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UNIT, or UNified Intelligence Taskforce (formerly United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', ''Torchwood'', and ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''. Operating under the auspices of the UN, 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 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.〔''Doctor Who Magazine'' #360 (August 2005)〕 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. == Creation == 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 constructing an alien planet, 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. In another 2014 interview in ''Doctor Who Magazine'', Sherwin recalled that after submitting his scripts for ''The Invasion'', which included UNIT, to Bryant, Sherwin, who was also working freelance as a script editor, was told by Bryant to introduce his UNIT idea earlier, as it could "take some of the weight off () shoulders" of actor Patrick Troughton, who played the Doctor. Speaking in an interview on the 2011 special edition DVD of ''Spearhead from Space'', Sherwin claimed that he had created UNIT because he wanted to give some "considerable support" to the Doctor, "so that () didn't have so many damn lines to learn each week". Sherwin told ''Doctor Who Magazine'' in 2014 that while working as script editor on the ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Web of Fear'' (1968), which also involved an army, he told scriptwriters Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln to include all of the characters that he had originally invented for ''The Invasion''. Sherwin was uncertain if the army forces featured in ''The Web of Fear'' appeared as UNIT, but was "convinced" that, as a teaser for UNIT's more substantial role in ''The Invasion'', ''The Web of Fear'' was supposed to have replaced the basic army forces that were seen in the story.〔 However, previously in an interview recorded for the 2006 DVD of ''Inferno'', Sherwin described ''The Invasion'' as the start of UNIT and the beginning of the Doctor "coming down to Earth".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「UNIT」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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