UNIT

The United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (also known as UNIT) is a military organization from the operating under the auspices of the United Nations. Its purpose is to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to the Earth. UNIT was not the only alien defense organisation, but it was the one with which the Doctor would have the closest personal involvement.

Roots
The roots of the organisation lay in previous alien encounters. The Intrusion Countermeasures Group headed by Group Captain Gilmore, involved in the Shoreditch Incident would serve as for a specialised military force with scientific assistance would form the basis of the future UNIT. Though Gilmore did have two scientific advisors (serving a function much like third incarnation of the Doctor and Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw would serve later), the seventh incarnation of the Doctor did most of the work, here, on the technical end. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

The second encounter was the takeover of London by the Great Intelligence, using robot Yetis and a deadly cobweb-like fungus. Another group of British infantrymen, led this time by Colonel Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart of the Scots Guards (assisted by the Doctor) beat back the attempted conquest in the tunnels of the London Underground. (DW: The Web of Fear) UNIT themselves later considered this to be the main origin of the organisation. (unit.org.uk)

Formation and the Lethbridge-Stewart years
Following the Yeti Incident, the United Nations became aware that the world faced threats from extraterrestrial sources, and that with the space programme sending probes deeper and deeper into space, mankind had drawn attention to itself. Consequently, the United Nations established UNIT with the mandate to investigate, monitor and combat such threats. Lethbridge-Stewart was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and put in charge of the British contingent, organisationally known as Department C19 within the British government. (DW: Time-Flight)

With the help, again, of the Doctor's second incarnation, UNIT braved an invasion by the Cybermen. (DW: The Invasion)

Following this, Lethbridge-Stewart became convinced of the necessity of scientific advice in battling extraterrestrial threats, and recruited Liz Shaw from the University of Cambridge. Coincidentally, the Doctor, now in his third form, had been exiled to Earth by the Time Lords. The Doctor agreed to join UNIT as its Scientific Advisor just in time to help defeat the Autons (DW: Spearhead from Space).

When the Doctor's exile was lifted (DW: The Three Doctors), his association with UNIT became more sporadic, especially after his regeneration into his fourth incarnation. (DW: Planet of the Spiders, Robot)

Though the Doctor did return to Earth with Sarah Jane Smith, he would work less and less with the Brigadier and more with other officers. (DW: The Android Invasion, The Seeds of Doom)

After Lethbridge-Stewart

 * After the Doctor's increasingly lack of involvment, the organisation carried on without him.

Lethbridge-Stewart retired in 1976 (DW: Mawdryn Undead). He was succeeded by Colonel Crichton (DW: The Five Doctors).

The Doctor re-united, in his seventh incarnation, against an invasion by Morgaine and her armoured knights. By that time the British contingent was commanded by the young Brigadier Winifred Bambera, and Lethbridge-Stewart was called out of retirement to assist her, and also, the Doctor. (DW: Battlefield)

This version of the Doctor would, again, assist the UNIT officer Muriel Frost in the late 1990s. (DWM: The Mark of Mandragora, Evening's Empire)

The 21st century
In 2005. UNIT sent a delegation to a gathering of experts to 10 Downing Street in response to an spaceship crashing in the River Thames. All of the experts were electrocuted by the family Slitheen. The identities of the advisors killed were not known, although one bore the name "Frost" on her jacket. (DW: Aliens of London)


 * This may or may not have been Muriel Frost. Frost would have been somewhat older by this time and she and the Doctor showed no familiarity with each other.

UNIT survived as an organisation, though, and had contact with Jack Harkness, the head of Torchwood 3.


 * The fact that Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper, who were British, seem to have worked for both UNIT and Torchwood at various times indicates some degree of co-operation between the two organisation. Possibly, given Torchwood's, pro-British, nationalistic, outlook, Torchwood only agreed to have contact with the British division of UNIT.

Beyond the 21st century
By the 26th century, and Human expansion into the galaxy, UNIT has evolved into a secret society called the Unitatus. (MA: Cold Fusion) Unitatus survived at least until the 30th century (NA: So Vile A Sin)


 * Also in the the 26th century, Bernice Summerfield, who had assisted the original UNIT, encountered an organisation called the Knights of Jeneve. The Knights may or may not be connected with UNIT, given that "Jeneve" appears to be a corruption of "Geneva". The Knights were founded in the 23rd century.

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)

Organisation and equipment
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. However, where such orders conflict, appeals can 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 is 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.

Equipment
Its personnel have a wide range of weaponry to call on, some custom-made to combat specific threats. 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)

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.

Both the Virgin Missing Adventures and the BBC Past Doctor Adventures have set stories in the UNIT era and have revealed new information about UNIT's past, present and future. The New Adventures novel Just War by Lance Parkin mentions LONGBOW, a world security organisation set up by the League of Nations that encountered the occasional extraterrestrial incident but was disbanded after it and the League failed to prevent World War II.

The Dying Days, also by Parkin, named the French division of UNIT as NUIT (Nations Unies Intelligence Taskforce), and the Eighth Doctor Adventure Emotional Chemistry by Simon A. Forward named the Russian division ОГРОН (OGRON).

The Devil Goblins from Neptune by Keith Topping and Martin Day introduced a division within the Central Intelligence Agency headed by a man known only as Control, which has featured as a rival to UNIT. Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles introduced a more ruthless UN division called UNISYC (United Nations Intelligence Security Yard Corps), which by the 2040s has replaced UNIT.

The Doctor Who Magazine comic strip also frequently featured UNIT. One story, Final Genesis, was set in a parallel universe in which humanity has made peace with the Silurians, and UNIT has become the United Races Intelligence Command.

BBV have made a trilogy of UNIT videos featuring the Autons, 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 UNIT: Time Heals, the first of a new series of UNIT audio plays, featuring a retired General Sir Lethbridge-Stewart as an advisor to a new generation of officers. A preview episode, UNIT: 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 UNIT jeeps and the mobile headquaters used in many of the adventures from (1969-1975) were BBC outside broadcasting vans used by the BBC production unit.