UPDATED 16th September 2007

TARGET ONLINE was launched 1st September 2007 to give people something new from the world of DOCTOR WHO. That being novelisations of the Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant episodes screened so far, and to present them in the old TARGET style as FREE downloads.

However, within 10 days of the site going live, I was e-mailed by someone from BBC Wales, instructing me that I had infringed their script copyright and instructing me to remove the books from the site; also I could expect a further e-mail from BBC Worldwide and their infamous 'Brand Protection Team' shortly. I duly complied, hoping that this would be some misunderstanding that could be sorted out. After all, neither book admitted to being anything other than unauthorised, both books acknowledged both script copyrights and DOCTOR WHO copyright, and most tellingly of all, neither was being made available for money. Just for love.

I removed the books on the evening of 10th September within hours of receiving their e-mail, though it didn't stop a further e-mail appearing the next morning. From the same person, and obviously after he'd read my hopeful note posted when removing the books that this could be sorted out and resume. He informed me that he and the BBC would not be shifting their position and I still had to remove them and NEVER post them again. Shame he didn't try and download them as he would have noticed then they'd already been removed. So much for official research!

This last e-mail was sent around noon on Tuesday 11th September. As I had been told to expect an e-mail from BBC Worldwide, I had not initially replied, but after this second e-mail from him - and as no Worldwide e-mail had been forthcoming (or to date for that matter) - I replied telling him I had complied and withdrawn them, even though I was rather disappointed with the Corporation's attitude. In my note on the site, I had mentioned that while my novels were for FREE, there were plenty of unauthorised pieces of merchandise being made available on eBay, often using images downloaded from the official BBC website and being sold for monetary gain. I'm sure everyone reading this will be delighted to know that, according to him in his second e-mail, they have limited resources to deal with that, but endeavour to do so as much as they can. Of course, if he'd asked me for the item numbers, I could have given them to him, but so far it seems his 'resources' are too limited to do even that!

My e-mail to him asked three things. One, I have asked for his permission to put the full text, minus contact details, of his second e-mail on this site so that you, the visitors, can see exactly why I have had to stop; a perfectly reasonable request which only he can grant. Until this is forthcoming I can't tell you who he is or exactly what was said.

Two, I have asked for an explanation as to how he found TARGET ONLINE so quickly.
A tiny FREE site, available for only 10 days, gets found and pounced on, but other sites doing similar or not unrelated things, some of them detrimental to the reputation to the programme
and some of them doing it for financial gain, have been around for YEARS. I have since tried Google and it doesn't appear within the first 200 results under either 'Russell T. Davies' or 'Doctor Who novelisations'; therefore, how was I found - or who shopped me?

And thirdly? Thirdly, I have asked for a postal address for RUSSELL T. DAVIES c/o BBC WALES that will actually reach him, or at least the Production Office. This bloke tells me that the BBC and RTD own the script copyright - fine. In that case, surely the only person in the universe who should now legally have a copy of these books is RUSSELL? As I told him, I would like to thank RUSSELL and his crew for bringing the show back so well and would like to send him a printed copy. In case he thinks I could be sending a bomb in the post, I have pointed out that a) he will have advance knowledge that I would be sending them, b) that he has a contact e-mail address for me and initiated contact with me himself rather than the other way around, and c) that my postal address is actually included in both books, making me easily traceable! Surely more than enough security?

I suspect of course that this latter will not be forthcoming, but my first two requests are certainly more than reasonable. I can't see how this bloke has found me so quickly and easily without help if he's pleading few resources. If I have been 'stitched up' by someone I know, I want to know who.

And you, the visitors, who are now denied my posting THE UNQUIET DEAD, the bumper ALIENS OF LONDON (including WORLD WAR THREE) and DALEK, all of which were finished before these e-mails arrived, deserve the 'proper', official reason, 'from the horse's mouth' without any angry embelishment from me. I will be being more than fair to the BBC, allowing their representative to speak for themselves.

YOU deserve a proper explanation!

I replied to his second and so far last e-mail at 22:20 hrs on Tuesday 11th September.
To date I have not even had an acknowledgement that I have complied e.g.
'Dear Martin, thank you for complying with our request, yours sincerely.'
It seems to me, so far, that the attitude is
'We've got what we want, quick as we wanted it, and that's it. What you want is immaterial.'
That's not good enough in my book, and I doubt in many people's either.

So, until it happens and I have something else to update you all with, a clock will appear on this site measuring the amount of time since my e-mail was sent informing them of my compliance and of my wishes. The bloke in question gave his full contact details in his e-mail, including phone number and mobile number. I am giving him 14 days, long enough for him to have a nice holiday and certainly long enough to reply, and then I will send a polite e-mail asking for a reply to my original one
(and including it so he can't say he hasn't got it either then or now.)

If after a further 7 days I still get no reply, I will be phoning him on his BBC Wales number - I'm not nasty enough to use the mobile unless I have to. And I will do so every working day until I speak to him. I want to keep this polite, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be soft or stood on.
I've complied and asked reasonably for some answers. Courtesy dictates I get a reply in some fashion.

Like many other people, all I want is a fair deal and no double standards.
So far it seems profiteers can get away with making money out of the series
while the poor little guy doing it for free and love gets stomped on.
That's not fair - let's see if we can try and get some justice or at least acknowledgement!

The guestbook will stay during this - please use it to post messages of support or comments on what has happened. My apologies to everyone for not being able to give you what I promised, but as you can see I have no option.

Martin