Why Doctor Who's New UNIT Spin-Off is Doomed to Fail
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| Fig. 1 The title of the new UNIT spin-off (Image credit: BBC Television, via Google Images.) |
Introduction: The Pitch
The Unified (née United Nations) Intelligence Taskforce, or UNIT, is a government military organisation in the Doctor Who (BBC Television, 1963-present) universe. They became a popular fixture of the franchise due to their frequent appearances throughout the "Classic Series" (1963-1989), particularly as the series' de facto precinct during the Third Doctor's (Jon Pertwee) era. UNIT have also been a recurring presence in the "Revived Series" (2005-2022) with an even more major role in the series' current Bad Wolf/Disney+ era (2023-present). In conjunction with this greater emphasis on UNIT in the programme, a new five-episode spin-off series starring UNIT (Fig. 1) as they battle the "Classic Series" villains the Sea Devils (Doctor Who, 2024) is due to air this year: The War Between the Land and the Sea (BBC Television, 2025) - and I do not really care.
I am not in the business of pre-judging media before its release. I prefer to see it for myself and then form my opinion. Still, there are a couple of major reasons why I cannot help but feel like the upcoming UNIT spin-off is basically doomed to fail, and those reasons can be attributed to the same systemic issue. Going by their notable supporting role in Seasons One and Two of the current era of Doctor Who, it seems like the BBC, Bad Wolf, and/or Disney+ have done so to sell a UNIT spin-off to the current audience in the form of The War Between. However, to put it bluntly, this era has done a terrible job of promoting UNIT regardless of whether it was for the purposes of a spin-off.
I. False Advertising
The first problem is the casting discrepancies between the two shows. The War Between is set to introduce some original characters, such as Barclay (Russell Tovey) and Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), which is fair enough. But the current run of Doctor Who featured a rather large UNIT team with numerous pre-existing and new characters. According to the information we have at the time of writing (e.g., Lewis, 2025), the only members of said UNIT team set to feature in The War Between are Kate Stewart (Gemma Redgrave), Colonel Ibrahim (Alexander Devrient), and Shirley Bingham (Ruth Madeley). Almost none of the characters brought in to be part of the Bad Wolf/Disney+ era's UNIT team are likely to be in the new UNIT spin-off (Fig. 2-8, left to right). The Vlinx (Aidan Cook and Nicholas Briggs)? Nope. Donna Noble (Catherine Tate)? Nope. Ruby Sunday (Mille Gibson)? Nope. Auntie Mel (Bonnie Langford)? Nope. Susan Triad (Susan Twist)? Nope. Rose Noble (Yasmin Finney)? Nope. Morris (Lenny Rush)? Nope. It strikes me as a very poor marketing strategy to create this whole ensemble cast to promote a show about UNIT, and then have almost none of them be a part of said UNIT show.
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| Fig. 2-8 The Bad Wolf/Disney+ era's UNIT team members who are not set to be in The War Between (Image credits: BBC Television, via doctorwho.tv.) |
In a way, this is part of the wider pattern of false advertising that has permeated this era. Season One repeatedly emphasises the mystery of who was Ruby's biological mother as one of universal importance, only for "Empire of Death" (2024a) to reveal that she is just an ordinary human woman with nothing cosmically significant about her whatsoever. The cliff-hanger to Season Two's "Wish World" (2025a) teased the return of the cunning and tragic "Classic Series" Time Lord villain Omega (Stephen Thorne and Ian Collier) (Fig. 9), only for "The Reality War" (2025b) to portray him as a mindless kaiju (Nicholas Briggs) (Fig. 10) bearing no resemblance to the "Classic Series" characterisation or visual design with which fans are familiar (1972-1973; 1983). Even the real-world marketing has been based on lies. Showrunner Russell T Davies said in interviews that knowing Doctor Who's decades-long past was not necessary to enjoy Season One (e.g., BBC Breakfast, 2024), only for its finale "Empire of Death" to hinge upon the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby watching footage from "Pyramids of Mars" (1975) to learn about the finale's returning villain Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf). Stage and television agency Keddie Scott Associates Limited (2025) announced that actor Archie Lal had been cast as Belinda's (Varada Sethu) father in Season Two of Doctor Who - this character never appears on-screen in the programme (Fig. 11-12). Ncuti Gatwa confirmed in 2024 (Fig. 13) that he was filming a third season (Laford, 2024) only for his Doctor to regenerate at the end of Season Two, whereupon the BBC released not one but two behind-the-scenes videos (Fig. 14) that start off by saying that a two-season run was "always the plan" for Gatwa (Doctor Who, 2025a and b).
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| Fig. 9-10 Omega as seen in The Three Doctors vs Omega as seen in The Reality War (Image credits: BBC Television, via Google Images.) |
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| Fig. 11-12 Belinda's dad is Sir Not-appearing-in-this-film (Image credits: Keddie Scott Associates Limited, via Google Images, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Gilliam and Jones, 1975), EMI Films.) |
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| Fig. 13-14 How it started vs how it's going (Image credits: Cultbox and BBC Television, via YouTube.) |
Davies also provided a synopsis for "The Reality War" that the BBC used to promote the episode, and the synopsis he gave was made up: "The Doctor is doomed, Belinda is lost, Ruby is trapped, UNIT is powerless, the Unholy Trinity rule supreme[,] and the Underverse is rising" (BBC, 2025). Almost none of this corresponds to what happens in the actual episode, unless maybe you count Ruby being trapped in Conrad Clarke's (Jonah Hauer-King) lair in the final showdown, which is UNIT's fault for not providing her with any way to fight back, even though they are a literal military organisation. This brings me to my other main reason for why I have no hope for The War Between. Putting aside the near-utter lack of the established cast featuring in this new spin-off, I cannot imagine why anybody other than the franchise's most diehard fans would be interested in a UNIT show after how poorly they have been portrayed in the current era of Doctor Who.
II. Characterisation
Kate Stewart and UNIT's first appearance in Season One, after "The Giggle" (2023), was "73 Yards" (2024b), a brief appearance in which they coldly abandon Ruby due to the influence of the mysterious spirit that was haunting her. Due to that episode's reset button ending, there are no long-term consequences for this, and Kate and UNIT's betrayal against Ruby is never addressed in their next appearance in the Season One two-part finale "The Legend of Ruby Sunday" (2024c) and "Empire of Death". Their next appearance was in the Season Two episode "Lucky Day" (2025c) about Conrad, a far-right conspiracy theorist podcast grifter spreading lies and propaganda about UNIT to ignite a harassment and hate campaign against its members with the uncritical support of the mainstream media, the general public, and even the British Parliament. Some fans have good faith, left-leaning criticisms of UNIT as being a needlessly authoritarian military organisation, a perspective that has yet to be addressed in the show. It is unlikely that the intention with "Lucky Day" was to strawman left-wing critics of UNIT as interchangeable with far-right stochastic terrorists trafficking in antisemitic blood libel, but nevertheless, it remains a somewhat divisive episode. To add to this, "The Reality War" reveals that the UNIT staff are chipped, which would make it easy for Kate to track their location at all times, including Ruby, who is canonically around the age of nineteen in this season, further legitimising the idea that UNIT is an authoritarian, borderline right-wing organisation. Of all the ways the show could come up with to free Ruby, Shirley, and Mel from Conrad's wish, this is the one they chose.
But the worst culprit of all is the second season's two-part finale, "Wish World" and "The Reality War". I already talked about the myriad of problems I have with this story in both my Letterboxd reviews (BreakDownCinema, 2025a and b), so I will try not to repeat myself too much here. In this finale, Conrad returns and, under the command of the Rani (Archie Panjabi) and Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson), uses a baby with godlike powers to transform the Earth into his personal conservative fantasy world: a fascist police state where Conrad rules as the unquestioned overlord, most women are traditional housewives, gay and transgender identities are non-existent, disabled people are unhoused and living in poverty, and anybody who doubts Conrad's world is arrested and imprisoned after being reported to the authorities by their own families. UNIT features in this finale as well, albeit purposefully out of character in "Wish World", and they are insanely cruel to Ruby.
Exhibit A: after Ruby runs away from home to escape her adoptive mother Carla (Michelle Greenidge) from selling her out to the police state - Carla betraying Ruby seems to be a recurring theme throughout this era (see "73 Yards") - she finds Shirley and they realise that they are among the few people resisting the brainwashing. Shirley introduces Ruby to the other disabled people with whom she has been living. They, Shirley included, act bizarrely cold and suspicious towards Ruby, scolding her for a perceived microaggression and saying things like, "You don't look very disabled", even though not all disabilities are immediately obvious just by looking; she could be neurodiverse for all they know. Full disclosure: I am on the autism spectrum and have had to navigate the complexities of being an autistic person living in a world designed for neurotypicals virtually my whole life. Consequently, I am quite mindful of issues like neurotypical or able-bodied people (intentionally or otherwise) using microaggressions against disabled or neurodiverse people. What I do not do is go around chastising traumatised young women who have just had to flee their homes after being betrayed by their own families because of brainwashing caused by a man who hideously abused those young women three episodes ago. And honestly, I find writer Russell T Davies's insinuation (intended or otherwise) by way of this script that people like me would do that to someone who has been in Ruby's situation to be an incredibly deep insult.
Exhibit B: In "Lucky Day", Conrad - having tricked Ruby into a relationship with him before revealing that it was a front to "expose" UNIT amidst numerous ableist and misogynistic insults towards Ruby, Kate, and Shirley - put their lives in danger by doxing them across social media, causing his followers to mob Ruby outside her home to the point where she needed UNIT soldiers to escort her safely to work, and later Conrad threatened to shoot Ruby once he infiltrated the UNIT Tower. Conrad is an extremely dangerous and violent individual, fueled by a deep-seated hatred of women and minorities, and who would clearly murder Ruby if he got the chance. The Doctor and UNIT know that. However, in "The Reality War" once the main cast have all been freed from Conrad's wish, the Doctor and UNIT put a teleport apparatus on Ruby with which to send her into the Bone Palace to somehow incapacitate Conrad and end the wish, on her own, with no weapons or means of self-defence, in a confined space with her sadistic and violent abuser. Ruby is visibly nervous about this task, asking panickily what she is supposed to do to take down Conrad; no one gives her a helpful answer. To further prove my point, the first thing Conrad does when Ruby, unarmed and unprotected, teleports into the Bone Palace is point a gun at her. In summation, the Doctor and UNIT show a heartless and unprofessional disregard for the safety and wellbeing of their unfalteringly loyal and frequently victimised young employee and supposedly friend by trapping her alone and undefended with the man who manipulated her, violated her boundaries, publicly humiliated her, verbally abused her, smeared her, invaded her privacy, endangered her personal safety, and threatened to murder her. For the record, the way the Doctor and UNIT treat Belinda is not that much better, locking her with Poppy (Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps) in a confined space for most of the runtime, where she has no agency or bearing on the plot (Fig. 15).
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| Fig. 15 The Reality War sees the Doctor and UNIT pigeonhole Belinda into a passive motherhood role (Image credit: BBC Television, via Google Images.) |
Exhibit C: Part of Conrad's wish included the Doctor and his current companion, Belinda Chandra, having a daughter named Poppy, seemingly the same Poppy that was introduced in "Space Babies" (2024d). After Ruby uses the god baby to end the wish and put reality back to normal, Poppy gradually disappears. Initially, Ruby is the only one who remembers Poppy due to her memory being different from everyone else's, as is implied, due to the "73 Yards" timeline. When Ruby tries to help the Doctor, Belinda, and the UNIT team remember Poppy, none of them believe her at first, Belinda chastising her for somehow being "offensive", and the Doctor telling her that she and her memory are a "glitch" due to the shifts in reality. "Wish World" and "The Reality World" are, among other things, a story about the importance of regaining hidden memories; the UNIT team remembering their true identities when the Doctor uses the Time Hotel to free them from the wish is a major plot point. But when Ruby tries to help UNIT, the Doctor, and Belinda remember an important character that they have forgotten, they respond with cold pushback and dismissal as though they think she is mentally defective, to the point of essentially gaslighting and pathologising their ally, whose life they have already needlessly endangered in the ways mentioned above. This is the bookend to the hostility and negligence with which UNIT undeservedly treat Ruby throughout this entire story. This character has been through countless traumas, and the very organisation that claims to be her friends and supporters adds to that suffering with unbidden malice and suspicion towards her, all the while not seeming to realise or care about the hypocrisy of priding themselves on standing up to fascism while invading their own employees' privacy and bodily autonomy. It strikes me as a very poor marketing strategy to pitch the fans a UNIT spin-off after making them this unlikeable in the actual show.
Conclusion: Thanks, But No Thanks
Doctor Who has a mixed track record at best when it comes to spin-off series. The times when it has been successful are when the parent show has laid enticing groundwork for prospective spin-offs. Torchwood (BBC Television, 2006-2011) starred Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), a consistently fun swashbuckling hero who proved very popular from his role in the main Doctor Who. The Sarah Jane Adventures (BBC Television, 2007-2011) centred around Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen), one of the most likeable characters in the franchise's entire history; how could anybody not get behind the idea of a Sarah Jane spin-off? By contrast, this era of Doctor Who has failed miserably to promote The War Between. Doctor Who's most recent episode at the time of writing, "The Reality War", has been borderline universally derided by the fanbase (e,g,. Harbo Wholmes (2025), Lily Simpson (2025), Mr TARDIS (2025), and Letterboxd [2025]) and I would be very surprised if the way it presented UNIT was not a factor in why the episode has left such a foul taste in the audience's mouths. The fact that Disney+ have supposedly decided that they no longer want to be involved with Doctor Who's international distribution (Wilding, 2025) so soon after the second season finale says quite a lot about how this bold new era for the franchise has been handled. In 2023, a UNIT show seemed like an excellent idea; "The Giggle" introduced a new UNIT team with a varied ensemble cast of characters to flesh out in a dedicated spin-off series.
But after seeing them act so out of character in "73 Yards", their ambivalent portrayal in "Lucky Day", and seeing them act so irresponsible and mean-spirited in "The Reality War", the appeal of spending five consecutive episodes of a new series with UNIT is gone. I do not know why fans would trust the current creative team with a UNIT series after they have lied to the audience repeatedly throughout this era, in and outside the episodes themselves, or after they have made UNIT look this bad in the main programme, with almost none of the UNIT team they have established to market the new spin-off even set to appear in that spin-off. This is why I think The War Between is essentially doomed to fail. Why get excited about a UNIT spin-off when its creators have shown such contempt for their audience by constantly manipulating us with false promises? Why get excited about a UNIT spin-off when the vast majority of the UNIT team with which this current era has marketed it are supposedly absent from that spin-off? Why get excited about a UNIT spin-off when this current era has painted them as being so unpleasant?
WORKS CITED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
News Articles
BBC (2025) 'Doctor Who Season 2 Finale set for simultaneous launch on BBC One, iPlayer and Disney+', 12 May. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2025/doctor-who-season-2-finale-the-reality-war (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Doctor Who (2024) 'New Whoniverse Spin-Off 'The War Between The Land And The Sea' announced at San Diego Comic-Con', 26 July. Available at: https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/new-whoniverse-spin-off-the-war-between-the-land-and-the-sea-announced-at-san (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Laford, A. (2024) 'Ncuti Gatwa confirms he is filming a third Doctor Who series in 2025', CultBox, 11 October. Available at: https://cultbox.co.uk/news/headlines/ncuti-gatwa-confirms-he-is-filming-a-third-doctor-who-series-in-2025 (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Lewis, G. (2025) 'Doctor Who spinoff shares first trailer and new character images', Digital Spy, 31 May. Available at: https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a64934830/doctor-who-war-between-land-sea-trailer-images/ (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Wilding, J. (2025) 'DOCTOR WHO Season 2's Ending Before Reshoots Added Billie Piper As "The Doctor" Has Been Revealed - SPOILERS', Comic Book Movie, 04 June. Available at: https://comicbookmovie.com/tv/bbc-america/doctor-who/doctor-who-season-2s-ending-before-reshoots-added-billie-piper-as-the-doctor-has-been-revealed---spoilers-a220988 (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Videos on YouTube
Doctor Who (2025a) 'Ncuti Gatwa Says Goodbye to Doctor Who', YouTube, 31 May. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz-35CJcgCc&t=24s (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Doctor Who (2025b) 'Regeneration, Omega and Jodie Whittaker's RETURN | Behind the Scenes of The Reality War', YouTube, 31 May. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMzssW1caC8 (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Harbo Wholmes (2025) 'Doctor Who is Over | Reality War Review', YouTube, 2 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI1Kb3W54yE (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Lily Simpson (2025) 'The Regressive Disaster of Doctor Who', YouTube, 10 July. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuTUMkvrkS4&t=1266s (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Mr TARDIS (2025) 'Why Ncuti Gatwa Deserved Better - DOCTOR WHO: THE REALITY WAR - Reaction', YouTube, 5 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UbTNRd1Hpg (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Web Pages
BreakDownCinema (2025a) 'Doctor Who: Wish World & The Reality War (2025) review by BreakDownCinema', Letterboxd, 31 May. Available at: https://letterboxd.com/breakdowncinema/film/doctor-who-wish-world-the-reality-war/ (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
BreakDownCinema (2025b) 'Doctor Who: Wish World & The Reality War (2025) review by BreakDownCinema', Letterboxd, 28 June. Available at: https://letterboxd.com/breakdowncinema/film/doctor-who-wish-world-the-reality-war/1/ (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Keddie Scott Associates Ltd (2025) 'Doctor Who'. Available at: https://keddiescott.com/doctor-who/ (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
Letterboxd (2025) 'Doctor Who: Wish World & The Reality War (2025) directed by Alex Pillai'. Available at: https://letterboxd.com/film/doctor-who-wish-world-the-reality-war/ (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
FILMOGRAPHY
Films
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). Directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones [Film]. UK: EMI Films.
Television Series
BBC Breakfast (2000-present). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television.
BBC Breakfast (2024). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 23 April, 07:50.
Doctor Who (1963-1989). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television.
Doctor Who (1972-1973). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 30 December to 20 January, 17:40.
Doctor Who (1975). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 25 October to 15 November, 17:50.
Doctor Who (1983). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 3 to 12 January, 18:45.
Doctor Who (2005-2022). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television.
Doctor Who (2023-present). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television.
Doctor Who (2023). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 9 December, 06:30.
Doctor Who (2024a). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 22 June, 07:50.
Doctor Who (2024b). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 25 May, 06:50.
Doctor Who (2024c). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 15 June, 06:30.
Doctor Who (2024d). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 11 May, 06:20.
Doctor Who (2025a). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 24 May, 06:50.
Doctor Who (2025b). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 31 May, 06:50.
Doctor Who (2025c). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Originally Broadcast 3 May, 06:40.
Sarah Jane Adventures, The (2007-2011). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television.
Torchwood (2006-2011). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television.
War Between the Land and the Sea, The (2025). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television.
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