David Spence, Plagiarist in Who-ville Just got a note from a fellow who runs the Gallifrey One board that he was advised that a poster on the board had ripped off my Mysterious Gentlemen from London and presented it (under a different title) as his own. He verified this, notified the plagiarist, banned him from the web board, and deleted the story. I wrote to the alleged plagiarist to ask him what was up. I also wrote to the Gallifrey One lead fellow to ask for a copy of the plagiarizing piece. And I wrote to the reader who made the discovery and thanked her.

I wish to apologise about the claims of plagiarism. To a certain degree,
they are accurate, but only to a point. I have not copied the whole of your
story , I just took the opening paragraph of your story 'Mysterious
Gentlemen from London' and modified it for an opening chapter of my story
'Ashes of Evil'.

If you wish me to change this I shall be happy to write my own original
copy, and I do apologise for not contacting you about earlier.

Sincerly,
David Spence

David, Of course I want you to change the opening of your story. There is no such thing as "to a point" in plagiarism. If it's plagiarism, it is theft of material, and that's what you've done with my work. The apology would be a lot more believable if you didn't follow it up with a lame excuse that it was only "to a point."

You've gotten yourself banned from the Gallifrey board, and I hope you'll seriously consider where plagiarism will get you if you continue to commit it. Among writers, including fanfic writers, it is taken seriously and is roundly despised because it is morally wrong. Before you completely lose all credibility and any chance of engaging in mutually respectful relationships and activities regarding fiction writing, I hope you'll do an integrity overhaul on yourself and recognize that you must not take possession of what is not yours, whether it's a paragraph or a whole story.

Mysterious Gentlemen from London is a Doctor Who story about the Doctor and the Brigadier having drinks together because the Brigadier decides that "good highland malt" will console the Doctor after Jo runs off to South America. They drink too much, drive the TARDIS while tipsy, and end up in the American West. They are then mistaken for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they try to solve a mystery about why a train derailed and how two people ended up dead, even after surviving the wreck. The story was helped in popularity by Gary Mercant's excellent cover illustration for it, which you see at left in miniature. And while it is a fan's dream story because it highlights the Brigadier and has a lot of humor in it, I would not rank it as one of my top five Doctor Who stories. It's definitely a romp. But if this guy plagiarized it, I'll take some sort of action to stop him from plundering my online stuff.