The Wire The Wire was an energy being that , according to the Tenth Doctor , took the " essences " and " souls " of the television - watching population of Great Britain in 1953 for a few days before and during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II . Because it ' s physical body was destroyed , the Wire ' s true form remained unknown . Biography . After capture , the Wire was sentenced to death and executed by its people . It survived , though , and preserved itself as an energy being and escaped to Earth . It concealed itself in television signals , transferring itself from set to set . It fed off the mental signals of human brain s , paralysing them and sucking out their energy with electrical tendrils . This process left the victims mindless and faceless . The victim ' s consciousness remained intact , as seen when the Wire showed the Doctor a sampling of its victims on the televisions in Magpie ' s shop . The Wire used the image of a female to communicate with the outside world . It hoped to use this energy to manifest itself in corporeal form once more . The Wire stole the face of Mr Magpie , who owned an electrical shop , and gave it back to him , giving him plans for then - future technologies ( such as a portable television small enough to carry in one hand ) and promised him freedom after the completion of its simple two - phase plan : First , have Magpie sell cheap television sets all over North London so it could feed . Second , have Magpie connect the Wire ( inside the portable television ) to the television transmission tower at Alexandra Palace on Queen Elizabeth II ' s coronation day , June 2nd , 1953 . Connected to the tower , the Wire would both transmit itself to the estimated three million viewers watching in the vicinity and transmit back energy it would use to reconstitute its corporeal body . The Tenth Doctor trapped the Wire on a Betamax tape using a homemade video recorder . The Wire ' s victims were restored to their normal selves . The Doctor seemed confident that the Wire would remain trapped , but said that he would tape over it , just to be safe . ( TV : " The Idiot ' s Lantern " ) The Doctor accidentally released the Wire whilst looking for his copy of " It ' s a Wonderful Life " . He trapped it in a small suburban house , where Alice Wu helped him to recapture it . ( PROSE : " Loose Wire " ) Personality . The Wire was cheerful by nature at first , hardly ever degrading from a genial smile and a bright attitude . Underneath its happy - go - lucky exterior , the Wire was a calculating and sadistic maniac with no scruples or moral compass and lack of any ethical capacities . It laughed maniacally whilst consuming the souls of others and taunted the Doctor on his apparent failure before its defeat . It remarks that its own people tried to execute it , suggesting that it was a dangerous criminal . The Wire was , though , not only murderous and sadistic but rather intelligent , shown by how elaborately it planned to absorb the minds of London . When it tried to feed off the Doctor , it remarked that he was particularly nutritious , due to the brainpower of a Time Lord , and even commented on his genius . However , it knew when to back down at times , retreating after he threatened it with his sonic screwdriver . The Wire complained of an intense hunger , which meant that it needed to feed off the souls of other life forms in order to survive , and it had to do so repeatedly quickly to do so . Behind the scenes . The Wire was based on Annette Mills , a children ' s television host in the 1930s , known to start off her show " For The Children , Watch With Mother " with the phrase " Are you sitting comfortably ? Then I ' ll begin . " According to the " " and " " , the Wire escaped to Earth through the communications device of one of its executioners , who was illegally recording the execution . Also , " " reveals its planet of origin to be Hermethica .