Alterative 3

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Has anyone ever heard of Alternative Three?

Secret Space Program
Is there a clandestine space program designed to save the elite from a global catastrophe?

Well,,Is There?

In 1977, Anglia TV in the UK broadcast an edition of its popular Science Report strand that uncovered a story so colossal it would change the world.

The episode was titled Alternative 3 and began with an investigation into a string of mysterious disappearances amongst top scientists. What followed was sensational.
The scientists, the show discovered, had been recruited into a top secret clandestine space program, designed to build a base on Mars in anticipation of a forthcoming ecological catastrophe on Earth.
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You Clever Brits,,,, you discovered something,,, didn't you?

Fact or Fiction?

Immediately after it aired, the producers of the program announced it had been fiction. The slot where Alternative 3 aired was one that routinely ran documentary episodes. The title of the series was Science Reports and Alternative 3 was the title of just one segment; it was the last program of the season of the Science Reports.

The program was created by reputable reporters and researchers who were well respected for their documentaries. Why would they risk their reputation by airing such a hoax? Was it really a hoax or was it a disguised message to the public about a secret space program?

A book with the same title, Alternative 3, was subsequently written by Leslie Watkins. It presented some of the theories of the alleged hoax as truth. The book and the television program promoted the idea that astronauts had landed on Mars in 1962 in a joint U.S./U.S.S.R. effort and definitively identified intelligent extraterrestrial life. It also promoted the idea that climate change was just one thing that could soon make the Earth uninhabitable.
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Why would they risk their careers?

The Truth about Alternative 3

Here are quotes from the author answering question.

Dear Ms. Dittrich:

  Thank you for your letter, which reached me today.  Naturally, I am
  delighted by your interest in Alternative 3 and by the fact that you
  plan to sell it in the Windwords bookstore.  I will certainly
  cooperate in any way I can.

The book is based on fact, but
  uses that fact as a launchpad for a HIGH DIVE INTO FICTION.  In answer
  to your specific questions:

The TV program did cause a tremendous uproar because viewers refused
  to believe it was fiction.  I initially took the view that the basic
  premise was so way-out, particularly the way I aimed to present it in
  the book, that no one would regard it as non-fiction.  Immediately
  after publication, I realized I was totally wrong.  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.

  So, summing up, the book is FICTION BASED ON FACT.  But I now feel
  that I inadvertently got VERY CLOSE TO A SECRET TRUTH.
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