The Wire

The Wire is an alien lifeform that was executed by its people but managed to preserve itself as an energy being that eventually escaped to Earth in 1953. There, it concealed itself in television signals, transferring itself from set to set and feeding on the electrical activity of the brains of those watching it. Its victims would be drained of neural energy, and their faces completely erased, making them mindless. The Wire used the image of a female BBC continuity announcer to communicate with the outside world.

The Wire used Mr Magpie, the owner of an electronics shop, to distribute cheap television sets in North London so it could feed. It planned to transfer itself to the television transmission tower in Alexandra Palace on the day of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, where it could reach out and drain the collective energy of the estimated twenty million viewers watching the event. It hoped to use this energy to manifest itself in a corporeal form once more.

However, the Tenth Doctor was able to trap the Wire on a Betamax tape using a makeshift video cassette recorder. The Wire's victims were restored to normalcy. The Doctor seemed confident that the Wire would remain trapped, but said that he would tape over it, just to be safe.