Celebrating their return to the show in ‘The Zygon Invasion’, CultBox presents a rundown of notable UNIT characters over the years…
Professor Malcolm Taylor (‘Planet of the Dead’)
One of the Doctor’s biggest fans, Malcolm worked out how to close the Swarm’s wormhole saving the Earth from a desert fate.
Quite the nutty professor, he claimed to have read all the files on the Time Lord and was clearly thrilled to be working with him.
Brigadier Winifred Bambera (‘Battlefield’)
Bambera was in charge of an ill-fated nuclear missile convoy which got in the way of the Seventh Doctor’s encounter with some Arthurian Knights from another dimension.
Resourceful, and with a penchant for the handsome Ancelyn, she worked alongside the retired Lethbridge-Stewart to see off Morgaine’s forces.
Major Blake (‘The Christmas Invasion’)
While there were some nameless experts done in by the Slitheen in ‘Aliens of London’, our first proper 21st Century brush with UNIT came during ‘The Christmas Invasion’.
Fronted by Major Blake, they endeavoured to handle the Sycorax threat from a secret base concealed under the Tower of London. Sadly, he did not survive the encounter.
Colonel Mace (‘The Sontaran Stratagem’)
Mace took on the Sontarans at their ATMOS factory but shared a frosty relationship with the Tenth Doctor, who rather wistfully asked after the Brigadier.
Mace shared a kiss with his Captain though at the point of victory, so he wasn’t that much of a stuffed shirt.
General Sanchez (‘The Stolen Earth’)
Sanchez was responsible for UNIT’s New York operation and ran Project Indigo, the experimental Teleport project Martha Jones was working on.
It was he who authorised the use of the Osterhagen Key to destroy the Earth after the Dalek invasion so, while he never actually met the Doctor, we can be pretty sure they would not have got on!
Who’s your favourite UNIT character in Doctor Who? Let us know below…