{"id":7930,"date":"2021-11-28T20:20:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T19:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1520051"},"modified":"2021-11-28T20:32:31","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T19:32:31","slug":"doctor-whos-brigadier-cameo-makes-an-even-bigger-mess-of-unit-dating","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/doctor-whos-brigadier-cameo-makes-an-even-bigger-mess-of-unit-dating\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who\u2019s Brigadier cameo makes an even bigger mess of UNIT dating"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Morgan Jeffery\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 28 November 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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These days, Doctor Who<\/a> has a pretty relaxed stance on altering past events. William Hartnell\u2019s First Doctor might\u2019ve asserted that \u201cyou can\u2019t rewrite history \u2013 not one line\u201d back in the show\u2019s early days, but since then we\u2019ve been educated on fixed points in time and how most of what\u2019s already happened is really quite malleable, actually.<\/p>\n

All the same, when viewed with a critical eye there are certain aspects of the show\u2019s internal chronology that just don\u2019t quite hold up \u2013 perhaps the most famous example being \u201cUNIT dating controversy\u201d (no, you clever clogs at the back, this isn\u2019t a reference to some 1970s scandal involving Mike Yates taking Jo Grant out on the town).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all rather complicated but in simple terms there\u2019s a question \u2013 and indeed some quite fierce debate among Doctor Who fandom \u2013 as to when the stories featuring paramilitary organisation UNIT are set. Some argue they take place roughly around the time they were aired, from the late 1960s onwards, while others maintain that they\u2019re set at a point further in the future \u2013 and indeed, there\u2019s on-screen evidence to support both sides.<\/p>\n

To give just one example, in 1983 story Mawdryn Undead<\/a>, the returning Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) claims he retired from UNIT in 1976. Lethbridge-Stewart first appeared in 1968\u2019s The Web of Fear<\/a> \u2013 a sequel to the previous year\u2019s The Abominable Snowmen<\/a>, which is clearly stated as having taken place \u201cover forty years\u201d prior\u2026 except The Abominable Snowmen was set in 1935, which means The Web of Fear is set at least<\/em> in 1976, the same year that The Brigadier is said to have retired in Mawdryn Undead.<\/p>

There\u2019s a plethora of clues \u2013 from fashion to currency to nods towards politicians of the day \u2013 all presenting conflicting options as to whether the UNIT stories take place in what was then present day or the near future. It\u2019s a big old muddle which, if you\u2019re feeling cynical, you can put down to production errors arising from stories being produced decades apart and which, if you\u2019re feeling generous, you can try and explain away using the get-out clause that, well, Doctor Who is all about time travel and so maybe some events got shifted about in history somehow.<\/p>\n

All of which brings us to 2021 and the show\u2019s latest episode, Survivors of the Flux<\/a>, which it has to be said takes an already rather complicated and convoluted question and throws yet another spanner in the works.<\/p>\n

One of the episode\u2019s plot threads involves space crook The Grand Serpent (Craig Parkinson), who has used his ability to time travel to insert himself into Earth\u2019s history and, more specifically, to ensure he\u2019s a pivotal player in the early development of UNIT, allowing him to rise to a position of power which ultimately enables him to shut the organisation down, leaving the planet unprotected from a Sontaran invasion fleet.<\/p>\n

In scenes clearly labelled as being set in 1958, General Farquhar (Robert Bathurst) announces he\u2019s been assigned to set up \u201cthe British end of a new United Nations taskforce\u201d \u2013 except UNIT doesn\u2019t make its first appearance in Doctor Who until a story called The Invasion<\/a>, which is said to have taken place four years after The Web of Fear, which as we previously established must take place in 1976 at the earliest, meaning The Invasion is set around 1980.<\/p>\n

\""Doctor\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Doctor Who \u2013 The Invasion (1968)<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Maybe it\u2019s a complex job launching an outfit like UNIT and it takes Farquhar and \u201cPrentis\u201d 22 years \u2013 between 1958 and 1980 \u2013 to get the whole thing up-and-running? Except in later scenes featuring the pair that take place after UNIT has been formed, the date is clearly advertised on-screen as being 1976, the same year that The Web of Fear \u2013 which doesn\u2019t feature UNIT and is set before it\u2019s established \u2013 takes place.<\/p>\n

If we assume that The Web of Fear is set in early 1976 and the scenes featuring Farquhar and the Grand Serpent at the Ministry of Defence are set in late 1976 and so UNIT had already been in operation for around four years by 1980 and the events of The Invasion, the whole thing just about tracks (so long as you ignore Mawdryn Undead\u2019s assertion that the Brigadier retired in 1976) \u2013 except a certain cameo throws everything out of whack again\u2026<\/p>\n

As Farquhar and Prentis stroll through UNIT headquarters, we hear a familiar voice \u2013 that of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart \u2013 off-screen, putting in a call to the RAF. \u201cThat\u2019s our new Corporal,\u201d says Farquhar. \u201cBrought him in after we missed the whole thing at the Post Office Tower. He\u2019s a shouter, but he\u2019s very good. Keeps everyone on their toes.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fun, fond nod to a much-beloved character \u2013 not to mention a reference to 1966 story The War Machines<\/a>, which saw a hyper-intelligent computer called WOTAN launch an assault on London from its base in the Post Office Tower. But there\u2019s a big continuity problem here\u2026<\/p>\n

\""Doctor\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Doctor Who \u2013 Mawdryn Undead (1983)<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Quite simply, if we assume that UNIT follows the same ranking system as the British army, there\u2019s no way that Lethbridge-Stewart should be a Corporal at a point in time after<\/em> he\u2019s been enlisted by UNIT \u2013 regardless of when the stories were supposed to be set, he was introduced as a Colonel in The Web of Fear, which takes place pre-UNIT, so why would he now hold the lower rank of Corporal?<\/p>\n

Possibly he was demoted from his officer rank as a result of as-yet-undisclosed events which occurred off-screen, but Farquhar seems to speak of Lethbridge-Stewart as a rising star rather than a soldier operating under a cloud \u2013 and he\u2019s certainly been promoted to his familiar rank of Brigadier by the events of The Invasion, which is a small leap from the rank of Colonel but a much larger one from serving as a Corporal.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve lost track of what this all means, well\u2026 we can\u2019t entirely blame you. But essentially, Doctor Who has now suggested that Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was variously a Brigadier serving in UNIT, a Corporal serving in UNIT, an ex-Brigadier now retired from UNIT, and a Colonel not serving in UNIT because it didn\u2019t exist yet\u2026 all in 1976.<\/p>\n

Oh look, let\u2019s just blame Swarm \/ the Flux \/ the Division for all of this, shall we? Doctor Who might makes mistakes from time to time, but at least the very nature of the show always gives it an out.<\/p>\n

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