If you had lived in the UK in the late 90s, chances are Scotland Yard was keeping an eye on you.
While performing research for his new book, ‘How UFOs Conquered the World’, Dr. David Clarke, a journalism professor at Sheffield Hallam University, came across a secret briefing note sent by Scotland Yard to the Metropolitan Police. Filed around 1998-99, the document warned about fans of ‘Star Trek,’ ‘The X-Files,’ ‘Roswell,’ ‘Dark Skies’ and ‘The Lawnmower Man.’ They were worried that diehard fans could potentially go mad, start cults, riot, and cause cyber attacks.
The dossier was titled ‘UFO New Religious Movements and the Millennium” aiming to look into groups of people who believed the world was coming to an end. Scotland Yard believed that a strong appreciation of American science fiction shows was indicative of conspiracy groups becoming violent towards themselves or others.
This analysis came during the aftermath of Heaven’s Gate, a San Diego cult that committed mass suicide in 1997 believing it would lead them aboard an alien spaceship traveling alongside the Hale-Bopp comet.
Besides their founders Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles being science fiction fans, Heaven’s Gate did use a lot of ‘Star Trek’ terms in their practices. An armband saying “Heaven’s Gate Away Team” was among the identical pieces of clothing the 39 cult members wore when they ended their lives.
(Furthermore, Thomas Nichols, brother of Nichelle Nichols who played Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek’, was a Heaven’s Gate member who took part in the mass suicide.)
Clarke also points out that the dossier was written around the 50th anniversary of the Roswell incident — a time when people were still questioning possible alien cover-ups by the government.
Needless to say, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police stated they have no knowledge of this document… probably before spending the rest of the day binge-watching ‘Doctor Who.’
Source: The Telegraph
