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 presents itself to Magpie, the first of its victims, a television shop owner of northern London

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

Crew

Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner


Written by Mark Gatiss	Produced by Phil Collinson	Directed by Euros Lyn	Director of Photography Rory Taylor	Production Designer Edward Thomas	Visual Effects The Mill

Make-up Designer Sheelagh Wells	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Louise Page	Edited by Crispin Green	Special Effects Any Effects
Original theme music by Ron Grainer • With thanks to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

General production staff

Script department

Script Editor - Simon Winstone

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

Casting Associate - Andy Brierley

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

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 second time a vehicle has been shown leaving the TARDIS; the first time was in the TV Movie. This is the first time that a vehicle was shown to be kept inside the TARDIS (although the Eighth Doctor had a Volkswagen Beetle at one point)
Just before the Doctor climbs Alexandra Palace, the script originally included a line alluding to the Doctor's fear of transmitter towers because he "fell off one once", a reference to the Fourth Doctor's death.

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

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.

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.
Grandma refers to Eddie Connolly as "Our lord and master" in the opening scene. The same phrase had previously been used to describe John Lumic and the Bad Wolf Corporation. It would later be used about The Master.

Timeline

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

Home video releases

Series 2 Volume 3 DVD Cover

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.

External links

Template:Series 2