Second go at writing this. Always copy the forum post to clipboard prior to pressing "Send message"!

We need more 2|entertain DVD extras like Cheques, Lies and Videotape off Revenge of the Cybermen. More in the same vein. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the first Pertwee sales to PBS in America ... old idents, continuity announcements, material pertaining to broadcast.

Jon Preddle has set up a fantastic site called broadwcast.org. DVD extras that mimic this or use the research that's gone into that site. It's great that they keep interviewing Damian, but there's more to Australia than Sydney.

This is my recollection of how I received some rare material in the 1980s, back in the days of video rentals, scarce dubbing, no community television, few fan networks and zero material to trade. Video disc and beta max were viable formats, SBS was new to Adelaide in June 1985. Here's a list of Who releases on VHS, just to illustrate how little there was: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_BBC_VHS_releases.

The internet was something my big brother had on his computer -- at university, where he could "email" "sys ops" around the planet, and little else. There was Usenet and mailing lists, but he was only inclined to use them for technical discussions about computer languages and such boring real world stuff.

In 1986 I had gone on a dubbing holiday at Moose's, out at Port Pirie. Met him indirectly through the club, had a fantastic range of rare Who. Went out there on a bus, dubbed like a mad man for a weekend, came back with nothing particularly rare. Still, anything at this stage was a bonus.

I met Geoff at Zencon II, in October 1988. That was the national media convention for the year, as there was (is) a split between media and literary fans. It's also the only con I've travelled interstate for, although I have found it convenient to travel with fans going to cons, say a really lame Star Trek one, then, say, instead attend a Kubick festival or such events we didn't get in Adelaide.

He ran the media room and so I asked him if I could get copies of things he was showing. He was OK with that, but surprised I couldn't get it locally. I could; by paying for it.

This is what I received for postage both ways, ratty old tapes (I didn't even bother to buy new ones) and a donation (Geoff passed this on to the Zencon committee, as the con went into deficit), so I suppose I did pay for it! One unexpected bonus was Geoff found the second Night Stalker film (The Night Strangler) on a tape I'd sent, so he dubbed it off for himself.


Doctor Who

The Keys of Marinus
Pilot
The Invasion episode eight

The only B&W Who available at the time was the 1985 compilation (a long word the BBC uses to mean "without credits") VHS Seeds of Death and the 1986 ABC broadcasts of The Krotons and The Mind Robber. The pilot was particularly sweet, with the unusual motion Hartnell makes while talking to Carole Ann Ford open to interpretation. All multi-generation, low sound, glitch filled and magnetically attractive.


Lost in Space

The Sky Pirate
Ghost in Space
War of the Robots

All first season B&W. Not my favourite, I'd rather have had anything rare, or not so rare. Still, these hadn't been played in Australia since the '60s, although Nine then Ten played the second and third (colour) seasons on high rotation. In 1997 Seven played the series through from the pilot on, following the movie. I've heard the pilot was played in 1988, but haven't seen any listing for it.


The Prisoner

Free for All

This was one of the highlights for me at the Zencon II media room, and I was very pleased to get this episode. Source was an '80s VHS release, obvious by the replacement of the end credits with nasty video generated credits roll.


Fireball XL5

The Sun Temple

Back to when the puppets were very rough. A punk band covered the theme in the '80s, so getting this was a pleasant surprise. Unknown source.


Stingray

Plant of Doom

Not so rare by the mid-80s, what was surprising here was the quality. Select episodes of Stingray and Thunderbirds had been released on VHS, but in wacky compilation formats. And unlike the BBC Who releases, they'd replace the credits with nasty video generated ones, cut the program as they saw fit (including removal of resolutions...) and in the case of Stingray, superimpose video generated ray beams over the model torpedoes. The source was film and all their additions were video, yuck. This was an actual episode with none of that nonsense, source unknown. The only thing I can compare the compilations to was the four BBC Blakes 7 releases; four episodes in the run time of three.


Captain Scarlet

The Mysterons

Everybody's favourite out of all this material. The first episode, there was much destruction, especially a scene where Captain Brown's head bursts into flame, followed by him exploding and taking the entire bunker/building complex with him. Source unknown, tape continued on to the start of the second episode, Winged Assassin, before running out. Captain Scarlet also had a dreadful VHS release, however this was an entire episode.


UFO

Conflict

You may have detected a bit of Gerry Anderson theme here, Geoff was in Fanderson, which I eventually joined too. UFO was occasionally played by Seven during school holidays around this time, however this was off a VHS release, and preceded by an ad for other Anderson releases by Parker.


Space 1999

The Infernal Machine

And this was probably the least favourite one when I showed it to others, or "The One with Gwent" as it became known. Source was off Seven, and they played both individual episodes and strange compilations around this time.

What I'd been after all along was The Tomorrow People. Someone had thoughtfully made a jaunting belt for display at Zencon II: an ordinary belt, plus a power point connected by a thick rubber band. The card caption read "nasty cheap prop for a nasty cheap show", and I agree, the prop maker fulfilled both the criteria. It was two tapes of this which were mailed to a shop near my house, stolen by an ex-staff member (or so they said) and then probably used to record stuff off the tube. I doubt a mail thief would keep Tomorrow People, even if they obviously belonged to someone else and had been mailed interstate. One feature of this lost package was a Tomorrow People round robin fan fic, where each author would get to kill a character as they added a chapter. Curious what she made of it, and the fact this was a story on paper being mailed around the country dates the anecdote, even more than the postage of tapes. Adding insult to injury, I kept asking my intermediary friend why I hadn't received the tapes, and when Geoff revealed he'd misaddressed the envelope, she said "You should have told me...".

So, if you're reading this Geoff, thanks for the tapes. Helped me a lot and heaps of people enjoyed them.