UNIT

UNIT (UNified Intelligence Taskforce, or United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) is a military organisation Operating under the auspices of the UN, its purpose is to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to the Earth.

History
The United Nations were aware the world faced threats from extraterrestrial sources. Space programmes sent probes deeper and deeper into space; mankind was drawing attention to itself. Unable to get the British government to form a permanent special operations force for alien threats, Lethbridge-Stewart went over their heads to the UN Security Council, who proved more receptive. The UN established UNIT with the mandate to investigate, monitor and combat such threats. At the suggestion of Gilmore from the ICMG, Lethbridge-Stewart was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and put in charge of the British contingent. This contingent was organisationally known as Department C19 within the British government.

One of UNIT's first missions was an intensive investigation of International Electromatics that turned violent. UNIT agents were killed and UNIT launched a helicopter raid to liberate prisoners at an Electromatics' facility. With the help, again, of the Second Doctor, UNIT discovered the company was a front for a Cybermen invasion and was able to defend against it.

Lethbridge-Stewart became convinced of the necessity of scientific advice in battling extraterrestrial threats. He recruited Liz Shaw from the University of Cambridge. Coincidentally, the Third Doctor had been exiled to Earth by the Time Lords. He agreed to join UNIT as its scientific advisor just in time to help defeat the Autons.

The Doctor continued to assist UNIT. Liz and he helped them fight such foes as The Silurians and the Primords. Liz Shaw left UNIT and was replaced by Jo Grant as the Doctor's assistant, though she only had managed to get her A-levels in science. When he met her, UNIT made an enemy out of The Master. UNIT locked up the Master after several attempts to destroy Earth.

When the Doctor's exile was ended, his association with UNIT became more sporadic, especially after his regeneration into his fourth incarnation.

The Doctor did return to Earth with Sarah Jane Smith, but would work less with the Brigadier and more with such other officers as Colonel Faraday (the Brigadier having gone to Geneva) and Major Beresford. The Doctor, however, never officially left UNIT.

As a United Nations group, UNIT often served as security at peace conferences and the British contingent had foreign soldiers such as Sergeant Zbrigniev.

UNIT often faced hostility to its operations when investigating research facilities and companies. A common tactic against them was an appeal to any contacts in the Westminster government. These forced Lethbridge-Stewart either to back down or go over the government's heads to Geneva.

Lethbridge-Stewart retired in 1976 to teach mathematics at Brendon Public School. His successor was Colonel Charles Crichton. Benton and medical officer Harry Sullivan also left.

The Doctor re-united with UNIT in his seventh incarnation against an invasion by Morgaine and her armoured knights. The British contingent was commanded by a new, female brigadier Winifred Bambera. Lethbridge-Stewart was called out of retirement to assist them. This version of the Doctor would help UNIT officer Muriel Frost in the late 1990s in their struggle against the Mandragora Helix

At some point in the late 20th or early 21st century, a book on the history of UNIT was published. It is not known how much, if any information on the organisation's activities was included.

In the name of "homeworld security", UNIT adopted a contreversial attitude towards civil rights and liberties which the Tenth Doctor found disquieting. UNIT maintained a secret prison. Detainees could be held without charges being pressed or without the usual rights of prisoners. This suggested UNIT had a more malevolent side than other recorded encounters may suggest. Among those kept at one time as a prisoner by UNIT was Toshiko Sato in 2005 or 2006; she was only released when Jack Harkness and Torchwood Three convinced her to work for them.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, UNIT maintained a small division based in the United States, led by Brigadier General Adrienne Kramer.

At sometime prior to the 2009 Sontaran invasion, UNIT changed its name from United Nations Intelligence Taskforce to Unified Intelligence Taskforce. UNIT retained its traditional logos, even though they displayed the now-technically incorrect initialization "U.N.I.T."

At some point, the UK division of UNIT faced being shut down and replaced with domestic group ICIS (Internal Counter-Intelligence Service). When it became clear ICIS were brutal and dangerous, Lethbridge-Stewart and Colonel Emily Chaudhry deliberately revealed UNIT's remit to the press (stating UNIT had faced over two hundred invasions) and the existence of Silurian ambassadors. This was viewed as a hoax, but it forced the government to leave UNIT in charge of alien matters, leading to uneasy co-existence with ICIS.

Unknown to UNIT, their leader, Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood, was an ICIS plant who had been groomed to assume leadership of their rival. ICIS' involvement in an attempted coup and murderous attempts at framing UNIT led to their shutdown; UNIT thwarted the coup and stopped a worldwide pandemic, unfortunately losing temporary commander Colonel Robert Dalton in the process. Colonel Chaudry was given command of the UK contingent.

Before 2005, UNIT had been involved in multiple situations without the Doctor, including the Fourth Reich, the Guatemala "big locust" Problem, Operation Plainsong, the Skaniska Incident and the Jersey Tollgate Situation. 2005 saw the organisation increase its New York presence centred around a New York Liason Office for immediate briefing of the UN General Assembly. They also had been hosting annual conferences for several years. An officer named Major Jenny Maguire had had previous experience with the Doctor, who had annoyed her in unknown circumstances.

In 2006, UNIT sent a delegation to a gathering of experts to 10 Downing Street in response to a spaceship crash 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 woman officer bore the name "Frost" on her jacket. By this time, UNIT and the Torchwood Institute were aware of each other. UNIT asked for the assistance of Torchwood Three's Owen Harper during this incident. Toshiko Sato would fill in for him.

In 2006, a group of at least three Groske were stranded on Earth. UNIT found and recruited them.

In Christmas 2006, UNIT had a command centre in the Tower of London under the command of Major Richard Blake. UNIT maintained contact with Torchwood Three, even after the Battle of Canary Wharf. Torchwood Three's leader, Jack Harkness, would occasionally confer with the heads of UNIT and once asked for and received the help of Martha Jones, a medical doctor and former companion of the Tenth Doctor's, whom he and the Doctor had suggested for a position with UNIT.

By 2008 UNIT operated an aircraft carrier airship, the Valiant, which was mainly designed by British Minister of Defense (actually the latest incarnation of the Master) Harold Saxon.

Sarah Jane Smith remained in friendly contact with UNIT, leading to its involvement in cleaning up a Slitheen plot.

Prior to the 2009 Sontaran invasion, Martha Jones, an ex-companion of the Tenth Doctor was tasked with alerting him about it when the preparations for the invasion were discovered. Apparently, now-Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart still had some involvement with UNIT at this time, though he had gone to Peru for undisclosed reasons.

Following the defeat of the Sontarans, UNIT began reverse-engineering technology scavenged from the aliens, and launched Project Indigo to create a backpack-sized teleportation device. Jones was seconded as medical advisor for the project (it was top secret, although Harkness found out about it), and stationed at UNIT's base in New York City. UNIT also developed a contingency plan called the Osterhagen Project; in the event of global conquest that seemed unending, any three out of five UNIT facilities would end humanity's suffering by destroying the planet with nuclear weaponry under Earth's crust.

Following the relocation of the Earth and two-dozen other planets to the Medusa Cascade, UNIT went on high alert, and then a war footing as the Dalek invasion began. Both the Valiant and the New York headquarters were overrun by Daleks and destroyed, and the United Nations surrendered soon after. Martha Jones escaped using the Project Indigo device, maintaining possession of an Osterhagen key in the process. She reached the Osterhagen Station in Germany. The Chinese and Liberian stations had been already activated. She was teleported away by the Daleks before the bombs could be triggered. The Doctor later asked her to have the Project dismantled (though whether she was successful is unknown).

UNIT and Torchwood made a joint effort to investigate the voices coming from the Mariana Trench. UNIT supplied the submarine, the Octopus Rock, and the ship to transport it, the USS Calvin.

During Easter 2009 UNIT was called out to a tunnel near Brixton after a bus carrying the Doctor and other passengers had gone through a wormhole. The Tenth Doctor contacted the senior officer on site, Captain Erisa Magambo and also spoke with their scientific adviser Professor Malcolm Taylor. He managed to get the bus back to its original location but the Swarm arrived on Earth. Magambo and UNIT fought the stingrays. The Doctor recommended to Magambo that there might be two more potential UNIT recruits from the bus, namely Barclay and Nathan.

When the Master turned every human into a copy of him on Christmas Day 2009, UNIT came under his command. When the Doctor piloted the Hesperus to Joshua Naismith's mansion, the Master Race-controlled UNIT fired missiles at him. Wilfred Mott and Rossiter the Vinvocci destroyed them. When Rassilon and his Time Lord guard arrived at the mansion, his first act was to reverse the Master race back to their human forms.

On 4 May 2010, after the Eleventh Doctor had destroyed an awaking Cyberman army, he predicted that a lot of questions would be asked by UNIT. He advised Chisholm to simply mention his name.

Later that year, rogue Colonel Tia Karim leagued with Claw Shansheeth to gain The Doctor's TARDIS. They created a ruse that the Doctor had died and prepared his funeral in UNIT Base 5 so they could drain the life force of Sarah Jane Smith and Josephine Jones through their memories of the Doctor. They attached them to the Memory Weave and began the process to conjure a TARDIS key. The machine was overloaded by the many memories of Jo and Sarah Jane and it self-destructed, killing the group.

In 2011, after the Miracle Day phenomenon was negated, UNIT sealed off the Blessing.

(From the Doctor Who Wikia)