Time's Champion

Time's Champion is a Doctor Who novel based upon a story by the late author Craig Hinton and completed by his friend Chris McKeon.

The story is a thematic sequel to Hinton's earlier novels Millennial Rites and The Quantum Archangel, as well as to the parent series' 1986 23rd television season "The Trial of a Time Lord". The novel is an independent publication and not endorsed or affiliated with the BBC, owners of the Doctor Who franchise, in any way.

The phrase "Time's Champion" had been used in the Virgin New Adventures to refer to the Seventh Doctor, often with an implication that the Sixth Doctor was "sacrificed" to create him.

Cover blurb
TIME'S CHAMPION

An original novel featuring the sixth Doctor, Mel, Benton and Romana

'It seems that we have finally found each other, Doctor. A pity. I had hoped to avoid this reunion; I’ve been disappointed enough today already.'

2008: John Benton is celebrating his birthday by having a few friends round to his house at Hilsley Halt. But the monsters are lurking.

1908: Writer George Mackenzie-Trench is suffering from writer’s block unable to foresee the ending of his novel, Time’s Champion, nor the consequences of its completion.

9908: The planet Caliban is under attack from Cyber-forces, and governor George Mackenzie-Trench intends to save their world by unleashing Abaddon, a powerful computer virus. But Abaddon has other instructions.

Meanwhile Gallifrey is under attack and the Keeper is seeking answers within the Matrix. President Romana is helpless: no-one is who they seem and the conspiracy goes even deeper than she can imagine. She needs the Doctor…

But the Doctor is on Earth in 2008, fighting to save the life of a child who must survive at all costs.

As Gallifrey is attacked by ghosts from the past, the Doctor, Mel and Benton find themselves in the middle of an epic and final battle as the ancient Gods choose their Champions and allow chaos to reign across all of time and space.

Back history
In 1986, the 23rd season of Doctor Who, entitled "The Trial of a Time Lord", featured the series' main character The Doctor, then in his sixth incarnation, placed on trial by his own people, the Time Lords, and charged for "conduct unbecoming a Time Lord." Opposing the Sixth Doctor was a man known as the Valeyard,the learned court prosecutor. At the season's end, in a surprising turn of events, the Doctor's arch-enemy the Master appeared emerged into the fray and revealed that the Valeyard was himself in fact the Doctor, "an amalgamation of the darker sides of [the Doctor's] nature, from somewhere between [his] twelfth and final incarnation. (See Regeneration (Doctor Who) for more information.)

In the ensuing court upheaval, the Valeyard fled in the Time Lords' Matrix where he and the Sixth Doctor faced each other, where the Valeyard announced his intentions to become free from the Doctor's "mispaced morality," and to gain unlimited access to the Matrix. The two men's struggle ultimately resulted in the Valeyard's apparent death from a malfunctioning particle disseminator weapon, and the Doctor's acquittal on all charges against him. However, in the closing episode's final image, it was shown that the Valeyard had survived, and was now operating as the Keeper of the Matrix.

The subsequent whereabouts and activities of the Valeyard were not explored before the television series ceased transmission in 1989 and official production in 1990. However, with the commencement of new official Doctor Who novels published by Virgin Novels (under license by the BBC) in 1991, there was a potentially new avenue for established and/or new writers to expand the Valeyard's character and his relationship to the Doctor. Several of the Missing Adventures line made use of the Valeyard concept (primarily the work from Hinton), but he did not resurface during the New Adventures line under restrictive ciatations.

When the Virgin license was lost, and BBC Books picked up the rights, The Valeyard continued to make appearances in Past Doctor Adventures novels, but not the present continuity (and usually under different aliases to avoid the same restrictions on using the character), before finally making a direct appearance opposite the Seventh Doctor in the Past Doctor Adventure Matrix by Robert Perry and Mike Tucker in late 1998. The portrayal of the Valeyard in this novel, in the guise of a sorcerous Jack the Ripper, prompted Chris McKeon, an American fan of Doctor Who, to compose in the year 2000 his own Valeyard story for submission to the then newly established Doctor Who audio adventures from Big Finish Productions - a Seventh Doctor story titled The Seventh Door - which would have featured elements of the television story "Remembrance of the Daleks" and revealed that the Valeyard was in fact a delusional Omega. The story was rejected by the company, leaving McKeon intent to start work on another, now Sixth Doctor/Valeyard story.

While investigating previous authors' efforts to utilize the Valeyard, McKeon discovered Hinton's novels and the two met online in Doctor Who forums to discuss the Valeyard. This correspondence led to McKeon learning of Hinton's intent to write the novel Time's Champion for the Past Doctor Adventures line, which was to feature both the Sixth Doctor's regeneration and the origins of the Valeyard.

However, the above-mentioned restrictions on The Valeyard concept in print, coupled with the notion that the book would be the "final" Sixth Doctor story prior to "Time and the Rani", that may have contributed to the rejection of Time's Champion by the BBC in 2004. Many short stories and novels (specifically Marc Platt's Lungbarrow), have often taken place days or months before an event that ties into the regeneration of The Doctor; this would have led directly into the regeneration scene on a level similar to the "The Smugglers" tying directly into "The Tenth Planet" (although in recent years one novel and several short stories have been slotted between the two adventures).

The decision to reject the novel motivated Hinton's co-writer McKeon to return to his earlier Valeyard story concepts in the hope of eventual publication, but when he told Hinton of this, Hinton instead gave McKeon permission to complete Time's Champion itself, with the goal of working together to finish the draft for an unofficial online presentation. Before, during and after this period, Hinton and McKeon developed a strong friendship over discussing their ideas (and met personally at the 2005 GallifreyOne convention in Los Angeles), and when Hinton died on December 3, 2006, McKeon progressed by himself, determined to complete the novel in his friend's memory.

Publication History
Upon Craig Hinton's death, McKeon publically announced his position as the co-author of Time's Champion (Hinton had previously mentioned online that he was working with another, anonymous author). Within days, McKeon was contacted by Simon Guerrier, editor of the Bernice Summerfield audio adventures at Big Finish, who expressed his interest in attempting to publish the book through the company's Short Trips anthologies. Guerrier, however, informed McKeon that the chances of clearing the book's publication with the BBC were slim, and indeed this did not materialize. However, almost immediately after, McKeon was also contacted by David Howe, owner of Telos Publishing, a publishing company which had, until 2004, procuded Doctor Who novellas and later the spin-off series Time Hunter. Howe offered McKeon the chance to publish Time's Champion as an unofficial work, using Telos' printing facilities to produce the novel (though not as a Telos book), whose profits would go to the British Heart Foundation (a charity chosen by Hinton's family, as the author had died of a heart attack). Howe himself offered to serve as the text's editor.

McKeon accepted the opportunity and continued to complete the text. In February 2007, Howe and McKeon met at the GallifreyOne convention to discuss preliminary publication details. On August 27, 2007, McKeon completed the text's first draft, which came out at 170,477 words. This, when examined by Howe, proved to be too large and very shortly thereafter McKeon went to work on the second draft with the goal to cut the word count to 90,000 words. This second attempt he completed on December 27, 2007, albeit with approximately 115,000 words. Howe began to edit this draft over in early 2008, and on February 10, 2008, McKeon received the edited third draft of Time's Champion, coming in at about 103,000 words. This text he subsequently re-read (at Howe's suggestion during their meeting at the 2008 GallifreyOne convention), to which he made some final revisions. This fourth draft was returned to Howe for final editing. Howe then submitted this draft gto an independent reader for further alterations. By late March, this draft had been completed and turned over to another reader for a final read-through and opinion. On July 6th, 2008, the compelted text and a cover drawn by renowned Doctor Who artist Alister Pearson were turned in for final publication, and the novel will be released on July 21, 2008.