The Idiot's Lantern (TV story): Difference between revisions

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Rose and the Doctor decide to investigate the abduction: posing as royal inspectors, with the help of the Doctor's [[psychic paper]], they arrive at the home of the Connollys, where [[Eddie Connolly|Mr Connolly]] has bullied his family into ignoring [[Grandma Connolly|Gran]] after her face was stolen. The Doctor convinces [[Rita Connolly]] to bring him to Gran. As the Doctor examines Gran, two men burst into the house, knock out the Doctor and hustle Gran away. The Doctor gives chase, but Rose stays behind. She notices the television set is giving off electrical sparks. Later at the dump site, the Doctor finds people whose faces have been stolen locked in a cage. As they begin to surround him, the investigators shine a light into the cage.
Rose and the Doctor decide to investigate the abduction: posing as royal inspectors, with the help of the Doctor's [[psychic paper]], they arrive at the home of the Connollys, where [[Eddie Connolly|Mr Connolly]] has bullied his family into ignoring [[Grandma Connolly|Gran]] after her face was stolen. The Doctor convinces [[Rita Connolly]] to bring him to Gran. As the Doctor examines Gran, two men burst into the house, knock out the Doctor and hustle Gran away. The Doctor gives chase, but Rose stays behind. She notices the television set is giving off electrical sparks. Later at the dump site, the Doctor finds people whose faces have been stolen locked in a cage. As they begin to surround him, the investigators shine a light into the cage.


Rose reads the name on the television's tag: Magpie. She heads for the television shop where Mr Magpie, who seems to be extremely stressed, tries to get her out the door before [[the Wire]] is alerted to her presence. Rose insists on asking Magpie about the televisions he's selling. The announcer appears on one of the TV screens, looking to Rose like a broadcast was being played, but the image declares it is sentient by telling Rose its name is the Wire — and it's hungry. The Wire begins sucking Rose's brainwaves and face into its television as Rose desperately pleads for help. Magpie only apologises, claiming Rose brought it upon herself.
Rose reads the name on the television's tag: Magpie. She heads for the television shop where Mr Magpie, who seems to be extremely stressed, tries to get her out the door before [[the Wire]] is alerted to her presence. The Wire sees Rose and exclaims "Hungry!" to which Magpie responds by trying to get Rose to flee. Rose continues asking questions and says that she will not leave until Magpie has explained everything. He locks the door, striking fear into Rose as she tries to stay confident and keeps questioning Magpie. He points her to the Wire, who frightens Rose by telling her that she is talking to her calling her 'Little one'. Rose asks what the Wire is to which she replies "I'm the wire and I'm hungry!". Electrical tentacles then latch onto Rose's face and begin sucking her face and her brainwaves, the Wire appears to be trying to cause Rose more pain by using more tentacles than ever and by sucking her face off slowly. Rose groans painfully as her nose and mouth are dragged away. Magpie explains about the 20 million people that will feel the same pain tomorrow. Rose moans painfully again at him as her eyes are dragged into the Wire's mouth, open as if she was orgasming. Rose is dragged back and forth throughout as her face/brainwaves crack and creak as they are pulled off. The wire has now taken Rose's face and is draining her brain, poor faceless Rose moans in agony and cries to Magpie as the Wire pulls her in and reaches her tentacles further into her brain and then loosens her tentacles, treating Rose like a mean, Rose begs for help from Magpie as if she was crying. Rose quietly echoes her cry for help as the Wire is almost finished, the Wire pulls her brainwaves still as her face continues to crackle away like nobody else's. The Wire smirks, as if she is enjoying Rose's pain and suffering, Rose faceless and being sucked dry of her brainwaves, the Wire says "goodnight children, everywhere," as if she is enjoying that fact that she is killing Rose. She then smirks again rubbing it into pained Rose as Rose groans "Nooooo!" Trying to beg one last time for her life.  
[[File:DW20052x07TheIdiotsLantern-00768.jpeg|thumb|A faceless Rose.]]
[[File:DW20052x07TheIdiotsLantern-00768.jpeg|thumb|A faceless Rose.]]
Detective Inspector [[Bishop (The Idiot's Lantern)|Bishop]] begins to interrogate the Doctor, but the tables are turned as the Doctor asks him questions he can't answer. He convinces the DI that he can help. As Bishop begins to share information, an agent brings in another victim, much to the Doctor's horror: Rose. They return to Florizel Street. The Doctor and Bishop ask Tommy what happened with Gran the night her face was stolen; she was watching television.  
Detective Inspector [[Bishop (The Idiot's Lantern)|Bishop]] begins to interrogate the Doctor, but the tables are turned as the Doctor asks him questions he can't answer. He convinces the DI that he can help. As Bishop begins to share information, an agent brings in another victim, much to the Doctor's horror: Rose. They return to Florizel Street. The Doctor and Bishop ask Tommy what happened with Gran the night her face was stolen; she was watching television.  

Revision as of 17:51, 11 April 2016

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The Idiot's Lantern was the seventh episode of the second series of Doctor Who. This was one of the earliest instances where the Tenth Doctor displayed a ruthless and overpowering personality when his patience and mercy were pushed to their boundaries.

Tardisode 7 serves as an unusually important prologue, revealing what happened to Grandma Connolly prior to the intervention of the Doctor and Rose.

Synopsis

It is 1953, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II — but there is something hiding in the televisions of the British people. Something hungry...

Plot

Inside the Magpie Electricals shop, the proprietor Mr Magpie realises his business is broke as the television behind him finishes its broadcast for the day. Shortly after, a red lightning bolt hits the antenna over the shop. The television comes alive with the TV announcer's face and calls to the dozing Magpie. Within a few seconds the image on the screen lashes out with an energy beam, absorbing Magpie's face.

The Tenth Doctor and Rose land in Muswell Hill, London, in 1953, yet expecting to be in New York. Dressed in an Elvis Presley mode, they expect to attend a performance of the Ed Sullivan Show. However, the different skyline, a red double-decker bus, and a Union Flag tell them that, actually, they are in northern London on the eve of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.

By chance, the Doctor witnesses a person covered in a blanket being abducted by men in black. The Doctor and Rose hop on a scooter and race after the car. The car passes through a gated doorway which slams shut and a market stall moves in front of the gate, making it look like a dead end. The Doctor and Rose arrive shortly after, mystified by the car's disappearance.

Meanwhile, Magpie has gone back to his shop and talks with the TV announcer, telling her that he has completed her instructions, before begging her to go away and leave him alone as her presence makes his insides and memories hurt. But she mockingly scoffs at his plea, and tells him that the time is almost ripe, finishing with the comment "cometh the hour, cometh the man... or lady."

The Doctor and Rose drop in on the Connollys.

Rose and the Doctor decide to investigate the abduction: posing as royal inspectors, with the help of the Doctor's psychic paper, they arrive at the home of the Connollys, where Mr Connolly has bullied his family into ignoring Gran after her face was stolen. The Doctor convinces Rita Connolly to bring him to Gran. As the Doctor examines Gran, two men burst into the house, knock out the Doctor and hustle Gran away. The Doctor gives chase, but Rose stays behind. She notices the television set is giving off electrical sparks. Later at the dump site, the Doctor finds people whose faces have been stolen locked in a cage. As they begin to surround him, the investigators shine a light into the cage.

Rose reads the name on the television's tag: Magpie. She heads for the television shop where Mr Magpie, who seems to be extremely stressed, tries to get her out the door before the Wire is alerted to her presence. The Wire sees Rose and exclaims "Hungry!" to which Magpie responds by trying to get Rose to flee. Rose continues asking questions and says that she will not leave until Magpie has explained everything. He locks the door, striking fear into Rose as she tries to stay confident and keeps questioning Magpie. He points her to the Wire, who frightens Rose by telling her that she is talking to her calling her 'Little one'. Rose asks what the Wire is to which she replies "I'm the wire and I'm hungry!". Electrical tentacles then latch onto Rose's face and begin sucking her face and her brainwaves, the Wire appears to be trying to cause Rose more pain by using more tentacles than ever and by sucking her face off slowly. Rose groans painfully as her nose and mouth are dragged away. Magpie explains about the 20 million people that will feel the same pain tomorrow. Rose moans painfully again at him as her eyes are dragged into the Wire's mouth, open as if she was orgasming. Rose is dragged back and forth throughout as her face/brainwaves crack and creak as they are pulled off. The wire has now taken Rose's face and is draining her brain, poor faceless Rose moans in agony and cries to Magpie as the Wire pulls her in and reaches her tentacles further into her brain and then loosens her tentacles, treating Rose like a mean, Rose begs for help from Magpie as if she was crying. Rose quietly echoes her cry for help as the Wire is almost finished, the Wire pulls her brainwaves still as her face continues to crackle away like nobody else's. The Wire smirks, as if she is enjoying Rose's pain and suffering, Rose faceless and being sucked dry of her brainwaves, the Wire says "goodnight children, everywhere," as if she is enjoying that fact that she is killing Rose. She then smirks again rubbing it into pained Rose as Rose groans "Nooooo!" Trying to beg one last time for her life.

A faceless Rose.

Detective Inspector Bishop begins to interrogate the Doctor, but the tables are turned as the Doctor asks him questions he can't answer. He convinces the DI that he can help. As Bishop begins to share information, an agent brings in another victim, much to the Doctor's horror: Rose. They return to Florizel Street. The Doctor and Bishop ask Tommy what happened with Gran the night her face was stolen; she was watching television.

The three head to Magpie's shop, but Magpie is gone. The Doctor discovers a handheld portable TV, which should not exist yet on Earth. He also discovers the televisions in the shop are holding the people's missing faces. On one of the screens is Rose's face, calling over and over for the Doctor. Magpie enters, and the Doctor demands to know who is really in charge. The Wire appears, briefly turning the black-and-white television to colour, telling the Doctor that it was executed by its own people, but fled to Earth, where there is enough mental energy for it to reconstitute its physical form. The Doctor wonders when this will be and the Wire cryptically says her "crowning achievement", causing Bishop to realise that it plans to feed while people watch the coronation. The Wire then begins to feed on Bishop, the Doctor and Tommy Connolly. It revels in feeding off the Doctor, calling him "delicious" and declaring that it will have "lashings of him". However, the Doctor is able to stop the Wire by brandishing the higher alien technology: his sonic screwdriver. Realising the Doctor is an off-worlder as it is, the Wire stops its feeding after completely draining Bishop, but not the Doctor and Tommy.

The Wire begins to feast.

The Wire transfers itself into the portable TV and orders Magpie to take it to Alexandra Palace. Magpie climbs the antenna and plugs the TV into the tower. It begins to suck the energy from the coronation viewers. The Doctor comes to, and with Tommy's assistance quickly assembles a device. They race to the TARDIS to pick up one more part then run to the Palace's broadcast centre. The Doctor orders Tommy to keep the device he's plugged in to the broadcasting system operating no matter what. Grabbing a spool of wire, he heads for the top and begins to climb the tower. Magpie is at the top, begging the Wire to stop the pain in his head, as it promised him peace after its physical reconstitution. Complying with Magpie's wish for peace, the Wire incinerates him with a bolt of electricity.

The Doctor reaches the Wire, grabbing the portable television, and tells the Wire that it wasn't smart to take a shot at Magpie, as it has overexerted itself. The Wire tries to fry the Doctor using the tower as a conductor, but the soles of the Doctor's shoes are rubber, keeping him safe. The Doctor attaches the wire he's been trailing to the portable, but a fuse shorts and the machine Tommy is keeping an eye on stops. The Wire taunts the Doctor, for now it will be able to live again. Tommy quickly changes the fuse and the machine operates again. Screaming in horror, the Wire is transferred from the portable into a Betamax cassette the Doctor built with parts from the TV shop. The Doctor jokes he made the home video over 30 years earlier than it should have been. Elsewhere, all of the Wire's victims have regained their faces and minds and are released from holding.

Rita throws Eddie out.

The Doctor reunites with Rose on Tommy's street, which is now throwing a party to celebrate the coronation. Rose asks the Doctor what he'll do with the Wire trapped in the tape. The Doctor explains that he'll use his unrivalled knowledge of transtemporal extirpation methods to neutralise the residual electronic pattern. Confused as to what the Doctor means, Rose asks him to dumb it down. "I'm gonna tape over it," the Doctor explains. As a gift for helping him, the Doctor gives Tommy the keys to his scooter, telling him to wait until he's old enough to drive. At the same time, Mr Connolly is being kicked out by his wife for only thinking about his family's status over their well being. Tommy is glad that his father is going, but Rose tells him even an idiot like Mr Connolly deserves a second chance. Tommy runs off to talk to his father. The Doctor and Rose toast with orange juice and enjoy the party.

Cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

Events

Torchwood

  • Torchwood is mentioned by the police officer.

Real world

Technology

Foods and beverages

  • Grandma Connolly opines that television turns one's brain to soup.
  • Grandma Connolly eats crumpets.
  • Eddie Connolly serves sandwiches.
  • A poster of HP sauces can be seen in the background.
  • The Doctor mentions burgers.
  • The Doctor and Rose drink orange juice.

Locations

Individuals

Minerals

  • The Doctor says the portable television tastes like iron.

Story notes

  • This story had working titles of Mr Sandman, Sonic Doom, and 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 to his death.
  • 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.
  • All the television aerials seem to resemble Nazi swastikas. On the DVD commentary, one of the set designers mentions that this was done to evoke the post-war era.
  • Magpie Electricals apparently continues to exist beyond the death of Mr. Magpie; Martha Jones had a Magpie brand television in 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 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 The Beast Below.
  • The Wire's line, "Are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin," is a line made famous by Daphne Oxenford in the program Listen With Mother.
  • The Wire's repeated demand, "Feed me!", is reminiscent of a similar demand made, to comic effect, by the killer plant Audrey II in the classic horror-comedy film (and later musical) The Little Shop of Horrors. When the faces are shown on the screens in the TVs, it is also similar in the original film when Audrey II finally bloomed showing the faces of all its victims.
  • Margaret John (Grandma Connolly) had previously appeared in Fury from the Deep in 1968, 38 years before this story. She thereby held the record for greatest span of time between guest appearances on Doctor Who.

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.)
  • It is often erroneously claimed that 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

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • David Tennant mentioned on the DVD commentary that he accidentally hit the button on the sonic screwdriver prop while putting it into his pocket, causing the light to flicker on and "sonic-ing" himself. This error is clearly visible on the episode itself.
  • When the Doctor is climbing the transmitter, there's a moment where David Tennant's right foot disappears completely due to a compositing error.
  • At the beginning of the episode when the Doctor and Rose are on the mopeds with helmets and sunglasses, the camera crew are reflected in them.

Continuity

Home video releases

Series 2 Volume 3 DVD Cover

External links