The Idiot's Lantern

173 – "The Idiot's Lantern"
Doctor Who episode
The Wire claims Mr. Magpie, the owner of a shop who sells the televisions she inhabits.
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companion Billie Piper (Rose Tyler)
Others Maureen Lipman – The Wire Ron Cook – Mr. Magpie Jamie Foreman – Eddie Connolly Debra Gillett – Rita Connolly Rory Jennings – Tommy Connolly Margaret John – Tommy's Grandma Sam Cox – Detective Inspector Bishop Ieuan Rhys – Crabtree Jean Challis – Aunty Betty Christopher Driscoll – Security Guard Marie Lewis – Mrs Gallagher
Production
Directed by	Euros Lyn
Written by	Mark Gatiss
Script editor	Simon Winstone
Produced by	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Incidental music composer	Murray Gold
Production code	2.7
Series	Series 2
Length	45 minutes
Originally broadcast	27 May 2006
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "The Age of Steel" "The Impossible Planet"

"The Idiot's Lantern" is the seventh episode of the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on 27 May 2006 on BBC One. It was written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Euros Lyn.

In the episode, Mr Magpie (Ron Cook) sells overly cheap television sets because he is held hostage by The Wire (Maureen Lipman). She blazes rays from screens to take faces and soul energy from victims, including Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). The Doctor (David Tennant) must save millions of endangered viewers before they watch the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Doctor, intending to take Rose to an Elvis Presley television appearance in New York, accidentally lands the TARDIS just outside London in 1953. While looking around they see that most of the houses have TV antennas on them, which Rose recalls should be rare in this time. They question a local merchant, Mr Magpie, about the TVs and are told that the TVs are on sale to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. While they are talking, the Doctor and Rose witness someone being taken from their home with a sheet over their head and driven away by the police. The Doctor and Rose question the Connollys, a local family. They are introduced to Tommy Connolly's grandmother, whose entire face is missing. Before the Doctor can learn more the police burst in and remove the woman. The Doctor follows where the police are taking her while Rose investigates Magpie's shop. At the shop Rose discovers an entity calling itself "the Wire", an alien that managed to escape execution by its people by turning itself into an electrical form. The Wire seeks to consume enough minds to recreate a body and plans on using the broadcast of the coronation to do so. Rose is unable to flee before the Wire steals her face as well.