Bettina Cooke

Bettina Cooke is a supporting protagonist of The Stranger, a 1973 TV movie also known as Stranded in Space, which was intended to be the pilot of a television series, but was not picked up by any network. She is an alien doctor residing on Terra, an Earth-like planet in Earth's orbital period, but on the opposite side of the sun. She first served the Perfect Order, remaining loyal out of fear, before trying to fight them to help a lost astronaut return home, only to be forcefully reconditioned by agents of the Perfect Order. Externally, Bettina is indiscernible from a human, like all other Terrans, but is presumably left-handed, like the rest of her species.
Bettina Cooke was portrayed by Sharon Acker.
== Biography ==
=== Early life ===
On Terra, Bettina Cooke became a doctor, presumably during the reign of the Perfect Order, a totalitarian dictatorship created in the wake of a devastating war across Terra, supposedly promoting peace and harmony throughout the planet. As a doctor, Bettina was employed by the Department of Medical Assistance, and became friends with an older professor named Dylan MacAuley. However, both MacAuley and Bettina's own brother became dissidents against the increasingly oppressive Perfect Order, but both were caught and imprisoned in Ward E, where dissidents were sent to be lobotomized. While MacAuley was spared due to his high intellect, allowed to return to work and kept in line by being given a terminal illness, Bettina's brother was never heard from again, prompting her to keep her loyalty to the government, although she kept some sympathy for the dissidents, keeping very loose contact with MacAuley.
=== The Stranger ===
In the 1970s, by Earth's time, the Perfect Order had been in power for 35-40 years. Suddenly, a spacecraft from Earth, carrying three human astronauts, crashed on Terra, picked up by the Perfect Order. Only one astronaut, Neil Stryker, survived the crash, and was taken to the nearest hospital, the one where Bettina was employed at, where it was discovered that he wasn't a Terran. As such, the Perfect Order put their agent Benedict on the case, where he had Stryker drugged and interrogated over several weeks. However, one night, Stryker escaped his room, fighting his way past Terran soldiers and running into Bettina in another room while looking for an exit route, pulling a scalpel on her and asking her to not be afraid, as he didn't want to hurt her. Bettina first replied that she wouldn't tell anyone, but then quickly ran out of the room and found Benedict, directing him and his soldiers to the room Stryker was in, only to find that he had already gotten out and escaped the building.
By the next day, Stryker, who had been wounded during the escape, made his way to the nearest Terran city, and stayed with an elderly Terran bookstore owner, who called the Department of Medical Assistance due to seeing Stryker looking ill. Bettina was then sent to the bookstore, meeting Stryker on the second floor. Recognizing him, with government reports claiming Stryker was simply an escaped mental patient, Bettina tried to run again, only for Stryker to quickly restrain and silence her. Stryker then asked her to listen, where he explained where he was really from, and how the Perfect Order had been holding him prisoner while trying to make him believe he was back on Earth. Bettina said that she only knew there was a special patient in the hospital, with the details of Stryker's human origin omitted. She then tried to claim that the doctor who was treating him would never try to hurt him, but Stryker clarified that the doctor kept him drugged, but Bettina refused to believe that the government wanted to harm him. She tried to get Stryker to come back to the hospital, assuring him that once his "treatment" was finished, he would be welcomed on Terra, and Stryker seemingly agreed, but on the condition that Bettina herself drive him there so he may personally turn himself in.
The two left in Bettina's car, just in time to avoid some Perfect Order officials patrolling the area, driving for some time until Stryker suddenly told her to turn left, forcefully turning the car when she refused and revealing that he lied about turning himself in. Seeing that she couldn't fight him, she kept driving down the new path, but quickly turned on her car's two-way radio, which was connected to Perfect Order dispatchers. Stryker told her how she lied before in the hospital, but Bettina tried to say that it was different, as she didn't know who he was, using the conversation to discretely send information back to the Perfect Order, such as what road they were going down. Stryker then had her stop the car and demanded answers about Terra, such as if there were any other nations or anyone who would help him, but Bettina then noticed another car coming down the road. She tried honking the horn to get their attention, but Stryker restrained her again and kissed her, making the other Terrans ignore them. When they passed, Bettina then slapped him and ran out of the car, demanding to be left alone, although Stryker followed, still asking for help. Bettina tried to say how the Perfect Order supposedly helped the mentally ill, but stopped herself when she mentioned her brother, only for Stryker to pressure her until she was forced to admit the truth, that her brother kept writing revolutionary ideas to the people until he was taken away, and she doesn't know if he still lives. Realizing that Stryker needed her help, and that she needed to fight the Perfect Order, Bettina rushed to shut off the radio, but a military helicopter had already been deployed to their location.
Stryker and Bettina quickly got back into the car, Stryker driving as the helicopter fired on them, until Stryker managed to make the helicopter fly right into a windmill and explode. Stryker wanted to just keep moving, but Bettina, formally introducing herself, instead directed him to MacAuley, who she knew could be able to help. The two arrived on MacAuley's farm, explaining Stryker's situation and getting far out of range of the Perfect Order's surveillance system. Bettina stayed with MacAuley as he explained parts of Terran culture to Stryker, such as the suppression of religion, and how the Perfect Order was formed rather suddenly, practically erasing the existence of all who opposed it. Afterwards, Bettina waited in the house while MacAuley and Stryker went over a plan to get Stryker back to Earth via hijacking an upcoming Terran spaceflight. MacAuley warned Stryker not to tell Bettina, but regardless, Stryker confided his plan with Bettina, showing her his dog tags as solid proof of his origin. Bettina, realizing she'd never see Stryker again, kissed him goodbye, falling in love with the lost astronaut, but was forced to let him go and left to return home.
However, when Bettina returned to her home, she was promptly arrested by Benedict, who had her interrogated through incredibly brutal means, using surgical procedures to partially lobotomize her, altering her mind to be more loyal to the Perfect Order, making Bettina tell him everything. Afterwards, she was released, and with a head covering on, returned to MacAuley, who had been forced to return home to retrieve some medications, breaking down and admitting what had happened to her, and asked to see Stryker and confess her love to him. However, MacAuley refused, and Bettina drove off, however, she followed MacAuley back to the space complex, her alterations causing her to inform Benedict who was leading a battalion of Terran soldiers right to the complex. At the complex, MacAuley managed to arrive before her, but gave in and let her see Stryker. She met Styker inside, as he prepared to take the place of an astronaut, telling him how she was intercepted and tortured by Benedict. However, she then began saying how the Perfect Order was kind and just, prompting Stryker to remove her head covering, revealing a surgical incision wound from the mind-altering tools. Benedict and Perfect Order soldiers then attacked Stryker, but he escaped to the roof, and caused an explosion that seemingly killed him. Back on the ground floor, as personnel evacuated, Bettina was met by an injured Benedict, who assured her that what she had done was right. However, her love for Stryker lingered in her mind even with the alterations, and she refused to answer Benedict. Benedict's lieutenant, Henry Maitland, then gave Stryker's dog tags to Benedict, which were dropped during the chase, but as the agents left, they dropped the tags. Bettina picked them up and held them close while she left, although unknown to the Terrans, Stryker had in fact survived the explosion by diving into the ocean below, and had already washed up on another shore, hitching a ride with a vacationing Terran family to escape the government.
Category:Aliens
Category:Humanoid
Category:In Love
Category:Siblings
Category:Supporters
Category:Fallen
Category:Female
Category:Doctors and Scientists
Category:Non-Action
Category:Science Fiction Heroes
Category:TV Show Heroes
Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:Reluctant Heroes
Category:One-Shot
Category:Inconclusive