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Tardis
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Tardis

Magpie Electricals was a radio and television shop located on Mafeking Terrace in Muswell Hill. (TV: The Idiot's Lantern)

History

In Essex in 1138, the Twelfth Doctor anachronistically played his electric guitar through a Magpie Electronics amplifier on a tank in a medieval castle. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) He later used this same amplifier on the TARDIS. (TV: Before the Flood)

In 1953, the Wire contacted the owner, Mr Magpie, making him sell television sets cheaply as part of her plan to "tak[e] people's faces, their essences" and get a physical body. (TV: The Idiot's Lantern)

Although Magpie himself was killed by the Wire, Magpie Electricals survived the loss of its proprietor, and continued to exist well past the 1950s.

In October 1963, the First Doctor visited Magpie's Electricals and attempted to buy components to repair the TARDIS. (AUDIO: Hunters of Earth)

In June 1964, the Magpie Deluxe was on sale in London. (AUDIO: Wave of Destruction)

River Song's scanner was manufactured by Magpie Electricals. (TV: Day of the Moon)

In 2007, the logo was seen when the Doctor flicked through various websites on a mobile phone. (TV: The Runaway Bride)

In 2008, Martha Jones had a Magpie-brand television. (TV: The Sound of Drums)

The alien cruise liner Titanic had a Magpie-brand microphone. (TV: Voyage of the Damned)

By Christmas 2008, Wilfred Mott had a Magpie-branded television when he sold newspapers on Christmas Eve. (TV: Voyage of the Damned)

In 2009, Sarah Jane Smith's computer was a Magpie Electricals brand. (TV: The Mark of the Berserker)

In 2017, when the Monks invaded the Earth, many citizens watched the Twelfth Doctor's broadcasts on them, such one about their fabricated role in human history, through the window of a Magpie Electricals shop. (TV: The Lie of the Land)

In 2020 on Vulcan, the Second Doctor cobbles together an electrical radio looking device to take down the Daleks. The device is branded with a Magpie Electricals logo. (TV: The Power of the Daleks)

Torchwood Three once had an old Magpie television. (PROSE: The Undertaker's Gift)

Clearest view of Magpie's Electricals aboard the Starship UK

Magpie Electricals on the Starship UK. (TV: The Beast Below)

The monitor, the typewriter, the keyboard and a miscellaneous control by the mustard dispenser in the reconstructed TARDIS console room had Magpie Electricals brands on them. (TV: The Eleventh Hour) A power control device in the console room had Magpie's Electricals brand and was labelled Type V 310-A. (TV: Vincent and the Doctor)

It still stood in the 33rd century, on Starship UK. (TV: The Beast Below)

Behind the scenes

  • The use of the Magpie Electricals logo is something of an inside joke for Doctor Who's design team. It is on the back of the monitor on the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS. (DOC: Call Me the Doctor) It was also mentioned on the TARDIS tour on the Doctor Who BBC website.
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