The 555 is one of the most important pieces of standard hardware on the planet (KenWittlief's prof's opinion not withstanding). Bias against it may well be justified, but it does not take away from the fact that the world as we know it would simply (and literally) grind to a halt if the anti-555 snobs waved a wand and made all the 555's in the world disappear.
I take the more practical approach of
Steve Ciarcia, who said, "Solder is my favorite programming language."
Driving a Victor with 2 555's is a piece of cake (use a 556 - it has 2 555's in one package). Go
HERE for some easy examples of how to make useful 555 circuits. The basic idea is to have one 555 set to make a 50Hz signal and have that repeatedly trigger a "one shot" that will give you the pulse for the Victor (roughly .5ms - 2.5ms pulse).
Joe J.