Nick Pope spent the early 1990s investigating UFOs for the British ministry of defence. Sequestered in a rarely visited government office – the “metaphorical basement” – he well remembers how his field of work was regarded.
“I would walk down the corridor and people would whistle the theme music to either Close Encounters of the Third Kind or the Twilight Zone,” Pope told the Guardian.
Towards the end of his spell at the MoD, a new science fiction show featuring a pair of FBI alien hunters was also growing in popularity. “I do recall the X-Files theme tune being whistled, too,” he said.
In the nearly two decades since then, attitudes towards UFOs have slowly been changing, especially in America where the subject matter has gone from the margins to the mainstream, with even former president Barack Obama opining on their potential existence.
Rebranded by governments and enthusiasts as “UAPs”, or unidentified aerial phenomena, 2021 has seen arguably the first ever serious discussion of unknown flying things. In June the Pentagon is set to release a highly anticipated report on what it knows about UAPs, and the excitement about that disclosure has been fueled by a slew of witnesses coming forward to share their experiences with the 60 Minutes news show in May.
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