You won’t need to hop into a TARDIS and travel back in time to catch new Doctor Who episodes featuring the fictional military organization UNIT. That also goes for Kate Stewart, who leads the group’s scientific research department.
The long-running sci-fi show confirmed actress Jemma Redgrave will return to the show as Kate, and also added that Aneurin Barnard is joining the cast.
In a “cast announcements” tweet, the official Doctor Who twitter account run by BBC wrote: “UNIT returns! Jemma Redgrave returns as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, and UNIT, the long-running organization set on defending the Earth, returns in the next series of Doctor Who. Aneurin Barnard also joins the series as the mysterious Roger ap Gwilliam.”
No other details were released. Redgrave, 57, was first cast in the series in 2012, and has recurred in the role, including in a 50th anniversary special in 2013, episodes in 2014 and 2015, as well as in episodes from 2021, on.
Welsh actor Barnard, 35, has previously appeared in the films Dunkirk and The Goldfinch, and will play the mysterious 21st century politician encountered by the 15th Doctor.
The new series will return later this year, with new episodes appearing on the ABC and Disney Prime. In October, it was announced that Doctor Who was moving over to Disney+ for its upcoming seasons, but it appears that this was only partially correct, and it now appears that it will be shown on both.
Ncuti Gatwa, of the Netflix comedy-drama show Sex Education, is set to be the 15th Doctor. He’ll make history as the first black actor to hold the series’ leading role when his first episode airs somewhere around the end of this year.
I now only have one more U.N.I.T. section to go as well as a younger Lt Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart.
In the 2019 Christmas Dr Who special the Doctor tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with U.N.I.T., only to be told they had closed “following financial disputes and subsequent funding withdrawal from their partners”. UNIT fans were left wondering what happened to the defence force led by Kate Stewart.
Apparently a diplomatic bungle has caused this and U.N.I.T. has now been replaced by a call centre (probably in the sub-continent)!
BREATHE EASY FANS!
Earth will be safe from alien invasion, including balloons over the Continental USA, as my force will continue to expand with today’s, and two more sections, one with a Lt Col Lethbridge Stewart, about to be recruited in the next few weeks.
There is no official interaction. UNIT stands for the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. While they are dominated by Britain because, let’s be honest, Doctor Who is a BBC show, they’re not a British organization.
Torchwood IS a British organization, set up and paid by the British crown (not even the government). They’re also highly classified, so for the most part, UNIT doesn’t even know about them. The higher ups in UNIT have probably been informed of or discovered Torchwood’s existence, and might call them in when they have no other options; but in general, they are competing, not collaborating, agencies.
As far as differences in focus, UNIT is more of a police organization; their main mission is to serve as the contact point for responding to alien communications and to contain alien incursions.
Torchwood’s focus is more on obtaining alien technology, studying it, and using it for the betterment and defense of the British Empire.
In the second doctor episode that the Organisation was still called UNIT but the acronym meant United Nations Intelligence Taskforce now it means UNified Intelligence Taskforce. What is the reason for this. basically real life interacting with fiction. The real reason was that the real life (? – they still seem to live in a rarified bubble thinging they are more important than what they actually are!) UNited Nations didn’t want to be associated with an alien police force! Hmm, lot’s of lines that i will leave alone in case I join the queue that have offended António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres!
This model was the give away November Limited Edition from Warlord Games. As I was trying to collect the rest of the Dr Who range I didn’t have, I ended up with a few of them.
Alex Kingston as River Song
Melody is a half-human/half-Time Lord, as well as the child of Amelia Pond & Rory Williams, conceived on the TARDIS after their honeymoon.
River Song in her black leathers as she was most often dressed in.
The Tenth Doctor first met her in the Library in the 51st century, where it would be the last time for her, and it only gets more confusing from there.
They move roughly in opposite time directions, and depending on what end of the timeline they’re on respectively, they each know secrets about each other that they’re unable to talk about without creating paradoxes.
The other reason is that her mother was abducted by a splinter group of the Papal Mainframe, a religious order who nominally protected certain sections of the universe. This splinter group, led by Madame Kovarian, foretold of the Doctor’s arrival on a world called “Trenzalore”, where, due to a confluence of events, the Last Great Time War would begin anew leading to the Doctor’s permanent death.
Engaging in extremes to prevent this, Kovarian abducted Amelia, held her captive on the asteroid “Demon’s Run”, and forcibly removed Melody from her mother upon birth, the idea being to train her as an assassin who would utilize her Time Lord abilities to insert herself into her parents’ timeline as a friend called “Mels”.
Gaining intel, she would then move in and at the right time, kill the Doctor for good, succeeding in one timeline.
What Kovarian didn’t count on was Melody genuinely falling in love with him, even marrying him at a moment where his death was prevented, causing time to freeze but history to happen all at once.
River was mostly human, with some Time Lord DNA, and was conceived by her parents, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, aboard the TARDIS as it travelled through the Time Vortex.
She was then raised and conditioned by the Silence, who used her unique DNA to transform her into the first of several Proto-Time Lords, granting her great strength, a deep understanding of the complex principles of time and space, and the ability to regenerate.
She loved the Doctor dearly, and shared a long-lasting relationship with them.
River was one of the very few people who knew the Doctor’s true name.
As I said, I ended up with a few of them. I will use the one in black for Dr Who games and the others for Post Apocalyptic survivors.
The Papal Mainframe was the headquarters of the Church: the militarised, syncretic religious order headed by the Mother SuperiousTasha Lem, which later reformed into the Silence during the Siege of Trenzalore. It was fronted by a gigantic spaceship containing a massive computer database safeguarding the security of information across the universe.
The mainframe has highly advanced technology with powerful weapons and their own miliatary force., commanded by Colonel Manton.
It was responsible for interstellar security, protection of human populations and special covert operations, and acted as the military force of the Papal Mainframe. Ranks in the Church included Mother Superious, Priest, Bishop, Verger, Cleric, and Colonel.
Members of this organisation were sometimes called “the Clerics.” The Church also included Confessional Priests, genetically engineered by the Church to allow people to confess their sins without remembering doing so, accomplished by fashioning the Priests so anyone looking at them would forget their encounter when they looked away.
Mother Superious Tasha Lem
Madame Kovarian
Colonel Manton
Manton conspired with the clergywoman Madame Kovarian to kidnap Amy Pond’s baby, intending to train her to become the perfect assassin to kill the Doctor.
Although footy season is not that far away, and I need to get practising the Woof! Woof! Woof! for my beloved Bulldogs, I am actually not talking about that.
No self-respecting collector of Dr Who models would be without this one!
K9 — occasionally written as K-9 or K•9 — was the designation given to a series of intelligent, dog-like robots who served as companions of Professor Marius, the Fourth Doctor, Leela, Romana, the Mistress, Sarah Jane Smith, Tom Baker, Luke Smith, Starkey, Ace, the Tenth Doctor, and the Thirteenth Doctor.
Most models of K9 addressed whoever was directing them as “Master” or “Mistress” depending upon gender, and used the formal “affirmative” and “negative” rather than “yes” and “no”; and when unable to answer a question would say “insufficient data” instead of “I don’t know”. They were programmed to be both loyal and logical, with a penchant for taking orders literally, almost to a fault. Their striped collars, which sported a blank dog-tag, mirrored the Fourth Doctor’s trademark scarf.
The Time Lords, also known by many other names like “the Sun Builders”, “the Watchmakers”, the Gods of the Fourth, the Superiors, the “Shadow People”, “the House-Dwellers”, “the Lords of Jewel”, the Archons of Time, and the “Race of Temporal Supremacy”.
The Time Lords were inhabitants of the planet Gallifrey, who were most famous for the creation and attempted monopolisation of time travel technology. They created and upheld the Laws of Time after establishing the Web of Time to keep the universe rational.
Time Lords were sensitive to timelines, being able to see “all that is, all that was, all that ever could be,” but also “what must not [be]”.
They had an instinctive urge to stay away from events that would always happen. They were seen as immortal, or nearly so, partially due to their ability to regenerate. They had a great place in the mythologies and cultures of other civilisations, being outright called “the Gods” by several species, including the very aptly named Minyans, and the Gendar.
The ancient Time Lords were known to take part in battles and conflicts, often helping to hunt species known to be dangerous. One of the last of these was a war against the Great Vampires, which was so long and bloody that they turned against violence in general.
One account of this war called them the angels. For at least part of their history, the Time Lords adhered to a strict policy of non-interference. Despite their attempts to keep up an appearance of being uninterested in the affairs of others, they still sent discreet missions where other Time Lords would act on their behalf.
Time Lord General.
On one occasion, the Fourth Doctor was instructed to intercept the creation of the Dalek race, a step which eventually led to a war between the two species.
General leading his troops.
By the time of the Sixth Doctor, the Time Lords had reigned in “absolute power” for ten million years. During the final day of the Time War, it was claimed the history of the Time Lords spanned “a billion years”.
This model is from Black Tree Design that have a great range but atrocious customer service.
Rassilon was, alongside Omega, Tecteun and the Other, one of the founders of Time Lord civilisation. In their own time, Rassilon was chiefly an engineer, a politician, and an architect, but later Time Lord society would hail him as the first Time Lord and the single greatest figure of Gallifreyan history. However, some Time Lords contended that Rassilon was a corrupt megalomaniac who tried to murder their friend Omega and stole their invention.
Rassilon
After his physical death, Rassilon stayed active in the Matrix, ruling Gallifey from the shadows as the leader of the Matrix Lords, and manipulated the Doctor into performing many missions for him. During the Last Great Time War, he was resurrected from the Matrix to lead the Time Lords, becoming “Rassilon the Resurrected”, and he ultimately tried to find ways to break the time lock and escape the War. After the Doctor saved Gallifrey, and the Time Lords returned Gallifrey to N-Space from its pocket universe, Rassilon was overthrown and banished in a coup led by the Twelfth Doctor. Desiring revenge, Rassilon allied with a colony of Cybermen at the end of the universe, being converted into the Cyber-President, and created an alternate timeline where the Cybermen conquered all of history. However, Rassilon and the Twelfth Doctor ultimately erased this timeline from existence after the Cybermen betrayed the former, once again leaving Rassilon alone at the end of the universe.
This set of Gallifreyan Guard includes a Captain of the Guard with Staser Pistol, Three Guardsmen with Fusion Blaster Rifles, and one Guardsman with with a Heavy fusion Blaster.
The Doctor’s home planet, Gallifrey, having allowed itself to be drawn into the Last Great Time War, was suddenly faced with a great crisis necessitating the raising of troops to do battle.
The Gallifreyan Guards were brave and loyal militia, drafted in to defend Gallifrey from the overwhelming threat of the invading Daleks. They were the last line of defence, responsible for defending the Citadel from threats at all costs. They answered to the General, himself under command from Lord President Rassilon.
In the final days of the Time War, these brave soldiers were there on the front line to witness total devastation. Arcadia, once thought to be the safest place on the planet, protected by four hundred sky trenches, was penetrated by the huge Dalek saucer invasion fleet and destroyed, the Gallifreyan Guards hopelessly outnumbered.
Tomorrow the Time Lords President Rassilon, Time Lord General, and a Time Lord.
The Headless Monks, also known as the Order of the Headless, were a religious order who believed in listening to their hearts rather than their minds, to the point of having themselves beheaded.
As they were headless, the Headless Monks did not register as living beings. They were also supposedly incapable of being fooled or surprised or of feeling fear. Despite their lack of heads, the Monks were able to detect where other beings were. They could fire energy blasts from their hands, as well as channelling that energy into the swords they carried.
It was a Level One Heresy, punishable by death, to attempt to lower the hood of a Headless Monk. The group followed an entity known as the Papal Mainframe. Although the monks considered it a heresy to reveal their headless state to outsiders, they were apparently able to do so under the orders of the Mainframe.
Not all inductees to the Order of the Headless had their heads kept in boxes. The boxes were apparently reserved for the very wealthy, while the rest of the monks’ heads were left to rot on shelves in a cave full of skulls called the Seventh Transept. Despite this, the skulls were still ‘alive’ in a sense, capable of moving about and attacking others. The heads kept in ceremonial boxes were even better preserved: Dorium Maldovar was still very active and in full possession of his memories and personality when visited by the Eleventh Doctor.
Tomorrow I was going to paint the Papal Mainframe as it follows on from this post. However, because I had mixed a whole lot of red shades for these I decided to bring forward my Gallifreyan Guard and Time Lords which are also various shades of red.
So the Papal Mainframe will have to wait a few days.
