 |
| FiveWhoFans | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Format | Video production |
| Created by | Jon Gransden |
| Starring | See complete list of members |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of eras | 9 |
| Broadcast | |
| YouTube channel |
theFiveWhoFans |
| Original run | 2009 (Era 1) 2010 (Era 2–5) 2011 (Era 6–7, 2011) 2012–14 (Era 2012/13/14) 2014–19, 2023 (Final Era) |
FiveWhoFans, branded in 2012 as 5WF, is a YouTube channel created in 2009 by Jon Gransden. It consisted of five people who discussed Doctor Who-related topics on a weekly basis. The channel seamingly came to an end and ceased video production in 2019, after ten years of existence, however in the 31st of December 2022 it was announced that the channel would return in 2023 to celebrate Doctor Who's 60th anniversary.
Inspiration[]
The original FiveWhoFans channel was a Doctor Who-themed channel inspired by fiveawesomeguys (a collaborative channel that saw now-famous YouTubers produce one video a day for each of the five weekdays). This idea was pinched wholesale by the channel founder (Jon Gransden) and used as a template that would serve the channel for several years.
Main iteration[]
The second and most well-known iteration of FiveWhoFans began in 2012 with Jon Gransden, Benji Clifford, David McLaughlin, Richard B Brookes and Billy Treacy.
Each member was given a different colour week to distinguish their content from everyone elses. In 2012, members were encouraged to make "response" videos to each others video, but this was scrapped in 2013. The format drastically changed from it's original 5-videos a week format (which was deemed unsustainable), and instead changed to one-video a week, with an eye to create more polished content.
As the years progressed, Benji, David, Jon, and Richard departed and were replaced by Livvy Douglas, Daniel Sheratt, Christel Dee, and Phoenix Smith. Their departures from the channel were due to a variety of circumstances. The channel was eventually branded as "5WF" or "Five Double-Yew Eff" or "Eff Double-Yew Eff" (by peasants).
The video order was changed to two videos a week in 2016, though the colours remained, with each member getting thier own individual colour or colour shade. In 2017 the colours were removed entirely.
The roster of members who remained with the channel until the very end were:
- Billy Treacy, 2012–19 (formerly Yellow Week)
- Daniel Sheratt, 2014–19 (formerly Crimson Week)
- Phoenix Smith, 2016–19 (formerly Pink Week)
- Christopher Johnson, 2017–19
- Jon Gransden, 2012–14, 2018–19 (formerly Blue Week)
Past members of the post–2012 era were:
- Benji Clifford, 2012 (Red Week)
- David McLaughlin, 2012–13 (Orange Week)
- Richard B. Brookes, 2012–16 (Purple Week)
- Livvy Douglas, 2013–17 (Green Week)
- Christel Dee, 2014–17 (Turquoise Week)
In it's most-known form, Jon Gransden served as the de-facto channel leader, though following his "retirement" in 2014, the responsibilities passed onto Billy Treacy and Richard B Brookes. Following Richard's departure in May 2016, Billy became the key representative of the channel (though Jon still remained ever-present).
Channel conclusion in 2019 and 2023 return[]
It was announced that 2018 would be the final year of the current version of FiveWhoFans. They uploaded their "final video" on 14 January 2019, though in 1 July 2020 they uploaded a short animated video to promote the return of their Aimless Wanderings audio series and would release two episodes of the FiveWhoFans podcast in 18 August 2019 and 27 September 2021 (the latter discussing the return of Russell T Davies as show runner and included every member of the main iteration of the channel.
On 30 December 2022, the FiveWhoFans socials, including YouTube teased an announcement at 5pm the following day. And indeed, on 5pm the 31st of December 2022, FiveWhoFans announced that they would return in 2023, for one year only.
Content[]
The general tone of the 5WF channel is seldom ever serious (though not always), but honest - most of the videos can typically be summarized as a vlog, sketch, critique, review or a video about how Colin Baker is great. There have been some recurring tropes and types of video beyond this, including...
- "...SUCKS!" - following on from an incredibly polarizing video from Jon in reaction to the 2013 version of the Doctor Who titles, a sequence of similarly polarizing videos were made.
- Billy, Jon and Richard joke that these videos have essentially filtered out the channel audience to the point where they can be as polarizing as they like without too much trouble. The final video in the polarising arc was "Hey Dude, Where's My Fandom?", which made an appeal to the audience regarding sensationalised content and generalisations.
- "The Crimson Zone" - videos from Daniel Sherratt lampooning the sci-fi anthology series The Twilight Zone.
- "Sci(fi)entist" - science and pseudo-science vlogs from Richard B Brookes.
- "How to..." - a series of videos from Billy involving a variety of arts and crafts projects.
- "History of FiveWhoFans" - totally self indulgent vlogs about the long and varied history of the channel.
Videos have also been produced solely for the Facebook page, as well as Vine exclusives. This is in line with Jon Gransden's 2014 vision statement that the channel should take over "all of the internet"; not just YouTube. There has yet to be any content appearing on MySpace.
5WF have also been responsible for a viral video on #Mashed called "Time Traveller Boyfriend", written by Richard, Joel H. Joelson (a frequent co-writer on Aimless Wanderings), and Holly B (who collaborated with Richard and David Boskett on the 2014 5WF theme) and produced by Christel.
Wildcard Week[]
After every five weeks, the sixth week would be an on/off "Wildcard Week" in order to provide a degree of flexibility to work in progress, or to allow members to submit additional content. Like the other five weeks, Wildcard had a colour - White, though it did not call itself "White Week".
Wildcard Weeks are often an on/off affair depending on the timetable, with some weeks stretching into fortnights - usually to allow extra time to produce longer videos such as the pilot for animated sitcom, 42 Geronimo Lane or The OneWhoFan.
Wildcard Week was abandoned at the start of 2015. However, special videos such as the Sylvester McCoy interview and the Vine compilations have taken it's palce. The special videos are Navy, and the Vine Video Compilations are Cyan.
Segments[]
"42 Geronimo Lane"[]
42 Geronimo Lane was intended to be an animation sitcom series was first referred to as #project42 by the the 5WF members. The final animation ended up taking 10 months to develop, with animator Jon drafting in support from Billy (colouring) and Richard (lip syncing) in order to get the pilot produced before the launch of Doctor Who Series 7 Part 2.
A commentary for Geronimo Lane can be found on the 5WF soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/5wf/42-geronimo-lane-moving-in-the. The series was quietly cancelled after the amount of resources and pizza that went into making the first one couldn't be sustained but a "sort of revival" was created in 2018 with the channel's departure...
"It's Never Omega"[]
On 14 August 2015 a new online original series was announced. The series was created by Phoenix Smith and Billy Treacy. It centred around the villains (Omega, Drashig and Auton) living together in their flat. The first episode aired on 25 August 2015 and concluded the first series on 16 June 2016. On 26 June 2016, 5WF announced the series would return for a second series comprising of five episodes (one of which was a Christmas special). The second series premiered on 21 November 2016 and concluded in 2017. On 15 April 2017, there was a cameo appearance in the first episode of the Alternate Doctor Who: Series 10 series.
Series 1 (2015–16)[]
| Story | Serial | Title | Upload Date | Length (minutes) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "The One with Omega" | 25 August 2015 | 6:04 |
| 2 | 2 | "Drashig Takes Acid" | 8 September 2015 | 3:54 |
| 3 | 3 | "Laszlo Comes to Stay" | 11 February 2016 | 2:47 |
| 4 | 4 | "The Seal of Rassilon" | 5 May 2016 | 4:37 |
| 5 | 5 | "Drashig Dies" | 16 June 2016 | 8:15 |
Series 2 (2016–18)[]
| Story | Serial | Title | Upload Date | Length (minutes) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 1 | "Davros Gets a Divorce" | 21 November 2016 | 4:56 |
| 2 | "Dalek Civil War" | 25 November 2016 | 5:01 | |
| 7 | 3 | "Drashig Through the Snow" | 24 December 2016 | 11:44 |
| X | X | "Alternate Doctor Who: The Darkest Timeline" |
15 April 2017 | 6:12 |
| 8 | 4 | "A Zygon Called Isis" | 22 May 2017 | 6:47 |
| 9 | 5 | "The House Party" | 9 February 2018 | 5:21 |
Notable events[]
Themed Cycles[]
Occasionally, themes would run for several weeks throughout the channel. These have included:
- "Radiophonic Infestation" which resulted in Benji retiring from the channel.
- "Takeover" which was a series of videos produced by a new team, led by the villainous Daniel Sherratt.
- "Create a Classic Doctor Who Story" where Billy invited the audience to write synopses for fictional episodes, and a series of five videos were made as a result.
- "There Can Be Only One" which resulted in Jon completely taking over, and then leaving the channel.
- "The Six Who Fans" where Christopher Johnson brought in a new team of five more people doing videos taking over the original five until it became back to normal.
The FiveWhoFans Takeover[]
In one of the FiveWhoFans more elaborate themed cycles, July 2013 saw the channel "invaded" by Daniel Sherratt as "The Five Who Fans Villian". As well as two "specials" which provided most of the narrative for the takeover The Ultimate Foe and The Ultimate Vengence, takeover videos included:
- Chris Johnson's investigation into whether Doctor Who was better than Batman, which marked the first appearance of the bat-hooded, Colin obsessed Robin Bland (played by Wigan's finest, Phil Fletcher) - both returned in 2014 in Purple Week's "How to watch Doctor Who".
- The "evil" Daniel Sherratt being abducted by Love Robots.
- A pro-Martha Jones video from William "Trilbee" Carlisle.
- "Doctor Who impressions" with Thomas Rees-Kaye.
- George Broad talking about his amazing alien, who turns out to be Billy Treacy in disguise.
Branding[]
Jon Gransden designed the logo for FiveWhoFans 2012. It features spinning coloured blocks, above the simple Graphic of "5 Who Fans" that transforms into "#5WF" a tag to communicate with viewers over twitter.
After a few cycles, this "5 Who Fans" logo was replaced by a more straightforward '5WF' logo of plain text with a white stroke. A new end-screen was also created, designed to accommodate video responses.
In 2013, the first major re-brand occurred, in line with a new, upbeat title theme, and more defined identity. Coloured bars were introduced (based on Channel 4's late 90's trails by Spin). The logo was cleaned up slightly, with the 5 being slanted slightly, making the left-hand stroke a diagonal line. The logo was placed within a white square, with the logo cut-out from it.
In Takeover period of June-July 2013, the channel and design were given a short-lived makeover. The logo was circular and the colours were circular in shape. The lined bars and square logo returned once the Takeover ended.
In 2014 the channel was given another rebrand, this time replacing the coloured bars with hexagons. The logo was in a grey box, with cut-outs in light grey with a light grey stroke around the box.
Since Jon left, branding and marketing passed onto Daniel Sherratt, who was responsible for re-animating the 2014 title sequence. Only a few changes were made to this sequence including a reduction in length and an altered colour scheme.
In 2015 branding changed once again, with a hexagon/cube shape as the central theme and a star backdrop. The logo itself now looks similar to the 2013 version, losing the border and returning to pure white. The only change is the F and white strokes are now slanted instead of jagged.
Music[]
Upon the channel's return in 2012, the channel debuted with a short, punchy theme tune by Benji Clifford (la Bonj) is an up beat/bass-y club like tune, reminiscent of the Doctor Who Confidential theme (in production, it was labelled 'Ident Intro'). It was a dramatic departure for the ~30 second variations used in the previous eras,
The theme was changed in 2013 to a theme developed by Richard B Brookes and composed by David Boskett (production, 2013 Theme), it was more stripped back, featured a re-interpretation of the Doctor Who melody and was reminiscent of Boskett's recent work on 'Mighty Gizmo'. The same composition would be revisited later for another interpretation by Boskett with Brookes's original acoustic guitar tracks in the latter part of 2013 (production, Latter 2013), a Christmas version by Boskett featuring some dubious "Ho Ho Ho" lyrics (production, Christmas theme) and it's current iteration, which was a full blown mash up of guitar and synth and featured a new counter-melody on top of the Doctor Who melody, it was composed by Boskett, Brookes and Holly B, who also mastered the piece.
During 2013, the end screen featured a cut-down version of the main theme, featuring plucked chords on a variety of instruments as arranged by Brookes.
The "Takeover" era of 2013 introduced another theme tune composed by Daniel Sherratt. A jarring electronic affair to match the sinister intentions of the takeover.
Audio Content[]
The 5WF Podcast[]
In September, the team of 5WF 2013 launched an occasional podcast via Catalyst Media, in which they discuss various topics regarding Doctor Who. After Catalyst Media folded in mid-2014, the podcast moved over to Spreaker. The it can be found on itunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/fivewhofans-podcast-spreaker/id899805866 or direct from Spreaker here: http://www.spreaker.com/user/fivewhofans
Podcast content varies between news, reviews and audio commentaries for episodes of Doctor Who.
Aimless Wanderings Audio Series[]
Spearheaded by Billy Treacy and originally planned to be an accompaniment to the 5WF Podcast... Aimless Wanderings is a fan-audio series which featured Billy as 'The 5WF Doctor' an arrogant incarnation of the Doctor in a toothpaste coloured jacket who was accompanied by a pug named Martin (he'd previously appeared as the character in 'Classic Doctor Who SUCKS', 'The Ultimate Foe' and the 'Create a Classic Doctor Who' series).
After a wave of four episodes, a special was created for the 50th Anniverasry, Doctor3 featuring two other Doctors played by Jon Gransden and Daniel Sherratt - 'The 5WF Doctor' was eventually redubbed 'The Pompous Doctor' (a cross between Colin Baker and William Hartnell), alongside Jon's 'Dynamite Doctor' (a catchphrase laden imitation of modern series Doctors') and Dan's 'Sorry Doctor' (a cross between Peter Davison and Patrick Troughton). The special also had an easter egg featuring Benji Clifford doing an impression of Tom Baker, which inevitably became 'The Fruit Pastel Doctor'.
Since then, several 'waves' of episodes, as well as specials have been produced, ranging from more Sorry and Pompous Adventures, to audiobooks for the Dynamite Doctor. The production is headed by Billy (as principal writer and editor) with Benji (writer/editor of Fruit Pastel Adventures), Dan (writer, music producer), David McLaughlin (writer) and Joel H. Joelson (writer). Music is produced by David Boskett, Billy Treacy, Benji Clifford and Daniel Sherratt.
Complete list of members[]
First iteration[]
| Era (2009–11) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | 2011 | |
| Members | Jon Gransden | Billy Treacy | Billy Garratt-John | Allan Rafferty | ||||
| Sammie Carter | Jon Gransden | Sam Woodall | Anthony Keily | Matt Beale | ||||
| Andy Harrison | Jaime Carroll | Peter Adams | Daniel Sherratt | |||||
| John Hutch | Alex Matthews | David McLaughlin | ||||||
| Lee Dawson | Matthew Perks | Allan Rafferty | Connor Chadwick | Nathan Carter | ||||
| Back-up members | Ben Rudman | Allan Rafferty | N/A | N/A | Patrick McGrotty | |||
| N/A | Kamran Morton | N/A | N/A | N/A | Dave Edwards | Christan T. | Dave Edwards | |
| N/A | Sam Woodhall | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Oliver Paviour-Silcock | N/A | |
| N/A | Matthew Perks | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
Second iteration[]
| Year (2012–19, 2023) | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |||||||||||
| Members | Jon Gransden | Christel Dee | Jon Gransden | |||||||||||||||
| Billy Treacy | ||||||||||||||||||
| Richard B Brookes | Phoenix Smith | |||||||||||||||||
| David McLaughlin | Daniel Sherratt | |||||||||||||||||
| Benji Clifford | Livvy Douglas | Chris Johnson | ||||||||||||||||
| Back-up/Takeover members | N/A | Daniel Sherratt | N/A | Phoenix Smith | Chris Johnson | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||||||||||
| N/A | Chris Johnson | N/A | Joel H Joelson | Billy Garratt-John | N/A | N/A | N/A | |||||||||||
| N/A | Will Carlisle | N/A | David McLaughlin | Ronan Goron | N/A | N/A | N/A | |||||||||||
| N/A | Thomas Ress-Kaye | N/A | N/A | Will Carlisle | N/A | N/A | N/A | |||||||||||
| N/A | George Broad | N/A | N/A | TARDISarchives | N/A | N/A | N/A | |||||||||||
| N/A | Sam "Dimmeh" Dimitrijevic | N/A | N/A | Stuart Hardy | N/A | N/A | N/A | |||||||||||
| N/A | Christopher Thomson | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |||||||||||
History[]
Since 2009, FiveWhoFans has gone through many stages of re-imagination, re-formatting and new members. Many videos from eras prior to FiveWhoFans 2012 are available on a separate YouTube channel, 5WFArchive.
Era One[]
Inception of the channel by Jon Gransden, who oversaw the channel with aid from Ben Rudman and Billy Treacy.[1] In addition to the format carried over from the FiveAwesomeGuys, new concepts and ideas were added. At the end of each video the team member would throw their sonic screwdriver to the right of the screen and "into the vortex" so at the start of the next video, the team member would catch the screwdriver as it flew in from the vortex from the left of the screen.
Each video uploaded would be numbered (e.g. '001. Introduction'). At this time, this period was not referred to as an era.
| Day | Team Member |
|---|---|
| Monday | Jon Gransden |
| Tuesday | Sammie Carter |
| Wednesday | Andy Harrason |
| Thursday | John Hutch |
| Friday | Lee Dawson |
| Back-up Members | Ben Rudman |
Era Two[]
After Jon Gransden and Ben Rudman left due to scheduling difficulties, Billy Treacy stepped in to take over as team leader, keeping most of the original members as well as adding a few people to the mix.[2] Treacy was the first person to introduce the concept of 'The Era', he also give each member of the team a discussion topic (i.e New Who, Classic Reviews, Fan Films).
Era Three[]
Treacy found that he would rather split the workload of producing such a channel and so brought back channel creator Jon Gransden.[3] This would be the first controversial event in FiveWhoFans, Treacy and Gransden decided to "reset the counter" on the videos, and so they deleted both previous eras videos.
This caused an outcry from subscribers and past members who were upset to lose the history of the channel. It even lead to one subscriber email all other subscribers and pushing them to un-subscribe to "teach the new team a lesson".
Regardless of this "hiccup", Treacy and Gransden re-launched the channel.
| Day | Segment | Team Member |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | "Fan Films" | Billy Treacy |
| Tuesday | "New Who" | Jaime Carroll |
| Wednesday | "Classic Who" | Jon Gransden |
| Thursday | "Audios" | Alex Matthews |
| Friday | "Project Who" | Matthew Perks |
| Back-up | Allan Rafferty | |
Era Four[]
Dubbed as "The Non-Era". The channel was given over to Alex Matthews and Allan Rafferty after the departure of Treacy, Gransden and Perks, even though a new title sequence and team were revealed, nothing came of this era.[4]
Era Five[]
Era Five began after the hiatus. The channel was handed over by Allan Rafferty and Alex Matthews to a new team who began re-running auditions. The eventual outcome was Era Six.[5]
Era Six[]
Soon into Era Five, and just before Christmas 2010, a new member decided to delete the channel and all its videos. David McLaughlin got the remaining team back and they decided to start again in early 2011 with a new member. This era did introduce some new things to the channel, ie. history, podcasts.[6]
| Day | Segment | Team Member |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | "Merchandise/Project Who" | Billy Garratt-John |
| Tuesday | "Production Who" | Connor Chadwick |
| Wednesday | "New Who" | Daniel Sherratt |
| Thursday | "DWA Reviews" | Matt Beale |
| Friday | "Fan Films" | David McLaughlin |
| Back-ups | Patrick McGrotty, Dave Edwards ("Classic Who") | |
Era Seven[]
After this era also saw the introduction of a new format of FiveWhoFans 2011 instead of eras when the channel was hacked (and deleted) a third time.[7]
| Day | Segment | Team Member |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | "Project Who" | Billy Garratt-John |
| Tuesday | "New Who" | Connor Chadwick |
| Wednesday | "Madness Who" | Daniel Sherratt |
| Thursday | "Classic Who" | Matt Beale |
| Friday | "Fan Films" | David McLaughlin |
| Back-ups | Patrick McGrotty, Christan T. and Oliver Paviour-Silcock | |
FiveWhoFans 2011[]
FiveWhoFans 2011 was a sub-era created after the third deletion of the channel just before December 2011 and only lasted a number of weeks. This era introduced a new member and a former back-up from Era Three and did introduce some new things to the channel history.[8] This era saw the first ever live show on Vokle, hosted by Dave Edwards with 5WF team members and starring other guests.
| Day | Segment | Team Member |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | "Chatting Who" | Allan Rafferty |
| Tuesday | "Classic Who" | Matt Beale |
| Wednesday | "Fan Films" | David McLaughlin |
| Thursday | "Mise En Scene" | Nathan Carter |
| Friday | "Madness Who" | Daniel Sherratt |
| Back-ups | Patrick McGrotty, Dave Edwards ("New Who") | |
After a few weeks, this channel was hacked and deleted. After much deliberation, David McLaughlin and Daniel Sherratt decided that the channel needed a rest, and it was put in indefinite hiatus.
This is marked as the end of the original FiveWhoFans.
Regeneration[]
One day, after discovering an original FiveWhoFans video uploaded by Matt Williams, original creator Jon Gransden contacted Billy Treacy about bringing the group back, and they got in contact with a few people who ultimately became members of the group. Gransden brought it back with a new team, brand and format.
Branding History[]
The original plan was to use the font DeviantStrain (a Doctor Who-styled font) with the word "FiveWhoFans" as had been seen in the launch trailer for the channel. However to Jon Gransden's surprise and joy, YouTuber ElbyTyler (Laura Bond) came to him with a fully designed logo that would stick with the channel in many future eras of the channel. They then had a graphic image of the then current sonic-screwdriver with the words "FiveWhoFans" fitting inside it.
When Billy Treacy took over in Era 3 he requested a new logo from Bond, this time using the design of River Song's Future Screwdriver.
In late 2010, Dave Edwards worked with FiveWhoFans as a motion graphic designer and a back-up, creating the titles and logos; but in the 2011 logo design, he kept the original initial design.
Edwards made simple designs for the 6th and 7th era of FiveWhoFans, when it came to FiveWhoFans 2011, he got ideas from previous eras (1-3) and designed the logo with a sonic screwdriver (11th Doctor's) with the words FiveWhoFans engraved on it.
Theme Music[]
The channel was launched with the theme tune from de-bunked TV series Totally Doctor Who. However, Ben Rudman was asked to create a new 30-second piece of music that was funky and reminiscent of Doctor Who, but not being copyright infringing. Over time, Rudman created 3 versions of the theme, the first two being used during Era One and the third being used to launch Era Three. After Rudman left the show, he took away the rights to use any of his music.
When Treacy became team leader, he scored a new version of the theme. Where Rudman had used elements and sound effects from the official show, Treacy's rendition of the theme was 100% synthesised. This was used until Era Four.
From Eras 6 and 7 and FiveWhoFans 2011, Dave Edwards used a Doctor Who theme remix by Grubbo for the theme tune of FiveWhoFans.