How does an investigation of the British Brain Drain turn into an expose on a secret US/USSR space program? Find out what is Alternative 3 as John and Eugene discuss this 1977 program.

Synopsis

Anglia Television’s science affairs program, Science Report presents the results months-long investigation, initially into the brain drain effecting Britain’s science community.

The investigation takes an unusual turn when one of the scientists being interviewed suddenly stops cooperating with the reporters and then later disappears, leaving her car in the car park at Heathrow, never to be seen again.

Of the 400 scientists that had left the UK, Science Report discovered that 24 of them disappeared without a trace.  Sometimes taking their entire families, and in other cases disappearing without a word to their family or friends.

Another piece of the puzzle in presented in the mysterious circumstances of the death of noted radio astronomer William Balentine, of Jodrell Bank.  Balentine had used a remote phone to contact a friend in the press asking for a meeting and claiming that he had important information.  He also posted separately a data tape to his friend.

Balentine never made it to the meeting, dying that night in a suspicious car accident.  The tape, obtained by Science Report, contained no intelligible data.

After Science Report begins looking into Ballentine’s death, an anonymous American (later identified as “Harry”) with some connection with Balentine comes forward claiming to have info about Balentine and the tape.  When the reporter goes to meet with him for the full story, Harry seems strung out on drugs and violent.  When they return with the police, Harry and his girlfriend are gone without a trace.

The investigation turns to Professor Gerstein.  Decades earlier, he had proposed that human pollution and greenhouse gases would lead to irrevocable anthropogenic climate change, leading to a new ice age, possibly wiping out mankind.  Originally, his ideas were largely dismissed, but now, with massive heat waves and droughts across the planet, record cold temperatures in North America, devastating earthquakes and erupting volcanoes, his musings seem far less ridiculous.

Gerstein recounts that at a conference some years ago, three alternatives were talked about to preserve humanity.  One and Two were impossible, but Alternative 3 wasn’t completely dismissed.  He declines to further elaborate what Alternative 3 was.

The report now turns to American Apollo astronaut Bob Grodin, who famously suffered some form of breakdown after his return from the moon.  During a moonwalk, he saw something extraordinary, but before he could report what it was, NASA ordered him to observe communication silence and cut the channel.

When questioned on a satellite link by Science Report, he becomes agitated, asking if they were trying to get him fixed up like Balentine, and then the link is cut from the satellite.

Undeterred, reporter Colin Benson travels to America to interview Grodin in person.  Safe in his home and under the influence of alcohol, Grodin alludes to what he saw.  NASA’s Apollo missions weren’t there first.  The Apollo program was a smokescreen for the public.  Their lander came down in the wrong spot and they saw something they shouldn’t.

Grodin also ties the American Harry to Balentine.  Harry helped Balentine decode the tape using special NASA equipment.  Balentine’s death came shortly thereafter.

Science Report also interviews and expert on international politics and relations.  He points out that, while there’s not much agreement on international politics, there is one thing that all the experts agree on:  There is no way that the threat of nuclear annihilation is what maintains the balance between the US and the Soviet Union.  There has to be something else, perhaps some massive joint project that keeps them working together.

Science Report then takes a look at the space race, the history of moon landings, orbital space stations, and they conclude that there has been a series of landing on the far side of the moon.

They talk again to Gerstein, this time he reveals that Alternative 3 was to get a cross section of the best and brightest of humanity and get the hell off the planet before it was too late.  Science Report notes that the missing scientists would be exactly the kind of people Alternative 3 would be seeking.  They have also uncovered that the phenomena isn’t just in Britain, it’s been happening worldwide.

Finally, their attention turns to Mars.  In 1961 a planetary-wide storm engulfed Mars, when it emerged the ice caps were visibly diminished and the equatorial regions had darkened, possibly indicating vegetation.  Some postulate that it could have been the result of a nuclear explosion.  Earlier, a Soviet rocket blew up on the pad as if there had been a nuclear explosion on sight.  Could the storm have been caused by the Soviet Union detonating a nuke on Mars?  Why?

Harry’s girlfriend then contacted Science Report and demanded protection, giving their reporter a piece of circuitry that Harry said to give them.  It’s used to decode the tape.

Science Report concludes with the airing of the tape, now decoded.

It appears to show a joint Soviet-American Mars landing in May 1962 which concludes with the discovery of something moving beneath the soil of Mars.

Science Report followed the evidence and has placed this report before the public.  They are ready for others who can shed light to come forward.