@BEGIN_FILE_ID.DIZ The Alien Autopsy Article to appear in UK's 2000 AD magazine [ 16-Aug-95 ] [ mIC fLAiR/oGN uFO tEAM!'95 ] @END_FILE_ID.DIZ [100672,2420] Alan McKenzie AUTOPSY. Text, Bytes: 5894, Count: 79, 16-Aug-95 Title : The Alien Autopsy Keywords: 1 Article to appear in UK's 2000 AD magazine This feature will appear in Prog 955 of the British weekly sf anthology comic 2000 AD on sale 25th August. It is posted on the Forum with permission but remains copyright (c) 1995 Fleetway Editions Ltd and may not be reproduced elsewhere. Magazine: 2000 AD Feature: The Aliens Are Here Byline: Feature by Alan McKenzie It was the strangest invitation I'd ever had. A friend had heard through an acquaintance at the BBC that there was a screening of film footage of an allegedly genuine autopsy on an alien creature. Filled with cynicism, I went along, not quite knowing what to expect. The screening took place at the Museum of London, well attended by the world's Press. The notes handed out beforehand explained that in 1947, near Roswell Army Air Field in New Mexico, an alien spacecraft had crash-landed, killing its four non-human occupants. The wreckage and the alien bodies were taken to Roswell, where they were examined. The autopsies of the aliens were filmed and the footage we were about to see had been in the possession of the camera operator for almost fifty years. The lights dimmed and we saw about twenty unedited minutes of monochrome footage of what looked like two masked technicians dissecting a non-human cadaver, removing organs and finally the brain. They were watched by another man in a surgical mask from behind a large observation window. The camera work was very poor. Evidently the cameraman didn't own a tripod and had only rudimentary knowledge of exposure levels. The cadaver did not seem to possess a rib-cage, had six digits on each limb and closely resembled the well-known sketches of aliens that accompany almost every witness's account of a sighting. After a few minutes, the novelty of the alien body wore off and I began to examine their surroundings more carefully. On the wall behind the technicians was a telephone that appeared too modern to be of 1947 vintage. The coiled wire between the body of the phone and the receiver seemed to be of the type introduced during the 1950s. Also in the background, was a work bench, cluttered with assorted items of laboratory glassware. The assistant technician was placing containers holding the alien's organs on this workbench. It occurred to me that this was rather careless. Had any of the glassware toppled over, vital evidence of Man's first contact with a Visitor from the Stars would have been contaminated by glass shards. Then I began to wonder why the glassware was there. The only answer I could come up with was that it was to make the scene look more like a science laboratory. This was further reinforced for me when I noticed that the camera only ever pointed in one direction. The cameraman never reversed the angle of his shot, as though the scene were being shot on a film set, which of course would be a room with only three walls. Then I thought about the masked observer. If he was standing safely behind a glass window, why did he need the surgical mask? It couldn't be to prevent possible contamination. The window would have taken care of that. However, the observer's face was conveniently concealed whenever he was in camera-shot. It also occurred to me that the technician doing the dissection didn't appear to use his scalpel boldly. On the contrary, he seemed hesitant, as though using a scalpel were a new experience. On reflection, it didn't seem very likely to me that the U.S. military would allow a technician who didn't know how to use a scalpel near such a valuable piece of evidence. Finally, I thought about the bad camerawork. Surely if the military needed a filmed record of the dissection, they could have gotten someone who knew how to operate a camera. After the Second World War, U.S. Army camera operators were acknowledged to be among the best and many went on to enjoy successful careers in Hollywood. Such a dissection would be too valuable an incident to risk filming badly. Taken individually, my objections don't seem to amount to much. But when you put them all together, I think there is "reasonable doubt" that the footage I saw was genuine. I reluctantly had to conclude that the film was, in fact, just an elaborate hoax. But why would anyone go to such lengths? It wasn't April 1st. And even if it was, a more effective gag would be to release the footage direct to television. I wondered if the film had been concocted by UFO enthusiasts in an effort to garner more publicity for their cause. Or perhaps it was some kind of ploy to get the U.S. Government to deny the authenticity of the film and reveal the contents of their own Project: Blue Book files. Then a sinister idea struck me. What if the film I saw had been concocted by the U.S. Government as a piece of disinformation? That is, a filmed record containing several deliberate mistakes so that viewers would reach the conclusion themselves that it was fake. What a brilliant way to discredit the UFO movement and reduce public interest in all UFO phenomena. Not very likely, I'll grant you, but an interesting theory, nonetheless. I don't think we'll ever get to the bottom of the motives behind the creation of the Alien Dissection film. Until I hear what trained pathologists [I've since read the report by Dr Milroy and he agrees that the technician was not an experienced pathologist] and movie special effects technicians think regarding the film's authenticity, I'm not in a position to pass any judgements. That no other journals have, to my knowledge, reported on the screening seems to bolster my opinion that what I saw was a fake. Pity. I wanted to know once and for all . . . are we alone? [Alan McKenzie is a regular contributor to 2000 AD, creator/scripter of Bradley, Luke Kirby, Brigand Doom and the forthcoming R.A.M. Raiders, scripter of Chopper and the Judge Dredd daily newspaper strip. He's just sold his first script to Marvel US.]