Son of the Contest Puzzle

Remember that wickedly hard diagramless puzzle by Craig Kasper? It's been a week (and a day), and the contest results are in. Byron Walden was the first to finish this beast of a puzzle. Stephen Williams was the second to accomplish that feat. And the third...well, let's just say that if anyone else managed to crack this puzzle, they didn't tell me about it.

Those of you who gave up, take heart. Craig made an Across Lite version that you can download here. It has the black squares in place! Some of the white squares are numbered! All the clues are numbered! You still have to figure out the answers yourself (unless you ask Across Lite to reveal them). Then you can peruse the completed grid, looking for that hidden fictional character; change one letter in that name to a B, and unscramble it to find a related word (hint: it's not STARBUCK).

Enjoy!