I can’t find a complete copy of the actual report online so it’s hard to say if or how much this story mis-characterizes the actual concerns.
Apparently, there were no concerns about Dr. Who or Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which seems strange. It’s not like the US is alone in creating cult SciFi.
Huh. Concerns about some sort of X-Files induced paranoia and mass insanity seem most plausible. After all, the entire show was about how the government is conspiring with aliens to experiment on you and colonize you and… something. The end of the world is always near, and there’s always a monster under your bed. IIRC there were even a few episodes with cults and mass suicides. Rewatching it decades later, I’m struck by how so many episodes are left unresolved. Mulder and Scully get away, but the monster is still out there, waiting for you, and the evil conspirators only have a minor setback which they deal with by getting rid of the witnesses.
Star Trek is so full of techno-optimism that I have a hard time imagining any sort of trek-inspired cults or unrest.
OTOH, what possible madness could Hitchhiker’s Guide inspire? A sudden outbreak of people carrying around their towel and not panicking?
And yet the Heaven’s Gate cult took a fair amount of inspiration from Star Trek and used a lot of Trek terminology, like “prime directive” and “away team,” and compared life outside the cult to living on the holodeck. Reportedly the cult did at least some recruiting at Star Trek conventions.
I’m having trouble imagining any of them causing unrest. Star Trek causing unrest is no less ridiculous than Hitchiker’s Guide or Dr. Who causing it. Apparently they thought US shows were potentially dangerous but not good old homespun UK shows.
Funny enough, there’s no mention of them watching Millennium.
It sounds like the premise to a click bait ad - Read About This One Weird Trick An English Bureaucrat Discovered To Get PAID To Watch American TV!
It’s freakin hilarious. Who is the one who causes riots? Football hooligans (both types), upsetting cars, setting fires, causing all kinds of trouble, even causing deaths. Apparently who are we watching?
Sci-fi fans.
Out of concern about the X-Files, they sort of became the X-Files.
Well, back in the day, all that head-scratching after the finale of the Prisoner probably sent quite a few people to the NHS.
Heh. Futurama has Star Trek banned after the Star Trek Wars.
There oughta be a law!
Of course it mis-characterises the concerns – it’s an attention-grabbing newspaper article.
Instead of “Secret files reveal police feared that Trekkies could turn on society”, a more sober headline might be “Police commission report following cult mass suicide” – which seems to have been what actually happened.
There’s no suggestion that they were actively investigating or monitoring Sci-Fi fans, or ever considered it.
Well, aside from a single TV movie, Doctor Who had been off the air for about 10 years by the time the report was written, and Hitchhikers TV series was a single season in 1981, so I can’t imagine they’d be very current concerns at the time.
Besides which, as far as I can see, the actual report wasn’t “Ooo! Sci-Fi fans: they could turn nasty!”, but rather “Here are some things that potentially dangerous cultists have built their world-view from”. Yes, some TV series are mentioned, but so are religion and conspiracy theories.
I’m moderately sure that the reason the Telegraph is spinning this as being about SFTV is in this bit:
(Notice how, in this one article, the document in question goes from being called a “dossier” to “a report” to “a note”)
You’re taking all the fun out of it. Of course it’s a mis-characterization.
I wasn’t aware the Dr. Who wasn’t on the air at the time. I know that there have been new episodes more recently.
Ah, sorry. Bullshit news stories just really piss me off, sometimes. :o
That’s okay. I also hate bullshit news stories, but this one is of no real consequence, and has a germ of truth, so I thought it would be fun to post it, but I understand your objections.
Maybe some one there was a fan and did not have enough time to watch them at home?
Doctor Who was on hiatus from 1989 to 2005.
I do have a towel around my neck while I’m typing.
Were those before or after the Star Wars Trek (the vast migration of Star Wars fans)?
My wife worked at a post office that was near a mental hospital, in the Caribbean. Suffice to say some patients sent some very ODD letters to various world leaders, nothing actually outright threatening but very odd. Like a rambling missive mentioning “finger prints of the mind” to the prime minister of the USA pleading for help from the shadowy figures harassing the writer and finger printing his mind.(got to read them because the protective services would bring a copy).
As the only full time clerk she was visited by the US secret service multiple times, UK secret service multiple times, and various others. Even after she quit she heard from the current clerks the visits are a regular occurrence to this day. Always two agents too, always basically pointless and fruitless as often she couldn’t even identify the letter mailer.
What is my point here? Well I bet these agents FIGHT over the arduous job of having to go to the Caribbean and investigate these odd mailings.
Just like I bet it was a arduous job watching full seasons of various sci fi shows as your job to make sure no threats were present.
LOL
Sounds sane. 
What? With Jurassic Park coming out in '93, everyone was terrified the raptors and T-Rexes would be feeding on us come 2000.
Especially what with Y2K shutting down all the fences.