Theory:Timeline - UNIT

This page lists appearances of UNIT in chronological order. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories. From these observations we have attempted to build a concise timeline. It is assumed that for each novel, comic, audio or television series, their published, broadcast or numbered order is the order they occur in.

Note that the placing of UNIT stories is especially complicated due to the UNIT dating controversy.

Origin

 * TV: The Invasion

Liz Shaw

 * TV: Spearhead from Space
 * COMIC: The Arkwood Experiments
 * COMIC: The Multi-Mobile
 * COMIC: Insect
 * TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians
 * PROSE: The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back
 * The outcome of Doctor Who and the Silurians is still fresh on the Doctor's mind.


 * AUDIO: Old Soldiers
 * Tentative placement in regards to the "recent" falling out between the Doctor and Brigadier over the Silurians.


 * AUDIO: Vengeance of the Stones
 * The Doctor has had Bessie for a relatively short period of time. RAF Lieutenant Mike Yates is asked to join UNIT, with a promotion from lieutenant to captain.


 * AUDIO: Shadow of the Past
 * The Silurians occurred a few weeks earlier.


 * TV: The Ambassadors of Death
 * PROSE: UNIT Christmas Parties: First Christmas
 * Liz has been working with UNIT for "a few months", and her complaints about her job here are similar to those that the Brigadier cites as her reason for leaving. The TARDIS console has also been removed from within the ship, as it was in The Ambassadors of Death.


 * AUDIO: Walls of Confinement
 * This is the second time the Doctor has visited a zoo, setting this after The Arkwood Experiments.


 * PROSE: Prelude White Darkness
 * The Brigadier finds it doubtful that the Doctor can get the TARDIS to work, setting this before Inferno.


 * TV: Inferno
 * AUDIO: The Last Post
 * The Last Post spans from Spearhead to just before Inferno.


 * PROSE: Ashes of the Inferno
 * COMIC: The Fishmen of Carpantha
 * COMIC: Doctor Who and the Rocks from Venus
 * PROSE: The Science of Magic
 * PROSE: The Eye of the Giant
 * Mike Yates arrives at UNIT and sees inside the TARDIS for the first time, and the Doctor mentions visiting the parallel universe from Inferno.


 * AUDIO: The Blue Tooth
 * Liz decides to leave UNIT.


 * AUDIO: Binary
 * Liz announces her intention to leave UNIT.


 * PROSE: The Scales of Injustice
 * Liz officially leaves UNIT, Yates is promoted to Captain Rank, and the Doctor is in a new laboratory.


 * PROSE: Prisoners of the Sun
 * Liz has recently left UNIT.


 * AUDIO: The Rings of Ikiria
 * COMIC: Castaway
 * COMIC: Levitation
 * PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune
 * Liz is called back to UNIT, and has been absent long enough for the Doctor to admit missing her company.


 * PROSE: Reconnaissance
 * After Prisoners of the Sun as the Master is active, unbeknown to the Brigadier.

Jo Grant

 * TV: Terror of the Autons
 * TV: The Mind of Evil
 * AUDIO: The Doll of Death
 * Jo is still quite new to UNIT, and is unaware of the true nature of the TARDIS, setting it before The Claws of Axos.


 * PROSE: Deadly Reunion (part 2)
 * The Master has a working TARDIS, placing this after The Mind of Evil.


 * PROSE: UNIT Christmas Parties: Christmas Truce
 * No one has seen the Master since Deadly Reunion.


 * TV: The Claws of Axos
 * AUDIO: The Mega
 * The Mega were aided by the Master. The events of The Claws of Axos are referred to.


 * TV: Colony in Space
 * TV: The Dæmons
 * PROSE: Freedom
 * Set soon after The Dæmons.


 * AUDIO: Degrees of Truth
 * Set immediately after The Dæmons.


 * AUDIO: The Magician's Oath
 * TV: Day of the Daleks
 * PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy
 * PROSE: The Face of the Enemy
 * This is concurrent with The Curse of Peladon.


 * PROSE: Harvest of Time
 * c. 1972-1982 - TV: The Sea Devils
 * Rough dating from the Twelfth Doctor. (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death)


 * PROSE: The Eight Doctors
 * For the Third Doctor, this takes place immediately after The Sea Devils, but before Find and Replace.


 * AUDIO: Find and Replace
 * AUDIO: Prisoners of the Lake
 * PROSE: Rags
 * Jo recalls the Daleks and Ogrons, which places this firmly after Day of the Daleks. Likewise, the Doctor confesses that sheep have never filled him with dread before, placing this before Verdigris.


 * TV: The Time Monster
 * PROSE: Verdigris
 * TV: The Three Doctors
 * AUDIO: The Scorchies
 * AUDIO: The Many Deaths of Jo Grant
 * PROSE: Last of the Gaderene
 * The takes place before the Green Death


 * TV: The Green Death
 * AUDIO: Council of War
 * Takes place soon after The Green Death.

The Brig encounters the Fifth Doctor while the Third is having a break from UNIT.
 * PROSE: Deep Blue
 * PROSE: Faithful Friends: Part 1
 * The Third Doctor returns from his Sabbatical from UNIT.

Sarah Jane Smith

 * TV: The Time Warrior
 * AUDIO: The Paradise of Death
 * 1974-1979 - TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs
 * Conflicting dates provided by UNIT's dating protocol. (PROSE: The Enfolded Time)


 * COMIC: Prisoners of Time
 * The Doctor is driving the "Whomobile", setting this after Invasion of the Dinosaurs.


 * AUDIO: The Ghosts of N-Space
 * PROSE: Island of Death
 * The Doctor senses that he will soon regenerate.


 * PROSE: An Overture Too Early
 * TV: Planet of the Spiders
 * As witnessed by the Brigadier and Sarah Jane, the Doctor regenerates into his next incarnation.

The Later Years

 * TV: Robot
 * Follows Planet of the Spiders. The Fourth Doctor leaves with Sarah Jane and Harry Sullivan.


 * PROSE: Wolfsbane
 * TV: Terror of the Zygons
 * COMIC: Official Secrets
 * PROSE: No Future
 * The Seventh Doctor implants the idea of the Brigadier retiring.


 * 1979 - AUDIO: The Oseidon Adventure
 * 1980 - AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan
 * TV: The Five Doctors
 * 1984 - AUDIO: The Helliax Rift
 * 1989 - AUDIO: Hour of the Cybermen
 * 1980s - AUDIO: Dominion
 * 1 January 1990 - PROSE: The Enfolded Time
 * 27 September 1990 - AUDIO: Persuasion
 * 1994 - AUDIO: Warlock's Cross
 * 1995 - HOMEVID: Downtime / PROSE: Downtime
 * 1997 - TV: Battlefield
 * PROSE: UNITed We Fall
 * 1997 - PROSE: The Dying Days

2000s

 * 2001 - AUDIO: Animal
 * AUDIO: The Coup
 * AUDIO: Time Heals
 * AUDIO: Snake Head
 * AUDIO: The Longest Night
 * AUDIO: The Wasting
 * 2005 - TV: Fragments
 * Five years prior to her death in 2008, Toshiko Sato is arrested by UNIT but freed by Jack Harkness, who offers her a place at Torchwood Three.


 * 2006 - TV: Aliens of London/World War Three
 * The Ninth Doctor identifies a group of alien experts from the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.


 * Christmas 2006 - TV: The Christmas Invasion
 * 2008 - TV: The Sound of Drums
 * First contact with the Toclafane is hosted on the UNIT aircraft carrier Valiant, designed by Harold Saxon.


 * 2008 - TV: Last of the Time Lords
 * UNIT command radio the Valiant after the President of the United States is assassinated.


 * 2008 - TV: Revenge of the Slitheen (mentioned only)
 * Sarah Jane Smith arranges for UNIT to clean up Coldfire Construction after defeating the Slitheen.


 * 2009 - TV: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky
 * UNIT is now known as the Unified Intelligence Taskforce.


 * 2009 - TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End
 * Easter 2009 - TV: Planet of the Dead
 * September 2009 - TV: Children of Earth: Day One / Day Three / Day Four / / Day Five
 * 2009 - TV: Enemy of the Bane
 * 2009 - TV: The End of Time

Science Leads

 * 4 May 2010 - GAME: Blood of the Cybermen (mentioned only)
 * Having defeated a Cyberman incursion in the Arctic, the Eleventh Doctor predicts that UNIT will clean up.


 * COMIC: The Golden Ones
 * 2010 - TV: Death of the Doctor
 * 2011 - TV: The Blood Line (mentioned only)
 * As noted by Jack Harkness, UNIT seals off the Blessing after "the Miracle" is negated.


 * 2011 - AUDIO: Tales from the Vault
 * Captain Matheson tells Warrant Office Sato about the Terravore incursion in the London Underground in 2010.


 * TV: The Power of Three
 * Kate Stewart meets the Doctor, in his eleventh incarnation, for the first time.


 * 2013 - TV: The Bells of Saint John


 * 2013 - AUDIO: Mastermind
 * Charlie Sato refers to the Thames Mead Massacre in London in 2012.

UNIT: Extinction

 * AUDIO: Vanguard
 * AUDIO: Earthfall
 * AUDIO: Bridgehead
 * AUDIO: Armageddon
 * According to Big Finish, Extinction is between The Power of Three and The Day of the Doctor. Josh Carter is a new recruit in Vanguard, placing this definitively as the start of the UTNS timeline. Shindi is injured fighting the Autons.

UNIT: Shutdown

 * AUDIO: Power Cell
 * Osgood imagines the Eleventh Doctor visiting the Tower of London after allowing her mind to wander while showing Jay the thought projector, however it is left unclear as to whether or not she has met him.


 * AUDIO: Death in Geneva
 * Osgood recalls fighting Autons in the Gobi Desert.


 * AUDIO: The Battle of the Tower
 * Atkins is guarding the Black Archive.


 * AUDIO: Ice Station Alpha
 * The Antarctic winter won’t end for another three weeks, setting this around August. Shindi is still recuperating from being shot in Extinction.

UNIT: Silenced

 * AUDIO: House of Silents
 * Shindi has recovered from his injury but is still using a wheelchair.


 * AUDIO: Square One
 * AUDIO: Silent Majority
 * AUDIO: In Memory Alone
 * In Memory Alone is set several months after the end of Silent Majority.

UNIT: Assembled

 * AUDIO: Call to Arms
 * Reference is made to Josh's plastic skeleton, placing this after Extinction.


 * AUDIO: Tidal Wave
 * AUDIO: Retrieval
 * AUDIO: United
 * Osgood hasn't met the Doctor yet, and marvels at the idea of meeting three incarnations together.

UNIT: Encounters

 * AUDIO: The Dalek Transaction
 * Shindi is no longer in a wheelchair. After the events of In Memory Alone, Jacqui McGee is now an established ally to UNIT.


 * AUDIO: Invocation
 * Invocation occurs during Halloween.


 * AUDIO: The Sontaran Project
 * AUDIO: False Negative

UNIT: Cyber-Reality

 * AUDIO: Game Theory
 * The events of Encounters are recent and Shindi makes reference to the Shakri cubes.
 * AUDIO: Telepresence
 * AUDIO: Code Silver
 * AUDIO: Master of Worlds
 * Colonel Shindi is unfamiliar with the sight of flying Cybermen, while Osgood is thrilled to have survived meeting The Master, suggesting this takes place before Death in Heaven.

UNIT: Revisitations

 * AUDIO: Hosts of the Wirrn
 * The Master left a Wirrn egg behind for UNIT in their previous encounter, which he took from the Auctioneers.


 * AUDIO: Breach of Trust
 * AUDIO: Open the Box

After the Auctioneers

 * AUDIO: It Takes a Thief
 * AUDIO: Portrait of a Lady
 * Sam refers to the fall of the Auctioneers, setting this after Cyber-Reality


 * AUDIO: Death on the Mile

The Two Osgoods

 * c. 2013 - TV: The Day of the Doctor
 * Osgood and Kate meet the Eleventh Doctor as well as the War Doctor and the Tenth Doctor. Preventing the discovery of a Zygon incursion from erupting into war, the three Doctors force UNIT and the Zygons to make a truce which will become Operation Double. Befriending her Zygon copy, there are now two Osgoods. According to the novelisation, Atkins was killed by the Zygon Kate Stewart.


 * 2014 - COMIC: The Fractures
 * Set in 2014. Osgood is away investigating a UFO sighting, but has recently started wearing bow ties instead of her scarf and has yet to meet the Twelfth Doctor.


 * c. 2014 - TV: Death in Heaven
 * Kate has her first encounter with the Twelfth Doctor and Missy, the latter of whom murders the Zygon Osgood.


 * c. Summer 2015 - COMIC: The Hyperion Empire
 * The Doctor claims they have arrived in Summer 2015. Authorial intent places this between Last Christmas and The Magician's Apprentice


 * c. September 2015 - TV: The Magician's Apprentice


 * c. September 2015 - TV: The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Invasion
 * By this point, Kate is more than comfortable wielding a gun. The Zygon group Truth or Consequences attempt to break the ceasefire until the Twelfth Doctor convinces them to stand down. Their leader, Bonnie, joins and assumes the form of the surviving Osgood, who still refuses to disclose whether or not she is herself human or Zygon until the time comes when it does not matter.


 * September 2015 — COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death
 * Two Osgoods are present, placing this after the events of The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Invasion


 * COMIC: Robo Rampage
 * Set after The Zygon Inversion.


 * 8 March 201X - AUDIO: Narcissus
 * Jacqui McGee recalls The Silence. UNIT has already lost one Osgood. The Zygon Osgood labels herself as replaceable whereas the other Osgood isn’t, indicating that the first Zygon Osgood was the one killed in Death in Heaven.


 * c. 2016 - TV: The Return of Doctor Mysterio


 * 2017/2018 - COMIC: The Lost Dimension
 * Kate and Osgood meet the Doctor, now based at St Luke's University with companions Nardole and Bill Potts.


 * COMIC: Tulpa
 * Kate is familiar with Bill Potts, placing this after The Lost Dimension.

Uncertain Future

 * 1 January 2019 - TV: Resolution
 * UNIT is mentioned, and has had their funding temporarily suspended.

Post-21st century

 * 2119 - TV: Under the Lake/Before the Flood (mentioned only)

Unplaced

 * AUDIO: The Valley of Death
 * AUDIO: The Screaming Skull