UNIT (Doctor Who)

UNIT

U.N.I.T logo used in "The Day of the Doctor" (2013)
Universe	Whoniverse
Type	Intelligence agency, military organisation
Location	Worldwide Geneva, Switzerland Snowdon, Wales (Unit Base 5) An office building in London, England The site of the former Scarman estate, England Under the Tower of London, England Manhattan, New York City, USA Airborne aircraft carrier the Valiant UNIT Moonbase
Key people	Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart Captain Mike Yates Corporal / Sergeant / WO1 John Benton The Doctor Dr. Elizabeth Shaw Jo Grant Sarah Jane Smith Lieutenant Harry Sullivan Brigadier Winifred Bambera Dr. Martha Jones Colonel A. Mace General Sanchez Captain Erisa Magambo Colonel Oduya Kate Stewart Jac Petronella Osgood
Purpose	Defending Earth from extraterrestrial and paranormal threats
Technologies	Unreliable access to Gallifreyan technology, advanced translation software
Powers	Military authority in UN member countries
Affiliations	Torchwood Institute The Doctor
Website	http://www.unit.org.uk/

Worldwide

UNIT, or Unified Intelligence Taskforce (formerly United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Operating under the auspices of the United Nations, its purpose is to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to the Earth. In the original Doctor Who series, several UNIT personnel (such as the Brigadier) played a major role in the programme.

Following the broadcast of the 2005 Doctor Who series, executive producer Russell T Davies claimed that the UN were no longer happy to be associated with the fictional organisation, and the UN's full name could now no longer be used. However, the "UNIT" and "UN" abbreviations could be used, as long as it was not explained what the letters stood for. In 2008, he announced that the organisation's name had been changed to the "Unified Intelligence Taskforce". This new name was first mentioned on-screen in "The Sontaran Stratagem", also in 2008, in which it was indicated in a line of dialogue that the United Nations still supports UNIT with funding.

In a 2014 interview with Doctor Who Magazine, script editor Terrance Dicks recalled that he was present at the "birth" of UNIT during the production of the Doctor Who serial The Invasion (1968). He credited both scriptwriter and script editor Derrick Sherwin and producer Peter Bryant as having come up with the idea beforehand, claiming that they were testing the concept in The Invasion before it had become central to the show in the Doctor Who serial Spearhead from Space (1970). In a series of interviews originally recorded for the 2006 DVD of the Doctor Who serial Inferno (1970), actor Nicholas Courtney, who played Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in The Invasion, similarly described The Invasion as a "dummy run" for the idea of the Doctor, the main protagonist of Doctor Who, being exiled to Earth. Dicks also said that the idea of exiling the Doctor was done because making every serial take place on Earth was cheaper to produce than if every serial had to have a new alien planet built, and that UNIT was an idea Sherwin had come up with to answer the question of what to do with the Doctor after he was exiled to Earth. Speaking in an interview on the 2012 DVD of the Doctor Who serial The Krotons (1968–69), Sherwin said that he wanted Doctor Who to be "down on Earth anyway, for credibility", and described UNIT as "the ideal vehicle" for this.