2000s

On Earth, the 2000s, or the 00s were the first decade of the 21st century.

The 2000s brought an increasing number of widely seen alien encounters. This led to widespread knowledge of alien life. Following the public revelation of alien life in the late 2000s suicide rates doubled. (TW: Children of Earth: Day One)

Alien incursions on Earth

There were several attempted invasions of Earth, or incursions into Earth's atmosphere or surface by a multitude of races and species throughout this period.

• Autons attacked central London. (DW: Rose)
• The Slitheen incursion into Downing Street, considered a hoax by many. (DW: Aliens of London/World War Three)
• The Sycorax attempted an invasion on Christmas Day, causing a third of the Earth to stand at the top of buildings. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
• The Battle of Canary Wharf. (DW: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday)
• The Webstar descended on central London on Christmas day. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
• The Toclafane invasion in the Year That Never Was. (DW: The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords)
• The exodus of the Adipose, hastened and shortened by the Tenth Doctor and Donna. (DW: Partners in Crime)
• The relocation of the Earth to the Medusa Cascade, coupled with a Dalek invasion of the planet. (DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)
• The attempted enslavement of Martin Trueman through the Ancient Lights. (SJA: (Secrets of the Stars)
• The Kulan invasion (EDA: Escape Velocity)

Alien-related actions

• The poisoned rain of the future Mondasian Cybermen. (DWM: The Flood)
• The threat of magnetic inversion of Earth, and the Mondasian Cyberman invasion of the South Pole. (NA: Iceberg)
• The abduction of the Royal Hope Hospital to the Moon by the Judoon. (DW: Smith and Jones)
• The Mondasian Cybermen attack from Lonsis, via the portal in the main branch of Hulbert Longistics. (BFA: Human Resources)
• The interference of the Atraxi. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
• The near crash of the Titanic on Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day. (DW: Voyage of the Damned)
• ATMOS incident. (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky)
• The 456 incident. (TW: Children of Earth: Day One, Children of Earth: Day Two, Children of Earth: Day Three, Children of Earth: Day Four, Children of Earth: Day Five)
• The release of the Rakweed in London. (SJA: The Gift)
• Humanity was brifely transformed into the Master Race and Gallifrey appeared above the Earth, which caused panic amongst humanity. (DW: The End of Time)
• The disappearance of humanity for an hour and a half from Earth (SJA: The Empty Planet)

Space-time events

• The Cardiff Rift crisis. (TW: End of Days)
• The Universe has a slight alteration of its timeline (DW: The Big Bang)

Individuals' actions

• The attempted collision of the Moon into the Earth by Mr Smith. (SJA: Lost Boy)
• The brushfire attacks on Cardiff by Gray and John Hart. (TW: Exit Wounds)
• Events of Siberia leading to the creation of multiples alternate universes. Sabbath attempted to create a living black hole, so as to send it to the Event Zero. (EDA: Time Zero)
• Sabbath attempted to make Guy d'Amantine a living host for the diamonds, which will become the Council of Eight in the first place. (EDA: Timeless)

Behind the scenes

• The first half of the decade saw several "false alarms" of new Doctor Who TV and film productions.
• Meanwhile, BBC Books continued its prolific lines of Doctor Who novels.
• Telos Publishing obtained the licence to produce original novellas based upon Doctor Who.
• Bernice Summerfield, no longer the star of her own Virgin Publishing novels, was featured in numerous novels, short stories and audio dramas produced by Big Finish.
• The BBC experiments with new media, producing several Doctor Who webcasts consisting of original stories featuring original series cast members. In 2003, a webcast entitled Scream of the Shalka introduces Richard E. Grant as the voice of the Ninth Doctor.
• In late 2003, BBC Wales announces that it will be producing a new live-action Doctor Who series, with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor (the Richard Grant version of the character is abandoned). The series debuts in the spring of 2005 and almost instantly reinstates Doctor Who as a national institution.
• BBC Books discontinues its line of Eighth Doctor and Past Doctor novels in favor of a new line of hardcover fiction featuring the Ninth (and later the Tenth) Doctor.
• Big Finish Productions obtained the licence to publish the Short Trips book series.
• After one season, Eccleston leaves Doctor Who and David Tennant is introduced as the Tenth Doctor.
• Two spin-off series are launched: Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• In 2008, Tennant announces his departure from Doctor Who. Matt Smith, a largely unknown actor is cast as the Eleventh Doctor at the age of 26; he later debuts in 2010.
• After four extremely successful seasons under the watch of Russell T Davies, Doctor Who goes on partial hiatus for 2009, producing a number of specials in lieu of a full season. This is to allow Davies to hand over production duties to Steven Moffat, and also pave the way for Tennant's departure.