Doctor Who: 10 Things You Didn't Know About UNIT
2. There Was A UNIT Stage Show In The 1980s
Like Derrick Sherwin and the Henry Lincoln estate, the late Richard Franklin (who played Captain Mike Yates in the classic series) was also keen to cash in on his connections to UNIT.
He unsuccessfully pitched a Doctor Who novel, entitled The Killing Stone, which involved the Master infecting Captain Yates with a demonic gall bladder stone. Yep, seriously.
Years before this however, Franklin wrote a UNIT play titled Recall UNIT: The Great Teabag Mystery. The play had Franklin and John Levene reprise their roles as Captain Yates and Sergeant Benton, for a mission to the Falklands to save Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Except, they fail rather dramatically, as the Iron Lady has been shrunk by the Master's tissue compression eliminator.
Richard Franklin had hoped that Nicholas Courtney would also take part in the play, but work commitments meant that he recorded his dialogue as a radio message.
It was utterly bizarre and never recorded, which is perhaps for the best.