The original 1963–1989 series presents conflicting evidence about when the stories featuring UNIT are meant to take place, and there has been much confusion and continuing fan debate on this subject. Initially the production team intended for the UNIT stories to take place in the 1980s. In the 1975 story "Pyramids of Mars", Sarah Jane Smith explicitly states that she is "from 1980". However, the 1983 story "Mawdryn Undead" explicitly states that the Brigadier retired from UNIT in 1976 and that Warrant Officer Benton left the army in 1979.