Doctor Who author Craig Hinton, a longtime contributor to the Virgin and BBC Books novel lines and Big Finish's audio ranges, has died. He was 42.

Hinton first became known for his articles about various sci-fi television programmes, including Doctor Who and Star Trek. He was also for a time editor of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society's journal Celestial Toyroom. This work brought him to the attention of the editor of Doctor Who Magazine, who offered him the role of reviewing merchandise for the magazine's Shelf Life section. It was whilst writing for the magazine that Hinton had his first novel, The Crystal Bucephalus, published as part of Virgin Publishing's Missing Adventures range. The book - which Hinton often referred to as "The Crystal Bucket" - was originally submitted for Virgin's New Adventures, and 50,000 words of this version were written before the change was made.

This novel was followed by a further Missing Adventure, Millennial Rites in 1995, and then by Hinton's only New Adventure in 1996, GodEngine, which featured the Ice Warriors as well as oblique appearances by the Daleks.

Following Virgin's loss of their licence to produce Doctor Who novels, Hinton began submitting proposals to BBC Booksand in 2001 they published his novel The Quantum Archangel as part of their Past Doctor Adventures range. This was followed in 2004 by the novel Synthespians, which again had started life as a proposal for the current incumbent Doctor before being altered to feature a previous Doctor. Synthespians also came into difficulties when an image of the television show Dynasty was used on the cover: the cover's creators had arranged for permission to use the copyrighted image, but had neglected to arrange permission to alter it, and so at the last minute a replacement cover had to be produced. It is this that appeared on the cover of the novel.

Hinton also wrote for Big Finish, with the Doctor Who audio play Excelis Decays being produced in 2002 and theTomorrow People play The Lords of Forever in 2005. He also contributed short stories to a variety of Big Finish's short fiction collections.

Hinton spoke often of having coined the term "fanwank" in some of his past reviews to refer to novels or stories that relied heavily on past continuity. Ironically, the term would often be applied to Hinton's own work, which frequently incorporated a great deal of Doctor Who history; Hinton himself embraced the label.

His most recent published work consisted of reviews of the 2006 Doctor Who episodes, published in Second Flight: Back to the Vortex II by Outpost Gallifrey's editor Shaun Lyon. Hinton formed part of the international panel of reviewers giving their thoughts on each episode for the book, which was released less than a fortnight before his death. At the time of his death, Hinton was working with co-writer Chris McKeon on a project called Time's Champion, a novel based on a former BBC Books submission of his which would have explained the circumstances surrounding the Sixth Doctor's regeneration. Hinton intended to publish the completed project online, and McKeon intends to complete the work in memory of Hinton and make it available to fans.

Hinton, an active and popular member of the Doctor Who fan community since the 1980s, was a regular poster on the Outpost Gallifrey forum since its inception in 2001. A memorial thread has been opened on the forum to leave tributes and share memories.

Outpost Gallifrey would like to offer its sincere condolences to all of Hinton's family and friends.

(Some details sourced from Wikipedia; additional reporting by Paul Hayes & Arnold T. Blumberg. Photograph is of Craig from the Gallifrey 2005 convention.)

Peter Barkworth, who played Clent in The Ice Warriors (1967), has died at the age of 77. Barkworth also played Stephen in the Get Off My Cloud episode of the BBC sci-fi anthology series Out Of The Unknown, which featured the Tardis and a Dalek and aired in 1969.

He was probably most famous for the role of banker Mark Telford in the 1979 BBC serial Telford's Change, which co-starred Hannah Gordon, who played Kirsty inThe Highlanders in 1966/67. Barkworth left RADA the same year as his Ice Warriorsco-star Peter Sallis, who played Penley.

The cause of death was given as bronchopneumonia following a stroke. He died on 21 October in London. The story is reported at BBC News; The Times and The Guardian have obituaries.

Peter Bryant, former Doctor Who producer and script editor who guided the series through much of the Patrick Troughton era of the series, died on Friday May 19, according to a post by fan Ian Levine on the Restoration Team forum. Bryant joined the series with the story "The Faceless Ones" as associate producer under Innes Lloyd, then produced the serial "Tomb of the Cybermen" before becoming script editor for three series during the show's fifth season. He became the series producer again with "The Web of Fear" and did so through Troughton's penultimate story, "The Space Pirates," when he left the position and was replaced by Derrick Sherwin. Once married to actress Shirley Cooklin ("The Tomb of the Cybermen"), he had remarried and is survived by one of two children, his daughter, and several grandchildren.

Update: The official Doctor Who website also just posted an announcement about this, stating, "Born in 1923, Peter began his career as an actor, appearing in roles as diverse as a 1953 adaptation of Wuthering Heights (as Edgar Linton) and as the cheerful elder son Jack in the BBC's first soap opera The Grove Family. He later became an announcer for BBC radio, also producing scripts for radio drama and eventually becoming the Head of the Drama Script Unit. ... After leaving Doctor Who, he moved on to produce several other TV programmes, including Paul Temple and Special Project Air, before becoming an Actors' and Writers' agent."

Gary Downie, former production manager on the classic Doctor Who series and the partner of late series producer John Nathan-Turner, died this morning after a long battle with cancer, according to a friend of Downie's as told to the Doctor Who Restoration Team. Downie, a popular guest at conventions for years with Nathan-Turner, also worked on several other series including "Star Cops" and "All Creatures Great and Small". (Photo courtesy Mark Withall/Cult TV)

Actor John Woodnutt, who appeared in four episodes of Doctor Who, recently passed away, according to a note on the Restoration Team Forum. Woodnutt, born in 1924, played Hibbert in "Spearhead from Space," the Draconian Emperor in "Frontier in Space," the Duke of Forgill and Zygon leader Broton in "Terror of the Zygons" and as Seron in "The Keeper of Traken," had an enormous career in British television and film for decades, including appearing in episodes of "Jeeves and Wooster," "The Bill," "The Tomorrow People," "Sherlock Holmes," "Adam Adamant Lives!," "The Avengers" and "Z Cars," and his last film role was in the movie "Dragonheart: A New Beginning".

Actor Joseph Furst passed away at the end of November, according to news from the Doctor Who Restoration Team today. Furst was born in 1910 and had a widely varied career that included both television and film, including appearances on "The Saint," "The Champions," "Doomwatch" and "The Persuaders," but is best known to Doctor Who fans as the mad Professor Zaroff, the villain of the Patrick Troughton serial "The Underwater Menace".

Update: the Sydney Morning Herald recently ran a death notice for Mr. Furst, noting that he'd recently resided in Bateau Bay, Australia, and that services were held on Friday 2 December.

(Thanks to Steve Roberts & Greg Miller)

Robert Sloman, who wrote four classic Doctor Who episodes during the Jon Pertwee era of the series -- "The Green Death," "The Time Monster," Pertwee's final story "Planet of the Spiders" and, under the pseudonym Guy Leopold (together with Barry Letts), "The Daemons" -- has died, according to an obituary in today's Guardian written by Letts. Born in Oldham, he became an actor and playwright as well as an employee of the Sunday Times before writing for television. As Letts states in his obit, "As producer, I asked Bob, a friend, to join me in developing an idea I'd had. His exuberant imagination made our story sessions a delight. The resulting serial, The Daemons (under the nom de plume of Guy Leopold), was for several years voted the best ever Dr Who story. ... Bob left the Sunday Times in 1974 and took over as wholesale distributor of all the Sunday papers, based in Burgess Hill, Sussex. Sailing now became a major part of his life, and when he retired, a second home in Spain meant a share in a boat in summer. His wife and children survive him."

Outpost Gallifrey has learned that Ronald Leigh-Hunt, who played Radnor in "The Seeds of Death" and Stevenson in "Revenge of the Cybermen," and was also CA One in the Blake's 7 episode "Children of Auron," died on 12 September at age 88, and Roger Brierley, who played Trevor in "The Daleks' Master Plan" and much later returned as Drathro in "The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet" died on 23 September at age 70. The obituary for Leigh-Hunt can be found at The Times and one for Brierley at The Stage Online. (Thanks to Andrew Green, Ben Jolly)

Additional reports about Mr. Sheard's passing are on the official Doctor Who website and at Manchester Online,ITN,Paramount Comedy, The Sun, Reuters, SFGate (which runs the AP press report, carried in many papers). Also, the BBC Newssite is carrying a tribute page for reader comments.