Have You Seen This Man? (short story)

Have You Seen This Man? was the first story exclusively published on the Who is Doctor Who? website on 24 March 2005 by the BBC webteam to coincide with the 2005 revival of Doctor Who. The story depicted the Doctor's role in Earth's history, set before and after the events of Rose, through over a hundred pieces of spread across three webpages, written both by the BBC and the real world visitors of the Who is Doctor Who? tie-in website.

This story was also notable for including the first mention of Rose Tyler and first appearance of Clive Finch, before the premiere broadcast of Rose, which was released around two days after the first entries in Have You Seen This Man? were released. Technically, this was not the first appearance of the Ninth Doctor however as the character first cameoed in the EDA The Tomorrow Windows released on 7 June 2004.

The majority of the flash fiction that built up Have You Seen This Man? was collected on a webpage entitled "Contact Clive", which was a place for real world people to submit brief, fictional of their encounters with the Doctor, which were officially released by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC evidently moderated the content, as nothing inappropriate, defamatory or fourth wall breaking was approved, thus maintaining the in-universe and consumer-friendly nature of the Who is Doctor Who? website as a whole.

Entries
The collection of entries is arranged in order, oldest first

Characters
(In order of appearance, oldest first)

Crossovers
Some of the entries depicted unofficial crossovers with other non-DWU series.
 * Entry #64 mentions that the Doctor looked like a homeless guy on Whitworth Street in Manchester. This is a subtle crossover with the 2002 film, which featured an uncredited cameo appearance by Christopher Eccleston as a beggar in 1980s Manchester who claims to be the Roman philosopher Boethius. Coincidentally, the film's screenwriter, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, went on to write the Twelfth Doctor episodes In the Forest of the Night and Smile.
 * Entry #107 is written by Marty McFly, the young protagonist of the Back to the Future series.
 * Entry #121 is written by Arthur Dent, a protagonist of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is typically depicted as sharing a universe with Doctor Who; in the novelisation of The Christmas Invasion, more details are given about Dent's association with the Doctor, which remain in continuity with this story.

Authorship
Most of the contributors remain effectively anonymous, as they either used unidentifiable handles, invented fake names, wrote from the perspective of established fictional characters or entered names which are too common to trace. However, some can be positively identified.
 * Adrian J Andrews, a notable Doctor Who fan, used his real full name for his entry.
 * A member of the production crew for series one of Doctor Who may have been responsible for Steve M.'s entry, as it pertains to the reported "misleading fun" the crew had with the 23 6 801 sequence of numbers. The username suggests the perpetrator may have been either Steven Moffat or someone impersonating him as part of the joke.

Removed entries
As the BBC moderated submissions, no obvious spam or offensive material was accepted; however, some submissions that were initially accepted were removed without explanation in later updates.
 * Lonnie's entry documented an appearance of the Ninth Doctor in a tape of "Putting On The Donegan" from 1964. This entry contained nothing inappropiate so its removal is a mystery.
 * Lee from Croydon's entry recollected how he had met the Doctor circa Christmas 2004, where the Doctor laughed at the future destruction of Big Ben. This may have been removed due to its similarity, or it being a reference to, the then-unreleased Aliens of London.
 * Samuel Preston's entry told the story of how his grandfather, a soldier in World War II, had shot a Nazi during the liberation of Auschwitz and that this Nazi had been the Doctor. This was evidently intended as a reference to the Ninth Doctor's leather jacket resembling that of a German naval officer, the implication being that he was shot in a case of mistaken identity. The entry was presumably removed for its perceived trivialisation of the Holocaust, and/or its somewhat ambiguous connection of the Doctor with Nazism.

Continuity

 * Clive Finch's website was later accessed by Rose Tyler, who went on to visit him. He showed her the pictures he posted on the site. (TV: Rose, PROSE: Rose, AUDIO: Battle Scars)
 * The Doctor talks to animals. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace, A Town Called Mercy)
 * The Ninth Doctor later used his mobile phone again. (TV: Boom Town)
 * Alastair Fergus is a reporter for BBC3. (TV: The Dæmons, PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy, Greyhound)
 * Whilst at Coal Hill School, the Twelfth Doctor would also take it upon himself to "correct" a textbook. (PROSE: A History of Humankind)
 * The Doctor would read Heat again in TV: Rose.
 * The Seventh Doctor often played the spoons. (TV: Time and the Rani, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, PROSE: Strange England, etc.)
 * The Sixth Doctor also visited Salford two times. (AUDIO: The Vanity Box, The Condemned)
 * The Doctor retrieves a "large silver metal ball" from the London Underground. (TV: The Web of Fear, etc.)
 * The Mona Lisa on display in the Louvre is a copy. (TV: City of Death, AUDIO: Dust Breeding, GAME: Old Rope)
 * Third Doctor previously visited Prague in the 24th century. (PROSE: Midnight in the Café of the Black Madonna)
 * The Doctor also visited Brighton in his fourth (AUDIO: Gallery of Ghouls, TV: The Leisure Hive) and sixth incarnations. (AUDIO: Pier Pressure)
 * The Doctor was present for the fall of the Berlin Wall in his eighth incarnation (PROSE: Father Time) and, when he returned in his tenth, he recollected that he had been present twice before. (PROSE: Autonomy)
 * The Thirteenth Doctor also found clothing in a charity shop in Sheffield. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
 * A permutation of Peri Brown was sent to live on Earth with her memories of the Doctor wiped except for their first adventure. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)
 * The Doctor was present for the destruction of Big Ben. (TV: Aliens of London, PROSE: Operation London, etc.)
 * The Doctor attends a couple of football matches. He also attended other matches in his first, (PROSE: The Rag & Bone Man's Story) fifth, (PROSE: The Church of Football) eighth, (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game, AUDIO: Living Legend) eleventh (COMIC: They Think It's All Over, Bow-ties for Goal Posts) and twelfth incarnations. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)
 * Star Wars premiered in 1977. (PROSE: Mission: Impractical)
 * Rick Pirelli also owned Spider-Man comics. (PROSE: Forever Autumn)
 * The Third Doctor was also involved with the Manhattan Project. (PROSE: Come Friendly Bombs...)
 * The Da Vinci Code reappears in Just a Minute... and The Blood Cell.
 * The Second Doctor owned a flute, (TV: The Power of the Daleks, etc.) the Third Doctor owned multiple velvet jackets (TV: Spearhead from Space, etc.) and the Fourth Doctor owned several scarves. (TV: Robot, PROSE: Into the Silent Land, etc.) The Fifth Doctor also enjoyed cricket. (AUDIO: Phantasmagoria)
 * Woodie recollects a visit to Pompeii, mentioning that he "tried to warn them." (AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan)
 * The First Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara had previously been to Tunisia in 814 BC. (AUDIO: The Phoenicians)
 * Another Ninth Doctor also remarked on his continued arrivals at quarries. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death)
 * The Tenth Doctor piloting The Outcome, was by one account, the cause of the lights above Rendlesham Forest. (AUDIO: Backtrack)
 * The DeLorean would later be present at San Diego Comic-Con in the 2010s. (COMIC: Selfie)
 * The Seventh Doctor would also went to Sarajevo in 1995. (PROSE: Death and Diplomacy)
 * Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo in 28 June 1914, sparking World War II. (PROSE: Human Nature, COMIC: The Dalek Project, TV: Silver Nemesis, TV: The Family of Blood)
 * The Doctor drives Bessie. (TV: Terror of the Autons, etc.)
 * The Doctor owns a copy of A Brief History of Time. (PROSE: Fear of the Dark, AUDIO: Zagreus)
 * The Doctor has two hearts. (TV: Spearhead from Space, etc.)
 * Star Trek is a television series. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles, The Secret in Vault 13, etc.)
 * Arthur Dent is an acquaintance of the Doctor. (TV: The Christmas Invasion, PROSE: The Christmas Invasion)
 * Mr Yates knows the Doctor. (TV: Terror of the Autons, AUDIO: The Stuff of Nightmares etc.)
 * Sarah Jane Smith is a reporter. (TV: The Time Warrior, etc.) She would later encounter the Tenth Doctor, fulfilling her desire to meet him again. (TV: School Reunion, etc.)
 * Britney Spears's music at least survives until the year five billion. (TV: The End of the World)
 * The Doctor was previously implicated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln twice. (AUDIO: Minuet in Hell, Assassin in the Limelight)
 * The Eighth Doctor was aboard the R101 when it crashed. (AUDIO: Storm Warning, Neverland, etc.)
 * The Doctor worked for UNIT in several incarnations. (TV: Spearhead from Space, Robot, etc.)
 * The Doctor and Susan departed from 76 Totter's Lane, seemingly disappearing. (TV: "An Unearthly Child")
 * The Doctor was present in 1985, in an adventure involving Halley's Comet. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen, PROSE: Attack of the Cybermen, etc)
 * Steven Hudson notes that there was a building complex in Totter's Lane in around 2003. In 2021, Totter's Lane was mostly office blocks. (AUDIO: The Harvest)