Craig Peter Hinton (7 May 1964 – 3 December 2006) was a British writer best known for his work on various spin-offs from the BBC Television series Doctor Who.

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.

[2][3] Hinton also continued to work with Virgin, writing pseudonymously under the name Paul C. Alexander for their Idol range.

[2] In addition to this an anthology, Shelf Life (named after his review column), was edited and published by Jay Eales, David A. McIntee and Adrian Middleton, also for the benefit of the British Heart Foundation.

Outside of the science fiction world Hinton was a noted IT journalist in the UK, editing magazines in the mid-1990s for VNU Business Publications in London and moving on to ITNetwork.com shortly afterwards.