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Post by John Wall on May 24, 2018 11:48:59 GMT
Macra is only four parts long. Maybe it was a "let me know if you like the first half, then i'll slip you the other two episodes if you do" kind of ordeal. After all, if the headteacher did have an inside guy at the NZBC, he'd probably want to hand out as few films as possible to keep visual disturbances to a minimum. Just my thoughts on the idea. I don't buy this 'insider' and 'slipping films out just in case sports day gets cancelled' nonsense. This is the real world, not the world of The X-Files. There's no evidence for this and it's also not fair implicating people we don't even know in underhanded dealings. Bit of a smear on their character methinks. In the case of the Evil home recording, there was firm evidence, as witnessed by 3 people. All we have for Macra Terror school showing is childhood memories as evidence, and childhood memories are unreliable at best. Speaking of ill-remembered crabs, I recall in the West Midlands, 1970s, seeing the first half of 'Ebirah - Terror of the Deep!' and then being annoyed at having to be whisked off for the weekly shop with Mum. When we got back, my brother tortured me with his account of the great battles between Godzilla and Ebirah... Except that a search today online through The Times TV listings reveals that the film was only broadcast in the Midlands after 4pm (twice). But I SWEAR it was a morning slot, rudely interrupted by a town trip. You can't tell me otherwise, Times Online. The point is, those guys could have seen Macra Terror on TV, and are incorrectly recalling today they were seeing it at school - and, yes, despite one of them saying they'd NOT seen it on TV. Childhood memories... If, and it’s a big if, prints did “escape”, albeit temporarily, it was something that was completely unauthorised.
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Post by andrewfrostick on May 24, 2018 16:05:55 GMT
The school sports days did happen, as there are several documentary sources that show it took place, such as the school diaries. There is memorial evidence that films were shown. But it's what was shown that's in doubt - was it The Macra Terror or something else? (Was the 'something else' a film with giant crabs in it? There are plenty of B Movies that fit that description.) Some think this whole thing is delusional (some say the same about FOI requests) but there is sufficient evidence that parts of Neil's story are indeed true. Could they have seen this one - Attack of the Crab Monsters perhaps and got confused? youtu.be/S68QJFheZaw
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Post by John Wall on May 24, 2018 16:17:02 GMT
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Post by jakhaynes on May 24, 2018 16:35:19 GMT
BBC copies do get out. I worked at RAE Bedford in the late 80s and early 90s. Copies of factual programs, with science articles related to Bedford, Farnborough, some of the other outstation research programs were included in the film library. I clearly remember a copy of Tomorrow's World, 16mm and in a BBC can. In about 1998 it was replayed after a search for appropriate projector. A copy was take using a SVHD video camera. In the 60s and 70s the services military and civil were more open to co-operation.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2018 17:00:36 GMT
The Macra Terror Attack of the Crab Monsters
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Post by John Wall on May 24, 2018 17:15:43 GMT
It’s certainly promising. We might be close to a plausible explanation - like the Savages in, I think, Sierra Leone was probably the Monster of Peladon..
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Post by Mike Biggs on May 24, 2018 20:12:21 GMT
Macra is only four parts long. Maybe it was a "let me know if you like the first half, then i'll slip you the other two episodes if you do" kind of ordeal. After all, if the headteacher did have an inside guy at the NZBC, he'd probably want to hand out as few films as possible to keep visual disturbances to a minimum. Just my thoughts on the idea. I don't buy this 'insider' and 'slipping films out just in case sports day gets cancelled' nonsense. I'm not aware of anyone suggesting they were obtained in case a sports day gets cancelled. What's been stated is that the Headmaster was a bit of a film buff and happened to have these films in his possession.
My Great Uncle worked for NZBC in the 1970s and obtained various NZBC audio reel to reel tapes for his own personal use. Different to third party 16mm film, but the point is things did leave the organisation for personal use.
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Post by John Wall on May 24, 2018 21:21:50 GMT
I don't buy this 'insider' and 'slipping films out just in case sports day gets cancelled' nonsense. I'm not aware of anyone suggesting they were obtained in case a sports day gets cancelled. What's been stated is that the Headmaster was a bit of a film buff and happened to have these films in his possession.
My Great Uncle worked for NZBC in the 1970s and obtained various NZBC audio reel to reel tapes for his own personal use. Different to third party 16mm film, but the point is things did leave the organisation for personal use.
That sort of thing was not unusual and has resulted in some recoveries. At MBW a couple of years ago there was something from, I think, the earky 80s that had been copied on the quiet onto VHS.
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Post by Mike Biggs on May 25, 2018 8:30:14 GMT
I'm not aware of anyone suggesting they were obtained in case a sports day gets cancelled. What's been stated is that the Headmaster was a bit of a film buff and happened to have these films in his possession.
My Great Uncle worked for NZBC in the 1970s and obtained various NZBC audio reel to reel tapes for his own personal use. Different to third party 16mm film, but the point is things did leave the organisation for personal use.
That sort of thing was not unusual and has resulted in some recoveries. At MBW a couple of years ago there was something from, I think, the earky 80s that had been copied on the quiet onto VHS. There were those Doctor Who episodes that were secretly copied onto 16mm at the BBC during the 1980s as well. Amazing the things that can just quietly happen on the side.
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Post by Jaspal Cheema on May 26, 2018 19:19:27 GMT
He’s been chasing the thing for years! I’m coming to the view that it’s been destroyed:-( Either that or a “hoarder” managed to get it:-( I don’t have dates for things and have better things to do with my time than trawl back through years and years of interminable threads and posts. Perhaps some sad individual has a catalogue of PM “pronouncements”. Err... I wouldn't call it a catalogue,more a scrap-book actually...
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Post by Sue Butcher on May 27, 2018 9:59:25 GMT
Memory isn't completely fictional, don't discount it. I think if I'd seen an episode of Doctor Who at a school film show, it would be an unusual enough occurance to stick in my mind, and I'd certainly know it was Doctor Who. I mean, when I was a kid I'd get peeved when someone drew a Dalek with the wrong arrangement of spots!
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Post by richardwoods on May 27, 2018 11:27:09 GMT
In my experience memory can be, but isn't always pretty accurate, I've mentioned before on the forum being at my friends birthday party and, having been terrified the week before by the Invasion cliff-hanger where Jamie & Zoe are trapped in the sewers between the Cybermen and the deranged Cyberman, I voted to watch Land of the Giants instead. Roll forward to the Invasions VHS release I finally got to see what happened. The interesting thing was that from memory the cliff-hanger filming was shot from more in front of the approaching Cybermen than the way it was actually shot in reality, otherwise it was pretty much the same as I remembered. Web of fear, in all its glory was just as I remembered it first time around when I watched it again on Apple TV. The tube / yeti scenes were exactly as remembered, though I had forgotten some of the scenes & sub plots.
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Post by Sue Butcher on May 28, 2018 4:42:03 GMT
That's right. My memory of where I was when I saw Fury From The Deep was confirmed recently when we found one of Mum's letters which mentioned our after-school activities in 1970. I could have been wrong of course, but this one was dead right. I've also got a pretty good memory when it comes to animated cartoons; when I was young cartoons were the most amazing things imaginable.
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Post by Stephen Cranford on Jul 31, 2018 5:55:43 GMT
If some of you are curious about home video - I have several hours of off air home recorded video programmes from 1967 to 1969 on a Sony CV2000, so there is hope that material may exist. I uploaded this extract to youtube... this is a clip from a live show broadcast in May 1968 (the day after the Wheel in Space part 4) It is camera recorded from a 405 line monitor. Before you ask, checking for Doctor Who was the first thing I did! www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MqzOkDvipg
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Post by Greg H on Jul 31, 2018 12:06:54 GMT
Nice footage Stephen! I have always considered home taping as worthy an avenue as any other, but tracking old tapes down is so problematic! I always keep an eye out at car boot sales etc just on the off chance.
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