Fish Fingers and Custard - A Doctor Who Fanzine - FFAC2

" Susan and I are cut off from our own planet, without friends or protection. But one day we shall get back. Yes, one day. One day. " What can you say about a television programme that has kept generations of people happy for 50 years? It has - and will continue to - inspire and entertain many more in the next 50 years and for that reason alone, Doctor Who has proven to be the best television programme of all time. Let's raise a glass to everyone who has worked on the programme. Thank-you Doctor Who. The world would be an infinitely duller place without you. Have a great day, however you're celebrating!  We're looking for contributions for our next Issue, so if you fancy telling us about what you did today, how and where you watched the episode, what you did to celebrate the Anniversary, please e-mail us at fishcustardfanzine@googlemail.com (After today, obviously!)

On day three of our pissing over the legacy of Doctor Who by writing quick, random and let’s face it, poor reviews, we’re covering stories from two Doctors who never changed their trousers. The Five Doctors No, I haven’t cheated. The fact that my random drawing system produced the 20 th Anniversary story is purely coincidental. I wanted Caves of Androzani . I’ve seen this story a few times and I must admit, I enjoy it more with each watch.   There’s (obviously) references flying all over the place, some hammy (but great) acting and of course – there’s Five Doctors.   Well, technically only 3 of the actors returned – William Hartnell sadly passed away 8 years previously, so the role of the First Doctor was played by Richard Hurndall. Tom Baker declined to return, so clips from the unused Shada were used in this.  Hartnell does appear at the start though - the marvellous clip of him saying goodbye to Susan in The Dalek Invasion of Earth is used as the pre...

To celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who stories, we decided to do something that is perhaps a tad ambitious for our lazy selves – watching and reviewing two Doctor Who stories a day (one per Doctor) up until the 23 rd November.  Somehow, we hope these quick observations and thoughts will make a little bit of sense and get you (and us!) in the mood in time for the big day! We’ve used our hi-tec ‘randomiser’ (a lid of a Quality Street tub and pieces of paper, with numbers corresponding to episodes, written on them) and drew one out for each Doctor. So we have our 11 random stories to watch in 5 days (yes, we know that on one day, we’ll need to watch 3!) question is, what are they? Well here are our first two: The Aztecs Piece of paper No6 meant that I drew out ‘ The Aztecs ’. A story which saw The Doctor hitting on women, long before the modern day series, Barbara becoming a god, Ian having (what seemed like) drunken fights and Susan just shouting at people. It’s gre...

What We First Thought:   I would drag up to attend that school Seeing as how we like to ‘buck the trend’ here at Fish Fingers and Custard , we’re going to plough that lonely furrow once more, by saying that we really enjoyed The Vampires of Venice .   Okay, it’s no masterpiece, but the disdain in which it’s held by fans is very undeserved. In our opinion, you understand. Don’t come here with a pitchfork demanding executions. Being the persuasive media tool that we are, we will attempt to convert all 4 of our readers into 'thinking again', like we do with these reviews! Okay, I may be exaggerating the strength of dislike for this episode (for dramatic effect), but according to those Wags at the Internet Movie Database - this episode was a 7.1 out of 10, Time of Angels was a 8.5 out of 10, whereas Journey’s End is an 8.7 out of 10. I’m not saying that Vampires is the better episode, I’m simply saying that Journey’s End isn’t worth 8.7.   You see how fans mi...

It's an aspect of Doctor Who that has always fascinated me.  Missing episodes. 106 still remain missing, as the BBC made the short-sighted decision to wipe their video tapes.  Many were recovered by overseas broadcasters and fans, but as the world grows smaller, finding them all, or just even a few, seemed like a massive uphill task.  Like walking up Everest in just your socks. Today however, the BBC have exclusively revealed that episode 3 of 1965 serial ' Galaxy 4 ' and episode 2 of 1967's ' The Underwater Menace ' were recovered by a private collector in 1980's, and only came to light a few months ago.  It's fantastic news for Doctor Who fans everywhere, as apart from getting those episodes back - it also gives us fresh hope that more will be recovered.  How many other collectors are sitting on unlabelled film cans?  How many Television stations around the world have got film cans that haven't been checked?  There's still the long-standing ...

It's this point of the year where Doctor Who fans all over the world dig out their old episodes and celebrate the birthday of our favourite programme.  Not many television programmes can have such an hold over their viewers, which just shows how successful it is.  Who would have thought that 8-episode children's show would last 48 years and be so loved all around the world? Like last year, we've done some digging around and are proud to present a interview with Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and Carole Ann Ford, on Nationwide in 1978 - Doctor Who's 15th anniversary.  Tom is on top form and its well worth checking out! Enjoy and make sure you watch an episode later!

It's amazing to say that a television show we love so much is still on our screens, 47 years after the first episode aired.  It all started on the 23rd November 1963 with William Hartnell and An Unearthly Child. I've chosen clips from Blue Peter's coverage of Doctor Who's 10th Anniversary, if only for Peter Purves' (who played Steven Taylor in the Hartnell era) comment in part 2 at 4.36 " It's nice to know that when actors come and actors go, Doctor Who seems to live forever ".  And you know what?  That's absolutely spot on. So today, I urge you to whack your favourite episode on and enjoy, the best television program ever made. Happy Birthday Doctor Who!