From: sheppard.gordon@moondog.com (SHEPPARD GORDON) _________________________________________________________________ LEISURE & ARTS 03/06/95 WALL STREET JOURNAL [ . . . ] Whether the inhabitants of other planets indeed remain ignorant of the identity of Rhoda and Mary the upcoming "Alien Encounters From New Tomorrowland" does not disclose. But such ignorance would be hard to believe, given the enormous powers and achievements of these extraplanetary civilizations as described by authorities who hold forth on the program. Midway through this extravaganza, a woman relating how she has been stalked, repeatedly, by extraterrestrials cries out, "Oh my God! Not again!" So might we all say at the prospect of yet another visit with the legions claiming harassment by visitors from other planets. There are, to be sure, more than the by now standard run of victims here with stories of molestation in spacecraft, the stealing of their genes and sperm and similar high crimes. "It makes you feel so violated," reports one. Another declares, "It makes you doubt your sanity." Indeed. The producers have dredged up Jimmy Carter's old report -- filed when he was governor -- on unidentified suspicious objects suspended in the Georgia sky. The old malaise had struck. During Mr. Carter's presidency, the program shows, the administration's concern was sufficient to cause Jody Powell to write a memo to the FBI on the correlation of data regarding UFOs. On hand to introduce the show is Michael Eisner, chairman of Walt Disney, bringing word that at a top-secret military location in the United States, the government is hiding the remains of a mysterious spacecraft -- and that there is "more and more scientific evidence of alien encounters." Mr. Eisner has not simply appeared here in order to lift the hearts of the multitudes preoccupied with alien invasions and extraplanetary molesters. He is here to advertise Disney's "New Tomorrowland" theme park and its special feature on alien encounters. In the course of this effort Mr. Eisner and company have come up with this syndicated product from Buena Vista Television (airing March 1-26 in most of the country). In it we learn -- doubtless thanks to Mr. Eisner's by now renowned devotion to history education -- that mysterious flying objects flew over the White House in 1952, and that this was, according to the narrative, "the first time since the War of 1812 that our nation has been successfully invaded by a foreign power." It is an hour packed with accusations of a sinister government conspiracy designed to conceal the news of the alien life all around us -- and about to descend. The reason for this government plot to conceal all such data has to do, it is explained, with the fact that a technologically superior civilization (that from outer space) is about to descend on an inferior one (our own). When this happens, we learn, ours will cease to exist. Naturally the government doesn't want this distressing news put about. One commentator notes that the government is responsible for initiating a policy of ridicule aimed at those who report alien sightings. We hear too of the plight of citizens who have seen the aliens and then had to bear the slings and arrows of humiliation from an unbelieving world. A sad tale, that. By way of encouragement to these tormented visionaries, the program offers a reading from Ezekiel. Narrator Robert Urich comes forth, further to offer ringing assurance that Galileo, too, was once mocked. This comfort may come too late for the pitiable victims shown here, those who have lost their genes to the aliens, and their self-respect -- only natural when one is ravished by aliens. As one woman explains, "It's a violation of your space." Perhaps Mr. Eisner and Disney can next offer us a new Tomorrowland feature -- this one on all the people who know that the CIA is controlling them through radio waves emanating from fillings in their teeth.