Magpie Electricals
Magpie Electricals was originally a radio and television shop located on Mafeking Terrace in Muswell Hill. Despite the owner's death (TV: The Idiot's Lantern) the business managed to expand to several other locations, including stores in Stepney (AUDIO: Hunters of Earth) and on Starship UK in the 33rd century. (TV: The Beast Below)
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 a Magpie's Electricals store in Stepney 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)
In July 1966, an advert for Magpie Electricals was in Gatwick Airport. (HOMEVID: The Faceless Ones)
In 2007, the logo appeared when the Doctor flicked through various websites on a mobile phone. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
In the 2000s,[nb 1] 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)
Wilfred Mott had a Magpie-branded television when he sold newspapers on Christmas Eve in the 2000s.[nb 2] (TV: Voyage of the Damned)
Torchwood Three once had an old Magpie television. (PROSE: The Undertaker's Gift)
In the 2000s,[nb 3] 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 2021, Magpie Electricals sponsored Into The Unknown. (PROSE: About This Site)
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)
On Vulcan, the Second Doctor overloaded the Daleks with electricity using a meteor storm computer made by Magpie Electricals. (HOMEVID: The Power of the Daleks)
One Magpie Electricals store still stood in the 33rd century, on Starship UK. (TV: The Beast Below)
River Song's scanner was manufactured by Magpie Electricals. (TV: Day of the Moon)
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[1] and included in the reconstructions of The Power of the Daleks and The Faceless Ones. It was also mentioned on the TARDIS tour on the Doctor Who BBC website.
- Cover B of 9DO 1 by Will Brooks depicts several Magpie Electricals' branded mobile phones in the hands of aliens taking images of the Ninth Doctor.
Footnotes
Notes
- ↑ According to the episode The Sound of Drums, Martha Jones' present day during series 3 of Doctor Who takes place over a six-day period, with the Saxon Master being elected three days after Smith and Jones, and the Toclafane invading Earth five days after Smith and Jones. However, sources differ on which dates these stories are set. According to PROSE: The Paradox Moon, the Toclafane invasion happens on 23 June 2007, placing the events of Smith and Jones on 18 June. According to AUDIO: Hysteria, Smith and Jones takes place in 2008, with a UNIT mission log in AUDIO: Recruits referring to the recovery of moon rocks from Royal Hope Hospital in March 2008. A newspaper clipping in PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters places Smith and Jones on a Sunday 4 June, thus placing the Toclafane invasion on Friday 9 June. In the real world, these dates do not fall on a Sunday and Friday in either 2007 or 2008.
- ↑ Although Voyage of the Damned is supposedly set the Christmas after the 2007 setting of The Runaway Bride, the Doctor Who series which aired immediately before and after Voyage give contradicting dates for when their present day is set. PROSE: The Paradox Moon places Martha Jones' present day in series 3 in June 2007. AUDIO: Recruits dates it to March 2008. A newspaper clipping in PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters places Smith and Jones on a Sunday 4 June, which in the real world does not fall on a Sunday in either 2007 or 2008. Donna Noble's present day in series 4 is set in 2008 according to TV: The Fires of Pompeii, TV: The Waters of Mars, and AUDIO: SOS (and is heavily implied by TV: The Star Beast and TV: The Giggle), or in approximately April to June 2009, according to PROSE: Beautiful Chaos.
- ↑ No on screen date is given for the first two series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, outside of The Day of the Clown from the second series being set shortly after 9 October in an undisclosed year. While Donna Noble's present from the fourth series of Doctor Who is set around the same time as the first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith from the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures is explicitly described as being set a year after Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? from the first series, Doctor Who's fourth series is not consistently dated, with TV: The Fires of Pompeii, TV: The Waters of Mars, and AUDIO: SOS setting the present of the 13 regular episodes in 2008 (heavily implied by TV: The Star Beast and TV: The Giggle as well), and PROSE: Beautiful Chaos setting them in about April to June 2009.
