Rose Tyler

Template:Doctorwhocharacter Rose Tyler is a fictional character played by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A shop assistant from London, she was a companion of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, and was a regular on the programme from 2005 to 2006.

Character history

Template:Spoiler When Rose met the Doctor in Rose, she was working as a shop assistant at Henrik's department store in Regent Street, London. She also had a boyfriend named Mickey Smith and lived in a council flat with her mother Jackie. Rose left school without taking her A-levels but did win the bronze medal in an under-sevens gymnastics competition at her junior school. Her father, Pete Tyler, died in 1987 in a car accident, the year after Rose was born.

One night after the shop closed she encountered mannequins coming to life in the basement of the building. The Autons were about to dispose of her when the Doctor saved her life, although he went on to destroy the building in the process, depriving Rose of her job. She went on to aid the Doctor in tracking down the hiding place of the Nestene Consciousness that was animating the Autons and subsequently helped defeat its plans of world conquest. She then joined the Doctor on his travels in the TARDIS.

In her travels with the Doctor, Rose (among other things) saw the end of the world, encountered the Doctor's oldest enemy and learned about the consequences of tampering with history. The Doctor even modified her mobile phone to be able to communicate across time and space, among other functions. She nicknamed it the "Superphone".

During the 2005 series, the words "Bad Wolf" followed the Doctor and Rose around, the phrase being scattered like clues through the places that they visited. In The Parting of the Ways, it was revealed that Rose was the Bad Wolf — the words were a message that she had left to herself in time and space when she absorbed the energies of the time vortex to save the Doctor and the Earth from the Daleks. (Rose is also told she has "something of the wolf" about her in Tooth and Claw). The Doctor had just returned her home to place her out of harm's way, but "Bad Wolf" was a reminder that it was possible to get back to him. This led her to the point where she would absorb the energies, creating a predestination paradox and making it possible not just to destroy the Daleks but to leave those clues. The vortex energies also allowed Rose to resurrect Jack Harkness, an act which made him immortal, although it is left unclear whether this was an omniscient Rose's intention or not.

However, the energies she absorbed were destroying her body. The Doctor took those energies into himself, sacrificing his ninth incarnation and regenerating before Rose's eyes into the Tenth Doctor.

Rose was initially disconcerted at the Doctor's transformation, and was even more distressed when the Doctor fell into a post-regenerative coma, unable to stop the threat of a Sycorax invasion. However, when the Doctor recovered and defeated the Sycorax, Rose happily accepted his new face and manner (The Christmas Invasion).

In Tooth and Claw she was created a dame by Queen Victoria, making her Dame Rose of the Powell Estate. Immediately afterwards, however, Victoria banished the two from the British Empire. When the Doctor, Rose and Mickey accidentally travelled to a parallel Earth, Rose met an alternate version of Pete Tyler, who had become a success (Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel). At the end of that story, Mickey elected to stay on that parallel Earth to fight their Cybermen, and Rose thought she would never see him again.

However, in the 2006 series finale, Army of Ghosts and Doomsday , those Cybermen managed to invade Rose's universe along with the Daleks. Although Rose and the Doctor managed to remove both enemies from Earth, Rose ended up being trapped on the parallel Earth, albeit reunited with Pete, Mickey and Jackie, who had also followed. The Doctor managed to project his image through the last crack between the universes, sharing a tearful farewell with her. He told Rose that she had been presumed dead in the invasion. Rose in turn revealed that she was working for that universe's version of the Torchwood Institute due to her experience with aliens. She told him that she loved him, and he was about to reply before the projection faded — he only managed to say her name before disappearing.

Rose was the only companion to stay with the Doctor throughout an entire incarnation on screen, the single television movie with the Eighth Doctor and Grace Holloway notwithstanding. Prior to Rose, Jamie McCrimmon had appeared in all but one of the Second Doctor's stories.

Personality

Rose was the first television companion of the Doctor with a fully fleshed-out personal life and background that the audience actually saw on screen in her debut story, as opposed to something developed over time. For the first time since the first Doctor Who episode "An Unearthly Child", Rose was told largely from the companion's point of view. It was also the first time the television series has examined the consequences of a companion leaving with the Doctor; for the year she was away, she was considered a missing person and Mickey was briefly suspected of her murder (Aliens of London).

She is also one of the few on-screen companions who were not cut off from their family and friends and the world they once knew. Both Jo Grant's and Sarah Jane Smith's travels with the Doctor were common knowledge by members of UNIT, for which Jo worked and with which Sarah Jane had a relationship via her job as a journalist. In addition, both Jo (who traveled with the Third Doctor) and Sarah Jane (who traveled with both the Third and Fourth Doctors) parted company with the Doctor on present day Earth and continued their normal lives. Along similar lines, Vislor Turlough, companion to the Fifth Doctor, was actually reunited with his younger brother because of his travels with the Doctor.

Rose is unique in that she is the first companion whose immediate family and/or a close friend knew of her travels with the Doctor while they occurred. Mickey was aware of her new occupation and tracked her movements through his website. Jackie found out about the life her daughter was leading in Aliens of London, and despite pleading for her to stay, Rose continued to travel with the Doctor. Rose was able to communicate with her family if she wanted to via her "Superphone" (several episodes such as Love and Monsters reveal that Rose would often phone home during her travels and let her mother know her activities), and numerous episodes saw Rose returning to visit with her mother and Mickey, rendering them recurring "pseudo-companions" along the same lines as Captain Mike Yates, Sergeant Benton and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart from the Third Doctor's era. (Mickey would subsequently become a full companion during the 2006 season, while Jackie would act (albeit unwillingly) as a companion in the two-part serial that ends the 2006 season.)

Rose showed herself to be a quick-witted, inquisitive and compassionate young woman, who despite the strange events she was thrown into was quick to adapt to them. She fell easily into the role of the Doctor's latest companion and showed both determination and courage while facing various alien threats. It became obvious that she cared deeply about the Doctor, although she initially denied any infatuation or romantic feelings towards him; nonetheless, during the 2006 series she stated on several occasions her desire to stay with the Doctor for the rest of her life, climaxing in Doomsday when she initially chooses to stay with the Doctor, even if it means forever leaving her mother and Mickey on the parallel earth. Ultimately, also in Doomsday, Rose finally tells the Doctor that she loves him; he begins to reply but only manages to say her name before his signal is cut off and the two are parted indefinitely.

Rose is the first companion to clearly indicate being in love with the Doctor, although Sarah Jane Smith all but admits this in School Reunion and Grace Holloway makes a joking reference to having fallen for the Eighth Doctor in the 1996 TV movie. In Army of Ghosts, she also indicates her intention to stay with the Doctor "forever", a sentiment never before expressed by previous companions, many of whom were reluctant travellers.

Writing in the Times Literary Supplement, Roz Kaveney described Rose as a "'Mary Sue' — an unironic reflection of the writers' and fans' desire to get in there and help the Doctor out (while managing to stay pretty)."

Other appearances

Rose is featured in the first twelve New Series Adventures novels. She also appears in the Quick Reads Initiative release, I am a Dalek. Like most spin-off Doctor Who fiction, the canonicity of the novels remains unclear given the BBC has never made a pronouncement of what is considered official canon. However, the events of the novel The Monsters Inside are referenced in the episode Boom Town. In the novels, some elements of Rose's backstory are fleshed out. Only Human reveals she was once engaged to be married (this does not appear to be a reference to Mickey, given Rose's unfriendly reference to the former fiancee; it could be a reference to Jimmy Stone - see below), and in the same novel, Rose briefly marries Tillun, a member of a prehistoric tribe of cave men, as part of a ruse to protect his tribe.

The Doctor Who Annual 2006, published by Panini Comics in August 2005, gives further biographical information on Rose in an article written by the programme's chief writer and executive producer Russell T. Davies. The piece includes the address of the flat she and Jackie lived in (Flat 48, Bucknall House, Powell Estate, SE15 7GO). Jackie supported them by working from home as a hairdresser, and prior to Rose meeting the Doctor her only travelling experience was a school trip to France and an annual week's holiday to South Wales with her mother.

Rose (whose middle name is given as Marion) began seeing Mickey at the age of 14, and at 15 she was suspended from her school, Jericho Street Comprehensive, for persuading the choir to go on strike. After doing well in her GCSE exams, she left school to live with a 20 year-old musician, Jimmy Stone, but the affair ended in tears and with Rose £800 in debt. She subsequently returned to Jackie and Mickey, and her mother called in a favour from an ex-boyfriend to get her the job at Henrik's.

Rose's age

The Doctor states that Rose is 19 years old in the episodes The Unquiet Dead and Dalek. Also in Dalek, the Doctor mentions that the year is 2012, and Rose indicates that this makes her 26. Aliens of London establishes that she met the Doctor on March 6 2005. However, the Annual article states that Rose was born on April 27 1987, making her just under 18 years old at the time. Although this contradicts the age as initially stated on screen, it is consistent with the appearance of the baby Rose in Father's Day, set in November 1987, where the baby is clearly no more than a few months old.

In the New Series Adventures novel The Deviant Strain, a victim is described as being 19 and compared to Rose's age. Also, in the 2006 series episode Rise of the Cybermen, the Doctor reminded Rose that her father died when she was "six months old", apparently retconning her previous age. In Army of Ghosts, Rose states that her life was normal for 19 years, and then she met the Doctor and in Doomsday she makes a similar statement to her mother.

During the lead-up to the episode Bad Wolf, the BBC Doctor Who website was altered to tie in with the story's Big Brother theme, and a "contestant portrait" for Rose stated that she was an Aries. This would appear to be inconsistent with the 27 April birthdate in the most common (tropical) zodiac. Although 27 April corresponds to Taurus in the well-known tropical zodiac, it falls under Aries in the sidereal zodiac. The novel The Stone Rose refers to her as a Taurus.

As with all non-televised Doctor Who, the canonicity of both the website and the Annual article, despite its authorship, along with original novels, is open to question.

Trivia

• Following Rose's departure from Doctor Who, Russell T. Davies considered giving the character her own 90-minute spin-off production, Rose Tyler: Earth Defence, with the possibility of such a special becoming an annual Bank Holiday event. The special was officially commissioned by Peter Fincham, the Controller of BBC One, but Davies changed his mind, stating that he had gone too far and deciding that for the audience to be able to see Rose when the Doctor could not would spoil the ending of Doomsday, and the production was cancelled.
• Actress Georgia Moffett, daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison, auditioned for the role of Rose.
• Writer/producer Russell T. Davies frequently uses the surname "Tyler" in his work. A family named Tyler is featured heavily in his Virgin New Adventures Doctor Who novel Damaged Goods, and Davies has created characters named Tyler in other series he has written, including Ruth Tyler in Revelations (1994), Vince Tyler in Queer as Folk (1999), and Johnny Tyler in The Second Coming (2003).
• Sam Tyler, the lead character in the BBC's other time travel drama Life on Mars, was named after Rose. This came about when Life on Mars co-creator Matthew Graham asked his young daughter to suggest a surname for the character, later discovering that she had chosen the name because of Rose. Graham later went on to write the Doctor Who episode Fear Her.

List of appearances

Television

2005 series

• Rose
• The End of the World
• The Unquiet Dead
• Aliens of London / World War Three
• Dalek
• The Long Game
• Father's Day
• The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
• Boom Town
• Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways

2005 Children In Need special

• Doctor Who: Children in Need

2005 Christmas special

• The Christmas Invasion

2006 series

• New Earth
• Tooth and Claw
• School Reunion
• The Girl in the Fireplace
• Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel
• The Idiot's Lantern
• The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit
• Love & Monsters
• Fear Her
• Army of Ghosts / Doomsday

Novels

• The Clockwise Man by Justin Richards
• The Monsters Inside by Stephen Cole
• Winner Takes All by Jacqueline Rayner
• The Deviant Strain by Justin Richards
• Only Human by Gareth Roberts
• The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons
• The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner
• The Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole
• The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards
• I am a Dalek by Gareth Roberts
• The Nightmare of Black Island by Mike Tucker
• The Art of Destruction by Stephen Cole
• The Price of Paradise by Colin Brake

Short stories

Doctor Who Annual 2006

• "Doctor vs. Doctor" by Gareth Roberts
• "The Masks of Makassar" by Paul Cornell
• "Pitter-patter" by Robert Shearman

Doctor Who Storybook 2007

• "Cuckoo-Spit" by Mark Gatiss
• "The Cat Came Back" by Gareth Roberts
• "Gravestone House" by Justin Richards
• "Untitled" by Robert Shearman
• "No One Died" by Nicholas Briggs

Comics

Doctor Who Magazine

• "The Love Invasion" by Gareth Roberts & Clayton Hickman, Mike Collins and David A. Roach (issues 355–357)
• "Art Attack!" by Mike Collins and Kris Justice (issue 358)
• "The Cruel Sea" by Robert Shearman, Mike Collins and David A. Roach (issues 359–362)
• "A Groatsworth of Wit" by Gareth Roberts, Mike Collins and David A. Roach (issues 63–364)
• "The Betrothal of Sontar" by John Tomlinson & Nick Abadzis, Mike Collins and David A. Roach (issues 365–367)
• "The Lodger" by Gareth Roberts, Mike Collins and David A. Roach (issue 368)
• "F. A. Q." by Tony Lee, Mike Collins and David A. Roach (issues 369–371)
• "The Futurists" by Mike Collins and David A. Roach (issues 372–374)
• " Interstellar Overdrive" by Mike Collins and Jonathon Morris (issues 375-376)

Doctor Who Adventures

• "Which Switch" by Michael Stevens and John Ross (issue 1)
• "Mirror Image" by Jacqueline Rayner and John Ross (issue 2)
• "Under the Volcano" by Si Spencer and John Ross (issue 3)
• "The Germ War" by Alan Barnes and John Ross (issue 4)
• "WarFreekz!" by Alan Barnes and John Ross (issue 5)
• "A Delicate Operation" by Si Spencer and John Ross (issue 6)
• "Blood and Tears" by Si Spencer and John Ross (issue 7)
• "Fried Death" by Alan Barnes and John Ross (issue 8)
• "Bizarre Zero" (issue 9)
• "Save the Humans" (issue 10)
• "Bat Attack" / "The Battle of Reading Gaol" (issues 11–12)
• "Triskaidekaphobia" (issue 13)

Doctor Who - Battles in Time

• "Survivors of Platform One" by Stephen Cole and John Ross (issues 1–6)

Doctor Who Annuals

• "Mr. Nobody" by Scott Gray and John Ross (Doctor Who Annual 2006)
• "Down the Rabbit Hole" by Davey Moore and John Ross (Doctor Who Annual 2007)
• "Opera of Doom!" by Jonathan Morris, Martin Geraghty and Fareed Choudhury (Doctor Who Storybook 2007)

External link

• Rose Tyler on the BBC's Doctor Who website