Once upon a time,
in a galaxy
not too far away,
there was...

Whatever happened to... the Doctor Who covers site of ROB WHITE?

(LAST EVER UPDATE: 12th January 2008)
LAST EVER UPDATE?
Afraid so! Read the full story as it's unfolded
(or click here for the outcome) ...
The Beginning
As you know, my DOCTOR WHO covers site has not always been called CHAMELEON CIRCUIT.
It used to be ART OF INFINITY before I decided to use that as an umbrella title for many sites.
The former CHAMELEON CIRCUIT was run by ROB WHITE. ROB's covers had long been regarded as the best amongst fans and other cover producers, and indeed Steve Roberts of the Restoration Team was quoted as saying that ROB's work should've been wrapped around the official discs, not the rotten design the BBC came up with and still use.

ROB's site disappeared at the end of 2005 and the domain name is still available to be bought (at the time of writing - Dec 2007). I heard various reasons for its demise, but whether any are accurate your guess is as good as mine.
Anyway, after a goodly time, I decided to expand my site into other shows and decided to use ART OF INFINITY as a umbrella title. That meant I needed a new title for my DOCTOR WHO content. As ROB's site was no longer active, I elected to use CHAMELEON CIRCUIT and purchased different domain names to use it. However, just to be sure, I added the rider on my title page that I had no connection with ROB or his site and couldn't provide any of his content or a contact address for him, just in case anyone thought I was passing my site and content off as his.

I did hear rumours that ROB's site had been archived somewhere on the net - whether these were true or not I didn't know and at the time I was concentrating on my own site(s) too much to really investigate.

As time has gone on though I have had various e-mails from people asking the same question - "whatever happened to the original CHAMELEON CIRCUIT?" So I had a scout round, and eventually located what I believe to be a partial copy of ROB's site as it last appeared!

It's not all plain sailing unfortunately - I say 'partial copy' because although the full site is there in theory, in practice quite a lot of the covers are either missing or inaccessable. Luckily however, the DVD section is mostly unaffected. ROB covered the DVD releases up to and including THE BEGINNING box set, a total of 33 stories plus the 'orphaned episodes' pack LOST IN TIME and the two Peter Cushing Dalek movies, and all of those covers are currently there. Attempting to download the files is not a problem, but it may generate an error report when you go to unzip the file using Winzip (I don't know about other extraction utilities, they may be fine) - clicking OK should allow you to unzip the cover with no further problems.
They will remain there - I am NOT now nor will be hosting them in the future
on Art of Infinity / Chameleon Circuit webspace; they are not my property.
The middle ( or what was going to be... )
However, it seems a shame not to provide some way for you good people to download ROB's fine covers, and make it a bit easier than trolling through the archived site of duff links and damaged or missing files. So I thought I would include a page on my site linking to the archived site's files (as they currently exist - if they disappear please let me know!) so you could add to those you downloaded before ROB went away.

I intended doing this with ROB's say-so, because as I've said the content does not belong to me, but the only e-mail address I had for ROB was that attached to the front of the archived site. I sent an e-mail explaining who I was, what I do and what I was proposing and asked him to get back to me, but to date I've had no reply.

If you're reading this ROB, or if anybody has another e-mail address more recent than the end of 2005 for ROB, could you please get in touch with me at galactical@tiscali.co.uk - I'd rather have ROB's okay about doing this if possible, and what is to come...
But what about all the DVDs that have come out since ROB finished, and what about those that are still to come?

Well, some help is at hand! Although I'll be the first to admit I'm not up to ROB's standard, I've decided to have a crack at 'sitting in' and producing both those covers ROB didn't get around to and those that are still to be released to ROB's template. I'll be using ROB's basic design taken from one of his original covers, although it's not exact as to produce a workable blank a couple of minor changes had to be made. Again, if you're reading this ROB, you are credited on each of these new covers with producing the template; I'm only claiming a credit for compositing the covers together for each of these latterly-released stories. If you're unhappy about all this, please e-mail me.

For these additional covers I'll be providing a variant using artwork like I use for my own design covers as well as the photo-montage type that were the basis of ROB's, so you'll even get a choice - how about that?!

My additional covers will be available on each story's usual page on the main site, but they'll also be included here to make it a 'one stop shop' for covers done to ROB's template design:
All those created by ROB will be shown over a red tinted background of his CC logo (left)

All those composited by me are/will be shown over a blue tinted background of my CC logo (right)


And as I say, ROB is also credited on the covers done by me for the original template design.

Just so there's no argument!
I hope this will provide a little service that will be popular with all those who didn't manage to get a complete set of DVD covers when ROB was around, and for everyone wanting an alternative to my current style - any mail on the subject gratefully received, especially if it's from ROB!
And finally, the end...
I said 'any mail on the subject gratefully received, especially if it's from ROB!' didn't I?

I spoke too soon!

On 10th January 2008 I got two e-mails from ROB on a different e-mail address to what I had sent my request and TIME-FLIGHT sample before.

And he was not pleased. In fact, he was livid!

Partly this was because he thought I'd 'hacked' into a private archive of his somehow, partly because he thought I was claiming his work as my own and partly because he thought I was devaluing the years of work that he had put into his site, also by using the name CHAMELEON CIRCUIT.

I have since e-mailed him back to address these issues and while ROB accepts that I hadn't 'hacked' any private files and that I was unaware of his reasons for stopping, he has now enlightened me as to why and asked me to discontinue offering any links to the site that holds them. Incidentally, that site - THE INTERNET ARCHIVE WAYBACK MACHINE - had archived his site without his knowledge, and indeed there are some old versions of ART OF INFINITY there which I was unaware of too!

You might find your website archived there too!

Anyway, the outcome of all this is that as of today, 12th January 2008, I am no longer offering any links service to ROB WHITE's covers as hosted by the IAWM and will no longer be providing any new covers using ROB WHITE's template. I'd also like to apologise publicly to ROB for any unintentional upset this has caused.

As I say, ROB was also unhappy about me using CHAMELEON CIRCUIT as the name of my DOCTOR WHO site, feeling that his site and mine could easily get mistaken for each other as we both did/do DOCTOR WHO VHS & DVD covers. I personally maintain that our styles and content are totally different, but have offered to change CHAMELEON CIRCUIT to something else if ROB insists. I await ROB's reply about that, so it's possible that my CHAMELEON CIRCUIT will be 're-branded' before long.

I'm sorry to have to do this, but there you are. I hope to reuse the artwork/montages put together on my CC-template covers on other covers at some point in the future.

UPDATE - 05 May 2008: Despite my request to ROB in January to let me know if he wanted me to change from using CHAMELEON CIRCUIT to something else, I have received no reply.

I am therefore carrying on as CHAMELEON CIRCUIT and would like to reiterate one final time that I am not connected to ROB WHITE, that his covers are not my work and that the content on this site was produced by me from artwork, photos and images collected by me.
Martin