Monday, May 2, 1977. Clements was now spending as little time as possible in his own office. The smells from the canteen below, he swore, were getting stronger every month. Nothing could be worse than a floating reminder of yesterday's unwanted cabbage...
He operated, most days, from a desk in the big open-plan office which had been allocated to Science Report. At times, however, it tended to be too noisy - with too many telephones and too many people - and occasionally he was forced to retreat to his own tiny room behind Studio B. This Monday morning was one of those occasions. Clements and Benson were closeted there together - studying a transcript of the final interview with Grodin.
Clements marked a section with a red pencil. "There,love," he said. "That's the bit that really intrigues me. What exactly did he mean?"
Benson read the lines again: "We're just there to keep you bums happy...to keep you from asking dumb questions about what's really going on!"
"I just don't know," he said. "That's where he dried up. I couldn't get another damned thing out of him."
"Well that still leaves us with a load of questions, doesn't it?" said Clements. "And what I need now, Colin, is answers."
"Yes, but..."
""No "buts", love, please. I'm getting all of those I need from Harman. He's raising hell, y'know, about this American trip of yours..."
"Chris, I promise you, no-one could have got more out of Grodin..."
"He's put in a complaint about you to Fergus Godwin...says it was unethical of you to persist in questioning a man when he was drunk - particularly, as he puts it, when that man has a history of instability...He's even suggested that we should junk the film because Grodin was talking nonsense..."
"It wasn't nonsense, Chris. All right, so he was a bit smashed, particularly towards the end...I'm prepared to admit that...but I'm certain that he knew what he was saying and that he was telling the truth..."
"I know - and then he fell flat on his face." Clements chuckled. "You stick with your version, love, because the Controller wants to see both of us this afternoon."
"You're serious, then? Harman really is trying to kill it?"
"Believe me, I was never more serious. Let's face it Colin...we've put two fingers up at him all along the line on this investigation and he's out to make all the trouble he can. You might like to know, by the way, that he's complaining you didn't bother to do the other job in America..."
"What other job?"
Clements grinned. "The piece you were meant to do for the holiday series, the one we promised Simon Shaw he'd get for his next run. The airline are going to be marked when they find they've thrown away a facility - and Yound Master Shaw's not too happy either..."
"Oh, come on..."
Clements stopped him. "He can fill in with the Isle of Man - that's the least of our troubles," he said. "We still need answers."
"Then maybe we should be searching harder for Harry."
"That crazy American! The one who attacked you!"
"He's got answers," said Benson. "Remember what he said on the telephone...about knowing why scientist keep disappearing and about knowing who's behind it..."
Clements sniffed, frowned with disgust, got up to close the window. "So where do you start searching?"
"Could try the police again."
"Be back by mid-afternoon," said Clements. "We've got that session with the Controller."
The desk sergeant was polite but unhelpful. "You any idea how many people get reported missing in Britain every year?" he asked. "About five thousand. And they're the ones officially reported. God only knows how many more never get reported..."
Benson handed him the photograph he had shown Grodin. "That's him," he said. "Last seen on February 11 at that address in Lambeth."
The sergeant glanced casually at the picture. "And you don't even know his surname." He snorted. "Gives us plenty to go on, doesn't it? Anyway...what makes you think he is missing? Maybe he just doesn't want to see you any more..."
"He was frightened, very frightened, and he got me confused with somebody else," said Benson. "He seemed to think that somebody was planning to kill him."
"You think that he's been killed? That he's been murdered? Is that what you're trying to say?"
"I don't know," said Benson miserably. "I don't think so but I don't know."
"Why should he confuse you with somebody else?"
"Because he wasn't normal that morning. He was...well...bombed out of his mind."
"Drugs?"
"That's right." They were short-handed at the police station and it was a busy morning. The sergeant decided he'd already wasted too much time. He press the picture back into Benson's hand, made a big play of putting his pen down firmly on the counter, sighed patiently. "So what have we got, sir? An alien of uncertain age and of unknown name who uses drugs and who was last seen by you, briefly, nearly three months ago in a condemned house where he was apparently squatting.
"He imagined you were somebody who, for a reason we can't establish, wanted to murder him. Now, although he may have gone back to America for all you know, you want us to find him for you.
"Would you say that was a fair summing-up of the situation?"
Benson shuffled his feed and looked sheepish. " Sounds a bit daft, doesn't it?"
"I've got your name and address," said the sergeant politely. "If Mr. Anonymous does turn up, I'll mention you were asking after him."
The afternoon meeting with Fergus Godwin was also a rough one. The Controller had already been worked on vigorously by Harman and he was in a foul mood. He saw trouble looming with the Board over this particular Science Report project, especially with that apoplectic accountant, and he bitterly regretted having authorized Benson's trip to America.
Harman's words kept niggling at the back of his mind. Maybe Harman was right. Maybe Clements was becoming "unprofessionally obsessed". Godwin certainly had doubts about allowing the transmission of such a curious interview with a man who was patently drunk. There could be all sorts of repercussions...
"But Fergus...it could prove to be an invaluable part of the program," argued Clements. "It's just that, at the moment, there are still some missing links."
"Come back to me when and if you find those links." Godwin glowered balefully at the pair of them. "Until then that film gets locked away - and I can't see much chance of us ever using it."
They returned to the small office. Clements sat at the desk and sniffed. "Thank God there's no fish on Mondays," he said. "Fish days are always the worst."
"Now what?" asked Benson.
"Gerstein - he's all we've got left. If only we could get him to open up on this Alternative 3..."
"You want me to try him?"
Clements shook his head, picked up the grey internal telephone, dialed a number in the main Science Report office. "Is Simon Butler there?"
In May, 1971, the authoritative publication Computers and Automation carried an article by Edward Yourdon which said:tremendous improvement in various phases of Government...if one has faith: faith, that the computers will work properly...men had lost faith in their human leaders, and now...things will be better if they have faith in a cold-blooded mechanical computing machine."
Only a few months earlier, at the end of 1970, the staff magazine of Barclays Bank, Spread Eagle, had contained an article which read:
Computers have given birth to the Technological Era, have ushered in the Space Age, have begun to play such a dominating role in fields as diverse as military science, weather forecasting, medicine, industrial design and production, communications, commerce, business and banking that the question is seriously being asked whether they are beginning to dominate man himself.
Some even hold the view that in the foreseeable future we shall be stripped of our individual privacy and reduced to a string of meaningless dots stored in the magnetic bowels of some giant Government computer - a sort of Big Brother whose prying gaze will have us constantly under his attentive scrutiny.
Neither of those writers realized he was anticipating a situation which was by then firmly established. "Individual privacy" had been scrapped years earlier because of covert decisions made within governments and between governments.Some of this background, just occasionally, spills into theopen.
On September 9, 1977, The Times published a front-page story, by Home Affairs Reporter Stewart Tendler, which had a
headline reading: NATIONAL SECURITY CITED BY POLICE AS REASON FOR MAINTAINING SILENCE ON USE OF RECORDS.
Tendler's
story said:
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.
Note those last three words. "Shrouded in mystery." The Times is not a newspaper which would
lightly use a phrase of that nature. The story continued:
When plans for the computer were drawn up two years ago
it is understood that the Special Branch was allocated space on it for up to 600,000 names out of the system's total
capacity of 1,300,000 names by 1985...
Census projections have indicated that Britain's population will not
increase in the next decade. So that figure of 600,000 means that the Special Branch was preparing to feed details of
one person out of every ninety-five in the entire population into that computer. But that is merely the start...
Discount from the total population all geriatrics, young children, and those who have been judged incurably
insane...and the ratio under surveillance comes down to about one person in fifty.
Take that one step further and
the implications are startling...
If the average household comprises two adults - and that is pitching it at its
most conservative - the ratio is reduced to one household in twenty-five.
That means there can hardly be a street
of road in Britain where at least one household - and probably far more - is not considered to merit
computer-monitoring by the Special Branch.
Can you now be confident that you or your immediate neighbors are not
being studied by the Special Branch? You can be absolutely certain that people you know, probably people very close to
you, are getting this particular treatment.
And the figures we have given, astonishing as they may seem, do not
allow for those people programed into other Special Branch computers - computers which so far have remained hidden on
the classified list.
Does all this savor of normal Special Branch work? Or does it indicate an operation on a far
bigger scale? One, possibly, as enormous as Alternative 3?
The Home Office was clearly embarrassed by Tendler's
discovery and sought to "play it down". His story went on:
Yesterday a police source said that the Special Branch
had yet to decide how many names would be placed on the computer and denied that anything like 600,000 would
eventually be filed.
Scotland Yard said last night: "The question of the involvement of the Special Branch in the
project to computerize sections of the records of C Department (the department covering CID and specialist detective
squads) is not one we a re prepared to discuss, since most of the work of the Special Branch is in the field of
national security.
"The publication of any figures purporting to indicate the total number of records in any part
of the project would amount to speculation"...
It (the Special Branch) is still surrounded by a certain amount of
mystique and the same is true of the new computer. The Metropolitan Police and the Home Office have made few public
statements about the nature of its use.
Tendler also said in that story that the activities of the Special Branch
were "a closely guarded secret" and he added: "It is not known whose names and details have been gathered by the
officers."
We cannot prove that this particular computer has been used to sift "Designated movers" for Alternative
3. However, because of information from Trojan, we are able to state categorically that similar computers are used for
this purpose. We know of six - apart from the master one at the operation-control center in Geneva. They are located
in America, Britain, Germany, Japan, Poland and Russia.
There may be others. In fact, there almost certainly are.
However, we have no information about them and, as we have already said, we have no intention of making statements
which cannot be substantiated.
Britain's principal Alternative 3 computer is officially used exclusively by a
local authority in the north-east and, as a cover, a small percentage of routine local-authority work is processed by
it. The main one in America, installed and maintained at the expense of the Federal Government, is officially owned by
a manufacturing company in Detroit. The Polish one is in the Academy of Sciences in Warsaw's Plan Defiled.
Comparatively little trouble is taken over the selection of "components" for Batch Consignments. They need to be
strong, to have years of physical labor left in them. That is the prime criterion. Their personalities, back-grounds,
mental abilities...these are of secondary importance, for they will be scientifically molded into the approved
pattern. And, after all, they are expendable.
But what of the "designated movers?" How is their value measured?
And this mysterious "new territory" in which they are apparent y destined to live -- what sort of society is being
created there?
Trojan has supplied partial answers. He found them in a 1972 document - addressed to National Chief
Executive Officers - from the Chairman of the Policy Committee:
Standing Instructions relating to the recruitment
of designated movers have already been circulated by this Committee. However, recent reports from the Chairman of the
Committee in Residence indicate that there have been certain failures in the execution of those instructions.
These failures have produced unwarranted problems in the new territory and have resulted in an unacceptably high
wastage of post-transportation designated movers.
This situation cannot be tolerated and the Policy Committee
therefore requires me, once again, to specify the aims and the requirements of the Committee in Residence.
Every
effort is to be made to eliminate the problems which men have become conditioned into accepting as inevitable in the
old territory.
Alternative 3 participants have evolved, or must be taught to evolve, away from the concepts of
national or tribal interests which have traditionally resulted in warfare. This will become of increasing importance
when the new territory becomes more intensively populated. National Chief Executive Officers will therefore give
priority attention to this aspect of the operation and ensure it is fully understood by their regional
subordinates.
No person is to be nominated as a potential designated mover if there is any doubt about him or her
having the potential to evolve in this manner.
This requirement over-rides all other considerations of skills and training.
As this particular personality trait still cannot be assessed from a computer print-out, it is imperative that judgements be based on indivdual interviews. This puts the onus on regional officials for, in view of the size of the operation, it is not possible for this aspect to be handled centrally or even nationally.
There was more in this vein. Much more. This was by far the most comprehensive document obtained by Trojan. It stressed the need for an even mix of nationalities and colors among the designated movers for, although they were to be "integrated into a new conception of a family community," it was considered that all ethnic groups should be represented in the new territory. That was emphasized in one particular sentence: "The object of Alternative 3 is to ensure the survival of all strains of the human race and not merely those from the more advanced and privileged back-grounds."
That sounds fine and noble -- until one considers the nightmare treatment of those regarded contemptuously as "components." They have been pitilessly shanghaied from their families and reduced to sub-humans. They now labor as mindless beasts of burden. And their only escape from degradation lies in death. That is the true and unforgivable obscenity of Alternative 3.
The document continued:
Representatives of all aspects of human culture will eventually be transported to the new
territory. Therefore, in time, designated movers will also be recruited from the arts. They will include writers,
painters, sculptors and musicians.
In the early stages, however, only those with skills essential to the
foundation of the new society are required. Approved category lists have already been circulated.
Explorations in
the new territory have revealed certain factors which had not been entirely anticipated and, principally or this
reason, amendments have been necessitated to category quotas.
The Committee in Residence particularly requests
more intensive recruitment of doctors, chemists, neurologists and bacteriologists.
The new territory, for the
moment, has a satisfactory complement of computer specialists, mining technicians, and agricultural overseers.
Recruitment of these categories is to cease until further instructions.
Expansions and wastages will inevitably
result in changes and monthly lists of personnel requirements will in future be circulated to National Chief Executive
Officers by Department Seven.
The document then detailed the Alternative 3 attitude to children. They were to be introduced into the new territory for it was considered that their presence would have "the beneficial effect of adding an additional dimension of social-structure familiarity". That, when the jargon is stripped away, means that the emigrants would appreciate having them there, that children would help them feel more "at home".
However, children were not considered productive - not in the way required in the new territory - and so the quota was to be severely restricted. Only those with "key parents" were to be transported - and then only if the parents could not be persuaded to make other custodial arrangements for them in the old territory:
There may be instances in which vital personnel can be persuaded that their children can be left with relatives in the knowledge that they will be reunited with them at a reasonably early date and, where applicable, every reasonable effort should be made to secure the success of such persuasion.
No figures or percentages were given in that document but it would appear that mathematician Robert Patterson's children - sixteen-year-old Julian and fourteen-year-old Kate - are part of a very small minority. Unless, of course, there was a change of attitude towards "the child quota" between 1972 and the time of their disappearance from Scotland in February, 1976.
Ann Clark, on the evidence of that document, is also part of a minority. All women are, in Alternative 3. The ratio among designated movers is apparently three males to each female. Unless, again, there has been a policy change since the document was circulated in 1972.
No facilities can yet be spared for maternity care, although naturally there are plans for the future, and so pregnancies are outlawed in the new territory. The Committee in residence will provide notification of when this ruling is rescinded.
Accidental pregnancies will be automatically aborted and parties to the offence will be arraigned before the Committee in Residence.
The rest of the document dealt mainly with the provision of recreational and entertainment facilities. There is, apparently, a cinema. There are also a number of communal television-viewing rooms into which flow programs transmitted from many parts of the world.
It is intriguing to realize that designated movers, including men like Brian Pendlebury from Manchester, were very likely watching that sensational edition of Science Report.
We have already mentioned how, in the course of that program in June, 1977, Simon Butler told viewers that twenty- four people were then known to have vanished in mysterious circumstances - circumstances which pointed to their having been recruited into Alternative 3.
Three of those people, of course, were Ann Clark, Robert Patterson and Brian Pendlebury. Here we intended to give
details of the other twenty-one - based on information collated for Sceptre Television by Terry Dickson. In eighteen
of those cases, however, we have received family requests for anonymity and, in deference to those requests, we are
restricting ourselves to three examples:
Richard Tuffley, 27, endocrinologist. Born in Sidmouth, Devon, but
living and working in Swansea, South Wales. Orphaned when young and brought up by mother's sister, now deceased.
Unmarried and no known relatives. Lived alone in small rented flat near university.
Disappeared Monday, January 5,
1976. Last seen driving light-blue mini-van in direction of Cardiff. Van has still not been located.
Statement from his departmental chief: "He was a first-class and highly-conscientious colleague - certainly not the
sort one would expect to let the team down as it now seems he did.
"He was rather introverted and made few friends
but, I had no indication that he was in any way unhappy here."
Gordon Balcombe, 36, senior administrator with
multi - national manufacturing conglomerate. Living in Bromley, Kent, and working in central London. Divorced in 1969.
Father of three children, living with ex-wife, whom he did not see after divorce. Lived alone in former family home -
detached house backing on to park - but said to have many women visitors. Some, according to neighbors, often stayed
overnight. Disappeared Thursday, February 5, 1976. Last seen leaving his office in a taxi. Taxi-driver never
traced.
Statement from his managing director: "We were completely bewildered by his disappearance for he was a man
with a tremendous future in this organization. Plans were being mooted for him to move to a more senior position in
our base at Chicago and he seemed genuinely excited by the prospect.
"We regard his disappearance as a great
loss."
Statement from Mrs. Marjorie Balcombe:
"Gordon, for all I know, could be anywhere. I suspect that he is probably somewhere in America."
"He is the sort of man that executive head-hunters do try to entice to new posts and it is quite possible that he would not bother to tell his old firm if he decided to accept a better offer. He would just go if it suited his purpose. That's the sort of person Gordon is. Self-centered. "And I shouldn't be in the slightest surprised to learn that he has some woman in tow. Women are his great weakness."
"The only thing that really puzzles me is the way he left so many of his clothes and other personal possessions in
the house. That does strike me as being out-of-character."
Sidney Dilworth, 32, meteorologist. Living and working
in Reading, Berkshire. Widower. Wife died in car crash in October, 1975. No Children, lived alone in terraced house
being bought on mortgage. Disappeared Friday, April 16, 1976.
Last seen driving hired car in direction of London.
Vehicle later found in car-park at Number Three Terminal, Heathrow Airport.
Statement from his father, Wilfred
Dilworth: "I keep telling the police that something really bad has happened to our Sidney but, although they're very
sympathetic, they don't seem to be doing much about it. I've got a nasty feeling he's been murdered or something. He
was always a very considerate lad and he'd never want me and his mother to have this sort of worry hanging over
us."
"He was very upset after his wife was killed and he talked about trying to start a new life in Canada. In
fact, in the January before he disappeared he said he thought he had a job lined up there but, as far as I could
gather, that just fizzled out. At the research station they say he never mentioned anything about leaving but I
suppose he wouldn't want to tell them until it was all settled."
"Now we've reached the stage where I dread
opening the newspaper in the morning for I'm sure that one day I'll be reading that they've found his body."
Now
we know that this pattern has been repeated in country after country. Right across the world.
Andrew Nisbett, 39,
aerospace technician, born Tulsa, Oklahoma. Disappeared on Tuesday, October 5, 1976, from Houston, Texas - together
with his wife, Rita, and their only son.
Pavel Garmanas, 42, physicist, born in Usachevka, USSR. Disappeared on
Thursday, July 14, 1977, from his new home in Jerusalem, Israel.
Marcel Rouffanche, 35, nutrition specialist, born
in the suburb of Saint-Rugg near Avignon. Disappeared on Wednesday, November 16, 1977, from his apartment in
Paris.
Eric Hillier, 27, constructional engineer, born Melbourne, Australia. Disappeared on Thursday, December 29,
1977.
Intensive investigation has shown that the figures given by Butler in that television program represented
only a fraction of the true total. And that total is still mounting.
The explosion of fear provoked by the Science Report program resulted, as we said earlier, in the company's being required to deny formally the truth of the material which had been presented.
The wording of that statement had been prepared by Leonard Harman and, despite violent opposition from Clements, it was released by the Press Office. Most newspapers accepted the denial - apparently making no attempt to verify the curious background stories of people like Robert Patterson.
The Daily Express, to Harman's relief, devoted most of its front page the following day to a splash story headlined:
STORM OVER TV'S SPOOF. The Express story started:
Thousands of viewers all over the country protested in shock and
anger over a science fiction "documentary" put out by ITV last night.
From the moment that "Alternative 3" ended
at 10 p.m., irate watchers jammed the switchboards of the Daily Express and ITV companies to complain.
This story
made no mention of the evidence which had been given on screen by Dr. Carl Gerstein or by other respected authorities
such as Professor G. Gordon Broadbent. Grodin's important contribution was also ignored. However, the story did
indicate that the "hour-long spoof" -- transmitted at peak viewing time - "purported" to show a version of the
scientific brain - drain. It continued:
The program was introduced by former newscaster Simon Butler as a serious
investigation into a disturbing trend of scientific discovery.
American and Russian spacemen were seen
collaborating to set up the "new colony"...while viewers were left to suppose that the reason for the exploration was
the end of life on Earth.
TV advertised the show by saying: "What this program shows may be considered
unethical..."
Viewers taken unawares protested their shock immediately. Others, realizing the program was a spoof,
complained of ITV's "irresponsibility".
Early today, a spokesman for the Independent Broadcasting Authority said
it had thought long and hard before allowing the documentary to be shown.
But Mrs. Denise Ball of Camberley,
Surrey, said: "I was scared out of my wits. It was all so real."
Mrs. Mary Whitehouse, the renowned clean-Up-TV
campaigner, was another who completely believed the "Harman denial". She was quoted in another newspaper as saying: "I
had hundreds of calls. The film was brilliantly done to deceive."
So that was the immediate reaction. And that was entirely understandable. The facts assembled by Clements and his team were so stupefyingly frightening that people were eager to believe they were not true.
People were delighted to accept Harman's denial because it drew a comforting veil over the unacceptable.
All this put men like Terry Dickson in a most invidious position. Over Robert Patterson, for example. Had Patterson ever really existed? That question, together with others like it, was implicit in the attitude of most newspapers. And, for some unfathomable reason, officials at the University of St. Andrews refused to make any comment. The vice-chancellor there who had explained about Patterson going prematurely to America, who had apologized so courteously for the resulting waste of time...he was on protracted leave somewhere in Europe and could not be contacted.
So was Patterson merely a figment of Dickson's imagination? Was that why Benson had been unable to interview him?
The questions were piling up. And they were getting crazier and crazier.
During the following few days, however, Fleet Street had time to make inquiries and certain journalists began to consider the television investigation in a rather different perspective.
Terry Dickson has told us that the biggest moment of relief for him came on June 26 when he opened his copy of the Sunday Telegraph. Columnist Philip Purser, respected as one of the most perceptive commentators in Britain, pointed out that "a number of mysteries within the mystery posed by Alternative 3 remain unsolved."
The first of those "Mysteries" detailed by Purser related to "Dr. Robert Paterson (sic), one of the savants whose disappearance prompted this disturbing investigation".
Purser had a special reason for being interested in Patterson for, as he told his readers, he had indirect knowledge
of the man:
The son of a friend of mine who lectures in the same department at St. Andrews tells me that
Patterson, though an able mathematician and specialist in Boolian geometry, was also a true Scot, notoriously careful
with his bawbees.
Those final five words are clearly a reference to the Patterson characteristic we described in
Section Two - that of resenting having so much of his money taken in taxation. He tended to be such a bombastic bore
on the subject that, as we said, many of his university colleagues were relieved when he announced he was leaving.
Purser's contact at St. Andrews was probably one of those colleagues.
Philip Purser made it abundantly clear that
he was too shrewd to be fooled by the Harman denial. He concluded his Sunday Telegraph article with these
thoughts:
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?
Letters flowing into the studios showed there was also a significant proportion of thinking viewers who
recognized the truth. One of the first received by Simon Butler was from the President of the European Space
Association who wrote: "I must congratulate you and Colin Benson on your assiduous research."
Here are extracts
from other typical letters:
I am a recently-retired aerospace technician and your investigation explained certain
factors which I discovered in the course of my duties and which have been puzzling me for some years. Thank God
someone has at last had the initiative and the tenacity to present the unpalatable truth - E.M., Filton, Bristol.
Congratulations on not allowing the politicians to muzzle you! Your Science Report was absolutely terrifying but, of
course, the truth so often is and surely we have a right to know what is really happening. The subsequent
back-pedaling by official spokesmen for your company, which appears to have been blandly accepted by most newspapers,
does not surprise me. Most of my professional life has been spent in the Civil Service and I am only too aware of how
pressures can be applied, particularly when it comes to so-called Official Secrets. Please maintain your vigilance -
J.N., London NW
Yet newspapers still showed an extraordinary reluctance to pursue the subject of Alternative 3.
Why? Why did they not question people like Wilfred Dilworth and Marjorie Balcombe? Why did they not contact Dennis Pendlebury in Manchester...or Richard Tuffley's former colleagues in Swansea? These people were available for interview. They still are available.
Many attempts have been made, as we explained earlier, to prevent the publication of this book - and, because of action by those two MPs, we have been forced into a reluctant compromise. So is it possible that newspapers, have been subjected to similar pressures? And that they, in "theinterests of national security", have yielded to those pressures? That, in a free society, may seem incredible. But the world has never before known anything as incredible as Alternative 3.
A key to the truth was provided by Kenneth Hughes in the Daily Mirror on June 20, 1977 - the day the program was actually transmitted. He had secured advance access to some of the material gathered by Clements and his team and his article was headlined: WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON? He wrote:
A science program is likely to keep millions of Britons glued to their armchairs.
Alternative 3 (ITV 9.0) is an investigation into the disappearance of several scientists.
They seem simply to have vanished from the face of the Earth.
Chilling news is read by former ITV newscaster Simon Butler who gives a gloomy report on the future.
Then came the truly telling paragraph:
"The program will be screened in several other countries - but not America. Network bosses there want to assess its effect on British viewers.
That is what columnist Hughes had been told. That is what he believed. The truth was, however, that television network bosses in America were permitted no discretion in the matter. Any screening of that Science Report program was forbidden in that country by higher authority.
It was no mere coincidence that two of the countries where the documentary was banned were America and Russia -the two principal partners in this amazing conspiracy. Security forces in each of those countries were particularly alert to the nuances of public reaction...
The backlash of embarrassment which followed the transmission produced an immediate clamp-down of information in Britain. Even Professor G. Gordon Broadbent, a man noted for his independent attitudes, was reluctant to become more deeply involved. We wanted him to enlarge on the theories he had outlined in the program, to elaborate on the theme of covert co-operation between the super-powers, and so Watkins visited him at the Institute of International Political Studies in London. Here is a transcript from the tape of that interview which took place on July 7, 1977:
WATKINS: You are naturally aware of the statement which claimed that the Alternative 3 program was a hoax. What is your reaction to that statement?
BROADBENT: It would be wrong, in the present political climate, for me to make any comment.
WATKINS: You suggested that co-operation between East and West could involve some "massive but covert operation in space". Would you give your reasons for that suggestion?
BROADBENT: You may recall that I stressed that this could be the situation but I did not state categorically that it was. In fact, as I remember,I explained that I was not in the business of speculation and I see nothing to be gained by enlarging on what I have already said.WATKINS: You took part in that program as an expert commentator. What are your feelings about this entire exercise now being dismissed a a hoax?
BROADBENT: Shall we say that the program was of a more sensational nature than I had anticipated when I agreed to participate? I was surprised by some of its findings.
WATKINS: But do you feel those findings accurately reflected what is really happening?
BROADBENT: I'm sorry...I'd prefer to say no more.
The interview was extremely unsatisfactory. However, only a few weeks later, we received more information which
provided a deeper insight into the workings of Alternative 3...
Thursday, August 4, 1977. Another submarine
meeting of Policy Committee. Chairman: R EIGHT. Transcript section supplied by Trojan starts:
A TWO: But losing a whole Batch Consignment just like that!
A EIGHT: We had bum luck...that's all there is to it...
A TWO: Three hundred bodies smashed to bits...a complete write-off and that's all you can say! We had bum luck! Look, I'm not a technical man and I tend to get lost with some of this technical talk...so will someone please explain just how a thing like this can happen...because, I tell you, I've got a gut feeling there's been carelessness.
R FIVE: It is not possible to legislate against accidents of this nature...they are part of the hazards of transportation to the new territory...
A TWO: Yes, but...
R FIVE: Please...I will explain. Meteors are very common, far more common than people realize, and about a million of them enter the earth's atmosphere every day. Nearly all are very tiny,not more than about a gram in weight, but some are considerably bigger...
A EIGHT: That's right...some are too big to evaporate completely on their journey through the earth's atmosphere so they land as solid lumps. We reckon that about 500 kilograms arrive this way from outer space every year...
R FIVE: Sometimes these lumps are gigantic. There was one in 1919, for example, which landed in Siberia. It devastated about 100 square miles of countryside...
A EIGHT: Then there's that classic meteor crater in Arizona...
R FIVE: It is the same in and around the new territory...millions of meteors are bombarding its atmosphere and our craft have to travel through that bombardment...
A TWO: But our pilots...don't they take avoiding action?
A EIGHT: Imagine yourself on a bicycle...trying to dodge an avalanche that's rolling right on top of you...that's how it was with this lot...
A TWO: And you're saying this one which hit the Batch Consignment craft was maybe as big as that Siberian one?
R FIVE: Possibly...but we have no means of telling...anyway, it wouldn't be necessary for it to be that big...one a hundredth that size would have completely destroyed the craft...
R EIGHT: This discussion, I feel, is leading us nowhere. Our scientific people at Archimedes Base have assured us that this disaster-our first, I must emphasize - could not possibly have been avoided. And that has been confirmed by the Committee in Residence. It is hardly our function to hold another post-mortem.
A ONE: That's right. We ought to be thankful there were no designated movers on board. So we lost 300 components...is that so desperately serious? All we've got to do is fix for another collection.
(A
uthors' note: The following month, you may recall,brought reports of mass disappearances in Australia. By
the end of September many of those who had disappeared were found by chance in what was apparently a slave-labor
camp-possibly in readiness for clinical processing and transportation. Many others have never been seen since. The
discovery of those "slave-labor" men, coming so soon after that meeting of the Policy Committee, might, of course,
have been merely a coincidence. However, we consider that to be highly unlikely).
R EIGHT: The legacy of that unfortunate television program is of far more immediate importance...
A FIVE: Listen...that program has been completely discredited. People have accepted it wasn't meant to be taken seriously, that it was no more than an elaborate joke...we don't need to sweat blood over it...
R EIGHT: Most people have accepted the official statements but there are those who cannot be so easily convinced. We must not under-estimate the damage that has been done by the program. It has made certain people think and wonder and that can be dangerous. We must make certain that its credibility is completely eradicated.
A TWO: I told you we should have killed that guy Gerstein...way back in February...I said then he was dangerous...
R FOUR: My friend is right...he did say that. And I pointed out then that Gerstein's talk could start a panic among the masses...
A FIVE: So what are you saying? An Expediency?
R ONE: What value would that be now? He has said all he can add...and now people are laughing at him. They say he is a crank. so what would be gained by an Expediency?
A TWO: He should never have co-operated with those television guys...he deserves to die and...
A EIGHT: I told you all before...we don't use Expediencies for punishment purposes...we use them only in the furtherance of the operation. So maybe we were wrong before...maybe we should have had Gerstein killed...but, now, I see no point...
R EIGHT: We will vote. Those in favor of an Expediency?...thank you...And against?...Good...
I entirely agree. Gerstein did behave in a most foolhardy manner but we have nothing to gain by his death...
A TWO: But what about the regional officer concerned?
A EIGHT: You're right there. He should have stopped that television crap. He's proved himself to be utterly unreliable. He failed and failed badly and, what's worse, he could let us down again. The man, without any question, is a liability and I propose an Expediency.
R TWO: Seconded.
R EIGHT: Those in favor?...Then that is unanimous. The method?
A THREE: How about a telepathic sleep-job...maybe with a gun...
R EIGHT: That seems sensible...it's too soon after Ballantine for another hot-job.
That was where the transcript section ended. What had Gerstein said to cause such consternation? Those who saw the television program will already know. In the nest section, for the benefit of others, we will be giving full details of his interview with Simon Butler.
But what of the final part of that transcript: "telepathic sleep-job with a gun". That was gibberish to us -- at that stage. It was not until later that we got a possible explanation from Dr. Hugo Danningham. We were accustomed by that stage to surprises. But Dr. Danningham's explanation came as one of the most startling surprises yet.