Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler was the first known companion of the ninth incarnation of the Doctor and the first companion of the tenth incarnation. She was sealed off in a parallel world before returning to her own, only to ultimately be brought back to the parallel world by the Doctor, along with another version of himself.
Biography
Early Life
Rose Marion Tyler was born to Jackie and Pete Tyler, on 27th April 1987. (DW: The Unquiet Dead, Dalek).
see also: Mysteries and Discrepancies.
She attended both Jericho Street Junior School and Jericho Street Comprehensive, where she became involved in athletics, eventually joining the gymnastics team and winning a bronze medal in competition. However, she eventually dropped out of school to pursue a romantic relationship with local Jimmy Stone, without success. (DW: Rose)
By the time Rose was 19, she and her mother, Jackie, were living in the Powell Estate (Flat 48, Bucknall House, Powell Estate, London, SE15 7GO) in South London. Rose was working as a shop assistant at Henrik's Department Store in London's Regent Street, while Jackie supported them by working from home as a hairdresser. Before she met the Doctor, Rose's only traveling experience was a school trip to France and an annual week's holiday to South Wales with her mother (DW: Rose; DWA: Doctor Who Annual 2006).
With the Doctor
First Meeting
Her first encounter with the mysterious time-traveller known as the Doctor happened just after midnight on 1st January 2005; however, in the Doctor's timeline, it was their last meeting prior to his tenth regeneration. While walking home with her mother, Rose stumbled into the Doctor, who, unknown to her, was dying from radiation poisoning. Mistaking him for a drunk, she asked if he was alright, and told him the date when he asked what it was. The Doctor, realizing that she had yet to meet him in her own timeline, predicted that 2005 was going to be a good year for her (because he knew she was destined to meet him soon and this would change her life forever). With that, Rose, smiling, continued home. The Doctor, meanwhile, returned to his TARDIS to regenerate. (DW: The End of Time)
Joining the Doctor
Rose met the Doctor again later in 2005 (who at this point was early into his ninth incarnation) when he saved her from an attack of mannequins in Henrik's. After she returned home, she searched for more information on the internet about this strange man and found Clive Finch, a man who had been keeping track of the Doctor's appearances on Earth. Ultimately, Rose helped the Doctor track down the Nestene Consciousness that was animating the Autons and, when the Doctor was being held by two of the mannequins, Rose used her gymnastic skill to free him. The Earth now saved, the Doctor invited Rose to travel with him. Initially, Rose refused, and the Doctor left, only to return a few moments later to point out 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). (She would later nickname it the "Superphone".)
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 whom she found very attractive and who traveled with the Doctor. However, as a consequence of Adam's behavior, she soon lost interest in him. (DW: The Long Game) The Doctor also took Rose back to 1987 to witness the last minutes of her father's life. This would have drastic consequences as Rose prevented his death, altering history and unleashing Reapers. She also ended up meeting 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 encountered Captain Jack Harkness, a former Time Agent from the 51st century, with whom she also had an attraction. Befriending him, the Doctor and Rose took him along in the TARDIS with them. (DW: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances)
Bad Wolf
From the moment Rose stepped foot in the TARDIS, the phrase "Bad Wolf" had 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 well 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, that 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 temporarily into the Bad Wolf. As this goddess-like figure, she vaporized 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).
Adventures 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 disturbed 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 Rose was unwillingly showered in disinfectant while taking a lift up through the hospital. There, they once again encountered Lady Cassandra. Cassandra used a psychograft to implant her consciousness onto Rose's own, effectively becoming Rose and gaining full control over her body as well as being able to access all of Rose's memories, including her feelings for the Doctor. Before the ruse was discovered, Cassandra used Rose's body to kiss the Doctor. (DW: New Earth)
During the encounter with Queen Victoria, the Doctor and Rose were knighted for defeating a werewolf (with Rose being dubbed Dame Rose of the Powell Estate), but immediately banished as a threat to the British Empire. (DW: Tooth and Claw). This incident prompted Queen Victoria to found the Torchwood Institute in order to address future alien threats -- including the Doctor. (DW: Army of Ghosts)
Back in her own time, Rose met a previous companion of the Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, which created an awkward situation Mickey Smith described as "the missus and the ex". Both women felt jealousy and tension, which they subsequently resolved. Rose, however, became worried the Doctor would one day abandon her, but the Doctor promised Rose that he would not do that --
"Not 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 managed eventually to rescue her. Later, she showed signs of jealousy when the Doctor had an attraction to Madame de Pompadour. (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace). There is a possibly apocryphal account suggesting the Doctor exploited this jealousy in order 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 may have actually 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 nicknamed "Pete's World" after Pete Tyler, Rose met a different version of her father, who had not died, but gone on to become a successful businessman. However, in this parallel universe, Pete and Jackie Tyler never had a daughter named Rose. They did, however, have a dog that shared the same name.
Rose also witnessed the cyber-conversion and then the death of that world's version of her mother. Mickey Smith decided to leave the Doctor and Rose and live a new life on Pete's World fighting against the Cybermen of that world and caring for his grandmother, who had died in his home universe as the result of a fall. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen/ The Age of Steel)
There was later 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) Rose and the Doctor then traveled to attend the 2012 Olympic Games, but were drawn into investigating the disappearances of children taken by the Isolus. Eventually the Doctor himself was taken ... however he was freed when Rose recharged the Isolus pod. (DW: Fear Her)
During the battle of Canary Wharf in the Torchwood Institute, Rose absolutely refused to leave the Doctor to face the threat on his own. Consequently, she nearly sacrificed herself to make
sure that every last Dalek and Cybermen were sucked into the Void. Thanks to a timely rescue by Pete Tyler from Pete's World, Rose was alive, but was separated from the Doctor, seemingly forever. (DW: Doomsday)
Life After the Doctor
Rose lived with Pete Tyler, her mother 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 (and later seen crying in the TARDIS). Rose was last seen standing on the beach crying while her mother comforts 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-haired woman to tell her mother that she left her car keys in "that bin there". Unbeknownst to Donna, the woman was Rose Tyler. She walked off, eventually 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." This appears to be a foreshadowing to Rose's return later on. (DW: The Fires of Pompeii)
When Donna Noble was in the TARDIS during the Sontaran Invasion, she looked at the screen, and for a few seconds Rose's face popped up on the screen, silently calling for the Doctor. (DW: The Poison Sky) The image is also seen in "Captain Jack's Monster Files", during the file for the Hath. Also, in the virtual room belonging to the girl from the Library there was a picture of a blonde girl on the wall, with a picture of a wolf next to it. This may be 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. Although the message was silent, it appeared that she was shouting the word "Doctor!" It was not clear that 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, and revealed that she could travel between worlds and alternate timelines, and had done so many times while searching for the Doctor. She appeared at several points in this alternate timeline: on Christmas Eve 2007, the day on which the Doctor--lacking Donna to pull him back--was killed while fighting the Racnoss;
the night Donna was sacked, in order to warn her about the coming devastation of London on Christmas Day 2008; the evening that the Sontaran plan to attack the Earth through the Atmospheric Omission System ATMOS (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky) was thwarted by Torchwood Three at the cost of their lives; and approximately three weeks later as the stars started to disappear. At this point Donna finally relented and decided to follow Rose, who revealed the Time Beetle on Donna's back and explained to her what she must do to restore the other timeline.
Following Rose's instructions, Donna was sent back to force her past self to turn left and not right on that fateful day in June 2007, so that she would work at H.C. Clements and set up her meeting with 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 only to find it being invaded, she quickly finds access to the Dalek's message of EXTERMINATE and is visibly upset
hearing it. Later on she locates Wilf and Sylvia hoping they know where the Doctor and Donna are, however they do not and suddenly Harriet Jones appears on Wilf's computer. Rose assumes that Harriet is trying to contact her, but when she tries to talk to Harriet she finds that she cannot as there is no camera or microphone on the computer and so Harriet is only connecting to Sarah Jane Smith, Jack Harkness and Martha Jones. Rose watches on as they manage to bring The Doctor to Earth and uses her transmat device to lock onto the TARDIS and teleport to him.
She arrives in a deserted street with only the Doctor and Donna at the other end. The Doctor and Rose run towards each other, but as he nears her a Dalek fires upon the Doctor, mortally wounding him. With Donna and Jack's help, they managed to get him to the TARDIS where he began to regenerate, much to Rose's distress. The Doctor managed to retain his tenth form, by pouring the regeneration energy into his severed hand. This, with the help of Donna, created a new Doctor, who was half human.
Rose reappeared on the normal Earth through a dimension cannon as the barriers between worlds had weakened. This allowed her to be reunited with the Doctor and together, with the aid of the new Doctor and the other companions, they succeeded in defeating the New Dalek Empire. However, 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 decided he had to leave the new Doctor on the parallel Earth since he was too dangerous as he had exterminated the Dalek race. He told Rose that she was the only
one who could make him a better man, as she had before. 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, and as a result would be able to age, and never regenerate. He told her that he could spend his life with her, if she wanted him to, and that they could grow old together. Still feeling upset, 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, presumably what he would have said. Hearing the words, Rose kissed the Meta-Crisis Doctor and the original Doctor left with Donna. (DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)
Personality
Rose has shown herself to be a sweet, gentle and sympathetic young woman, who was quick to adapt despite being thrown into strange events. However, she also possessed her mother's acerbic wit and was not hesitant to use it when she felt the need. She fell easily into the role of the Doctor's latest companion and showed bravery while facing various alien threats. It is also obvious that she cares deeply about the Doctor, although she originally denied any sexual or romantic feelings towards him despite indications to the contrary on several occasions. In what seemed like 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, she is the only companion of the Doctor's that seems to be willing to kill the Doctor's enemies when necessary. (DW: The Parting of the Ways, DW: The Satan Pit, DW: The Stolen Earth) Other companions such as Martha Jones and Donna Noble were much more reluctant and Donna only killing once after being left no choice as it was the only way to save Agatha Christie. Like Donna, Rose has been willing to call the Doctor out when he's wrong or stepped over the line. When the Doctor brushed aside the danger that Jackie was in when faced with a Slitheen, Rose reminded him that the woman he was discussing was also her mother. Likewise, she was horrified at the idea that 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 lead to at least two people to be killed when the Gelth turned out to be malicious. (DW: The Unquiet Dead)
Rose has a jealous streak when it comes to the Doctor. She and the Doctor's former companion, Sarah Jane Smith, trade barbs over who was the "best companion" but they became good friends afterwards. Despite this, Rose was willing to sacrifice herself when it came to the Doctor or the common good. When faced with the prospect of either dying or saving the world, Rose instructed the Doctor to do what he had to do to save everyone when his fear of losing Rose nearly overpowered his desire to do what needed to be done (DW: World War Three ). This was a common theme in Rose's story and one that eventually led to her being separated from the Doctor. Despite risking being plunged 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 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 being separated from the Doctor. (DW: Doomsday)
Known Relatives
- Pete Tyler - father (deceased)
- Jackie Tyler - mother
- Pete Tyler of "Pete's World" - stepfather
- Tony Tyler - brother/half-brother
- "Granddad Prentice" - maternal grandfather (deceased) (DW: Army of Ghosts)
- At least one living grandmother. (DW: World War Three)
- Mo - cousin. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
- At least one other cousin. (DW: Fear Her - Rose refers to cousins in the plural)
Mysteries and Discrepancies
The Doctor states that Rose is nineteen years old (DW: The Unquiet Dead, DW: Dalek), and it is later established that she met the Doctor on 6th March 2005 (DW: Aliens of London). However, the Annual article states that Rose was born on 27th April 1987. Although this contradicts the age as stated on screen (she would have been 17 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 clearly no more than a few months old. It's of course also possible that she simply lied about her age to appear a little older in the Doctor's eyes. The 27th 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 of course 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 commonly accepted to be.) Rose's age at the time of her reunion with the Doctor is not revealed, although she is clearly more mature; given that time has been established as moving somewhat faster on Pete's World (fast enough that Rose was able to detect the coming of the Darkness and return to her original world with time to stop it), it's possible that several years at least may have elapsed for Rose since the Battle of Canary Wharf. Her apparent position of authority with UNIT in the "Donna's World" alternate timeline suggests she was there for some length of time. 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).
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 went on to play 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 to have been seen in a Doctor Who television episode for nine years (given 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 canceled.
- 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 had ultimately decided upon "Tyler" because of Rose, a fact only later discovered by her father, who eventually went on to write the Doctor Who episode "Fear Her". Sam Tyler is played by John Simm who is also the sixth on screen 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 began to leak out during early production of the fourth series when photographs of her on set began to appear on websites and in the press. After initial denials by the BBC, promotions for the new season ultimately 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 at the time she left the series in 2006, and she had to mislead journalists and fans for the next year in order to keep Rose's return a surprise. Rose's first appearance in Series 4 is a surprise cameo near the end of Partners in Crime, a scene that was 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 that the original plan was for Rose to not appear again until Turn Left, but on learning how well the cameo went over with viewers, Davies at the last minute inserted brief, silent images of Rose into The Poison Sky and Midnight; the scene was filmed for Midnight and was scripted, and 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
- It was rumoured that Billie Piper would reprise her role as Rose Tyler in the Series 5 finale, although this turned out to be false.
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 can travel the stars in the parallel universe, "as it should be". This scene was removed in the final cut of the episode due to complicating the scene too much. It was, however, mentioned in The Doctor's Data section of the Doctor Who Adventures magazine, and in the 398th edition of Doctor Who Magazine, Russell T Davies states that it is perfectly fine to assume that this part of the scene did actually occur. The scene is included on the Series 4 DVD Box Set.
Footnotes
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