Doctor Who and Tomorrow People author Craig Hinton has passed away.
Publications: (Doctor Who novels) The Crystal Bucephalus, Millennial Rites, GodEngine, The Quantum Archangel, Synthespians™, (Doctor Who audio) Excelis Decays, (Tomorrow People audio) The Lords of Forever, and varous articles and short stories. Craig Hinton also credited himself with the term "fanwank", taken to mean fan or professional fiction which attempts to explain continutity errors, or has excessive references to previous fiction.
Comments
First time i have heard the name but the reference to Tomorrow People caught my eye. I loved the show!!! Also; the reference to "fanwank" hit a nerve (who said people don`t recognise themselves in print ?) This could be a good topic for discussion. To be honest this is a relevant and interesting topic for discussion. Is it more important for a series to be consistent or can/should consistency be sacrificed for the content? Sci-Fi, to my mind, is a tool to explore possibilities that should be unhampered by perceived and prejudiced realities. But then again, can lack of continuity and (especially) CONVINCING-ness lead to a loss of credibility in the premise and execution?
The Tomorrow People's a bit of a shameful pleasure; while no longer illegal its fans do tend to be the ones who get rubbished by other fans. Having said that, it was my main point of conversation with David Prowse when I met him, he having attended a 30th anniversary TP dinner the year before. Fanwank is as fanwank does--Hinton himself wasn't above it, although his novels are witty and self aware enough to carry the baggage. I don't want to rubbish the usual suspects here, but usually fan fiction (and even professionals) who indulge too much seem to lose sight of the fact that the fanwank is something that occurs on the way to somewhere else; like airplane food it's not the reason you'd bother in the first place. It's notable that the Gothic period which turns up on the top of most surveys was relatively fanwank free (although I'd never seen a spray like the one I've quoted directed at the Deadly Assassin before!), where the continuity sodden Attack of the Cybermen ends up in the last rank...
I don`t understand the reference contained in the last set of brackets although I can make a guess. What I would like to question is when you talk about the `Gothic` period (of the Tomorrow People?) And especially, the Tomorrow People being a `shameful pleasure`. I expect the reference to its being illegal is some kind of in-joke ? Although young when it was broadcast and unable to bring to mind any actual storylines, I do remember the thrust of the series being that we are on the threshold of something greater than we have been. Though this will not have been an original concept in Sci-Fi at that time it is a concept which at that time was unknown to myself. To paraphrase Harlan Elison upon being asked if Shakespeare had written all the best plots,.... "They weren`t listening first time round; It`s time to tell them again"!
The bracketed text refers to one of the quotes in the "Identify the quotes" thread in the forum. While The Tomorrow People has never been illegal (to my knowledge), it's certianly one of those thing which has been ctiticised as if it should be. The reference to "Gothic period" is to the Hinchcliffe/Holmes Doctor Who. We were lucky in Austrlaia, with the purchasing station (Seven) repeating TP every year, although in no partiular order--much as ABC did with Who. The Tomorrow People Discussion list URL is <http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tpdis>.
The closest there is to this is the Big Finish audios, such as Hinton was writing. They've gone back to the original series, and seem well thought of by those who get them.
I suppose the X-Men could be viewed in this light (I loved the original comic). Thanks for the explanations Martin. I have a lousy memory and am sometimes/quite often/mostly a bit slow but, when I get there,.....WOW ! I find everyone has moved on. Thanks for the URL, I`m going to give it a look. I hadn`t even THOUGHT about the Tomorrow People until your mention. It should be a blast from the past and possibly jog or at least rekindle some memories.
Tomorrow People fans wer pretty shocked to see an X-Men comic with not only that title, but rendered in the same rounded script. Unfortunatly it was just the title, and wasn't a crossover.
