We are keen to hear from anyone who has material recorded off-air that may not exist in official archives that would be of interest to Doctor Who fans and posterity, which we could include in future DVDs. Without help from a few fans in the past, we would not have had items on the DVDs such as any of the 'Swap Shop', 'Pebble Mill' or 'Nationwide' interviews, BSB interview segments, trailers and continuity announcements. Although we have access to a large number of items, coverage remains patchy. We are sure that there are many clips out there which we do not have, or which are in better quality than our current holdings. We want to avoid the situation where, after a DVD is released, someone approaches us with a better copy of something, or extra material which could have improved the release.
WHAT WE NEED
1) Video recordings of episode, or new season, trailers and continuity from any era. BBC broadcasts only please (although satellite and foreign broadcasts may be interesting, clearance may prove impossible and it would be hard to know where to stop!). Preferably off air, but lower generation may be helpful if complete (it's frustratingly common for recordings to be clipped). We have facilities to replay almost any format of tape.
2) Audio recordings of trailers and continuity from any era (but especially pre-1978). Preferably complete and good quality line (rather than microphone) recordings, although all audible copies are potentially of interest.
3) Video recordings of related material. Things such as interviews on 'Swap Shop', 'Pebble Mill at One', 'Nationwide' and local news items. Preferably off-air, not lower than 2nd generation (unless you believe the material to be unique and of great interest in which case any quality would be considered). For example, we are very keen to locate an off-air recording of BBC East's 'Power of Kroll' location report from 15 December 1978. We are also looking for further off-air tapes of the 1978 anniversary 'Nationwide' interview, and the specially shot Season 17 trailer.
4) Audio recordings of related material. For example, radio interviews, TV material from the pre-home video era. An example would be comments on 'Points of View' or the 1967 'Talkback' appearance (we have a copy but it's not great).
WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT
When you e-mail the Restoration Team, you should usually receive a reply within 3 days, although exceptionally it may be a week (due to holidays or other irregular commitments). If you do not receive a reply within a week, please resend your e-mail.
For the purposes of the Data Protection Act, the Restoration Team is a not-for-profit organisation, and people who volunteer information on tapes they are prepared to make available can consider themselves members of a voluntary club. Although we are exempt from Data Protection Act registration in this regard, we will adhere to the principles of the Act. All information supplied will be kept secure and not passed to any other organisation or individual outside the Restoration Team. Any information supplied by an individual will be deleted upon that individual's request.
If and when we need to access the material (this does not necessarily mean a DVD release is imminent!) a Restoration Team representative will contact you again and discuss arrangements. In some cases we would prefer to borrow original material, in some cases we may be happy with a DVD-R or CD-R copy. We would normally use Royal Mail Special Delivery for transport of material. In the case of extremely rare and valuable material, we may visit you by arrangement to make a copy.
All of your reasonable costs will be covered. However, we cannot pay a fee as such for the material.
You may or may not receive a credit on a DVD for which your material is used, depending on its nature. As a rule of thumb, for a major feature (e.g. an item lasting more than a minute or two) you would probably receive a "Thanks to" credit. Continuities and trailers generally are not credited, unless they last more than a few minutes in total. However, where a DVD on-screen "Thanks to" credit is not feasible, we would aim to give full credit and thanks on the RT website. We would expect someone supplying a significant extra would receive a complimentary copy of the DVD. Sadly, a single short continuity announcement (for example) would not qualify. Without making promises, we would always aim to look after contributors though (it should be noted that while the RT can request complimentary copies, it is actually 2|entertain who say yea or nay).
If you have any material on audio and video that you would be willing to share with us to make the DVDs as definitive as possible, please e-mail clips@rtforum.co.uk .