UNIT

Hello,

I don't know how well this post is going to come out, but...

With UNIT having reinvented themselves again, I wonder if there are any other uniforms that should show up, rather than just the armour they have for field operations. I found this generic uniform template over on DeviantArt (Generic uniforms by Tounushi on DeviantArt), and...well, I'm asking if any of these (possibly recoloured black to fit in with what we've seen of other UNIT uniforms under the incumbent leader, maybe with UN blue accessories like ties, and waistcoats for officers).

If the link doesn't open for whatever reason, the uniforms feature as unique points (L-R):

1. Peaked cap, double-breasted jacket

2. Beret, single-breasted jacket

3. Ushanka hat, greatcoat and gloves

4. Peaked cap, closed single-breasted tunic, Sam Browne belt, jodhpur-type trousers and riding boots

5. Beret, battledress-style jacket

6. No headgear, just shirt and tie

7. Beret, sweater

So...what do you think? Could you see any of these being used by UNIT? If so, what modifications (changes in colours, additions etc) could you see?

Also, could you see any corps colours being used in UNIT for specialist cadres (standard cadres, guards, infantry, artillery, cavalry, engineers, provosts, etc)?

If this post breaks any rules, I apologise.

EDIT: Also, if anyone wants to propose any 'one size fits all' re UNIT medals, rank structures and insignias, formation sizes, please do. I'd love to hear what you've got.

UNIT are well-established as the heroic defenders of Earth. The long-running military organisation is our first line of defence against alien attacks, and the Doctor's first port of call whenever he needs some human assistance (or someone to sign his HMRC paperwork). It's also having a bit of a renaissance at the moment, arguably being more relevant now than at any point since Jon Pertwee had the keys to the TARDIS. But between their shiny new London base, Kate Stewart’s friendly relationship with the Doctor, and the ever-increasing list of ex-companions they have on their payroll, it’s easy to forget that UNIT has a much darker side too. Nothing embodies this more than the Osterhagen Project. Hidden around the world are 25 nuclear warheads, positioned at key locations underneath the Earth’s crust so that, when detonated, they will destroy the entire planet. Considered a weapon of last resort, the Project is only to be activated in the event that the Earth has fallen, to prevent an alien enemy fully taking control. As mentioned in The Day of the Doctor, UNIT also has a nuclear warhead underneath the Black Archive, which would destroy London if activated – which it very nearly was! Though the Doctor implores Martha to decommission the Osterhagen Project, there's no onscreen proof that it was – and let's be honest, UNIT doesn't always listen to the Doctor. It’s not exactly comforting to think that the show’s ostensible “good guys” are sitting on a stockpile of WMDs powerful enough to literally end the world. Let’s hope nobody trips and hits the detonate button.

Hello,

I'm not trying to harp on with anything, but...I'm voicing some issues with UNIT as it is now.

I remember in the 2023 trilogy, we had a Scientific Advisor (clue is in the name of the job) automatically controlling all military forces. It makes no sense. Moreover, this isn't me being offensive, but said Scientific Advisor was a wheelchair user, yet led all forces directly from the front line with no armour/whatever. I've got a few friends who are in the military (their units shall remain anonymous), and they say this flies in the face of military practice. Even very-high-ranking leaders never forget their body armour. And one friend, he says the SA should've been working out of a mobile command centre some distance away.

Moreover, I half-get (begrudgingly) the restructuring from Moffat's era and how every other writer has carried it on, but presently, UNIT has almost equal numbers of officers and enlisted. This logic is based on those operators who we've seen in one or another medium under the current UNIT leadership who were never confirmed as dead or whatever; we've got:

• One Head of Scientific Research/Chief Science Officer/apparent head of UNIT entirely worldwide (various positions held by same person)

• Four 'full' colonels

• One commander

• Three majors

• Three captains of land

• Three lieutenants

• About eight or nine sergeants

• Three corporals

• About six privates

• One Medical Officer, holding rank of Lieutenant Commander

• Two scientific advisors

• One "head science communicator"

• Four scientists

• One computer scientist

• One "associate"

• One Head Archivist

How come we've got these...problems, of inefficient and incorrect military organisation?

If I have already asked about this in this area, I apologise.

Before anyone says anything, yes I’m well aware that I’m two days late (if only it released a day earlier then it would’ve been a surprise birthday present for me from the BBC & Doctor Who Official YouTube Channel). Anyway without further ado here is the second trailer!

This.

Please feel free to discuss below, as a Trailer though this will indeed contain some potential Spoilers towards the series in order to generate hype for it, so if you don’t wish to read them please don’t click on the post in order to see the responses. Now you cannot complain as you’ve been warned about the contents of this discussion thread!

If you were the leader of UNIT, what would you do?

Comment down your problems with the thirteenth & final episode of the second series.

Hello,

Given the recent changes in UNIT (again), I wonder who you would put in your UNIT if you created your own, including other franchises, films etc.

The rules for this, I think, are no real-life military figures. No major skeletons in the closet. State the position, rank, name, and previous affiliations of your figures (you can add whatever positions you think are fitting), as well as where they're from. And a picture of the character, if you can find one. Make sure the character is from a time when UNIT, or something similar, was known to exist (timeline, etc.). Please remember this is all hypothetical, and is not meant to be official or anything.

Anyway, let's go:

Commanding Officer: Brigadier General Francis Xavier Hummel, United States Marine Corps (The Rock)

Executive Officer: Major Tom Baxter, United States Marine Corps (The Rock)

Adjutant/sometime Team Leader: Captain Pete Hendrix; Force Recon, United States Marine Corps (The Rock)

Administration/Paymaster/Quartermaster: Major Malcolm Powers; First Platoon, 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit, United States Marine Corps (Heartbreak Ridge)

HQ Staff Officer: First Lieutenant M. R. Ring; Recon Platoon, 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit, United States Marine Corps (Heartbreak Ridge)

Ammunition Technical Officer (Gunnery Officer?): Captain Nick Medhurst, British Army (Bluestone 42)

Chaplain: The Reverend (Major) Mary Greenstock; Royal Army Chaplains' Department, British Army (Bluestone 42)

Forward Intelligence: Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway; Recon Platoon, 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit, United States Marine Corps (Heartbreak Ridge)

Medical Officer: (Senior?) Lieutenant Dr. Yevgeni Konstantinovich Petrov, Soviet Navy (The Hunt for Red October)

Armour: Corporal Gary McLintoch, Lance Corporal Jacko Jackson, Private Charlie Smith and Private Adam Kenning; all 104th Royal Tank Regiment, British Army (Gary: Tank Commander)

Regular enlisted: Gunnery Sergeant Crisp, Sergeant Rojas, and Privates Cox, Gamble, McCoy and Scarpetti; all Force Recon, United States Marine Corps (The Rock)

Corporals Gordon "Towerblock" House and Christian "Millsy" Mills, Lance Corporal Simon Lansey, and Privates Euan "Rocket" Armstrong and Kevin "Mac" McDowell; all British Army (Bluestone 42)

Corporals Collins (no pic), "Stich" Jones and Quinones (no picture available), Lance Corporals Aponte and Fragetti (no pictures available for either), and Private "Swede" Johansen; all Recon Platoon, 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit, United States Marine Corps (Heartbreak Ridge)

ECM Operator: Corporal Lynda Bird, British Army (Bluestone 42)

Signaller: Corporal "Profile"; Recon Platoon, 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit, United States Marine Corps (Heartbreak Ridge) (no picture available)

Special Operations: Captain John Patrick Mason; Special Air Service, British Army/MI6 (The Rock)

Staff Sergeant Henry "Henno" Garvie, Corporals Louis Hoffman, Ricky Mann, Mick Sharp and Pete Twamley, Lance Corporal Jem Poynton and Trooper Jamie Dow; all Red Troop, Special Air Service, British Army (Ultimate Force)

Scientific Advisors: a rotational basis of freelancers (old friends/already established; also includes The Doctor, who might have to be bribed or coerced into working with them)

What do you guys think? Who would you put in your UNIT?

1. Eighth Doctor (I hope to see)

2. Ace

3. The The Saxon Master

4. Rose/Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor

5. Fourteenth Doctor ('Cause of what we've seen in "The Giggle")

6. UNIT

7. Torchwood (I hope to see again)

8. Sontarans, Weeping Angels and Sea Devils, along with Daleks and Cybermen

SPOILERS!!

Woohoo! The first episode of the 60th anniversary specials just came out and I was beyond overjoyed to watch it; I quite literally have been waiting for this episode since FOREVER. That being said, I did have some issues with it that I would like to point out- remember that these are my opinions and I would love your thoughts on them.

1. The tone- way too fast-paced, and it switched from happy, to sad, to happy again, all too quickly. I honestly was a little bugged about the visible shifts in tone, it felt like lazy writing to me.

2. Speaking of lazy writing- the ENTIRE metacrisis thing. It was handwaved away like it literally never happened. Kinda bugged me because it was a HUGE tragedy behind Donna's character, and it disappeared in the blink of an eye.

3. Lazier writing- the sonic screwdriver (that just literally came out of nowhere) can make shields now? The TARDIS magically got a new interior? It felt lazy to me because RTD didn't really bother to add any reasons behind this.

4. The musical cues- It felt like Murray Gold was yelling out from the screen and telling us what to feel.

5. The dialogue- it felt sort of jagged, especially when the Meep was getting escorted back home. Like someone wanted foreshadowing dialogue but didn't really bother to do it correctly

6. The aesthetics- this is honestly a really stupid complaint but I'm not a fan of the new logo and intro music- it felt way too acoustic for a sci-fi romp around space and time. Loved the intro, though! Just disliked how badly it meshed with the music. It sounded like a mishmash of all the themes but without any nuance; just a remix.

7. The acting- was very good in some places, but the blocking and pacing really made the acting seem odd.

8. Not enough stakes- yes, London's gonna be destroyed, womp womp, BUT the story didn't take enough time to build it up, to give the episode a real sense of danger.

HOWEVER, I loved some things here:

1. Rose's transition. LOVED this. I've never seen a show be more open about LGBTQ+ issues, and seeing the blatant transphobia at the beginning, Donna's mother struggling to adjust to her new pronouns, and the Doctor asking the Meep's pronouns- incredible, incredible, incredible.

2. The acting. I'm not the biggest fan of Tennant's Doctor but he was really fun to watch- I felt like a kid again watching him.

3. CGI- oh lordy lord the effects were INCREDIBLE. Even if the story was, not the best, it still had some incredible scenes and visuals that I'm falling head over heels for.

This episode was not perfect, and is definitely far from the best. But it was an excellent comeback for the show that defined my childhood and I can't wait for Wild Blue Yonder!

As I'm sure many know, UNIT initially stood for United Nations Intelligence Taskforce until the "U" and "N" parts of it were rebranded as Unified. I've heard that the onscreen explanation was that the United Nations may have wanted to keep their name out of UNIT's, but has there been any actual reason behind the scenes for this change? Or was the onscreen reason inspired by real life?

As well as having companions who were originally - and may still be - UNIT and Torchwood personnel (Liz, Jo, Harry), the Doctor has also had some who soon became some (Sarah Jane, Jack, Martha). So, hypothetical situation; if you were to take all of the Doctor's companions who were returned to Present Day Earth as of their leaving stories (the 1960s to our present day) and was given permission by the Doctor to have the organisations hire any of their companions, who would you take and why?