Pertwee on Betamax?

[Mark Vanderlinde-Abernathy]

Betamax tapes - Old Doctor Who recordings (not 16mm or VHS) - 45 tapes

This was noticed over on Mondas, so figured I'd bring it up here. I didn't know if any of these would be worth looking into? A couple of the tapes mention Mind of Evil, Planet of the Daleks, and Ambassadors of Death.

The seller notes that it's a hodgepodge of recordings and transfers.

Does anyone recognize this particular collection? Would it be worth inquiring about the Pertwee tapes? Or is this a known collection that doesn't have any restoration worth?



EDIT: My Guess is no. The three stories of note are all Typeface labels. Other labels include Invasion of the Dinosaurs 2-6 and various Troughton stories. Since they're all uniform it seems like they were all created around the same time. So I'm guessing transfers from VHS tapes or something? Probably made for trade? Maybe I'm way off though ...

[Richard Bignell]

I can't see that this would be anything other than a standard fan video collection from the 1980s, when everyone was swapping and dubbing stories for each other. The random selection of episodes on the tapes would seem to confirm that. It wasn't that difficult to get Ambassadors, Mind and Planet of the Daleks back then as lots of people had copies - of varying quality!

[Richard Develyn]

Nov 15, 2017 8:33:17 GMT Richard Bignell said:

I can't see that this would be anything other than a standard fan video collection from the 1980s, when everyone was swapping and dubbing stories for each other. The random selection of episodes on the tapes would seem to confirm that. It wasn't that difficult to get Ambassadors, Mind and Planet of the Daleks back then as lots of people had copies - of varying quality!

I remember those days well :-)

The most interesting thing would be if he's got off-air recordings, and probably for the stuff in between the episodes like old trailers and adverts which could truly be rare.

Richard

[keithmchugh]

I wish I'd kept some of mine. Most have been recorded over once they were shown on UK Gold in the early 1990's. Later episodes of The Silurians exist from a TVNZ Channel 2 broadcast in black/white. Also found the end of Androids of Tara with what sounds like an Australian continuity announcer over the end credits.

[richardwright]

Hi All,

I'm the chap that has listed the tapes for sale on eBay. 

I got hold of them a few years back with a batch of other format tapes (u-matic/phillips n1500 etc...) however, the Betamax tapes of the selection where the only ones which contained Doctor Who, some tapes had Blake's 7 and a few early Black Adders.

I could only check two of the Who tapes before my betamax machine finally died!  The ones I checked where a tape labelled Moonbase episodes 1 & 4 (turned out to be 2 and 4) also checked a random tapes - I think it had Dominators on it, so they appear to contain what is on the label.


Last week I was going to start checking through all the tapes, for continuity, trailers etc.... but that's when I discovered my Betamax had gone dead.  Although I will be replacing the machine, I want to get a good one, so will be saving over the next couple of months.  You can see the old Betamax at the bottom of the image, yes - it's a top loader!



If the tapes fail to sell on eBay, I would be quite happy to donate to anyone here that has a Betamax and has the time to check the tapes! 

Richard

[Robert Lia]

I still have a working SONY Time Commander Betamax from the early 1980's (well it was working last time I hit play in 2006) Its been in the garage since then. Sadly those tapes are the standard stuff that was going around fandom back in the 1980's. I had camera copies of Moonbase 2 + 4. I would say the ones that are not camera copies from Australia or the United Kingdom are recording or copies of recordings that came from either PBS or TV Ontario in Canada.

I had many friends who collected Dr. Who on Sony Betamax up until the late 1980's before Beta lost to VHS in the USA

[Sofia Fox]

Though it is a shame that wasn't Episode 1 of the Moonbase

[Sofia Fox]

Looking at the images, there is the Space Pirates...let's hope it more than just Episode 2

[Rob Moss]

Nov 15, 2017 8:33:17 GMT Richard Bignell said:

I can't see that this would be anything other than a standard fan video collection from the 1980s, when everyone was swapping and dubbing stories for each other. The random selection of episodes on the tapes would seem to confirm that. It wasn't that difficult to get Ambassadors, Mind and Planet of the Daleks back then as lots of people had copies - of varying quality!

Whilst Richard is most likely correct, there is of course the extremely remote possibility that such tapes could contain off-air recordings of Ambassadors of Death and the Mind of Evil from the same run as the recordings of The Silurians and Terror of Autons, and of course the interference-afflicted Ambassadors that we already know about.

However, it is far more likely that these are of no value whatsoever!

[Rob Moss]

Not least because the tapes look like much later tapes than would have been used in the late 70s (although again, the possibility exists that replacement labels and boxes could have been used later on).

[Robert Lia]

There is always that slim chance of something being there. I had copies of The Silurian's. Ambassadors of Death and Terror of the Autons and The Daemons in 1982 or so as an 18 year old. I got a hold better copies (closer to the original recording in 1983 or 1984) for all of them.

My point being the poor quality copies of the above were openly making the rounds in tape trading circles as far back as 1982, I mean if I could get a hold of them as an 18 year old fan with NOTHING to TRADE back then so could lots of people.

[keithmchugh]

There's a few Peter Davison stories in there. They must be the ones listed as original off-air recordings. That TDK Super Avilyn L-750 tape labelled Warriors of the Deep and Awakening is certainly tape stock from around that time. The Time Meddler recording could be from the 1992 repeat, as I remember recording some of those repeats on an old Betamax machine as well as VHS.

[Robert Lia]

I used TDK Super Ailvyn l-750 EHG rapes in the 1987-90 time frame and still have them. TDK made very good quality VHS and Betamax tape back then

[Matthew Kurth]

Nov 19, 2017 5:57:56 GMT Robert Lia said:

I used TDK Super Ailvyn l-750 EHG rapes in the 1987-90 time frame and still have them. TDK made very good quality VHS and Betamax tape back then

I swore by Kodak tape stock when they were in the black/yellow/gold sleeves, up until about 1996. Then I switched to TDK up until I gave up on VHS. I used to get them in bulk at Sam's Club when I ran a Sailor Moon tape trading outpost and never had a problem.

[Robert Lia]

KODAK VHS tapes I had few of in the 1980's that were given to me. Normally I had used Maxell or TDK. I also have a bunch of RCA VHS tape that is still in good condition to this day. Memorex video tape went to pieces years ago . Polaroid was cheap as well. I did also get a few tapes from the UK in trade that stood up well


Point being some VHS and Betamax tape from the 1980's holds up to this day better than other VHS and Betamax tapes from the 1980's