fake its death in a tank explosion. Osgood realised that the deception and Shindi and Josh found its gunstick, using it to damage the Dalek as it reassembled itself. The Dalek self-destructed and the group were rescued by UNIT North America. (AUDIO: The Dalek Transaction)

Shindi had his men, including Corporal James Morley, ready to evacuate the area around Phoebe Breckenridge's house due to the infrared sound phenomena. When spectres began appearing, Osgood advised Shindi to have his men wear a particular helmet that would protect them. (AUDIO: Invocation)

Whilst Shindi was in Brussels, Kate asked him to visit the Ardennes Forest to investigate reports of lights in the sky which UNIT Brussels, after almost three months, had failed to explain. He located Commander Merx's scout ship and was captured and taken into orbit by Marshal Skar where he was tortured for information on Merx's whereabouts. The Sontarans eventually made an alliance with UNIT and Shindi helped raid the Torrance Research Foundation, after which he and Kate interrogated Christine Colley about the Auctioneers. (AUDIO: The Sontaran Project)

Shindi and Kate realised that Osgood was being impersonated when Josh kissed her and called her "Babe" in front of them. Once the parallel Osgood was gone, Kate informed Shindi, Osgood and Josh that she had received a message from Sam, who had been missing for some time. (AUDIO: False Negative) Shindi later read the report on the parallel universe. (AUDIO: Telepresence)

The Cyber-invasion
Shindi was concerned about Kate and Osgood going to the Mendips to find Sam, but they ignored his worries and went anyway. Later, he became aware of a container left at Windsor Castle and had Malcolm Taylor examine it without success. He received a coded message on Osgood's communicator from Julia Hartley-Price which allowed him to contact Kate and Osgood and told them about the container; after Sam was released from it, Shindi found that the Auctioneers had cleared out and disappeared once again. (AUDIO: Game Theory)

Shindi had all of the Auctioneers' virtual reality technology moved to Fortress Island and joined Osgood and Josh in entering the VR world and found himself trapped in there. Based on the technology in the London Underground, he surmised that the world's humans were no more advanced than their own and that the VR tech must have been built by aliens. In the tunnels, Shindi and Josh were virtually cyber-converted and awoke in their own world. (AUDIO: Telepresence)

After the Cybermen emerged through a dimension bridge, Osgood kept the Cyber-Controller from fully converting Shindi and Sam in order to make better use of them. They were sent after Kate, who gased them and left them unconscious. (AUDIO: Code Silver)

Osgood sent Shindi and Sam after Kate, Josh and. They went to UNIT HQ, assuming that they would be travelling there, and stole UNIT technology in order to locate them at the Whitehouse Gallery, where the Master restored them both using the Auctioneers' corrosion virus after breaking their connection to the Cybermen's power source. Shindi and Josh worked to keep Cyber reinforcements from reaching Fortress Island, but went to help the others when Sea Wolf arrived to take down the flying Cybermen. (AUDIO: Master of Worlds)

Old threats
Shindi ordered his men to shoot and kill Sergeant Brundle after he was infected by a Wirrn egg and went in search of him after he escaped. He accidentally killed Brundle with an electro-shock rifle and later helped Kirsty Musgrave at Windermere's hospital when the Wirrn infection broke out. He evacuated the hospital when the Wirrn attacked. (AUDIO: Hosts of the Wirrn)

Shindi disapproved of Osgood and Josh making contact with the Kalvyri without him and had Vara and Norei observed in the cells. He put all UNIT bases on standby in anticipation of a Kalvyri invasion before Jarrak took out the communications systems and agreed with Kate and Josh that Vara and Norei should be handed over to Jarrak to protect Earth. When Osgood and Josh disobeyed their order, Shindi had Josh put on charge. (AUDIO: Breach of Trust)

Osgood updated Shindi on the Pandora Institute mission on Mundholm and had him send a platoon to rescue her, Kate and Josh. He sent a helicopter, but Seth Hyer was ultimately defeated thanks to Osgood's hologram projector. (AUDIO: Open the Box)

Later career
Shindi was covering for Kate in Geneva during the Wampeerix incursion. (AUDIO: The Power of River Song)

Personality
Shindi did not have much of a sense of humour. (AUDIO: Armageddon) He was serious about his work and believed that his soldiers should obey him and Kate Stewart without question, which often brought him into conflict with Josh Carter. (AUDIO: Vanguard, Ice Station Alpha, Breach of Trust) He had a great respect for Kate and Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. (AUDIO: Armageddon)

Behind the scenes

 * Shindi was introduced to represent the old guard of UNIT, contrasting with relatively new recruit Josh. (BFX: Extinction)
 * Shindi was killed-off in Armageddon, but because of Ramon Tikaram's performance it was decided that it would be revealed in Shutdown that he survived. (BFX: Extinction)