Characters (in order of appearance) Guard standing outside ESRC Bukovsky
Fallada

Minister Metallurgist Pathologist
1st scientist BBC Announcer Medical 1 Medical 2 Guard

Space Girl

Dialog

MINISTER
 I see.
How did you open the girI’s case?

BUKOVSKY
 We didn’t, Minister.
We were taIking about how to get it open when it popped open of its own accord.

MINISTER
 – Did you X-ray the crystaI cases?

BUKOVSKY 
- We’re not certain they’re crystaI.

METALLURGIST
 The casings are not metaIIic.
I’m not even sure they’re organic. The casing is right there
in front of us without being there… – if that makes any sense.

MINISTER 
- And the bodies?

PATHOLOGIST
 We’re going to do
our first dissection now.
Provided, of course,
that Dr. FaIIada agrees they’re dead.

BUKOVSKY Fallada

FALLADA 
I don’t know that I am quaIified to pass judgment on aIien death.

PATHOLOGIST
 You wouId agree that
 they’re less alive than we are?

BBC ANNOUNCER
 Yesterday in Hong Kong, 
goId cIosed Iower.
In light trading
 on European currency markets… the pound cIosed mixed against
 the dollar and West German marks. There will be a full market report after the late news.
This is James Graham
 reporting from the city.
 Now back to the newsroom.

NEWSROOM ANNOUNCER Halley’s Comet is now dominating the northern sky… stretching over 100 million miles across the heavens… occupying one-sixth
 of the entire visibIe horizon.
 On this exceptionally clear night…
a group of enthusiasts are commemorating Dr. Edmund Halley’s great prediction…
by holding an outdoor watching from
 his original observatory at Greenwich.
Our viewers may be interested 
to know…
that comets were once considered
 to be harbingers of eviI.
 One of the earIiest words
 for comet was ”disaster”…
which in Latin means ”eviI star.”
It may indeed be an evil star
for the deep space probe Churchill. There’s still no word from Her Majesty’s government as to the fate of the crew… whether they’re aIive or dead.
We can only await
 further developments–