"Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalala!"
— The official lyrics to the Five Who Fans theme
Five Who Fans is a Doctor Who-themed YouTube channel.
Its current iteration was founded in 2012 by Jon Gransden, Benji 'La Bonj' Clifford, David Mc Laughlin, Richard B Brookes and Billy Treacy. Each member was assigned a color (for example, Billy is "yellow week") and they would upload videos on a rotating schedule.
Members have left 5WF due to other commitments and were subsequently replaced by other Doctor Who YouTubers; amongst those that joined later on are Livvy Douglas, Daniel Sherrat, Christel Dee, Phoenix Smith and Christopher Johnson (or possibly a Slitheen That Looks Suspiciously Like Actor, Youtuber And Television Presenter Christopher Johnson).
The current team consists of:
- Billy Treacy
- Jon Gransden
- Daniel Sherrat
- Phoenix Smith
- Christopher Johnson
At the beginning of 2018, they announced that this would be their last year as a YouTube channel (for now), though they will continue to produce Big Finish Doctor Who-style audio dramas under the label "Aimless Wanderings" (which you can listen to here
).
This channel provides examples (and Drashigs) of:
- Affectionate Parody: Phoenix doing a review of Dr. Who and the Daleks in the style of The Nostalgia Critic.
- Always Someone Better: Rassilon is this to Omega, ever since their days on the academy.
- Author Appeal:
- Phoenix loves the Eighth Doctor.
- Billy loves the Ninth Doctor.
- Christel loves the Tenth Doctor.
- Everyone on the channel loves the Sixth Doctor.
- Berserk Button: Christel pressed the fanbase's when she called Doctor Who a kids show.
- Big "WHAT?!": Billy's reaction to Matt Smith leaving.
- Bizarre Alien Senses: The alternate Tenth Doctor suffers from a bout of Cosmic Angst when he senses that his real self has just been killed.
- Body Snatcher: The Slitheen That Looks Suspiciously Like Actor, Youtuber And Television Presenter Christopher Johnson stole Dan's skin and pretended to be him for months to destroy the channel from within.
- Catchphrase:
- In "It's never Omega!", Drashig has "AWKWARD!".
- Nardole has "I'm Nardole!"
- Comically Missing the Point: When the map to Steven Moffat's house leads him back to his own house, Billy figures that he must be Steven Moffat!
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each member is assigned a specific color which shows up in their intros.
- Continuity Snarl: Lampshaded by Mr TARDIS Reviews.Trilbee: I don't really care about the Five Who Fans anymore, I mean, their continuity got really hard to follow with their sketches and the...
- Couch Gag: In the newest version of the intro, introduced in 2017, something different is thrown in slow-motion each time (a toy TARDIS, a Clara doll, Drashig).
- Dark Secret: Dan coming out.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Dan reveals himself to be a Slitheen.
- Drunk on Milk: Subverted, it looks like Billy is treating milk like hard liquor over his realization that he is the last original member, but then he reveals he's just lactose intolerant.Billy, after taking the first sip: Ough!
- Eldritch Abomination: In The One Who Fan, Jon makes a pact with one.
- Foreshadowing: Almost all Videos in the storyline leading up to The Sixth Who Fan.
- Freud Was Right: Phoenix proposes that there is a direct connection between the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver and his sexuality.
- Gender Bender: Jon regenerating into Christel and later on Christel back into Jon.Christel: Oh. New Gender. So you can do that! Wicked!
- Hostile Show Takeover: A couple of times, on the scale of the entire channel.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: X SUCKS!
- Medium AwarenessTwelfth Doctor: Didn't you hear my running music?
- Metaphorgotten: Billy thinking that he is the next person on the channel to be subject to some horrible fate:Billy: It doesn't matter anymore... my days are numbered. My numbers come up. I'm up the river. I'm rivering up the mortal coil.Christel: That's not even a saying!Billy: Well it should be!
- Multiple-Choice Past: Dan is introduced this way.
- The Nth Doctor: Jon regenerated into Christel and then Christel regenerated... back into Jon.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Billy needs to disguise himself because a Dalek with a mustache is threatening him, so he borrows a Cosplay outfit from Christel and Christel needs a mustache to join UNIT, so Billy gives Christel the Dalek's mustache.
- The Power of Hate: Billy knows that if there's one thing that drives Dan through life, it's hate.
- Protest Song: A glorious new version of "Doctor in Distress" to fulfil a dark ritual foretold in Ian Levine's diary.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: When a member leaves, it is often because they can no longer devote as much time as they'd like to the channel.
- Retool: Every time a member is replaced, the channel goes through a small form of this, as a new producer will ineviatably bring their own style of video.
- Running Gag: Jokes about the Colin Baker era, especially "Timelash".
- Satire: Leading up to the Brexit vote, they proposed a referendum as to whether or not the show from 2005 onward should remain canon.
- Season Finale: Such as:
- Shout-Out:
- Christel's alternative self has "Renegade" written on his forehead.
- The Ending of How to Host the Perfect Doctor Who Marathon is one to The Shining.
- Show Within a Show: It's Never Omega!
- Stylistic Suck: Some videos, like Dan's Art Haik series are presented in a delibaretely retro style.
- Subverted Catchphrase: Before Richard leaves, he tells Billy that "[Richard] was fantastic, absolutely fantastic! And you know what? So was [Richard]!"
- Take That!: In the establishing shot of Dan's home, in "Manchester, The North", the titles call it “Alternatively known as "The Death Zone".
- Team Dad: When The Slitheen That Looks Suspiciously Like Actor, Youtuber And Television Presenter Christopher Johnson took over the channel, it was Billy, the longest-serving member at the time, who rescued Dan from the Downside Updown.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Christel can tell that Billy is touching his photo of the original Who fans over the phone without him making any reference to it.Billy: Little Benji...Christel: No, stop touching the photo... it's really weird.
- This Is Reality: When Richard says he's dying because he just recorded a full version of Doctor In Distress, Billy asks him, if he can't just regenerate or something along those lines. Richard responds by reminding Billy that “this is real life, not the internet or Doctor Who”.
- Vagueness Is Coming: In the video announcing their plans to end the channel after 2018, Billy cryptically states that "there's one more thing we still have to do".
- Verbal Tic: Tom apparently can't say more than two sentences without making an obscure reference to Doctor Who.
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What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: Parodied in a series of videos by Phoenix, linking the Sonic Screwdriver to sexuality, the Daleks to Marxism and Steven Moffat to Avant Garde art.
