UK broadcaster Anglia TV (later part of ITV) premieres the TV movie Science Report: Alternative 3, a “mockumentary” positing a scenario about Earth’s best and brightest young minds leaving their doomed world to start a colony on Mars. Originally intended to air on April 1st, 1977, the special – which is presented as an episode of a non-existent “Science Report” series – has been delayed due to broadcast industry strikes, but despite the end credits still carrying the April 1st date, the joke is lost on members of the viewing public, who call Anglia demanding further information; the “Alternative 3” scenario will gain traction as an actual conspiracy theory in the years to come, particularly when its 1978 novelization replaces the TV movie’s fictional astronauts with the names of real astronauts.
