Celebrating their return to the show in ‘The Zygon Invasion’, CultBox presents a rundown of notable UNIT characters over the years…

 

Corporal/ Sergeant/RSM Benton (‘The Invasion’ to ‘The Android Invasion’)

The ever reliable Benton was on hand through three Doctors, meeting the Second when they foiled the Cyber Invasion.

Loyal and often the butt of the joke, he travelled in the TARDIS to Omega’s anti-matter world and took it all in his stride.

 

Captain Mike Yates (‘Terror of the Autons’ to ‘Planet of the Spiders’)

The Brigadier’s right hand man, Yates was a trusted ally who in addition to his regular duties also occasionally went undercover for UNIT.

Keen on matters ecological, he was duped into betraying the organisation and quietly left service on medical terms… but not before popping back up in the Third Doctor’s final story.

 

Dr Elizabeth Shaw (‘Spearhead from Space’ to ‘Inferno’)

Liz was drafted into UNIT, somewhat unwillingly, as a civilian Scientific Advisor, but ended up as the Third Doctor’s assistant – a role for which she was wildly overqualified.

Despite working with the Time Lord against Autons and Silurians, she eventually opted to return to her duties at Cambridge. We did, however, hear of her working on a UNIT Moonbase in The Sarah Jane Adventures story ‘Death of the Doctor’ many years later.

 

Osgood (‘The Day of the Doctor’ to ‘The Zygon Inversion’)

Researcher Osgood was involved in countering the recent Zygon incident, working with Kate Stewart as her PA. While her name appeared to reference a UNIT Sgt from the Pertwee years, she appears to be a fan of all the Doctors, seen sporting both a long multi-coloured scarf, Converse shoes and a ‘cool’ bowtie.

Sadly, Osgood did not survive the events of ‘Death in Heaven’, falling foul of the manic ‘Missy’ Master.

Well, one Osgood didn’t survive. We discovered in ‘The Zygon Invasion’ that her Zygon duplicate from ‘The Day of the Doctor’ had stuck around to help maintain the peace. But which Osgood is human and which Osgood is a Zygon?

 

Captain Erisa Magambo (‘Turn Left’ to ‘Planet of the Dead’)

Captain Magambo first cropped up again in Donna’s alternate timeline, where she worked with Rose Tyler and helped send Donna Noble back to ensure she set the timeline right.

In charge of the operation surrounding the missing number 200 bus in ‘Planet of the Dead’, Magambo remained on our side of the wormhole but managed to provide a military reception for the swarm which did make it through to our world. She was able to make the tough choices, and willing to sentence the Doctor to death in order to save the Earth.

 

Continued on Page 3…