Doctor Who just fixed its UNIT mistake. Although Doctor Who started off with the intention of mainly being a historical show, it soon morphed into sci-fi, and the Doctor became the hero fans know and love. By 1968, alien invasions had become so commonplace that the writers decided Earth's governments would logically create a dedicated organization to protecting the Earth from them. And so, in 1968, the Second Doctor teamed up with UNIT for the first time - the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, whose British division was led by recurring character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. They became mainstays in the Third Doctor era, and returned countless times over the decades.
And then, shockingly, the Doctor Who 2019 New Year Special revealed UNIT had been shut down. This seems to have been due to a number of factors, including austerity and a move away from multilateralism that led to numerous governments abandoning UNIT. No doubt showrunner Chris Chibnall intended this to simply increase the stakes, because it makes Earth more vulnerable than ever before, but to many viewers it simply felt as though it shrunk the world of Doctor Who. It didn't help that, a year later, he wrote out UNIT's modern (darker) sister organization Torchwood too - with a single line. Fortunately, The BBC and Kaigan Games have just teamed up on a mobile phone game called "The Lonely Assassins" - and it fixes Chibnall's mistake.
"The Lonely Assassins" is a found-phone game in which the player is supposed to have stumbled upon a stranger's mobile phone – and promptly begins to receive messages from Osgood, a scientist who has been a key figure in modern versions of UNIT. Delightfully, as the conversations continue Osgood reveals UNIT still exists, albeit in a more informal capacity. "Our job is to keep Earth safe," Osgood explains in one text message. "Officially, we don't exist anymore. Unofficially, some of us kept going in secret to solve this Time Fracture debacle right now..."
Doctor Who has long been something of a transmedia franchise - although the TV series was canceled in 1989, it was kept going in different mediums for decades before its modern revival - but something odd is going on now. The biggest Doctor Who stories aren't being told on TV, but rather in audio dramas, novels, and comics. Now fans are seeing tie-ins fix the mistakes of showrunner Chris Chibnall by expanding the universe once again, reversing his decision to shrink it down. This is all rather odd, and sadly it does raise questions about the creative decisions Chibnall is making.
The reference to the "Time Fracture" is a nod to an escape room due to be launched by Immersive Everywhere in spring 2021 (pandemic permitting), which will feature UNIT in a major capacity. It looks as though Doctor Who's decision to write out UNIT caused problems for the franchise's transmedia plans - but they've gotten around them simply by declaring UNIT still exist, but unofficially. By the end of "The Lonely Assassins," a cameo from Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor even confirms they're working with their old scientific adviser once again.