Alternative 3; A poorly timed April Fool’s prank or something more?

The best place to hide anything is in plain view.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Purloined Letter (1844)

On June 20th, 1977 the final episode of the weekly science series Science Report aired in the UK. For their final episode, they had something quite special for their viewers; what had started out as an investigation into the “brain drain”, a phenomena in which the best and brightest scientists and thinkers of the nation were being lured away to other lands by better pay and advanced facilities, turned into something much, much more…


During the course of their investigation, they discovered that some of those leaving were not turning up where they had told friends and relatives they were going to. Some of the disappeared even sent letters to loved ones for several months even though it could be proven that they never reached their intended destination or worked even one day at the jobs they had supposedly secured overseas. It seemed that some of those leaving the UK were disappearing off the face of the very Earth.


The investigation led them to a Professor Ballantine who claimed to have information regarding the mysterious disappearances but, before the investigative team could interview Ballantine, he died in a suspicious car crash. It was discovered that Ballantine had sent a videotape to an academic friend, stating that he wanted the Science Report people to see it but, when played, the tape revealed only static.


The investigators were then contacted by an American who claimed to be a friend of Ballantine and said he had a “jukebox” he had acquired from NASA which would allow the mysterious tape to be viewed properly. The American scheduled a 2nd interview with the investigators but, when they arrived, he freaked out and chased them away from his flat. The investigators returned later to find the flat abandoned.


The reference to NASA made the crew look further into the Apollo missions, in particular one in which the astronauts began to get excited about something they saw on the lunar surface and were instructed to change frequencies. They arranged an interview, by satellite, with an ex-astronaut named Grodin but, the transmission was cut off when Grodin was asked if he had seen more than the public had been led to believe but, not before Grodin became visibly upset, asking “are you trying to screw me like Ballantine?”


The mention of the name Ballantine prompted the program to send a reporter across the pond to interview Grodin in his home. After several hours of hard drinking, Grodin opens up revealing that the Apollo astronauts were disappointed when they got up there. He said;

“The later Apollo’s were a smoke-screen...to cover up what's really going on out there...and the bastards didn't even tell us...not a damned thing!” When asked to elaborate and if there were men on the moon before him, he replied “You think they need all that crap down in Florida just to put two guys up there on a...on a bicycle? The hell they do!...You know why they need us? So they've got a P.R. story for all that hardware they've been firing into space...We're nothing, man! Nothing! We're just there to keep you bums happy...to keep you from asking dumb questions about what's really going on!...O.K., that's it, end of story. Finish. Lots o'luck, kid.”

As the investigation continued, they learned that the United States and Russia were cooperating in their space exploration efforts in response to fears that the planet was becoming uninhabitable. They spoke to a Professor Gerstein who outlined the theory of greenhouse gas causing out of control global warming. Gerstein then discussed a meeting he had attended in 1957 to discuss options for human survival. The first alternative was to drastically reduce the human population on Earth which was abandoned for ethical reasons. The second alternative was to build huge underground shelters for government officials and a cross section of the population until the environment stabilized which was discarded as being unreasonable for fears that the underground habitats would eventually become heated by the global warming. Gerstein said the group finally decided that Alternative 3 was the most promising; to populate Mars via a way station on the moon.


The investigators are then contacted by the a woman who had appeared with the American from NASA earlier in the program and she provided them with a circuit board which enables them to view Ballantine’s video tape and leads to the show’s final shocking revelation: The United States and Russia had collaborated in a successful mission to Mars in 1962.




You can view the program in its entirety here:

Google Video Link

Or, if that doesn’t work for you (or you prefer Danish subtitles) it is available on YouTube here.

The Hoax Revealed

Immediately after the program aired, Anglia Television was flooded with calls demanding more information. Callers were told the program was a hoax; the program had originally been scheduled to be aired on April 1st but, was postponed due to an Industrial Action (whatever that is ). The newspapers ran stories explaining that the program was a hoax to their readers. Several of the people interviewed in the program were well known actors.

There are a few recognizable faces in Alternative 3, at least if you really know your stuff. Shane Rimmer, a self-proclaimed “rent-a-Yank” for British films and the voice of Scott Tracy on the classic TV show Thunderbirds played astronaut Bob Grodin. Richard Marner, who played Dr. Gerstein, became better known in the UK for the show ‘Allo ‘Allo, where he played an inept Nazi colonel. And Norman Chancer, who played science reporter Charles Welbourne, may be best known for his role as Moritz, the unorthodox psychologist in Local Hero.

Alternative 3: The Hoax Behind The Conspiracy

"Alternative 3 was clearly a hoax — and not only because it was intended for broadcast on April Fools Day. The interviews with supposed scientists, astronauts, and others were far too dramatically polished to have been spontaneous, and in any case, the episode's closing credits named the actors who took the roles of interviewees and correspondents. Though artfully produced, the show's counterfeit documentary style could scarcely have been expected to fool many. As an Anglia TV spokeseman put it, 'We felt viewers would be fairly sophisticated about it.'"

Wiki
I’d like to see someone make that comment about today’s TV viewers with a strait face.

The Book

The hoax captured the imaginations of the viewers so much that a book was commissioned to be published based on the program.

Nick Austin, who was editorial director of Sphere Books when Watkins' adaptation was commissioned and published, writes that the book was the "best chance I’d ever be likely to get to participate in a hoax of truly Guy Grand proportions — the best thing of its kind since Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast."

Wiki

Here’s the cover of my personal copy:


The author of the book, Leslie Watkins, wrote the book as if the whole story was the gospel truth and even claims in the end that the publishing company was forced to market the book as speculation due to pressure from politicians to prevent the book from even being published.

In the book, Watkins goes into details of what happened behind the scenes in the production of the Science Report program and provides much more detail of the conspiracy which he claims to have received from a leak inside the conspiracy.

The book details secret meetings between Soviet and American Submarines under the Arctic Circle in which the top men behind the conspiracy would meet periodically to discuss their plans and how to prevent information about the conspiracy from getting out to the public.

The plan was to create joint bases on the dark side of the moon to serve as jumping off points to the Mars colony where they were sending the best and the brightest of the world to save civilization from the impending global warming catastrophe. The people sent to Mars were broken up into two categories; Designated Movers and Batch Consignments.

The Designated Movers were the scientists, engineers and intellectuals intended to preserve human cultural and scientific achievements after the Earth became uninhabitable.

The Batch Consignments were intended to be the workers who built the accommodations on the Mars base, maintained the facilities and see to the needs of the designated movers. This is where the conspiracy enters a dark area; the Batch Consignments were not comprised of people who volunteered for the job to serve in the preservation of humanity, they were intended to be slaves to the Designated Movers. They were taken by force and had their wills bent to become perfect slaves who would follow orders without question.

Experimental processing of batch-consignment components is now producing a 96 per cent success rate. This is considered not unsatisfactory. The Policy Committee briefing circulated on September 7, 1965, explained the necessity for all components to be de-sexed: 1) To eliminate the possibility of them forming traditional mating relationships which could detract from the efficiency of their sole-function performance. 2) To ensure components do not procreate and so haphazardly perpetuate a substandard species. This second consideration is of particular importance for the products of such procreation, during their initial years of growth and development, would have no operational value and would merely be a liability on the resources of the new territory. The permanent elimination of self-will and self- interest has presented great difficulties. Long-term laboratory tests have revealed that an unaccountably high percentage of components eventually regress towards their pre-processing attitudes, so rendering themselves unreliable and unsuitable for the envisaged role. Advanced work, conducted principally in America, Britain, Japan and Russia, has now resulted in a substantial reduction of the "Component-personality" failure ratio. However, this branch of research is now to be intensified. The Policy Committee has given careful consideration to suitable means of jettisoning rejected potential components. It has been agreed that they are not to be considered responsible for their unsuitability and that there is nothing to be gained by killing them. Such a solution, although simple enough to implement, would be unnecessarily harsh. They are therefore to have their memories destroyed - a process for so doing has now been perfected at Dnepropetrovsk and details are being circulated to all A-3 laboratories - and then they will be permitted to resume their lives. In future no de-sexing will be done until after the personality-adjustment of the projected component, male or female, has been assessed and approved. This will ensure that those which eventually return to their homes as rejects will betray no evidence of laboratory work.

Forbidden Knowledge.com

You can read the entire book online at Forbidden Knowledge or you can find a hard copy of the book here: Amazon.com
On a side note; I got the book from there in November and paid $30 after Shipping and handling. Look at the price today. It looks like classic conspiracy books make an excellent investment!

The Backlash

One would think the public would be outraged to learn that Anglia Television had played such a prank on them and that they would be flooded with angry letters and they were. But, the majority of the letters weren’t to express anger over being hoaxed, they were angry that the truth behind the program was being covered up with the hoax story. Many people wrote saying they had information or personal experiences that confirmed the conspiracy and were angry that the Station and all involved with its making participated in the cover-up.

The TV program did cause a tremendous uproar because viewers refused to believe it was fiction. I initially took the view that the basic premise was so way-out, particularly the way I aimed to present it in the book, that no one would regard it as non-fiction. Immediately after publication, I realized I was totally wrong. In fact, the amazing mountains of letters from virtually all parts of the world-including vast numbers from highly intelligent people in positions of responsibility-convinced me that I had ACCIDENTALLY trespassed into a range of top-secret truths.


Documentary evidence provided by many of these correspondents decided me to write a serious and COMPLETELY NON-FICTION sequel. Unfortunately, a chest containing the bulk of the letters was among the items which were mysteriously LOST IN TRANSIT some four years when I moved from London, England, to Sydney, Australia, before I moved on to settle in New Zealand. For some time after Alternative 3 was originally published, I have reason to suppose that my home telephone was being tapped and my contacts who were experienced in such matters were convinced that certain intelligence agencies considered that I probably knew too much.


So, summing up, the book is FICTION BASED ON FACT. But I now feel that I inadvertently got VERY CLOSE TO A SECRET TRUTH. I hope this is of some help to you and I look forward to hearing from you again.

With best wishes,
Leslie Watkins

The Truth about Alternative 3

To this day, many people think Alternative 3 to be disinformation. Viewers at the time believed the disinfo to come from the U.S, British, and Soviet governments, perhaps too busy calling Anglia TV with their outrage to see the cast listing in the credits. A novel based on the TV special also led credence to their worries. The prevaling line of thought these days is that the special was indeed a hoax, but based on factual information. Therefore, Alternative 3 was made to make a real Alternative 3 situation look like such a science fiction fantasy as to remove it from the public’s consciousness. Others still even believe that not only is Alternative 3 real, but is connected to our contact with extraterrestrials. But even a skeptic can love Alternative 3 as an entertaining hour of programming, and it also works as a great counterpoint to 1978’s Capricorn One, about a botched Mars landing being faked to prevent NASA from going under.

Alternative 3: The Hoax behind the Conspiracy


Was Alternative 3 a joke program meant to prank the viewers on April Fool’s Day, or was it a part of a disinformation campaign to keep the public from learning the truth? Maybe the public is too gullible to take such a program and book so seriously or maybe the writers of the program accidentally stumbled upon something and got too close to the truth. The ideas of the elites fleeing from a global catastrophe or civil unrest and secret bases on the Moon and Mars are a popular ideas that just won’t die.


Whistleblower Laura Eisenhower, Ike’s great-granddaughter, outs secret Mars colony project
Did an amateur spot secret Mars base?
Bases on mars- what they don’t want you to know
Two whistleblowers independently report teleporting to Mars and meeting Martian extraterrestrials
Secret Mars Base Exposed
Top 5 NASA Secrets – Watch Moon and Mars Base Footage
Secret Bases on the Moon and Mars


Is this a case of the world’s governments hiding one of their greatest secrets right out there in plain sight?

Thanks for this info. I recall this series at the time but didnt watch it. Was it a hoax? It was a well done one if it was. It wouldnt surprise me if it was true.

This is a great story, but I adamantly believe this entire thing is a hoax. The video especially is a hoax. I love the bad, over-the-top acting present in this and other hoaxed films. While I think it is possible that the government has another space program that we don't know about, I don't find it all that likely. They are much too concerned about overseas issues centered around conflict.

what better way than to disclose the truth than on april fools day.

if someone looks back and claims they weren't told, all they have to do is offer this program as proof.

it's still deception, but it does confirm to the players involved that they were right.

This is the reason I come to this site, S &F. Thank you for your contribution, I love this type of stuff

Yes it was excellent. I remember watching the US and Russian Astronuts landing on Mars in the late 70s on TV. It was well done, but later admitted it was an April Fools Joke. Im not sure if it was the same program, but it was British produced, full colour and when they landed, a small "creature" was crawling under the Martian soil..... Actually, I just watched the first clip...It IS the same one I saw in 1977ish!!! Just like I remembered it.

BTW, its April Fools Day Now....so April Fools !!!

Industrial Action is a British/European term for going on strike, or other Action of that nature in Industry - so there was perhaps a studio/writers action that took place that meant the show wasn't aired at the original time (I'm guessing; I don't know the details, I'm just going off what was described in the OP).

Good work presenting the thread. I could see the hoax at YouTube video #1. How long is the delay time between Mars and Earth again?

"During the United States' initial space exploration and the Moon landings every launch was accompanied by alien craft.

ON NOVEMBER 20, 1990, LOS ANGELES TV CHANNEL 2 ANNOUNCED THAT A SEPARATE, RED, GLOWING, ROUND-SHAPED OBJECT ACCOMPANIED THE SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS ON IT'S LATEST CLASSIFIED MILITARY MISSION. THAT WAS THE FIRST PUBLIC ADMISSION.

"The Moon base, Luna, was photographed by the Lunar Orbiter and filmed by the Apollo astronauts. Domes, spires, tall round structures which look like silos, huge T-shaped mining vehicles that left stitch like tracks in the lunar surface, and extremely large as well as small alien craft appear in the official NASA photographs. It is a joint United States and Soviet base.

THE SPACE PROGRAM IS A FARCE AND AN UNBELIEVABLE WASTE OF MONEY. ALTERNATIVE 3 IS A REALITY. IT IS NOT SCIENCE FICTION.

"The Apollo astronauts were severely shaken by this experience, and their lives and subsequent statements reflect the depth of the revelation and the effect of the muzzle order which followed. They were ordered to remain silent or suffer the extreme penalty, death, which was termed an 'EXPEDIENCY.' One astronaut actually did talk to the British producers of the TV expose 'ALTERNATIVE 003.' It was aired on the documentary, NONFICTION program named 'SCIENCE REPORT,' confirming many of the allegations.

"In the book 'ALTERNATIVE 003' the pseudonym 'Bob Grodin' was used in place of the astronaut's identity. (The real Bob Grodin is a friend of Leslie Watkins and is a part of the Kennedy assassination cover-up.) It was also stated that the astronaut 'committed suicide' in 1978. This cannot be validated by any source, and I believe that several so-called facts in the book are really disinformation. I firmly believe that this disinformation is a result of pressure put upon the authors and is meant to nullify the effect upon the populace of the British TV expose 'ALTERNATIVE 003.'

"THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONSPIRACY IS IN GENEVA, SWITZERLAND. THE RULING BODY IS MADE UP OF THREE COMMITTEES CONSISTING OF THIRTEEN MEMBERS EACH, AND ALL THREE TOGETHER COMPRISE THE 39 MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE BODY KNOWN AS THE BILDERBERG GROUP.

The most important and powerful of the three committees is the Policy Committee. (It is more than interesting to note that the United States had thirteen original colonies and that 39 delegates from these colonies signed the Constitution after it was written and adopted in the first Constitutional Convention. Do you believe that is coincidence?) Policy Committee meetings are held on a nuclear submarine beneath the polar icecap. A Soviet sub and an American sub join at an airlock and the meeting is convened. The secrecy is such that this was the only method which would ensure that the meetings could not be bugged (Note: or in simple terms, the "Illuminati" operating in the highest levels of the American and Russian governments have for years been cooperating together, all the while keeping up the "illusion" of two opposing superpowers for the sake of keeping the world's population "divided" and all the more easily controlled, and probably as a method for justifying huge expenditures for military and space development. Dr. John Coleman has documented that the former "Communist Movement" in Russia and the "Eastern Establishment" of America were from their beginnings both tied-in to the highest levels of Freemasonry - Branton).

"I can say that the book 'ALTERNATIVE 003' is at least 70% true from my own knowledge and the knowledge of my sources. I believe that the disinformation was an attempt to compromise the British TV expose with information that could be false, just as the 'Eisenhower Briefing Document,' which was released here in the United States under the contingency plan Majestic Twelve, can also be proven false. "Since our interaction with the aliens began we have come into possession of technology beyond our wildest dreams. We currently have, and fly, atomic-powered antigravity-type craft in Nevada. Our pilots have made interplanetary voyages in these craft and have been to the Moon, Mars, and other planets. We have been lied to about the true nature of the Moon, the planets Mars and Venus, and the REAL state of technology that we possess today, at this very moment. "There are areas on the Moon where plant life grows and even changes color with the seasons. This seasonal effect is because the Moon does not, as claimed, always present the exact same side to the Earth or the Sun. The Moon has several man-made lakes and ponds upon its surface, and clouds have been observed and filmed in its atmosphere. It possesses a gravity field -- and man can walk upon its surface WITHOUT A SPACE SUIT, breathing from an oxygen bottle and undergoing decompression, the same way as any deep-sea diver!

LUNAR MYSTERY

Originally posted by gort51

BTW, its April Fools Day Now....so April Fools !!!

I found out about this months ago and waited 'till today to post this thread.

I had put together a bunch of links and read the book months ago but, procrastination took over and I had to rush and pull it all together at the last minute. I got about half written earlier this week and put the rest together tonight so I could post it on time.

Timing is everything.

Most entertaining post in a long time! Had me glued to the screen!!

Originally posted by illuminnaughty
Thanks for this info. I recall this series at the time but didnt watch it. Was it a hoax? It was a well done one if it was. It wouldnt surprise me if it was true.

That's the thing that makes this so interesting; Anglia Television ADMITTED that it was a hoax but, nobody wanted to believe them. It wasn't just ordinary people in the streets either; Watkins claims he was contacted by people in high places that swear this is true.

Many think the program was disinformation designed to debunk any idea of there being a space program any more advanced than what they are telling us. That way when any evidence came out, they could say it had already been proven a hoax by this program.

People believed that either the program was disinformation or it WAS fiction that came too close to the truth.

Great read...that was fun...love this stuff.

Just a comment on the Bilderberg Russia vs US point...

You think Obama let that one slip with his gaff last week?

reply to post by randomname


LMAO for real, see how the people react and if it's really bad we tell them april fools ahha. Classic. THOUGH, if it goes good and the people are willing to accept the truth of aliens and shadow gov't etc, than the people will see it as like a "ohh dang, gov't you got us good! this whole time we've been thinking we were dumb and stuff with religion and # ! ahhah WOOT hello new missioN!"

reply to post by FortAnthem


Love threads like these.

Tells you something when it's 4:47 am and I'm still reading this thread and the links within it.

The fact that people were able to think about it, then process that it made more sense that it was a cover up proves at least that 100% truth is not being told.

our instincts usually are accurate...It's us who is inaccurate at deciphering or understanding them.

Can't wait to read more tomorrow...

Lots of interesting info...good looking post.
Will let you know when I get time to read it.
Cheers

Originally posted by randomname
what better way than to disclose the truth than on april fools day.

if someone looks back and claims they weren't told, all they have to do is offer this program as proof.

it's still deception, but it does confirm to the players involved that they were right.

Point is that this wasnt aired on april 1st, it was aired on june 20th and after the backlash from the polititions, the broadcasting station played it down saying it was an april fools spoof documentary that went kind of wrong, and apologised for the angst it caused, yes there was well known actors of the time in it, but conspiracy buffs all over said that the reason why it inflamed polititions was that it hit too close to the truth.... I watched this a few years ago, and even though I lknow it is a spoof documentary, and i recognise actors in it, it is kind of surreal, and some of the make believe evidence and investigations portrayed in the programme, kind of hits home or hits the nail on the head if you catch my drift, may not be exactly a mars mission to offload the elite to, but you can bet all your wordly goods that the elite's of this world have a joint enterprise in a contingency plan to cope with something of this calibre if it ever came to pass, and they dont give a toss for the little guy, in fact, if it came down to it, they would probably save their own skins rather than their own close immediate family if cornered in a tight spot or in a rush to get "offworld"!
PEACE!

For anyone interested in Alternative 3 it is available as a DVD release and includes a 30 minute featurette featuring the creative team behind it, released by Soda Productions Ltd. There is also a version of it which was released quite a while ago, which includes the broadcast show and a Seminar about the Alternative 3 scenario, I would reccomend both. In fact the book is also a good read as well, but I know that it can be pricey, but if online reading is your cup of tea, it is out there as already mentioned.

Does anyone remember a similar show which involved photographs of astronauts both in crafts and outside crafts which were official publicity shots, but the actual craft had vital components missing from them, there were even photographs of the dead astronauts taken after they had died, but they were still very much alive. If I remember correctly, it was even made into a book as well, anyone else remember it ?

Originally posted by intrptr
Good work presenting the thread. I could see the hoax at YouTube video #1. How long is the delay time between Mars and Earth again?

20 minutes, i think...
2nd

I haven't been on here in a while but I just had to log in to register my appreciation of this thread.

One of the best I have read in a while, great topic and presentation. Thanks