ROSE TYLER

'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 became a companion of the ninth and tenth incarnations of the Doctor.

Contents

Conception

Character history

Televised history

Doctor Who annual

Other appearances

Personality

List of appearances

Television

Novels

Short stories

Comics

References

External links

Conception

After the announcement that the show would be returning, the BBC revealed the name of the new companion, Rose Tyler, on March 28, 2004.^[1] It was announced at the same time that former pop star Billie Piper was in the running for the position. 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).
The casting of Piper as Rose was announced on May 24, 2004,^[2] and was welcomed by fans of the show.^[3] Actress Georgia Moffett, daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison, also auditioned for the role.
Rose appeared in every episode of the first two series of the revived ''Doctor Who'', starting in 2005 with the episode "Rose" and ending with "Doomsday" (though the character made very brief flashback stock footage appearances in the later "The Runaway Bride" and "Utopia").

Character history

Televised history

When first seen by the audience, Rose is working as a shop assistant at Henrik's department store in Regent Street, London. She has a boyfriend named Mickey Smith, and lives in a council flat with her mother Jackie in the fictitious Powell Estate. Rose left school without taking her A-levels but won the bronze medal in an under-sevens gymnastics competition at her junior school.^[4] Her father, Pete Tyler died in 1987 in a car accident, the year after Rose was born.^[5]
One night, after the shops close, she encounters mannequins coming to life in the basement of Henrik's. The Autons are about to dispose of her when the Ninth Doctor saves her life, although he proceeds to destroy the building, thus costing Rose her job. She aids the Doctor in tracking down the hiding place of the Nestene Consciousness that is animating the Autons and subsequently helps defeat its plans of world conquest. She is initially reluctant to join the Doctor on his travels in the TARDIS, feeling that someone must stay to look after Mickey, but changes her mind when the Doctor returns to tell her they could travel in time.
During her time with the Doctor, Rose sees the end of planet Earth,^[6] watches her father die, encounters the Doctor's oldest enemies^[7] and learns about the consequences of tampering with history.^[8] It is revealed that Rose herself is the Bad Wolf,^[9] the words being a message that she must return to the future to absorb the energies of the time vortex, saving the Doctor and the Earth from the Daleks. By absorbing the power of the TARDIS, she creates a predestination paradox and makes it possible not just to destroy the Daleks but to leave the clues seen throughout the series. The vortex energies also allow Rose to resurrect Jack Harkness, an act which grants him a level of immortality^[10] although the Doctor notes in Utopia that Rose had been unaware of this.
Soon the energies she absorbed begin to destroy her body. The Doctor, through a kiss, absorbs the power, sacrificing his ninth incarnation and regenerating before Rose's eyes into the Tenth Doctor.
Rose is initially disconcerted at the Doctor's transformation,^[11] and is even more distressed when the Doctor falls into a post-regenerative coma, unable to counter the threat of a Sycorax invasion. However, when the Doctor recovers and defeats the Sycorax, Rose happily accepts his new face and manner.^[12]
Rose is knighted by Queen Victoria, making her Dame Rose of the Powell Estate, although immediately afterwards the two are banished from the British Empire.^[13] When the Doctor, Rose and Mickey accidentally travel to a parallel Earth, Rose meets an alternative version of her father, who has become a success, unlike Rose's actual father.^[14] Mickey elects to stay on the parallel Earth to fight the Cybermen, and Rose is upset that she will never see him again.^[15]
Rose and the Doctor return to their own universe, but later find that both the alternate Cybermen and the Daleks are invading their Earth.^[16] Although Rose and the Doctor manage to remove both enemies from Earth, Rose is nearly pulled into the "Void" between worlds in the process, and is only saved by being transported to the alternate world on the other side of the breach. There, she finds herself trapped on the parallel Earth albeit reunited with Jackie, Mickey and the alternate Pete Tyler. Later, the Doctor manages to project his image through the last crack between the universes, sharing a tearful farewell with her. He informs Rose that she is presumed dead in the aftermath of the invasion, thus verifying Rose's soliloquy at the start of the episode "This is the story of how I died". Rose in turn mentions working with that parallel Earth's (non secret) version of the Torchwood Institute due to her experience with aliens. Finally, Rose tells him she loves him, even though they denied it many times during the course of their time together. The Doctor begins to reply, getting as far as "If it's my last chance to say it...Rose Tyler, I--" before the connection fails.
After last seeing Rose, the Doctor would often become depressed at the mere mention of Rose, or whenever he is reminded of her. In "The Runaway Bride", he is reminded of Rose while attending a party, and a very brief clip of Rose from "New Earth" is used to illustrate this. Donna Noble, in "The Runaway Bride", discusses Rose with the Doctor, as does Martha Jones in the 2007 series.
In the series 3 episode, "Utopia", Jack Harkness mentions that while he was waiting for the Doctor to appear during the 20th century, he went to see Rose a few times while she was growing up. He says that in order to preserve established events, he never spoke to her in that time.

Doctor Who annual

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.^[17] The piece includes the address of the flat she and Jackie live in (Flat 48, Bucknall House, Powell Estate, SE15 7GO), the fact that Jackie supports them by working from home as a hairdresser. It also mentions prior that 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 Department Store.

Other appearances

Rose is featured in the first twelve New Series Adventures novels and 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 fiancée, but it could be a reference to Jimmy Stone, mentioned in the Annual ; 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.
Following Rose's departure from ''Doctor Who'', a spin-off production titled '' was commissioned but ultimately withdrawn by Davies.

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.^[18]
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. Ben and Polly elected to leave when the TARDIS materialised on the same calendar day they joined the Doctor. 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 travelled with the Third Doctor) and Sarah Jane (who travelled 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 and, despite pleading for her to stay, Rose continued to travel with the Doctor.^[19] She was able to communicate with her mother via her "Superphone" and Rose would often phone home during her travels and let her mother know her activities.^[20]
Rose is a quick-witted, inquisitive and compassionate young woman, who despite the strange events she is thrown into is quick to adapt to them. She falls easily into the role of the Doctor's latest companion and shows both determination and courage while facing various alien threats. She cares deeply about the Doctor, although whether or not her feelings are purely platonic or have at some sexual component to them is left open to viewers' interpretation. She states on several occasions her desire to stay with the Doctor for the rest of her life,^[21] and chooses to stay with the Doctor, even though it means forever leaving her mother and Mickey on the parallel earth. In their final moments together, Rose tells the Doctor that she loves him; he begins to reply but only manages to say her name before his transmission is cut off and the two are parted indefinitely.
Rose is not the first companion whose deep platonic love for the Doctor doesn't at least suggest romantic interest as well. Sarah Jane Smith hints at complicated feelings for the Doctor in "School Reunion" when he asks her if she had ever married and she tells him she hasn't ("You're a tough act to follow," she adds). Grace Holloway makes a joking reference to having fallen for the Eighth Doctor in the 1996 TV movie. In "Army of Ghosts", Rose also indicates her intention to stay with the Doctor "forever", a sentiment never before expressed by previous companions, many of whom were reluctant travellers. According to the BBC website, Rose's favourite film is ''Spider-Man 2'', though the canonicity of this is unclear.^[22]
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)."^[23]

List of appearances

Television

Rose Tyler appeared in all episodes of the 2005 series, the , the 2005 Christmas special "The Christmas Invasion", and all episodes of the 2006 series up to "Doomsday". Archive footage of the character was used in brief flashbacks in "The Runaway Bride", "Utopia", and "The Sound of Drums". Rose is mentioned in "The Runaway Bride", "Smith and Jones", "The Shakespeare Code", "Gridlock", "Evolution of the Daleks", "Utopia" and "Last of the Time Lords". In "Human Nature", John Smith's ''A Journal of Impossible Things'' features an illustration of her.

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
;''Doctor Who Magazine''

★ "Voice From the Vortex" (DWM #364)

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 363–364)

★ "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)
;''Battles in Time''

★ "Growing Terror", "Hyperstar Rising", "Death Race Five Billion", "The Macrobe Menace", "The Hunt of Doom", "Reunion of Fear" (1 Story, issues 1-6)

★ "The Gluttonoid Menace" (issue 7)
;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'')

References

1. Piper in line for Doctor Who role
2. Billie Piper is Doctor Who helper
3. Doctor Who fans back Billie Piper
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8. The Doctor modifies her mobile phone to be able to communicate across time and space, among other functions. She nicknames it the "Superphone".
During their travels, the Doctor and Rose realise that the words "Bad Wolf" follow them around, the phrase being scattered like clues through the places that they visit.
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17. Davies, Russell T: ''Doctor Who Annual 2006'', page 38, "Meet Rose". Panini Books, 2005; ISBN 1-904419-73-9
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22. BBC Doctor Who website
23. Rovers' returns Roz Kaveney

External links

★ Rose Tyler on the BBC's ''Doctor Who'' website