Perhaps this should be UNIT HQ (The Star Beast), since UNIT HQ (The Power of the Doctor) was also located in the City Of London. Unless this is a combined page for both, we need some way of differentiating between the two. Alternatively, UNIT Tower might be a better name as its referred to as the Tower and the UNIT Tower by at least the Rani.
Talk about it here.
By late 2023, the branch of UNIT that operated in the United Kingdom had its headquarters (TV: The Star Beast [+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Pat Mills and John Wagner), Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023). Timestamp 00:49:15.) located in the City of London, near the Gherkin. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2008). Chapter 3, "Everything Changes"; Page 71.) It had a helipad. (TV: The Star Beast [+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Pat Mills and John Wagner), Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023). Timestamp 00:49:15.)
History[]
Information from TV: The Giggle [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023). and PROSE: The Giggle [+]James Goss, adapted from The Giggle (Russell T Davies), 60th Anniversary Novels (Target Books, 2023). needs to be added.
The previous headquarters was destroyed during the Master's Dalek Plan when Tegan Jovanka and Kate Stewart initiated the structural termination system to implode the building and entomb the Cybermen lead by a cloned Ashad. (TV: The Power of the Doctor [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who Centenary Special 2022 (BBC One, 2022).)
The UNIT HQ was among London's skyline (TV: The Star Beast [+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Pat Mills and John Wagner), Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023). Timestamp 00:49:15.) by the November 2023 UFO incident. (PROSE: The Star Beast [+]Gary Russell, adapted from The Star Beast (Russell T Davies), 60th Anniversary Novels (Target Books, 2023).) As a Gold Security establishment, no one could just walk in, "especially the Prime Minister." (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).)
Several weeks later during the planet-wide madness epidemic called The Giggle, UNIT HQ became central to the efforts to end it. Here it was shown to have been fitted with a galvanic beam as a weapon which was used to shoot down a communications satellite which was allowing the Giggle, a sympathy coded into the laughter of Stooky Bill, the first face seen on a screen that was now in all screens on Earth, to reach the entire planet.
While this put an end to the Giggle, the creator of the plan, the Toymaker, soon invaded UNIT HQ after winning a game against the Fourteenth Doctor in 1925. Overlaying his domain onto the building, the Toymaker danced throughout the control room, casually incapacitating everyone present and killing two security guards. He then took control of the Galvanic beam and used it to shoot the Doctor and force him to regenerate, intending to play a third game with his successor. However to the surprise of everyone the Doctor bi-generated instead of regenerating normally, bringing the Fifteenth Doctor into existence alongside his predecessor. The two Doctors proceeded to play an intense game of catch which the Toymaker lost and he was banished from the universe, erasing his Stooky Bill from history in the process. The lowest level of the building became the Toymaker's prison, with the box containing him bound in salt to keep him secure. (TV: The Giggle)
In February 2024, Sergeant Darren, located in UNIT HQ, received a transmission across time from his friend and coworker Sasha, who had been stranded in the Dark Times by an encounter with the Entity. After they ascertained her coordinates, UNIT called the Doctor in as "reinforcements", and he managed to rescue her, bringing it back to the 21st century; Darren then proudly reported that she was "safe and sound in UNIT HQ" to his commander. (WC: Incoming Transmission - February Update Video [+]Sasha Blore and Darren Fitzjohn, Time Lord Victorious (2024).)
Several months later, the Fifteenth Doctor and companion Ruby Sunday visited UNIT HQ with two goals in mind: first to seek the identity of Ruby's biological mother, and second to discover the identity of a woman who the Doctor and Ruby had encountered multiple versions of across time and space. The latter question was quickly answered as Susan Triad, CEO of S Triad Technology with the Doctor noting that "S Triad" was an anagram of TARDIS, something UNIT had already deduced and thus were monitoring Susan and her company. The Doctor began an investigation of his own alongside the investigation into Ruby's mother, and while the Doctor was at S Triad Technologies, new UNIT employee Harriet Arbinger revealed herself as a Harbinger and spoke in sync with Susan as the two welcomed the return of Sutekh to the universe. Now declaring himself the God of Death, Sutekh manifested around the TARDIS in UNIT HQ and shortly after all of UNIT's staff, along with the rest of the universe, were eradicated by the god's "dust of death". (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday)
Consequently UNIT HQ, as Sutekh's base of operations in his campaign to ensure his plan's completion, also became the site of the final battle with the god when the Doctor and Ruby were brought to it by a possessed Mel, in what turned out to actually be a trap the two had set for Sutekh. The Doctor, Ruby, and the TARDIS itself worked together to dislodge Sutekh from the latter and allow the Doctor to regain control of the vessel, after which he dragged Sutekh into the time vortex to "bring death to death" and undoing his actions before leaving him to die in the vortex.
Afterwards Susan Triad, now free of Sutekh's control, was offered a job at UNIT by Kate Stewart, to which she humbly accepted, stating she would be fine with simply making tea. They later discovered the identity of Ruby Sunday's mother, Louise Miller. (TV: Empire of Death)
Using a mole in UNIT, Conrad Clark broke into the tower and made his way to the operations room which Kate chose to allow rather than engaging a deadlock seal on the level. Having every camera in the room live-stream to Conrad's social media, Kate released the Shreek on him and didn't stop the creature until Conrad confessed to lying for his own personal gain. (TV: Lucky Day [+]Pete McTighe, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
In Conrad's World, the tower was instead the headquarters of an insurance company made up of UNIT personnel. The Doctor worked here as John Smith. (TV: Wish World [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
By having Anita Benn open a door into the tower from the Time Hotel, the Doctor was able to expose UNIT to real time and restore everyone to normal. The Rani teleported to the tower in an attempt to draw the Doctor into her plans and, failing that, sent the Bone Beasts to attack the tower. The Doctor had Susan construct a Zero Room to protect Belinda Chandra and Poppy while he and Ruby made their way to the Bone Palace to stop the Rani and Conrad. UNIT engaged the creatures with the tower's galvanic beam and parallax cannons, rotating the top of the tower during the battle. After Ruby used Desidirium's power to restore the correct reality, the Bone Beasts vanished and UNIT monitored the minor "glitches" in reality caused by the massive reality shift. (TV: The Reality War [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
Behind the scenes[]
Leadenhall Street in the real world; the exact location of the UNIT HQ in the DWU.
To Ace's left is 11 Leadenhall Street (Starbucks) and 12 Leadenhall Street (Lloyd's building) and to her right is 122 Leadenhall Street (UNIT HQ in the DWU, the Leadenhall Building in the real world). The UNIT HQ in The Star Beast [+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Pat Mills and John Wagner), Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023). is located in the middle of this street.
This UNIT HQ, going off the on-screen geography seen in The Star Beast [+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Pat Mills and John Wagner), Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023)., appears to be located the financial district of the City of London. However, upon analysing the position further, it makes less sense as it can be seen that the Scalpel and 40 Leadenhall Street are located to the immediate area east, the Leadenhall Building north, the Lloyd's building and Willis Building to the south, and the construction site of 1 Leadenhall Street to the west, thus placing the skyscraper in the middle of Leadenhall Street.
Furthermore, the UNIT HQ seen in The Power of the Doctor [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who Centenary Special 2022 (BBC One, 2022). is located where the Leadenhall Building is in real life; the road Ace parachutes down towards is Leadenhall Street. The Star Beast (set in late 2023) creates a minor continuity issue by showing that the Leadenhall Building is among London's skyline, despite that tower being non-existent during The Power of the Doctor (set in 2022). The Star Beast also posits that UNIT was able to clear the site of their imploded HQ, deal with the Cyber-Warriors entombed within, and construct their new tower all in the space of a year.
Additionally, the mini-episode The Promise [+]Pete McTighe, Doctor Who: The Collection mini-episodes (YouTube, 2019). — released in 2019 and set approximately around that time — showed the City of London as it exists in the real world, including the Leadenhall Building, not the building occupied by UNIT in The Power of the Doctor.
Prior to the airing of The Giggle, the images of both the newly bigenerated Fifteenth Doctor, first seen in the trailer following The Power of the Doctor, and the Fourteenth Doctor preparing to "regenerate", as seen in the trailer following Wild Blue Yonder [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023)., were modified to remove the appearance of UNIT HQ.
Location information
Though it's possible that a real world location doesn't exist in the same geographic space in the Doctor Who universe, such cases are few and far between. Thus, the map at right is probably a good indicator of the DWU location of UNIT HQ, City of London.
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