Below is my honest, no holds barred, account of how I discovered the Japanese Doctor Who novels. These novels have stirred up some controversy. If you want to see me unfairly bashed, then you can read the now infamous article by Cyril Fitzgerald.

If you want to read someone who has done honest research in the real world, read an independent response to that article here.

What Happened...

In 1989, during a sex holiday in Asia, I happened upon an adult bookstore. The place was, floor to ceiling, crammed with thin and colorful books all printed on the cheapest paper. During my investigation of the establishment I was surprised to notice books which were OBVIOUSLY Doctor Who novels. At this time I was completely unaware that Doctor Who had been sold in Asia. So I bought every Doctor Who book I could find and noted with pleasure that these books were in Japanese.

When I bought the books they were placed in thick brown paper bags and then taped up! So I decided to keep them that way, as they were perfect to pack, and I forgot about them for the rest of my holiday.

By the time I got home I had totally forgotten about the books and left my luggage neglected in a small corner of my apartment for months. I kept meaning to unpack everything, but between catching back up at work and several appointments with my doctor after the vacation, there were just so many things I DIDN'T WANT to remember!

Eventually I went through it all and just started putting things away. I was about the stuff the Japanese books on my book shelf, when I realised -- I didn't know where to put them!! I hadn't read them at all, just picked them up as soon as I saw they were Doctor Who books that would doubtlessly be rare. I wasn't sure which stories they were novelizations of and I wanted to make sure they sat next to the appropriate TARGET novelization, so my bookshelf stayed in a logical order.

I flipped through the first few pages of the first in the series, trying to just glance through. It wasn't immediately obvious what story it was so I wondered if the writer had taken some extreme liberties with the plot. I sat down and read the first five pages and at the end of the that, and looking at the illustrations, I was sure it was meant to be the 6th Doctor. None of his on screen stories seemed to fit, and I wondered if this might be a novelization of one of the lost stories. To check I picked up a few more of the book and started reading, but again it didn't seem to fit any televised adventure.

It took me about three days of thinking through alternatives to finally pin down and decide for good that these WERE NOT just weird versions of existing stories. These were actual NEW adventures, written in Japan. I was really thrilled by my discovery! How would a Japanese author tackle the wonder and mystery of the Doctor? Would the continuity remain fairly close or be radically different??

I began to read the first book, and I was pretty amused by the storyline. It was pretty soon after I was engaged by the book that I made a decision - I was going to translate this into English so my friends and fandom at large could read this too! I had always wanted to push myself and my talents and translate a major work like this. But before I started I tried to find out if that would mean legal trouble -- or if I'd be wasting my time because someone else had already done it.

I looked through the book and there wasn't a lot of information. It was published by Electric Bukkake Publishing Co. in Tokyo, Japan in June 1985. I wrote the BBC and Sailor Fuku, whom I had learned actually had the rights to novelize Doctor Who in Japan. From the responses I got, it was very clear that these books were blackmarket, no one was even aware of their existence before I brought it to their attention, and no work had been done bringing these illegal works to an English-reading audience. Sailor Fuku provided me with some very interesting information about pirate publishers in Asia, who often ignore and steal copyright information -- in fact, they had a suspicious amount of information on this practice, and asked me politely in the letter not to mention any of this to the BBC.

I found no evidence that Electric Bukkake still existed, and in all likelihood that was probably just an invented name for some fly-by night company. So, I decided I was fairly safe to translate the book and then distribute it through the usual fan network as a curiousity.

I worked hard on my translations until early 1992. Doing all the work in my spare time, and on weekends, using only an 8086 and some scratch paper. I checked my work with a friend of mine who I had met at an anime viewing club, who had lived in Japan for several years during the 1980s.

After I was happy with my final translation, I went to a local printer and had a small number of books bound. I distributed these books to fans who heard I had it and requested it via snail mail and e-mail. I never advertised the existence of this translation and the entire operation was done on a word of mouth basis. I never made a dime from this venture, and I never attempted to. My reward was the knowledge that I had achieved a personal goal -- translating a book from Japanese into English; and making a small contribution to fandom -- giving the western world a new and controversial Doctor Who story to ponder.

I stopped distributing the book in March 1997, when I gave away my last extra copies. I have kept three for myself. I have made significant progress in translating later books from the Electric Bukkake series, but have done this only as a hobby, and have no current plans to share these works. If I ever decide to share my translations, I will probably use do so as an eBook. The internet is a much better medium to get information to fans, and nowhere near as costly as printing out books!!

I have every confidence that my translation was correct and accurately reflects the story within the first book of the series published by Electric Bukkake.

Above is my honest, no holds barred, account of how I discovered the Japanese Doctor Who novels. These novels have stirred up some controversy. If you want to see me unfairly bashed, then you can read the now infamous article by Cyril Fitzgerald.

If you want to read someone who has done honest research in the real world, read an independent response to that article here.