Alternative 3

Alternative 3

Alternative 3 is a television programme, broadcast in the UK in 1977 as a fictional hoax, an heir to Orson Welles' radio production of The War of the Worlds. Purporting to be an investigation into Britain's contemporary "brain drain," Alternative 3 uncovered a plan to make the moon and Mars habitable in the event of a terminal environmental catastrophe on Earth. The programme was originally meant to be broadcast on April Fools Day, 1977. While its broadcast was delayed until June by industrial action, the credits explicitly date the film to April 1st. Alternative 3 ended with credits for the actors involved in the production and featured interviews with a fictitious American astronaut. However, some conspiracy theory supporters have argued Alternative 3 is at least partly true.

It takes some courage, I think, to admit one's eejitcy.

Here comes my admission.

In the 1970s, I got swept up in that whole UFO craze. My interest was piqued back in the 1960s by trashy pulpy magazines catering to morons, shilling the lies of a massive cover-up of non-humans visiting earth in spacecraft.

In the 1970s, when paperbacks were actually cheap and affordable, I read the entire Erich von Däniken series and branched out into ripoffs of his as well as other pseudo-science stuff.

One book I came across was called Alternative 3.

Now mind you, there was absolutely nothing in the book that I can recall these years later to indicate it was a goof. My memory is that it was presented seriously and was offering up suppressed truth.

Well along the way between then and now, I've set aside all that UFO stuff as utter bullshit. Learning something about real science will do that to a person.

But I never did forget Alternative 3. It was memorable. I didn't believe its assertion, however. It was simply dramatically presented and its premise was so whacked that it stuck in the mind.

Well, now thanks to Veoh, I've found out the book was part of a TV program presented in the UK. And the entire thing was, as you've read above, a hoax.

Now, had they broadcast that program in the U.S. -- and if they did, I damn well missed it -- I would have caught on. The astronaut Bob Grodin is the ubiquitous Shane Rimmer, the voice of Scott Tracy from Thunderbirds. I would have recognized him and instantly caught on.

Well, here it is probably thirty years later, and the entire mystery is now solved.

The Internet is wonderful.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

Update: Damn. I'd forgotten. Veoh will only show the first five minutes of anything that's more than about 25 minutes long. To see beyond that, you have to go to the Veoh site and download the VeohTV Beta player. Do it. It's worth having. The next toys will play completely in place. But those come sometime later.