April Fools' Day

April Fools' Day was a holiday celebrated on 1 April. On this day it was customary for people to play practical jokes and hoaxes on one another.

History

On 1 April 1963, Ian Chesterton sent one of his Coal Hill School students, Little Titch Critchley, to the supplies cupboard for "a left-handed blackboard rubber". Later that morning, Ian started a snowball fight with Mr Okehurst, shouting, "April fool!" That afternoon, when John Brent tried to tell his father about the snowmen which had been animated by the Cold, Captain Brent thought his son was playing an April Fools' joke. (PROSE: Time and Relative ^[+]Loading...["Time and Relative (novel)"])

On 1 April 2024, Arcbeatle Press published an article announcing their new series, The Noodle Man, focused upon the titular character. They announced that The Noodle Incident would be released that day, with Book 1: A Really Incredible Character’s Kaleidoscopically Reimagined, Out-there Lasagna Life available for preorder. They noted that some may say of anchoring such a series on such a character that it was "an April Fools’ joke… gotta be… right? right?!", before recommending such people therapy, meditation, and "a healthy diet of noodles and chocolate eggs". (PROSE: "The Noodle Incident": Brand-New "The Noodle Man" Series Launches with Exclusive Arcbeatle Press Crossover Serial on April 1st ^[+]Loading...["\"The Noodle Incident\": Brand-New \"The Noodle Man\" Series Launches with Exclusive Arcbeatle Press Crossover Serial on April 1st (short story)"])

When Harold sent a distress call warning Deimos Moonbase about a group of Ice Warriors taking over the tourist shuttle, Gregson Grenville responded, "Yeah, yeah. Very funny, Luigi. Happy April Fools to you too." (AUDIO: Deimos ^[+]Loading...["Deimos (audio story)"])

April Fools' jokes in the real world

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Information about Jenny Says: Drink Gevity™! ^[+]Loading...["Jenny Says: Drink Gevity™! (comic story)"] needs to be added.

• An issue of the Doctor Who fanzine Dream Watch Bulletin said there was a sixth episode of The Dæmons planned which would feature the Master escaping UNIT.
• In issue 76 of Doctor Who Magazine, there was a feature about rushes for an abandoned William Hartnell story called The Phoenix Rises being discovered and used to create a new story featuring the First and Fifth Doctors, which would be made in black-and-white so the Hartnell footage would match seamlessly with the Peter Davison material. The date for the start of filming was "1 April 1983".
  

  The faux box art for "The Phone Book".
• In issue 88 of Doctor Who Magazine, it was reported by "John Wakefield" — actually the name of the television reporter played by Michael Wisher in The Ambassadors of Death — that not only had "around 95%" of The Tenth Planet episode four been found in a mythical BBC department, but also the story was being colourised for transmission in Canada — apparently due to the country's television transmitters being unable to broadcast black-and-white material. The project's production code was "01:04/84".
• In 2009, as an April Fool's joke, word circulated around the Doctor Who set that Michael Jackson was paying a visit.
• In 2023, the Big Finish Twitter account announced an 18-hour box set of Tom Baker reading "The Phone book".