History Recap / DoctorWhoS28E7TheIdiotsLantern

* AlasPoorVillain: Although Magpie knowingly carried the Wire's entire plot to steal the faces of twenty million people, he's in it quite reluctantly. He's quite broken when seeing the Wire's plan through to the end, and he spends his final moments begging the Doctor and then the Wire to make the pain she's causing him stop: at which point, the Wire grants his plea by [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness disintegrating him with a lightning bolt]]. The Doctor himself (passingly) refers to him as "poor old Magpie" a moment after the action.

* ExactWords: The Wire promised Magpie, who is implicitly still being tortured by the Wire through a psychic link, that he would have "peace" once he carried her plan through to the end. She upheld her end of the promise... by blasting him into oblivion with a bolt of lightning.

* NearVillainVictory: The Wire succeeds in connecting to Alexandra Palace's mast and begins stealing the faces of everyone watching the coronation. The Doctor and Tommy, with some difficulty on either of their ends, manage to rip the Wire out of the mast and trap it on a videotape before it can complete its feast and regain its physical form.

* BerserkButton: The Doctor is not happy at all 1) Rose had her face removed by the Wire and 2) that the policemen that have been rounding up the faceless people to keep things calm decided to leave her in the street.
-->'''The Doctor''': "They left her in the ''street''?!"

* RageBreakingPoint: Minor example, while mixed in with the verbal beat-down that the Doctor is giving Eddie Connelly, Rose berates him for hanging the Union Jack upside down (it is not reflectively symmetrical, due to how the arms of the crosses are offset slightly).
-->"The Union Flag. It's only the Union Jack when flown at sea." (Her mum dated a sailor.)

The Doctor and Rose visit the 1950s, intent on seeing Music/ElvisPresley perform on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''. The TARDIS takes them to Muswell Hill in North London instead, a day before the Queen's coronation in 1953.

* AmbiguouslyGay: In the original script for the episode Tommy was gay, and shades of this are still left in the finished version, with his father constantly berating him for his supposed unmanliness, and Tommy's comment about "people telling you who you could fall in love with" in his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech (see below).

The one with a bastard father and a ham-tastic alien.

-->'''The Wire:''' I'm the Wire. And I will gobble you up, pretty boy. Every last morsel. And when I have feasted, I shall regain the corporeal body which my fellow kind denied me.\\

%% Doens't explain the button or reaction. Please do not unhide until further context has been added. * BerserkButton: "They left her in the ''street''?!"

%% Doens't explain the button or reaction. Please do not unhide until further context has been added. * Berserk Button: "They left her in the ''street''?!"

* BerserkButton: "They left her in the ''street''?!"

* RantInducingSlight: Minor example, while mixed in with the verbal beat-down that the Doctor is giving Eddie Connelly, Rose berates him for hanging the Union Jack upside down (it is not reflectively symmetrical, due to how the arms of the crosses are offset slightly).

The Doctor and Rose visit the 1950s, intent on seeing Music/ElvisPresley perform on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''. The TARDIS takes them to Muswell Hill in North London instead, a day before the Queen's coronation in 1953. =

* BerserkButton: "They left her in the ''street''?"

'''The Doctor:''' And I'm '''NOT LISTENING!!''' [[CallingTheOldManOut Now, you, Mr. Connelly,]] [[TranquilFury you are staring into a deep, dark pit of trouble if you don't let me help.]] So I'm ordering you, ''sir'', [[SuddenlyShouting tell me what's going on!]]

* TheBlank: The Wire's victims register a lack of brain activity, and faces.

* EnergyBeing: The Wire is made of electricity. It used to have a physical form, but was executed by its species for undisclosed crimes and escaped as energy.

* ForgotAboutHisPowers: The Doctor flashes his psychic paper on a couple of occasions, but doesn't use it when the police show up to take the faceless Gran away.

* GetOut: The last words Rita Connolly says to her abusive soon-to-be-ex husband Eddie.

* SmugSnake: Mr Connolly thinks he's much more of a force than he really is, throwing his weight around, acting like he's king of his home... then he tries to browbeat the Doctor, who responds by springing to his feet and towering over Connolly, snarling out a brief, savage, and oh-so-satisfying verbal beatdown that cuts the man off in mid-stride.
* StayInTheKitchen: Appropriate to the times, mind, but Eddie Connelly believes this to its logical extreme, that women are ''only'' good for housework and staying at home, while the "real man" fights wars, and protects them. He rules his household like he were a king, at least until the Doctor arrives...

--->'''The Doctor:''' Mr Connelly, what gender is the Queen?\\
'''Mr Connelly:''' She's a female.\\

'''Mr Connelly:''' ''[stunned]'' Well, no!\\
'''The Doctor:''' ''[handing Mr Connelly the Union Flags he'd just ordered his wife to put up around the room]'' Then get busy.

* TheTelevisionTalksBack: The Wire inhabits a television when it's not stealing faces, and is quite capable of interacting with others while doing so.

* RealityEnsues: Over the years, the Doctor has been able to talk his way out of situations us mere mortals can only dream of. However, on this occasion, in trying to reason with the police taking away the faceless grandma, he gets a mean right hook for his troubles. Fortunately, being a Time Lord, it doesn't knock him out for long.

* MundaneSolution: The Doctor manages to capture an electronic lifeform who essentially exists as a living television signal... on a Betamax tape. Also, the ExpospeakGag on how he will permanently eliminate her.

* BodyHorror: The Wire ''pulls people's faces from their bodies''. You actually see people walking around with smooth skin where their face used to be. This happens to Rose.

[[caption-width-right:344:[[EvilIsHammy FEEEEEEEED]] [[ChewingTheScenery MEEEEEEEEE!!!!]]]]

The Doctor and Rose visit the 1950s, intending on seeing Music/ElvisPresley perform on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''. The TARDIS takes them to Muswell Hill in North London instead, a day before the Queen's coronation in 1953.

* BerserkButton: "They left her in the ''street''?" (see PapaWolf)

* ChewingTheScenery: The Wire could stand beside the Captain from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]" and Creator/BrianBlessed in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E2Mindwarp Mindwarp]]". Some might even argue she carries the whole episode. You start wondering how she can get so "HUNGRY!!!" when she's eaten a decent chunk of the scenery...

* DirtyCoward: Tommy rightly accuses Eddie of this, ratting out his faceless neighbors (and mother-in-law) all for the sake of protecting his reputation.

* EvilLaugh: From the Wire the closer it gets to the end game.
* EvilPlan: The Wire seeks to feast on the brains of the twenty million people watching the coronation on TV and then regain a physical body.

* HilariousOuttakes: For the scene where the Doctor discovers that Rose's face has been erased, Billie Piper was wearing motion capture dots...and she and David Tennant just couldn't film the part where the police take the burlap sack off Rose's head without cracking up.

* KarmaHoudini: Played with. On one hand, Eddie's wife does pay him back for his abuse by standing up to him and sending him packing. On the other hand, Eddie is notably the only character to neither have his face stolen by the wire or even nearly stolen. (What embodies this trope is that he was the one who ratted out so many faceless people, including Tommy's grandmother, to the authorities.)
* LargeHam:

* TheMenInBlack: They arrive at peoples' homes unannounced and take the faceless people away under blankets.

* EasilyForgiven: Zigzagged. Rita and Tommy certainly aren't going to welcome Eddie back home any time soon (if ever). However, despite that Eddie wasn't so kind to them either, Rose and the Doctor encourage Tommy to talk with his dad and make sure they part on good terms.

* KarmaHoudini: Played with. On one hand, Eddie's wife does pay him back for his abuse by standing up to him and sending him packing. On the other hand, Eddie is notably the only character to neither have his face stolen by the wire or even nearly stolen.

** ''Series/ThePrisoner'': "Goodnight children... everywhere." It seems an appropriate show to reference, given the nature of the face-stealing.