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(I wouldn't call it fan fiction, just because of the input of Craig Hinton. Since it was originally comissioned for publication, I don't think it falls into that category)
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'''''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.
[[File:Seventh Doctor Birth.jpg|thumb|With the sacrifice of his previous incarnation, the Seventh Doctor was born. ([[TV]]: ''[[Time and the Rani (TV story)|Time and the Rani]]'')]]
'''Time's [[Champion]]''' was a title used by various individuals, most notably the [[Seventh Doctor]], after making a deal with the [[Menti Celesti]] [[Time (mythology)|Time]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Love and War (novel)|Love and War]]'', ''[[Original Sin (novel)|Original Sin]]'', et al.) It signified a responsibility to protect [[history]], no matter the cost. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Christmas on a Rational Planet (novel)|Christmas on a Rational Planet]]'')


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.
During the [[Sixth Doctor]]'s lifetime, Time was looking for a [[champion]] to make the difficult decisions needed to save [[time]] and [[space]] from a [[War prediction|coming conflict]]. [[The Valeyard]] told the [[Sixth Doctor]] that he planned on applying. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Millennial Rites (novel)|Millennial Rites]]'') [[Elektra]] and [[Prometheus (The Quantum Archangel)|Prometheus]] hoped their child, [[Kronos]], would become Time's Champion. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Quantum Archangel (novel)|The Quantum Archangel]]'') Ultimately, the Seventh Doctor agreed to become Time's Champion. As payment, he [[suicide|sacrificed]] his prior incarnation. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Timewyrm: Revelation (novel)|Timewyrm: Revelation]]'', ''[[Love and War (novel)|Love and War]]'')


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.
To protect history, the Doctor set a complex array of plots and counterplots into motion. He and his [[companion]]s would often became trapped in his own schemes, relying on his future self to arrange things so they would turn out right. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') These designs would often involve the Doctor's [[companion]]s without their knowledge or consent, placing them in harm's way. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Love and War (novel)|Love and War]]'', ''[[Head Games (novel)|Head Games]]'') [[Ace]] notably rebuked the Doctor for sacrificing [[Jan Rydd]] as part of a plan to stop the [[Hoothi]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Love and War (novel)|Love and War]]'') The Doctor struggled with his culpability for these deaths; he started [[sleep]]ing less to avoid [[nightmare]]s ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Head Games (novel)|Head Games]]'') of the [[Sixth Doctor]]'s voice taunting him. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Return of the Living Dad (novel)|Return of the Living Dad]]'', ''[[Head Games (novel)|Head Games]]'') In response to one of these dreams, he remarked, "I am Time's Champion, and [[guilt]] is a luxury I can no longer afford!" ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Head Games (novel)|Head Games]]'')


== Back history ==
At different times, the Doctor was addressed with the title by the [[Hoothi]], the [[Puterspace]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Love and War (novel)|Love and War]]'') the [[Grandmaster]] gestalt, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[So Vile a Sin (novel)|So Vile a Sin]]'') and the [[Carnival Queen]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Christmas on a Rational Planet (novel)|Christmas on a Rational Planet]]'') [[Iris Wildthyme]] laughed in the Doctor's face when he said he was Time's Champion. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Scarlet Empress (novel)|The Scarlet Empress]]'', ''[[The Blue Angel (novel)|The Blue Angel]]'') When Time appeared to [[Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart]], she directly named the Doctor as her champion. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Set Piece (novel)|Set Piece]]'')


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.)
After [[Roz Forrester]]'s death, the Doctor felt ready to abandon the Champion role by [[regenerating]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Room With No Doors (novel)|The Room With No Doors]]'') The [[Eighth Doctor]] included "Champion of Time [[Life's Champion|and Life]]" among his titles when repelling the [[Ice Warrior]] invasion of the [[United Kingdom]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Dying Days (novel)|The Dying Days]]'') but later grew to regret his past incarnation's actions. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Blue Angel (novel)|The Blue Angel]]'', et al.) The [[Ninth Doctor]], when criticising the [[Unon]]'s goal of "stitching up" the [[Post-Time War universe]], sarcastically asked if they wanted his blessing to become "Time's new Champions." ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Weapons of Past Destruction (comic story)|Weapons of Past Destruction]]'')


In the ensuing court upheaval, the Valeyard fled in the Time Lords' [[Matrix (Doctor Who)|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.
Other claimants to the title included [[Iris Wildthyme]], [[Daedalus]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Blue Angel (novel)|The Blue Angel]]'') and [[Sabbath Dei|Sabbath]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Camera Obscura (novel)|Camera Obscura]]'', ''[[The Domino Effect (novel)|The Domino Effect]]'')
 
[[Category:Aliases of the Doctor]]
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.
[[Category:Champions of Eternals]]
 
[[Category:Seventh Doctor]]
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 (Doctor Who novel)|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 (Doctor Who)|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. As of May 7th, 2008, this text has been completed, approved by McKeon, and is in process of typesetting for publication.
 
==See also==
*[[Shelf Life]]
 
==External links==
*<nowiki>http://timeschampion00.blogspot.com/</nowiki> - Time's Champion blog
 
==Footnotes==
''to be added''
 
{{cleanup}}

Latest revision as of 19:58, 10 April 2024

With the sacrifice of his previous incarnation, the Seventh Doctor was born. (TV: Time and the Rani)

Time's Champion was a title used by various individuals, most notably the Seventh Doctor, after making a deal with the Menti Celesti Time. (PROSE: Love and War, Original Sin, et al.) It signified a responsibility to protect history, no matter the cost. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet)

During the Sixth Doctor's lifetime, Time was looking for a champion to make the difficult decisions needed to save time and space from a coming conflict. The Valeyard told the Sixth Doctor that he planned on applying. (PROSE: Millennial Rites) Elektra and Prometheus hoped their child, Kronos, would become Time's Champion. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) Ultimately, the Seventh Doctor agreed to become Time's Champion. As payment, he sacrificed his prior incarnation. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation, Love and War)

To protect history, the Doctor set a complex array of plots and counterplots into motion. He and his companions would often became trapped in his own schemes, relying on his future self to arrange things so they would turn out right. (PROSE: No Future) These designs would often involve the Doctor's companions without their knowledge or consent, placing them in harm's way. (PROSE: Love and War, Head Games) Ace notably rebuked the Doctor for sacrificing Jan Rydd as part of a plan to stop the Hoothi. (PROSE: Love and War) The Doctor struggled with his culpability for these deaths; he started sleeping less to avoid nightmares (PROSE: Head Games) of the Sixth Doctor's voice taunting him. (PROSE: Return of the Living Dad, Head Games) In response to one of these dreams, he remarked, "I am Time's Champion, and guilt is a luxury I can no longer afford!" (PROSE: Head Games)

At different times, the Doctor was addressed with the title by the Hoothi, the Puterspace, (PROSE: Love and War) the Grandmaster gestalt, (PROSE: So Vile a Sin) and the Carnival Queen. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet) Iris Wildthyme laughed in the Doctor's face when he said he was Time's Champion. (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress, The Blue Angel) When Time appeared to Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart, she directly named the Doctor as her champion. (PROSE: Set Piece)

After Roz Forrester's death, the Doctor felt ready to abandon the Champion role by regenerating. (PROSE: The Room With No Doors) The Eighth Doctor included "Champion of Time and Life" among his titles when repelling the Ice Warrior invasion of the United Kingdom, (PROSE: The Dying Days) but later grew to regret his past incarnation's actions. (PROSE: The Blue Angel, et al.) The Ninth Doctor, when criticising the Unon's goal of "stitching up" the Post-Time War universe, sarcastically asked if they wanted his blessing to become "Time's new Champions." (COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction)

Other claimants to the title included Iris Wildthyme, Daedalus, (PROSE: The Blue Angel) and Sabbath. (PROSE: Camera Obscura, The Domino Effect)

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