The phrase "human awareness of extraterrestrial life" (TV: The Vault of Secrets [+]Loading...["The Vault of Secrets (TV story)"]) referred to the general public awareness of aliens within humanity. While humanity would become familiar with aliens after they became a space-faring race, (PROSE: The Dying Days [+]Loading...["The Dying Days (novel)"]) the matter of human awareness while on Earth in the 21st century and earlier was complicated, with the public often being aware for periods but then forgetting for various possible reasons. (PROSE: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (novelisation)"])
This concept was related to first contact.
History
19th century
Following the 1851 incident involving the CyberKing, (TV: The Next Doctor [+]Loading...["The Next Doctor (TV story)"]) the general public seemingly forgot about it. The Eleventh Doctor reasoned that a crack in time was responsible. (TV: Flesh and Stone [+]Loading...["Flesh and Stone (TV story)"])
In the 1890s, the community which would become Trap Street, London worked diligently to remain unknown to humanity. (PROSE: The Paternoster's Guide to London [+]Loading...["The Paternoster's Guide to London (feature)"])
20th century
From 1953 to 1972, the Men in Black worked for the Alliance of Shades to restrict human awareness of aliens. (TV: The Vault of Secrets [+]Loading...["The Vault of Secrets (TV story)"])
Following the Zygon gambit, UNIT hushed up the appearance of the Skarasen in London such that it never officially happened. (TV: Terror of the Zygons [+]Loading...["Terror of the Zygons (TV story)"])
Some accounts indicated that the general public accepted extraterrestrial life as fact following incidents such as the Gantacian invasion of 1992 and the Availlon fiasco of 1997. The United Nations made UNIT and its operations public knowledge, and the Foreign Hazard Duty was created to replace UNIT as the official secret organisation for fighting aliens. (COMIC: The Mark of Mandragora [+]Loading...["The Mark of Mandragora (comic story)"])
21st century
TV: Love & Monsters [+]Loading...["Love & Monsters (TV story)"], The Pyramid at the End of the World [+]Loading...["The Pyramid at the End of the World (TV story)"]
By 2005, conspiracy theorists had various theories on why humanity kept on forgetting the existence of alien life. (PROSE: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (novelisation)"])
In 2006, the London UFO crash, an apparent first contact incident, led the Ninth Doctor to assume that humanity would be aware of aliens openly from then on. Residents of London celebrated and hung out banners welcoming aliens. (TV: Aliens of London [+]Loading...["Aliens of London (TV story)"]) However, after he discovered and halted the true masterminds of the crash, the Slitheen family, who had plotted to destroy the Earth for profit, newspapers such as the Evening Standard immediately began calling the crash a hoax. When Mickey Smith asked the Doctor why, he responded that humanity was not yet ready to believe. (TV: World War Three [+]Loading...["World War Three (TV story)"])
After back-to-back Christmas alien incursions by the Sycorax and Racnoss in the 2000s, the population of London, save for Wilfred Mott and Queen Elizabeth II, evacuated the city the Christmas afterward as a precaution against another alien attack. That year, an alien replica of the RMS Titanic was sent plummeting towards the city in an attempt to wipe out all life on Earth as a revenge scheme by the disgraced Max Capricorn against his former company, but the scheme was thwarted by the Tenth Doctor. (TV: Voyage of the Damned [+]Loading...["Voyage of the Damned (TV story)"]) Donna Noble notably thought the incident was a hoax and told the Doctor as such when she later tracked him down. (TV: Partners in Crime [+]Loading...["Partners in Crime (TV story)"])
When Amy Pond, originally from 2010, encountered Daleks involved with the Ironside Project in 1941, the Eleventh Doctor was highly disturbed that she did not recognize them from the Planetary Relocation Incident - indeed, she had no memory of the incident at all. (TV: Victory of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Victory of the Daleks (TV story)"]) He later determined the incident had been erased by the cracks in time after encountering one in the wreck of the Byzantium on Alfava Metraxis. (TV: Flesh and Stone [+]Loading...["Flesh and Stone (TV story)"])
In 2022, the Redaction erased all knowledge of the Doctor and events involving them from the universe, including Earth. (AUDIO: Salvation [+]Loading...["Salvation (audio story)"])
During the November 2023 UFO incident, (PROSE: The Star Beast [+]Loading...["The Star Beast (novelisation)"]) UNIT arrested a BBC reporter for reporting on the UFO crash. (TV: The Star Beast [+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"])