Craig Hinton

I'm sad and shocked to hear reports about Doctor Who fan and author Craig Hinton's passing. I had met him a couple of times at Gallifrey, and had been involved with some of the same forums online throughout the years as well.

I have positive recollections of the Doctor Who novels he wrote for Virgin, and I believe that his work with Millennial Rites started the rehabilitation trend of both Colin Baker's Doctor and Bonnie Langford's Melanie that continued throughout the novels and audios. And while The Crystal Bucephalus wasn't the only place to foreshadow Gallifrey's destruction, it was certainly one of the most memorable early examples.

I remember that Craig was always straight forward about his work -- he happily pieced together the pieces of Doctor Who mythology, in a fashion that wasn't always fashionable amongst the hard core -- he was the first to describe what he did as "fanwank", after all. But I think that showed how much he enjoyed the mythology and made his work fun for fans to read.

My thoughts go out to all of Craig's friends and family.