Alternative 3 – Hoax Or Truth?

“Boy, when they take the wraps off this, it'll be the biggest day in history. 22nd May 1962, we're on Mars and we have life."
From the UFO lecture by Capt Bill Robertson on ATS

Alternative 3 was a television program, broadcast in the UK in 1977 dealing with an investigation into Britain's 'brain drain' where a number of scientists of various disciplines ‘disappeared’. It uncovered a plan to make the moon and Mars habitable in the event of a catastrophic Extinction Level Event on Earth. Selected persons were to be relocated in underground cities here, or on the Moon or Mars.

So what can we make of it 30 years on? Looking back, the question is, could it be true or at least some of it?

According to the book by Leslie Watkins , it was claimed that scientists had determined that the Earth's surface would be unable to support life for much longer, due to pollution leading to catastrophic climate change.

Three alternatives were proposed:

Alternative 1. This involved the detonation of nuclear bombs in the stratosphere in order to allow the pollution to escape.

Alternative 2. The construction of elaborate underground cities for housing the chosen few.

Alternative 3. To populate Mars via a way station on the Moon.

Shortly after Alternative 3 was broadcast, Anglia Television issued a statement that the Alternative 3 episode was a hoax. Conspiracy theorists suggested that the British government forced Anglia Television to issue this statement.

Source: wikipedia

Was Alternative 1 tried out but failed? Was the sudden appearance of a hole in the Ozone layer the result of a small nuclear detonation high up in the atmosphere?

Probably Alternative 2 was the construction of underground ‘cities’ for housing the chosen few. These underground cities likely exist at Dulce, Area 51, Denver, Iron Mountain, Colorado Springs and so on.

Alternative 3 was establishing bases or colonies on the Moon and Mars for these so called chosen few, with help of extra terrestrial technology. So are there any secret bases on the Moon and Mars that we don’t know about?

In 1978, Leslie Watkins wrote the book, Alternative 3, based on the screenplay for the television episode. Watkins in his Alternative 3 novelization detailed many of the claims presented in the episode. It was published by Sphere Books Ltd, of Grays's Inn Road, London. A letter reportedly written by Watkins, however, states that "So, summing up, the book is FICTION BASED ON FACT. But I now feel that I inadvertently got VERY CLOSE TO A SECRET TRUTH."
en.wikipedia.org...

And when the book came out, they banned it in America! Why?

So what is the truth? What do we know? Next to nix!

Read the amazing article on ATS by Capt Bill Robertson on the Third Alternative. Though far fetched, it’s fascinating, to say the least.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Cheers!

Is there any direct information on the banning of this book? I would be interested in that aspect before I gave this too much value.

These kinds of ideas have been around, in one form or another, for a long time.

Edit for punctuation--NGC

[edit on 22-7-2007 by NGC2736]

Interesting read, found this however:

Perhaps the most persuasive evidence that Alternative 3 was an utter fiction comes from Nick Austin, who was editorial director of Sphere Books when Watkins' adaptation was commissioned and published. Austin 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."

Furthermore, Austin writes that he was both delighted and disturbed by the Alternative 3 controversy, and adds that the reasons "a clever hoax, openly admitted to be such by its creators, should continue to exercise the fascination it so obviously does the best part of a generation after its first appearance is beyond my feeble powers of analysis and explanation." [2]

An article by Loy Lawhon reports that "everyone involved with the Alternative 3 documentary admits that it was fiction(.)" [3]

One unsourced account reports that the producers of Alternative 3 "announced that the entire thing had been a joke." [4]

taken from en.wikipedia.org...

IIRC wasn't William Cooper pushing this?

Seems like an amazing amount of work to build colonies on the Moon and terraform Mars when all you have to do is dig into a century's worth of squashed inventions, from Tesla on, and finally release to the world nonpolluting, over-unity energy. But that would upset the status quo, and give the dispossessed and 3rd world too much "power." (Sorry for the bad pun, no other word.)

Heck, you've got a guy right now in the Midwest driving his car on saltwater. They present it on TV like it was a sheep with five legs.

Eventually it will happen, but not until the cow is milked dry.

Originally posted by mikesingh
And when the book came out, they banned it in America! Why?

Wow, really? Then how come I can still buy it on amazon.com?

Mike, I have looked in many places and I cannot find any reference to the book "Alternative 3" EVER being banned. I gave you the benefit of the doubt, assuming that the ban could have been lifted after some time, so I looked into past bans, and found no trace.

I will ask once more where you got your information? If it was an honest mistake, please say so.

I can not say anything about Alternative 3 that may not have already been said.

If the Terran-environmental disaster scenario is true (some debate on that) something like an "Alternative 3" would make a great deal of sense and could explain many aspects of the "supposed conspiracies" with which we wrestle in isolation in many cases.

Perhaps an Alternative 3 scenario does bind many of the historical and supposed historical events that seem to integrate a notion for some "that something is going on" on a global scale that the public is not privy to the protocols of understanding fully.

I am thankful that mikesingh has brought this up, true or not. I also want to thank mikesingh for mentioning the Robertson transcript of which I was completely unaware. I am pleased that johnlear of "John Lear notoriety" is mentioned in this transcript and would welcome his input on this subject matter in any way, shape or form with which he may feel comfortable.

I saw the Anglia broadcast in Canada on the Asper property called Global TV as presented by Peter Trueman (a respected journalist and author and at that time the network news anchor) who these days is fully involved in nature and environmental works and causes. His presentation of Alternative 3 added about a half hour or 45 minutes worth of commentary that put forth the hoax/non-hoax issues squarely in front of the viewer. I strongly suspect that the original complete Global TV broadcast is in the tape archives at Global in Toronto or Winnipeg.

To entirely discount Alternative 3 is to ignore a potential past and future set of "possibilty"... I'm not prepared to do that, at least not yet.

I would like to have solid data on whether the "faux-spoof" novel was banned in America. For mikesingh or any one else, can you provide some corroborating evidence that might lead to some establishment of this ban as fact or fiction?

Cheers,

Vic

[edit on 22-7-2007 by V Kaminski]

Possible source of the banning of the book:

Capt. Bill Robertson's talk at a UFO conference in 1990. He states, while discussing Alternative 3 "And when the book came out they banned it in America. " Transcript here

edit: oops, I see he's already mentioned in the OP

[edit on 22-7-2007 by torsion]

Originally posted by torsion
Capt. Bill Robertson's talk at a UFO conference in 1990. He states, while discussing Alternative 3 "And when the book came out they banned it in America. " Transcript here

I see that he said it (and thanks for the link), but the entire concept of being "Banned in America" is puzzling to me. Who is "they"? Once in awhile books get 'banned' by local jurisdictions for what are always weird reasons. For example, I was involved in a 'ban' of 'Joy of Sex' in Macon, Georgia when a local city councilman complained it was pornography. The cops came into our bookstore, stole all 500 copies we had, and the case went to trial with the bookstore manager as the defendant. B.Dalton paid all expenses. It resulted in a hung jury. Case dismissed. Had anyone had the money and time to take this further the whole thing would have been thrown out of court. Meanwhile every cop in Macon got a free copy.

Sometimes school districts will 'ban' specific material from a classroom or library when they get all upset about the subject matter, and 'Banned in Boston' is a badge of honor, though that is certainly a thing of the past.

However, there is no Federal mandate to ban books. It's a First Amendment issue. All you have to do is tell the ACLU and there'd be a big bout of publicity about it. So when someone says a book was 'banned in America' I want to know the specifics. What jurisdiction banned which book? When did it happen? Where is the documentation? Where is the court order? And, in this case, why can I still buy it, then? If these questions cannot be answered, then for all intents and purposes, it cannot be used as evidence for anything. It's just a bunch of unsubstantiated hot air. This does not distract from the rest of the Alternative Three discussion, but as far as the banned book goes:

Nonsense.


[edit on 7/22/2007 by schuyler]

I just discovered that in addition to its English publisher, Alternative 3 was published by Avon, a paperback imprint of HarperCollins, in 1979.

HarperCollins is an American publisher headquartered in New York City.

Originally posted by schuyler

Originally posted by mikesingh
And when the book came out, they banned it in America! Why?

Wow, really? Then how come I can still buy it on amazon.com?

Probably banned it for a few years till the controversy died down?

About the book being banned in the US….

Can a book be banned from sale in the United States? Well- known UFOlogist Gray Barker [died 1984] claims in his regular column in UFO Review (June, 1979) that this one was (Alternative 3). The book's thesis that the end of life on earth is coming, and that only the elite of the world can be rescued, is purportedly too shocking for the government to permit the book's release. "I'm not going to risk trouble by trying to get a copy," Barker shudders (although after I effortlessly obtained a copy of the original British edition, no "Men In Black" came pounding on my door).
www.debunker.com...

They did kill enough people, they threatened the radio station with closing the license - I mean the television with closing the license of the program, they did fire the people who worked on it. And when the book came out they banned it in America.

Here



[edit on 22-7-2007 by mikesingh]

Thanks mikesingh! Do not take any personal offense from the following, none is intended.

The second link article by this Relfe person is inaccurate. I'm sorry, the contention therein, "That is the NASA footage of people on Mars.", is not just misleading it is not what is depicted in the "Alternative 3" video which pre-dates the book. The video depicts no people on Mars at all but a supposed fictional landing of an unmanned craft in 1962, May 22nd on the planet Mars. She didn't do this due diligence... you think she might have actually watched the video? I guess not.

The "banned book stuff" is the same 1990 Robertson relation of his interpretation of the Alternative 3 book as being banned in America that is available at the link in ATS, or the one torsion has provided and this second link in your most recent post. I see no evidence that the book was banned in America other than this one fellow's claim. Sorry, evidence of fact would be a groove.

But thanks just the same mikesingh as there is a link listed by Relfe to an online source to buy a DVD of Alternative 3... I will check that out as I have only a crappy low res AVI version and a Realplayer version that's even worse.

The first link from debunker.com is more interesting and explains how the "banned" notion really came about and as a bonus for me it has a Canadian legal "angle". Gray Barker (a writer with a vested interest in MIB as an author) didn't backcheck before he "wrote it up" which is even more common today as this thread could lead one to believe.

I don't quote much - I don't like it, but I will for this, from the article at the first link... no, no I won't quote it. My prerogative. Read it for yourselves paragraphs 6, 7 and 8. Plain old garden variety truth written in English. Then each one teach one. Truth goes viral, 'bout time. Not gonna happen.

There never was a ban of any kind anywhere, period, full stop. No if ands or buts about it. To quote the fictional Astronaut Grodin character to Benson, "That's it... end of story." in regard to the book being banned in America or anywhere else. Nonsense and poor research.

Not withstanding all that, which doesn't count a lick, besides wasting time and research effort, I do not discount the possibility of an "Alternative 3-like" scenario. In fact as time passes I think it more likely.

I would really like to hear member johnlear comment on the Alternative 3 scenario seeing as John Lear is mentioned by Robertson in the ATS link previously posted "up page". His perspective may be of value in this regard as in many others already ablely demonstrated. Perhaps others would like that as well.

Cheers,

Vic

[edit on 23-7-2007 by V Kaminski]

I think that Nibiru will pass earth and mess us up big time. All the while the nwo and the selected will be using these underground bases everywhere to survive. When the turmoil on the surface dies down the underground will emerge as a super class of strong intellectuals.

The key to this whole effort is the spreading, before hand of the damage of global warming. They will write tons of books and pamphlets on the subject and in the new world that literature will be seen on the ground in pieces and saved by the people underground. Even the survivors on the surface will remember hearing about global warming and now that the world is destroyed we will believe it once and for all.

Even though it was a planet passing us that did it they will not know and the saviors from the underground that have technologies that we had thought we lost will tell us that the "New World" will be environmentally conscious and man will not make the same mistakes again.

This theory is funny because a Rothschild just wrote a global warming book so in this future world when we think global warming is responsible for our end he will be a visionary. As much as the NWO wants to keep power they can't stop Nibiru so they are making contingency plans.

Originally posted by V Kaminski
I would really like to hear member johnlear comment on the Alternative 3 scenario seeing as John Lear is mentioned by Robertson in the ATS link previously posted "up page". His perspective may be of value in this regard as in many others already ablely demonstrated. Perhaps others would like that as well.

Cheers,

Vic

Vic, I totally agree with you and schuyler as regards the banning of the book. I have just reproduced what has been said. Hopefully details will emerge!

Yes, and I wish John can comment on the Alternative 3 scenario. Personally speaking, I find it difficult to discount completely. As they say, there's no smoke without fire!!

Cheers!