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 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)
Torchwood Three once had an old Magpie television. (PROSE: The Undertaker's Gift)
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 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 (DOC: Call Me the Doctor) 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.
