Real First Contact
Real First Contact was a term applied to the official first contact between humans and aliens. However, the usage of the term was disputed as historians were never able to reach a consensus over when the Real First Contact was made. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
History
A day to come
Across thousands of years, mankind had been visited by aliens, leaving their trails across the archaeological strata and their subtle influence on human development. Through the centuries, visitors from other planets were worshipped as gods or hunted down as monsters. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
In the late 19th century, Jack Harkness told a Blowfish in Cardiff that the Earth was a century away from what he termed "official first contact", telling the Blowfish that he was "upsetting the schedule". (TV: Fragments)
In the late 20th century, as humanity began to venture out into space, they had reached a level of scientific understanding that allowed them to interpret the old legends and superstitions. They also now possessed a level of technology that allowed aircraft and radar to sweep the skies for unidentified flying objects. Alien spacecraft and other artefacts began to arrive on Earth with alarming regularity. (PROSE: The Dying Days) As the Brigadier was aware, mankind had drawn attention to itself by sending probes deeper and deeper into space. (TV: Spearhead from Space)
First Contact Protocols were decided by the United Nations Security Council in 1968 (TV: The Sound of Drums) but were inherently outdated, as around half a dozen nations were covering up the existence of aliens from each other. It became deliberate policy under Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to cover up all alien contacts to prevent a destabilisation of the world order. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
In the 1970s, George Carrington attempted to reveal the existence of the 'ambassadors' to the public and pressure the nations of Earth to go to war against them. After he was stopped, UNIT began a formal negotiation with the aliens to exchange astronauts. (TV: The Ambassadors of Death) This was not an official public event. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
Later, Axos made diplomatic contact with the British government and later the United Nations. This would turn out to be a trap rather than genuine negotiations. (TV: The Claws of Axos)
The Doctor and the hoax
Even the Doctor appeared unsure as to when the Real First Contact occured. Witnessing the London UFO crash in March 2006, the Ninth Doctor saw it to be a genuine crash landing rather than an alien invasion. He went on to speculate to Rose Tyler that it may be the official first contact; with that in mind, he claimed that he would not interfere, choosing to leave the matter to humankind alone.
So maybe this is it. First contact. The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own. That's when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay. Now you can expand.
However, the Doctor soon found that the crash landing was in fact staged by the Slitheen family of Raxacoricofallapatorius who, having infiltrated the British government, (TV: Aliens of London) attempted to start World War III by using the fabricated threat of an alien invasion to be granted access to nuclear weapons, intending to destroy the Earth for profit. This plot was ultimately thwarted by the Doctor.
After the attack, newspapers such as the Evening Standard were quick to call the attack a hoax. Mickey Smith was incredulous about this, and the Doctor simply told him that "[humanity was] happy to believe in something that's invisible, but if it's staring you in the face, nope, [you] can't see it. (TV: World War Three)
From the mid-2000s, MI6 would establish a division called Wonderland so that Britain could launch covert operations on alien worlds before they reached Earth. The Doctor would warn MI6 in 2013 that the universe currently didn't view Earth as a threat and Wonderland could change that. According to the Doctor, at this point in hisstory most alien races saw Earth as a "shiny red apple" at this point and could be deterred from invasions ("[taking] a bite") if they got "a slap". (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone)
Later history
Following the Sycorax invasion of Earth on Christmas 2006, which saw their spaceship hanging over London, the Tenth Doctor claimed to Rose Tyler that it marked a "brand new planet Earth", that there was "no denying the existence of aliens now". (TV: The Christmas Invasion) The next year saw a worldwide invasion by the Cybermen. (TV: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday) Later that year, Jack Harkness cited these incidents to Gwen Cooper as he voiced his disbelief that people continued not to believe in aliens. He was aware that the 21st century was when "everything changes" and that mankind had to be ready; (TV: Everything Changes) he had been told this by Alex Hopkins who, having seen the future using Object 1 on 31 December 1999, believed that mankind was not ready. (TV: Fragments, AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)
In 2008, newly elected British Prime Minister Harold Saxon addressed the British public, citing prior incidents such as the destruction of Big Ben, the spaceship over London, the "metal men" and the Christmas star as alien encounters which the previous British government failed to disclose before revealing that he had conducted secret negotiations with a supposedly friendly alien species called the Toclafane. He was soon confronted by American President Arthur Winters who, deeming that Saxon had broken First Contact policy, insisted on conducting the official First Contact with the Toclafane himself. Broadcast on TV worldwide from the aircraft carrier Valiant, Winters was assassinated by the Toclafane before the paradox machine activated. Saxon, actually the Master, began the Toclafane invasion (TV: The Sound of Drums) which saw the Earth under his rule for a whole year; the Toclafane being descendants of humanity from the year 100,000,000,000,000, the machine was necessary to maintain the paradox. This year became the Year That Never Was when the paradox machine was destroyed, reverting time to just after Winters' assassination. (TV: Last of the Time Lords) From the perspective of the general public, Harold Saxon had disappeared following the assassination of President Winters, having "went mad". (TV: The End of Time)
The 2009 Planetary Relocation Incident, which saw a full-scale invasion of Earth by the Daleks and the planet being moved through space, (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End) had a more substantial impact on the general public, (TV: The Mark of the Berserker, Planet of the Dead, Children of Earth: Day One) with the Brigadier claiming that the "cat [was] out of the bag" concerning aliens. (TV: Enemy of the Bane)
On 8:40AM GMT on a Wednesday in September 2009, every human child on Earth stopped in their tracks and recited the message, "We are coming", repeatedly, all them in English. Behind the scenes, the British government knew this came from the 456, a race who had visited Earth in 1965. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One, Children of Earth: Day Two) The 456 ambassador materialised in the specially prepared container in Thames House where they demanded 10% of all of Earth's children. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Three) As negotiations failed, the government started to think of ways to hand over the 10%, which Lois recorded with Torchwood's Eye-5 contact lenses as incriminating evidence. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Four) As the British government started to gather the 10% for the 456, the ambassador revealed the children were to be used as drugs. Ultimately, Jack used the 456's communication wave to destroy the 456. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)
The Seventh Doctor claimed that by 2010, a "very delicate time for Earth", humans were just getting used to the idea of not being alone and that they would "soon" find out about aliens. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
The Eleventh Doctor discovered that the memory of the Planetary Relocation Incident among others was being lost to the cracks in time, (TV: Victory of the Daleks, Flesh and Stone) leading to the Total Collapse Event Incident which forced the Doctor to "reboot" the universe in Big Bang Two. (TV: The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang) Nevertheless, the Time Lords were aware that this reboot would cause subtle changes in Earth's timeline such that the general public would remain ignorant of the Daleks (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual) and alien life in general. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
In 2013, Earth's governments would appprove a secret agreement with the Zygons called Operation Double, allowing millions of Zygons to settle on Earth. This agreement would almost collapse a number of times. (TV: The Day of the Doctor, The Zygon Invasion)
In 2021, the Sontarans occupied Earth twice. Kate Stewart operated a resistance movement. (TV: War of the Sontarans, The Vanquishers)
By the year 2050, the Earth was overseen by the Department which actively pursued alien threats. (TV: Regeneration, Lost Library of Ukko) In fact, the Department was led by Lomax, the Korven Supreme Leader who prepared an invasion of Earth only to be killed that year. (TV: The Eclipse of the Korven)
In 2059 of an alternate timeline created by Ship erasing her friends in 2009, Rani Chandra acknowledged that mankind finally "[knew] everything". (TV: The Mad Woman in the Attic)
In 2070, the Cyberman invasion of 1986 was considered something "every child" knew about. (TV: The Moonbase)
First Contact and Break-out
- Main article: Break-out
Some chose to count the Arcturan Treaty of 2085 as the "Real First Contact", citing that as an official, peaceful contact; the first time that human and alien sat down and talked, rather than attempted to commit genocide. (PROSE: The Dying Days) This was followed by the Thousand Day War against the Ice Warriors of Mars from 2086 to 2088. (PROSE: Transit, Beige Planet Mars, The Dying Days)
Thirty years following the death of her grandmother, Susie Fontana Brooke served as the pilot of the first lightspeed ship to Proxima Centauri. (TV: The Waters of Mars) With Mars officially colonised by humans in 2095, (PROSE: Beige Planet Mars) the closing years of the 21st century saw the start of Break-out, in which mankind spread out through the galaxy. (PROSE: Prelude Deceit) Establishing many colonies and making contact with many alien species along the way, both peaceful and hostile, (PROSE: Beige Planet Mars) Earth eventually established its own planetary Empire. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe, TV: Frontier in Space)
