THE NAMES AND PERSONAL DETAILS OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE SCRUTINIZED BY THE SPECIAL BRANCH

Alternative 3: Conclusion!

So, summing up, the book is FICTION BASED ON FACT. But I now feel that I inadvertently got VERY CLOSE TO A SECRET TRUTH.
(Letter from Alternative 3 author Leslie Watkins to "MS Dittrich" of Windwords Bookstore)

Was the Anglia Television program fact or fiction?

Well, everyone involved with the Alternative 3 documentary admits that it was fiction, as Georginia Bruni explores in this column. She spoke to one of the film crew, located the names of the actors, and tried to trace the writers. She says that Christopher Miles, who also directed and co-wrote the documentary, is the brother of actress Sara Miles, but that she was unable to trace David Ambrose, the other writer. There is, however, a British science fiction writer of that name, who may or may not be the same individual. The writer of the book, Leslie Watkins, was a writer of thrillers even before Alternative 3. The Fortean Times recently printed an article in which Nick Austin, then editorial director of Sphere Books, reveals how he commissioned Leslie Watkins to write the book version at the behest of literary agent Murray Pollinger.

The question remains, however, as to whether there was any fact behind that fiction.

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 (Letter from Alternative 3 author Leslie Watkins to "MS Dittrich" of Windwords Bookstore)

Could there be fact behind Alternative 3?

There really was a "Brain Drain", and there still is. Scientists are no different from anyone else; they'll go wherever they can make more money and obtain support for their research. The main cause of Britain's "Brain Drain" was their high income tax rate. I've never seen any evidence that people who left Britain for higher pay elsewhere "disappeared".

I also recall reading in the late 1970s and early 1980s about a mysterious spate of suicides and untimely deaths among scientists, not just in Britain, but all over the world. I believe there was an item in Omni magazine about it. However, no conclusions were reached about any links between the deaths that I ever heard. The statistics may have been exaggerated at the time.

Alternative 3: There is a secret joint U.S./U.S.S.R. space program that has gone far beyond what the public sees. Astronauts had already landed on Mars in 1962. It has been discovered that there is other intelligent life in the universe.

There may be many secrets contained within the U.S. space program, but the scenario that it is really so far beyond the public perception as to have landed on Mars 37 years ago seems highly unlikely. It also seems unlikely that the U.S and the U.S.S.R. would have cooperated to such a degree. More likely, they would have been trying to outrace each other, as was the public perception. As for NASA having knowledge of alien life, who can say?

Alternative 3: The earth is dying. We have polluted it beyond repair. Extreme heat, such as that which is now inevitable, will melt land glaciers. That will result in a marked rise in sea level and then there'll be the start of the extensive flooding - with London and New York among the first cities to be affected. (Alternative 3 by Leslie Watkins)

Well, destruction of the environment is surely a problem. In 1977, it seemed possible to many that we had damaged the environment beyond repair. We don't hear as much about the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect today as we did then. But as for the glaciers melting, check out this feature by the About.com environment guide, Patricia Michaels: Melting Ice Caps
Also see the Scientific American Article:Going, Going, Gone!

The Alternatives

• Alternative 1 - Stop all pollution immediately and blow two huge holes in the ozone layer. This would allow excessive UV light to reach the earth and millions would die of skin cancer.

  It seems that there are already "two huge holes in the ozone layer" - at the poles, attributed to our use of CFCs. Is that really how they got there? Maybe this alternative was tried....

• Alternative 2 - Immediately begin digging underground cities for the Elite (The New World Order?) and let the teeming millions perish on the polluted surface.

  Some conspiracy theorists apparently think that this alternative is already reality. There are many sites on the Internet about "underground alien bases" and the like.

• Alternative 3 - Build spaceships and get the elite off the planet - to the Moon and Mars. Take along some "ordinary" people for use as slave labor. Use "mind control" techniques to control them. Leave the remainder of humanity to wallow in its own filth.

  It doesn't seem likely that the space program is that far ahead of the public perception. It doesn't seem possible that the technology was available for self-sufficient colonies on the Moon and Mars in 1977. Theoretically, it could be done today, though....

Alternative 3: The disappearance in bizarre circumstances in the past two weeks of 20 people from small coastal communities in Oregon was being intensively investigated at the weekend amid reports of an imaginative fraud scheme involving a "flying saucer" and hints mass murder. Sheriff's officers at Newport, Oregon, said that the 20 individuals had vanished without trace after being told to give away all their possessions, including their children, so that they could be transported in a flying saucer "by UFO to better life".

Sound like "Heaven's Gate"? Anyone want to be a lobotomized slave of the New World Order? Check out the Mind Control Forum.

Alternative 3: The names and personal details of tens of thousands of people scrutinized by the Special Branch for reasons of national security are to be fed into a new criminal intelligence computer bought by Scotland Yard and shrouded in mystery.

This would have been possible on a limited basis in 1977, but possible now on a grand scale .... What's all this talk in the news lately about establishing DNA databases, not only of convicted criminals, but of all newborns?

Leslie Watkins, author of the book version of Alternative 3: It would be a mistake to file "Alternative 3" away too cozily with Panorama's spaghetti harvest and other hoaxes. Suppose it were fiendish double bluff inspired by the very agencies identified in the program and that the super-powers really are setting up an extra-terrestrial colony of outstanding human beings to safeguard the species?

It would also be a mistake to take this or any other conspiracy theory too seriously without some solid evidence.... Gosh, with the right actors, wouldn't it make a good TV series, though......