Mr. Magpie



Mr. Magpie was the secondary antagonist of the Doctor Who episode "The Idiot's Lantern". He was a electronics store merchant and the unwilling accomplice of The Wire.

In 1953, in the days leading up to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Magpie was visited by The Wire, who had just arrived in energy form in that time period. The Wire then lashes out at Magpie with energy, stealing his face, but then giving back to him.

Magpie then begins selling televisions cheaply to everyone in the area to watch the coronation, seemingly because it is his "patriotic duty", but in reality, he doing the Wire's bidding, as the Wire plans to use the televisions to feed off of the humans' energy and regain its corporeal form, and in exchange for Magpie's help, he'd allow him to keep his face. However, Rose Tyler gets suspicious when she sees red lightning coming from the back of the television in Eddie Connolly's home. She tracks Magpie down and begins asking him why he was giving away the televisions so cheaply. Though Magpie tries to shoo Rose away, he finally cracks under all the pressure and confesses. This prompts the Wire to steal Rose's face and leave her abandoned in the street....an act which enrages the Doctor.

On the day of the coronation, The Doctor, with the assistance of Tommy Connolly and Detective Inspector Bishop, head down to Magpie's shop, where the Doctor demands that Rose, and everyone else who lost their faces (including Tommy's grandmother) be returned. It was here that The Wire confessed to its plan, to transmit itself to the estimated three million viewers watching in the vicinity and transmit back energy it would use to reconstitute its corporeal body. It then tried to steal the faces of The Doctor, Tommy, and Bishop (and was successful in doing so to Bishop), but The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to rescue himself and Tommy. Magpie then used a small portable television to take the Wire to Alexandra Palace to finalize its plan. As The Doctor pursued Magpie, Magpie begged the Wire for the whole ordeal to end and to just give him peace, to which the Wire responded by coldly killing, disintegrating him into dust.