Footage From 83

I've always been interested with model making and trains as a kid, so you could tell that Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends left a big popularity impact on my life for a very long time. I was going through Facebook Marketplace to find some old Thomas related stuff to relive my childhood until a listing caught my eye. It was a couple of Thomas VHS tapes grouped together until predictably one of them stood out to me, it looked like a bootleg or just a random blank VHS that's probably written in sharpie but none-the-less I was curious so I sent a message to the seller, with no surprise the seller responded to me admittedly about the mystery VHS tape. Apparently the tape holds an unused clip during filming for the first season from the show, it was done as a joke by the crew members for the director, David Mitton. Knowing I'm able to purchase something that could of been lost to time, I quickly asked to purchase the tape which of course he accepted.
After a week the package arrived with the unused Thomas VHS tape, my childlike excitement started to bubble as I opened the box and quickly read the title written in you guessed it, in sharpie. Although it was a bit faded I could still make out the numbers "27/10/1983", I went to my VCR player to play it full of joy knowing I own a never before seen clip from the original series. 
At first I thought the tape wasn't working as it was just static for about three minutes, I was debating if I got scammed until I saw a plain title card appear on screen. I was a bit confused, since it didn't start with the iconic shot of Post Windmill with Thomas, Annie and Clarabel chuffing in the distance near a big pond with weeds, but thought they just didn't film it yet. What was also absent was the music, all I could hear was static which made things a little uncomfortable but nothing too scary. 
It cut back to a bunch of static that I was hoping it wouldn't take forever again until suddenly it cut to a shot of Thomas at a station, he was staring straight into the camera with a smile on his face, he was by himself with no one else around. I was expecting he would move his eyes around like spinning them around and around in a circle but all he did was just nothing besides continuing to stare.
I couldn't tell if the crew members were trying to be scary or it was just for production purposes, so many theories were flooding my mind until again it cut back to static as I slowly could hear a ringing sound appear. The same shot of Thomas appeared but now without his face, what took its place was seeing the eye mechanism that made the eyes move during filming, it just looked like floating eyes with no other facial features, whoever was controlling the eye mechanism off screen was making Thomas' eyes move around, it was surreal to see but ruined the magic and appeal of the show to me. Once again it cut back to static, 
I couldn't tell what was going to happen besides a crew member placing a different face on Thomas, my model making brain was trying to figure out what could happen next while my ears couldn't handle the sound of the static and ringing sound that continued to make me feel uncomfortable. The same shot appeared but now without any eyes, it was just a black void through his empty eye sockets that didn't make any sense to me on why they would even film something like that, even as a joke for David. It felt like the crew wanted to relieve anger and tension while working on the show but why didn't they break anything? Why even film something like this? What was the goal of this so-called joke?
As the tape finished, I messaged the seller to ask them questions relating to the footage which lead me into finding out they might be able to find some more unused footage during different time periods of the show. I knew I had to find out more, who knows what else was filmed behind closed doors...
(PS. I uploaded the full footage on YouTube, but was now blocked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R90MU47StrY)
Category:Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends
Category:Lost footage