The Idiot's Lantern (TV story)

Synopsis
London, 1953: on the eve of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, Mr. Magpie is selling televisions from his little shop at an amazingly low price. It must be an alien plot...

Plot
The Wire is a creature which has escaped the death punishment of its own world, becoming living energy. Like that, it arrives to Earth in 1953 and it mingles into the human signals of television to stay alive. Then, The Wire makes a deal with a television repairer, Mr. Magpie, so its shop begins to sell sets of television for extremely cheap sums of money at the northern area of London. Such devices are entirely normal yet The Wire survives taking control of them afterward. The victims of The Wire are subjected of some weird radiations of their television sets, by which their brain waves are robbed and their faces disappear off their heads as well, being captured onto the screens of the shop. The Wire has stolen their energy.

About then, the Doctor and his companion Rose Tyler landed in Muswell Hill, London, in 1953, yet expecting to be in New York. Dressed in an Elvis Presley vibe, they expected to attend a performance of the Ed Sullivan Show. However, the different skyline, a red double decker bus, and a Union Flag tells them that, actually, they are in northern London on the eve of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.

By chance, the Doctor witnesses that the body of a person wrapped in a blanket being brought quickly toward a dumpsite. They decide, then, to investigate. Sneaking into a house of the neighborhood as Royal inspectors, with the help of the Doctor's psychic paper, they find that an obnoxiously rigorous father, Edward Connolly, is repressing his young son, Tommy, who is much concerned about his grandmother, gran Connolly, who is kept isolated in her room. Secret agents irrupt, knocking the Doctor out, and taking the woman, who lacked her face, in a carpet too. The doctor chases it but Rose is distracted by a rare occurrence of the television set, which showed some paranormal violet discharges around.

Rose reads the tag of the television set, Magpie, so she decides to investigate thither. Before her insistence, the technician locks the door, trapping her inside the mysterious shop, and the talking representation of The Wire, a female television presenter, presents itself, and promptly Rose is subjected to the lethal radiation of The Wire ("I'm The Wire... and I'm hungry!"). Rose loses her face which is seized onto one of the screens of the shop.

At the dumpsite, the Doctor finds many standing people whose faces have been robbed. The Detective Inspector Bishop detaines him then, though, for an interrogation. The Doctor learns that they have been bringing the bodies secretively to the depot and finally he persuades Bishop for help. Also, Rose's body is brought to the police department after it has been found on a street. The now entirely committed Doctor gets then to the repairing shop with Tommy Connolly and Bishop. The Wire attacks them. Bishop is victimized but The Doctor stops the radiations timely through his screwdriver, saving Tommy as well.

Magpie takes advantage of their temporary paralysis though, taking The Wire out of the shop with a small portable television. At the giant Alexandra Palace antenna, The Wire would drain the energy of three million viewers of the coronation day. Then, The Wire would regain its corporeal form. The Doctor rushes behind the mini van while Tommy stays in the shop, managing some devices under some indications of the Doctor. At the giant antenna, the Doctor manages to tap into the transmission, diverting the signal of The Wire with the help of Tommy, and The Wire ends up trapped, into a Betamax video tape. The Doctor comments that it would be enough, yet he would probably erase the tape, just in case. Also, all the victims recuperated their faces and minds.

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * The Wire - Maureen Lipman
 * Mr. Magpie - Ron Cook
 * Eddie Connolly - Jamie Foreman
 * Rita Connolly - Debra Gillett
 * Tommy Connolly - Rory Jennings
 * Grandma - Margaret John
 * Mrs Gallagher - Marie Lewis
 * Detective Inspector Bishop - Sam Cox
 * Crabtree - Ieuan Rhys
 * Aunt Betty - Jean Challis
 * Security Guard - Christopher Driscoll

Story notes

 * This story had working titles of: Mr Sandman, Sonic Doom, The One-Eyed Monster.
 * The Idiot's Lantern was originally to have been the ninth episode of Series 2.
 * Originally, The Doctor was supposed to have a line about having trouble with radio transmitters, which was supposed to be a reference to Logopolis, where the Fourth Doctor fell from the Pharos Project transmitter.
 * The Doctor quotes Kylie Minogue's song "Never Too Late." Minogue would later appear as a guest star in the episode Voyage of the Damned, playing Astrid Peth.

Ratings

 * Overnight viewing figures for the initial broadcast of this episode were 6.32 million, peaking at 7.78 million, an audience share of 32.2%.


 * The final rating was 6.76 million, making it the most watched programme of the day.

Myths

 * This episode is frequently mistakenly cited as taking place in 1952, the year Elizabeth ascended to the throne upon the death of her father; her official coronation ceremony, however, did not occur until nearly 18 months later, in June 1953. (In addition, the episode itself states that it is 1953.)
 * Footage of Rose calling out from the TV set was recycled for her brief cameos in the Season 4 episodes The Poison Sky and Midnight.

Filming locations

 * Alexandra Palace, Wood Green, London
 * Florentia Street in Cathays, Cardiff
 * Blenheim Road in Pen-y-lan, Cardiff
 * Cardiff Royal Infirmary
 * Veritair Limited tarmac at the Cardiff Heliport on Cardiff Bay

Production errors

 * The episode's last scene in Magpie Electricals ends with the Doctor exiting the shop and looking towards Alexandra Palace. It was achieved by dropping in a matte painting of Ally Pally on a hill into a location foreground actually filmed in Cardiff.  According to David Tennant on the DVD commentary for the episode, however, the composition of the shot violates the narrative of the story.  Magpie is said to be in Muswell Hill, but in order to have that particular view of Ally Pally, one would actually have to be filming from the vantage point of Crouch End.  Whether this is a production error or not depends on one's point of view.  To those unfamiliar with London, there's nothing wrong with the technical set-up or execution of the scene.  But given the episode's otherwise meticulous attempts to capture a the reality of a particular moment in history, it is a glaring error to anyone who knows London.

Continuity

 * Magpie Electricals apparently continues to exist. Martha Jones had a Magpie brand television in DW: The Sound of Drums, and a Magpie brand microphone can be seen in Voyage of the Damned. The new TARDIS interior, after it repaired itself following the events of DW: The End of Time has some parts made by Magpie Electricals. Magpie apparently continues to thrive into the future, as a large sign with the company's logo can be seen aboard Starship UK in DW: The Beast Below.
 * The Wire shares many things with the Abzorbaloff (Love & Monsters episode also of the second series). Both absorb their victims, whose faces are visible somewhere around the creature and whose consciousnesses are preserved somehow in such medium of captivity. However, The Wire expected to be fed and to regain its corporeal form. The Abzorbaloff wanted to absorb the Doctor's memories.
 * Lara Phillipart, who played Jasmine Pierce in TW: Small Worlds can be seen briefly as a girl in the Connolly's living room watching the coronation.
 * The Wire's repeated demand "FEED ME!" is reminiscent of a similar demand made, to comic effect, by the killer plant Audry Jr. in the classic horror-comedy film (and later musical) The Little Shop of Horrors.

Timeline

 * This story occurs after DWA: No One Died
 * This story occurs before NSA: The Nightmare of Black Island

Home video releases

 * This was released on a vanilla DVD along side Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel.
 * It was also released as part of the Series 2 DVD box set.