Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler was the first known companion of the ninth incarnation of the Doctor, and also the first companion of the tenth incarnation. She was sealed off in a parallel world, before returning to her own, only to ultimately be returned to the parallel world by the Doctor, along with another version of himself. She shared a close romantic relationship with both the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, eventually living out the rest of her life in the parallel universe with the duplicate Tenth Doctor.
Biography
Early Life
Rose Marion Tyler was born to Jackie and Pete Tyler on 27 April 1986. (DW: The Unquiet Dead, Dalek)
- See also: Mysteries and Discrepancies.
She attended Jericho Street Junior School and Jericho Street Comprehensive, where she joined the gymnastics team, and won a bronze medal in competition. She didn't do too badly in her GCSEs (one A, two Bs, four Cs and a D in science) and planned to do A-Levels (in English, French and Art). However, she left school to pursue a romantic relationship with local Jimmy Stone. (DW: Rose, DWAN: Doctor Who Annual 2006)
Several times in her childhood, she was visited and watched over by her future friend, Captain Jack Harkness who had been temporally displaced by a fault on his vortex manipulator. Jack did not say hello, as he did not wish to risk damaging the timeline. (DW: Utopia)
When Rose was nineteen, she and her mother, Jackie, were living in the Powell Estate (Flat 48, Bucknall House, Powell Estate, London, SE15 7G0) in South London. Rose worked as a shop assistant at Henrik's Department Store in London's Regent Street, while Jackie worked from home as a hairdresser.
Before she met the Doctor, Rose's only travelling experience was a school trip to France and an annual week's holiday to South Wales with her mother. (DW: Rose; DWAN: Doctor Who Annual 2006)
At some point she entered into a relationship with Mickey Smith.
With the Doctor
First Meeting
Her first encounter with the mysterious time-traveller known as the Doctor happened just after midnight on 1 January 2005. Whilst walking home with her mother, Rose stumbled into the Tenth Doctor who was dying from radiation poisoning. Mistaking him for a drunk, she asked if he was all right, and told him the date when he asked. The Doctor told her that 2005 was going to be a good year for her. Smiling, Rose continued home. (DW: The End of Time)
Joining the Doctor
Rose met the Doctor again later in 2005, early in his ninth incarnation, when he saved her from an attack of Autons in Henrik's. After she returned home, she searched on the Internet for information about this strange man and found Clive Finch, who had been keeping track of the Doctor's appearances on Earth. Rose helped the Doctor track down the Nestene Consciousness animating the Autons and, when he was being held by two of the Autons, used her gymnastic skill to set him free. The Earth saved, the Doctor invited Rose to travel with him. Initially, she refused, and the Doctor left, only to return a few moments later to mention the TARDIS had the ability to travel through time. Given this second chance, Rose joined him in the TARDIS, giving her boyfriend a kiss and leaving him and her mother behind on Earth. (DW: Rose) The Doctor modified her mobile phone to be able to communicate across time and space, among other functions. (DW: The End of the World)
Travels with the Ninth Doctor
In her first trip with the Doctor, Rose witnessed the final destruction of Earth. (DW: The End of the World) Later she encountered a Dalek for the first time. (DW: Dalek) During that adventure Rose met Adam Mitchell, a young genius she found attractive and who travelled with the Doctor. However, as a result of his behavior, she soon lost interest in him. (DW: The Long Game) The Doctor also took Rose to 1987 to witness the last minutes of her father's life. This had drastic consequences. Rose prevented his death, altered history and unleashed Reapers. She also met herself as an infant, as well as a very young Mickey Smith. (DW: Father's Day)
In World War II London, the Doctor and Rose met Captain Jack Harkness, a former Time Agent from the 51st century, to whom she was also attracted. The Doctor and Rose took him along in the TARDIS. (DW: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances)
Bad Wolf
From the moment Rose stepped foot in the TARDIS, the phrase "Bad Wolf" followed the Doctor and Rose around through space and time. Following his discovery of a complex plan by the Daleks to invade Earth in the year 200,100 (DW: Bad Wolf), the Doctor, believing he might die soon, sent Rose out of harm's way to her home place and time.
Seeing the words Bad Wolf as graffiti around her housing complex served as a message to Rose; she herself was crucial to the event and must return to the Doctor. Rose broke into the TARDIS and looked into its heart which enabled her to transcend into the Bad Wolf. As this goddess-like figure, she vaporised the Dalek fleet
and brought Captain Jack back to life (unknowingly making him immortal), after paradoxically spreading the words 'Bad Wolf' through space and time to create the message. However, in becoming the Bad Wolf, Rose had absorbed the Time Vortex into herself, which would destroy her body, cell by cell. (DW: The Parting of the Ways)
- See Battle of the Game Station for a more detailed account of these events.
The Doctor took those energies into himself by kissing her, sacrificing his ninth incarnation and regenerating before Rose's eyes into a new form. (DW: The Parting of the Ways)
During this time, Rose may have changed all the signs in the Shan Shen marketplace to read "BAD WOLF". (DW: Turn Left)
Travels with the Tenth Doctor
The newly regenerated Doctor managed to steer the TARDIS back to Christmas Eve 2006, before collapsing from post-regenerative trauma. Rose was distressed that the Doctor had changed in appearance and personality, (DW: Children in Need Special) and had apparently left them to face the Sycorax invasion alone. The Doctor later revived and defeated the Sycorax (DW: The Christmas Invasion).
The Doctor took Rose to New Earth, where she was unwillingly showered in disinfectant while taking a lift up through the hospital. There, they again encountered Lady Cassandra. Cassandra used a psychograft to implant her consciousness onto Rose's own, gaining full control over her body and able to access her memories, including her feelings for the Doctor. Before the ruse was discovered, Cassandra used Rose's body to kiss the Doctor (DW: New Earth).
In an encounter with Queen Victoria, the Doctor and Rose were knighted for defeating a werewolf (with Rose dubbed Dame Rose of the Powell Estate), but immediately banished as a threat to the British Empire. This incident prompted Queen Victoria to found the Torchwood Institute (anagram for "doctor who", and name of the house in whch the werewolf was killed) to address future alien threats — including the Doctor (DW: Tooth and Claw, Army of Ghosts).
Back in her own time, Rose met a previous companion of the Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, an awkward situation Mickey Smith described as "the missus and the ex". Both women felt jealousy and tension, which they subsequently resolved. Rose became worried the Doctor would one day abandon her, but the Doctor promised her — "Not to you" (DW: School Reunion). On a spaceship in the 51st century, Rose and Mickey were kidnapped by Clockwork Robots, strapped to a table and almost dissected, before a seemingly-drunk Doctor rescued them. Later, she showed signs of jealousy when the Doctor was attracted to Madame de Pompadour. (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace) There is a possibly apocryphal account suggesting the Doctor exploited this jealousy to save Rose's life when her mind was invaded by a creature called the Iagnon. (DWM: The Green-Eyed Monster) Another possibly apocryphal account around this time suggests that Rose died in the 31st century during an incident with a time loop, but was immediately resurrected when the time loop reset itself (DWM: Interstellar Overdrive).
On a parallel version of Earth later called "Pete's World" after Pete Tyler, Rose met aversion of her father. He had not died, but had become a successful businessman. In this parallel universe, Pete and Jackie Tyler never had a daughter named Rose. They did, however, have a dog with the same name.
Rose witnessed the cyber-conversion and the death of that world's version of her mother. Mickey left the TARDIS tp live a new life on Pete's World fighting the Cybermen there and caring for his grandmother, who had died in his home universe from a fall. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen/ The Age of Steel)
There was a difficult discussion about settling down after seemingly losing the TARDIS (DW: The Impossible Planet). After they got back the TARDIS, Rose and the Doctor defeated the Hoix, then watched as LINDA defeated the Abzorbaloff when he tried to absorb the Doctor. (DW: Love & Monsters) They next travelled to attend the 2012 Olympic Games, where The Doctor seemed pleased when Rose asked for him to hold her hand. Meanwhile they investigated the disappearances of children taken by the Isolus. The Doctor himself was taken... but freed when Rose recharged the Isolus pod (DW: Fear Her).
During the battle of Canary Wharf in the Torchwood Institute, Rose refused to leave the Doctor to face the threat on his own. She nearly sacrificed herself to make
sure that every Dalek and Cyberman were sucked into the Void. Due to a timely rescue by Pete Tyler from Pete's World, Rose was alive, but was separated from the Doctor, seemingly forever (DW: Doomsday).
After the Doctor
Rose lived with Pete Tyler, Jackie, and Mickey in their home on Pete's World. She received a dream-like contact from the Doctor, which guided her to Dålig Ulv Stranden (Bad Wolf Bay) beach in Norway. The Doctor sent his last farewells through the closing gaps between the worlds, burning up a star to send the signal through. He informed her that on her Earth, Rose was officially dead. Rose informed the Doctor that she now worked for Torchwood in this alternative world, and that Jackie was again pregnant. Rose finally broke down and confessed her love for the Doctor, but the Doctor did not have a chance to reciprocate his feelings as he was cut off abruptly. Rose was last seen standing on the beach crying while her mother comforted her. (DW: Doomsday) Some time later, Jackie gave birth to Rose's baby brother, Tony. (DW: Journey's End)
Crossing the Timelines
In 2009, after dealing with the Adipose, Donna Noble asked a blonde woman to tell her mother that she left her car keys in "that bin there". The woman was Rose Tyler. She walked off, fading away (DW: Partners in Crime).
When the Doctor and Donna were conversing with two psychics in 79 AD Pompeii, one of them noted that "She is returning," a foreshadowing of Rose's return (DW: The Fires of Pompeii).
When Donna Noble was in the TARDIS during the Sontaran Invasion, Rose's face popped up on the screen for a moment, silently calling for the Doctor. (DW: The Poison Sky) The image also appeared in "Captain Jack's Monster Files", in the Hath file. In the virtual room belonging to the girl in the Library a picture of a blonde girl hung on the wall, with a picture of a wolf next to it. This may have been Rose Tyler and a reference to Bad Wolf (DW: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead).
On the planet Midnight, Rose appeared on a screen in the shuttlebus, silently shouting "Doctor!" It was not clear if anyone on the bus noticed (DW: Midnight).
Rose had gained the knowledge of the Doctor's location in the future from Wilfred Mott in the The Stolen Earth. When Donna Noble had an alternate timeline created around her, Rose met her several times. She said she could travel between worlds and alternate timelines, and had done so many times, searching for the Doctor. She appeared several times in this timeline; on Christmas Eve 2007, when the Doctor, lacking Donna to pull him back, was killed defeating the Racnoss;
the night Donna was sacked, to warn her of the coming destruction of London on Christmas Day 2008; the evening the Sontaran attack of the Earth throughwith ATMOS (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky) was thwarted by Torchwood Three at the cost of their lives; and three weeks later as the stars started to disappear. Donna relented and followed Rose, who revealed the Time Beetle on Donna's back and explained what she must do to restore the original timeline.
Obeying Rose's instructions, Donna was sent back to force her past self to turn left, not right on that fateful day in June 2007, so that she would work at H.C. Clements and meet the Doctor six months later. When Donna did so, at the cost of her life in that timeline, Rose held her as she died and whispered a message for the Doctor: Bad Wolf. (DW: Turn Left)
Defending the Earth
Rose teleported to our world, finding it being invaded by Daleks.
She found Wilf and Sylvia, hoping they knew where the Doctor and Donna were. Harriet Jones appeared on Wilf's computer. Rose assumed Harriet was trying to contact her, but when she tried to reply, found it impossible as there was no camera or microphone on the computer; Harriet spoke to Sarah Jane Smith, Jack Harkness and Martha Jones. Rose watched on as they brought the Doctor to Earth, then used her transmat device to lock onto the TARDIS and teleport to him.
She arrived in a deserted street with the Doctor and Donna at the other end. The Doctor and Rose ran towards each other, but a Dalek fired upon the Doctor, mortally wounding him. With Donna and Jack's help, she got him in to the TARDIS where he began to regenerate. The Doctor managed to retain his tenth form, by pouring the regeneration energy into his severed hand. This, with the help of Donna, eventually created a new, half-human Doctor.
Rose reappeared on the Earth through a dimension cannon as the barriers between worlds had weakened. This let her reunite with the Doctor and with the aid of the new Doctor and the other companions, defeat the New Dalek Empire. The Doctor returned her to the parallel Earth along with her mother but this time without Mickey Smith, who decided to return home.
The original Doctor exiled the new Doctor on the parallel Earth; he was too dangerous as he had exterminated the Dalek race. He told Rose she was the only
one who could make him a better man, as she had before with him. Rose was reluctant to stay back but the original Doctor said that the new Doctor had all his memories, thoughts and was "him," albeit part human. The half human Doctor had only one heart, would age and never regenerate. He told her he could spend his life with her, if she wanted him to, and they could grow old together. Rose asked both Doctors what the last thing they would have said to her would have been when she was first trapped on the parallel Earth. The original Doctor asked "Does it need saying?", but the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor whispered something to her. Hearing the words, Rose flung herself on the Meta-Crisis Doctor and the original Doctor left with Donna. (DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)
The Doctor remembered Rose and felt guilty about what he had done to her, well into his eleventh Incarnation. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler, DW: The Wedding of River Song)
Personality
Rose was a sweet, gentle and sympathetic young woman, though while being possesed by cassandra, she was flirty, sexual and had no problem exposing her cleavage. though as herself she was quick to adapt despite being thrown into strange events. She had her mother's acerbic wit and was not hesitant to use it. She fell easily into the role of the Doctor's latest companion and was brave facing various alien threats. She cared deeply about the Doctor, although she originally denied any sexual or romantic feelings towards him despite indications to the contrary. In what seemed their final meeting on the beach, she told the Doctor that she loved him; he began to reply, but only got out the words "Rose Tyler" before he was cut off. (DW: Doomsday)
However, besides Jack Harkness and River Song , she was the only recent companion of the Doctor's willing to kill the Doctor's enemies. (DW: The Parting of the Ways, DW: The Satan Pit, DW: The Stolen Earth) Others, such as Martha Jones and Donna Noble were much more reluctant and Donna only killed once when it was the only way to save Agatha Christie. Rose was willing to call the Doctor out when he was wrong. When the Doctor brushed aside the danger that Jackie was in when faced with a Slitheen, Rose reminded him the woman he was discussing was her mother. She was horrified the Doctor would allow the Gelth to use human corpses as a vessel for their consciousness. The Doctor's failure to listen to Rose's human plea of respect for their dead led to at least two deaths when the Gelth proved to be malicious. (DW: The Unquiet Dead)
Rose had a jealous streak when it came to the Doctor. She and the Doctor's former companion, Sarah Jane Smith, traded barbs over who was the "best companion" but they became good friends afterwards, and happily greeted each other at their reunion on the Crucible. Rose was willing to sacrifice herself for the Doctor or the common good. When faced with the choice of dying or saving the world, Rose instructed the Doctor to do what he had to do to save everyone else. (DW: World War Three) This was a common theme in Rose's story; despitethe risk of plunging into the Void and an eternity of nothingness, she let go of a magnetic hold to set a lever right and seal the Cybermen and Daleks away from her world. It was only the sudden appearance of her father from the parallel world that saved her from that fate, but ultimately led to her separation from the Doctor. (DW: Doomsday)
Known Relatives
- Prentice - maternal grandfather, deceased (DW: Army of Ghosts)
- At least one living grandmother. (DW: World War Three)
- Pete Tyler - father, deceased
- Pete Tyler of "Pete's World" - stepfather, genetically her father
- Jackie Tyler - mother
- Tony Tyler - half-brother, genetically her full brother
- Mo - cousin. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
- At least one other cousin. (DW: Fear Her - Rose refers to cousins in the plural)
Behind the scenes
- "Tyler" is a common name in the works of writer and producer Russell T Davies, who has used it as the surname of a family that features heavily in his Virgin New Adventures Doctor Who novel, Damaged Goods. He has also used the name as the surname for several other characters in various series, such as Ruth Tyler in Revelations, Vince Tyler in Queer as Folk, and Johnny Tyler in The Second Coming.
- Among those who auditioned for the role of Rose Tyler was actress Georgia Moffett, daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison. Moffett later played Jenny, the Doctor's daughter, in Series 4. Actress Julia Joyce, at the age of seven, portrayed "Young Rose" in "Father's Day".
- The title of the first episode of Series 1, "Rose", is a references to the character's name and she is the first character to appear in that episode. Therefore, she is also simultaneously the first character to appear in Series 1 and the first been seen in a Doctor Who television episode for nine years (the interval between the 1996 Doctor Who television movie and "Rose").
- After Rose was written out of Doctor Who at the end of Series 2, 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. Although the special was officially commissioned, Davies changed his mind and decided that such a return, wherein the audience would be able to see Rose when the Doctor could not, would spoil her final scenes in Doctor Who. The production was consequently cancelled.
- Sam Tyler, the lead character in the BBC's other time-travel drama, Life on Mars, was named after Rose. Reportedly, the lead character's surname was suggested by the young daughter of Life of Mars co-creator, Matthew Graham, after her father had asked her to choose the character's surname. She ultimately decided upon "Tyler" because of Rose, a fact only later discovered by her father, who eventually wrote the Doctor Who episode "Fear Her". Sam Tyler is played by John Simm who is also the sixth onscreen incarnation of the Master. Ironically, The Master and Rose never actually met. In the US production of Life on Mars, Sam Tyler's mother is named Rose.
- News of Rose's return to the series leaked out during early production of the fourth series when photographs of her on set appeare on websites and in the press. After initial denials by the BBC, promotion for the season incorporated images of Rose Tyler. In an interview with Doctor Who Confidential aired in conjunction with Turn Left, Billie Piper revealed that the decision to bring Rose back had in fact been made when she left the series in 2006, and she had to mislead journalists and fans for the next year to keep Rose's return a surprise. Rose's first appearance in Series 4 is a surprise cameo at the end of Partners in Crime, a scene shot during production of Turn Left and veiled in such secrecy that advance review copies of the episode had the scene edited out and, unlike many other aspects of the series (such as Rose's ultimate return) was broadcast without having been the subject of Internet spoilers. In a later interview with Doctor Who Magazine, Davies indicated the original plan was for Rose to not appear again until Turn Left, but on learning how well the cameo went over with viewers, at the last minute he inserted brief, silent images of Rose into The Poison Sky and Midnight; the scene was filmed for Midnight and was scripted. Davies added it to The Poison Sky before it was broadcast. As with Partners in Crime, the Poison Sky cameo was not included in review copies. Billie Piper receives screen credit for her appearances in Poison Sky and Midnight.
- Rose Tyler, along with the Tenth Doctor had a cameo appearance in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight comic, No Future for You Part One.
- "Rose's Theme" is included on the Doctor Who: Original Television Soundtrack. Her name appears in the titles of two other tracks on the disc, "Rose in Peril" and "Rose Defeats the Daleks".
- Jack Harkness mentions to Angelo Colasanto. (TW: Immortal Sins), that his friend The Doctor travels with an assistant that 'looks nice.' At this point in Jack's timeline, he was living through the twentieth century before he reunited with The Doctor (DW: Utopia), at which point Rose was the only companion he had met onscreen.
- While Posessing her, Cassandra adjusts Rose's top by pulling it down, in doing this; reveals the top of Billie Piper's Bra, on more than one occasion.
Mysteries and Discrepancies
- The Doctor states that Rose is nineteen years old (DW: The Unquiet Dead, DW: Dalek). It is later established she met the Doctor on 6 March 2005. (DW: Aliens of London) However, the Annual article states that Rose was born on 27 April 1987. Although this contradicts the age stated on screen (she would have been seventeen when she met the Doctor), it is consistent with the appearance of the baby Rose in Father's Day, set in November 1987, where the baby is no more than a few months old. It's also possible that she simply lied about her age to appear older in the Doctor's eyes. The 27 April birthdate is also inconsistent with a statement on the BBC's website: during the lead-up to the episode DW: Bad Wolf, the 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, which is March 21 to April 19. (This is fairly irrelevant, as it simply means that whoever did the "contestant portrait" made a mistake regarding either her birthday or when the astrological sign of Aries is.)
- At several times during her search for the Doctor (for example when she prepares to leave Sylvia Noble and Wilfred Mott), Rose is heard communicating with an entity called "Control" (DW: The Stolen Earth); the identity and location of Control is not known (though it may be on Pete's World).
Grow Your Own TARDIS
The original script of the Bad Wolf Bay scene in Journey's End contained an excerpt, in which the Doctor gave the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor and Rose a piece of TARDIS coral, and Donna told them how to increase the rate of growth so that they could travel the stars in the parallel universe, "as it should be". This scene was removed in the final cut for complicating the scene too much. It was, however, mentioned in The Doctor's Data section of Doctor Who Adventures magazine, and in the 398th issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Russell T Davies states that it is fine to assume this part of the scene did actually occur. The scene is included on the Series 4 DVD Box Set.
Footnotes
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