The Idiot's Lantern (TV story)

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Are we sitting comfortably? Good, then will we begin.The Wire

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. 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.

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

By chance, the Doctor witnesses that a the body of a person, which was wrapped in a carpet, is brought quickly toward a dumpsite. They decide, then, to investigate. Sneaking into a house of the neighborhood as Royal inspectors. 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 and the talking representation of The Wire, a female television presenter, presents itself, and promplty Rose is subjected to the lethal radiation of The Wire ("I'm the wire... and I'm hungry!"). Rose loses her face which is captive onto one of the screens of the shop.

The Doctor ends up in the police department where he learns that they had been bringing the bodies secretively into a single depot. He gets there and she recognizes Rose's body. The Doctor gets then to the repairing shop with Tommy Connolly and the Detective Inspector 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 mobile television receptor. At the giant Alexandra Palace antenna, The Wire would drain the energy of the twenty million viewers of the coronation day. 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 that would be enough yet, probably, he would erase the tape, just in case.

Cast

Crew

to be added

References

  • 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.
  • The Doctor and Rose try to arrive in 1956 to see Elvis Presley's performance on the Ed Sullivan Show in New York City, but arrive mistakenly in London, three years earlier.
  • Torchwood is mentioned by the police officer (though the mention doesn't appear to be noticed by the Doctor).
  • The Doctor drives a motorcycle out of the TARDIS. This is the first time a vehicle has been shown leaving (yet alone kept inside) the TARDIS.

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 the 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.

Ratings

to be added

Myths

to be added

Location Filming

  • 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

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • How do the people survive without mouths/noses for air? The Doctor says they are in "complete neural shut down" and just "ticking over" implying that they needn't breathe.
  • Though it's clearly stated in the episode that the grandmother is Rita Connolly's mother, she is credited as Grandma Connolly. Grandma Connolly is Tom Connolly's grandmother.
  • The Doctor and Conolly have their faces sucked into the TV along with the inspector when they search the TV store. Apparently, since the Doctor and Conolly have been around the same time as the Inspector, how come the Doctor and Conolly survive and the Inspector's face is gone? (Perhaps it can only focus on one person at a time and was just holding the others in place.)
  • Although not an error in the episode itself, 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.

Continuity

DVD Releases

See also

to be added

External Links

Template:Series 2

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