History
Early Life
Rose Tyler was born to Jackie and Pete Tyler, on 27th April 1987. (DW: The Unquiet Dead, Dalek). But see also: Mysteries and Discrepancies.
She attended Jericho Street Junior School, where she was a member of the under-sevens gymnastic team, and she won the bronze medal in a school gymnastics competition. (DW: Rose)
When Rose was twelve, she was given a red bicycle for Christmas. The Doctor would later imply that he himself had done this for her. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
While at school, she and a friend of hers, named Shareen, would often intentionally miss school to go shopping and to look at boys. (DW: The Unquiet Dead) Rose left school without taking her A-levels, later blaming Jimmy Stone as the only reason for her departure. (DW: Rose) However, she would also later recall that she had hated every second of school. (DW: The Unquiet Dead)
Rose 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 badly in her GCSE exams, she left school to live with a 20 year-old musician, Jimmy Stone. She subsequently returned to Jackie and Mickey, heartbroken and in debt, and her mother called in a favour from an ex-boyfriend to get her the job at Henrik's.
By the time Rose was 19, she and Jackie were living in the Powell Estates (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 (DWA: Doctor Who Annual 2006).
Early adventures
If you are an Alien how comes you sound like you come from the north
One night, after Henrik's had closed, Rose witnessed several mannequins coming to life in the basement of the shop building. Although she suspected the models were someone's idea of a practical joke, the mannequins were actually Autons. As they advanced on her, a stranger took her hand, helped her escape from the store, advised Rose to run for her life, and then proceeded to destroy the building.
After she returned home, she searched for more information on the internet about the 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, Rose joined him in his TARDIS, leaving her boyfriend 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".)
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 who she found very attractive and who traveled with the Doctor. However, as a consequence of his 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
Those words... everywhere we go they are following us
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 reminder to Rose that it was possible to return to him. Rose broke into the TARDIS and looked into its heart which enabled her to transcend temporarily into the Bad Wolf entity. As this goddess-like figure, she vaporized the Dalek fleet and brought Captain Jack back to life making him immortal. However, Rose had absorbed the Time Vortex into herself by doing so, 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, sacrificing his ninth incarnation and regenerating before Rose's eyes into a new form (DW: The Parting of the Ways).
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, and had apparently left them to face the Sycorax invasion alone. The Doctor later revived and defeated the Sycorax. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
During the encounter with Queen Victoria, the Doctor and Rose were knighted for defeating a werewolf, 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.
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. (DW: School Reunion) She showed signs of jealousy when the Doctor had an attraction to Madame de Pompadour. (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace).
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. 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. (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) 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 every last Dalek and Cybermen were sucked into the Void. Thanks to the timely rescue of 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, but 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.
Return
Doctor, she is returning.
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". Unknown 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 79AD Pompeii, one of them notes 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 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 Library there is a picture of a blonde girl on the girl's 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. She did not speak aloud but it appeared that she was shouting the word "Doctor!", though the message was silent. It was not clear that anyone on the bus noticed. (DW: Midnight) It is not known how Rose was able to send this particular transmission, or in particular know where to send it, given the Doctor was nowhere near the TARDIS, nor was he even on Earth. But Donna's Grandfather tells Rose he got a call from Donna from Midnight, and she perhaps sent the message back in time to Midnight to try to warn The Doctor.
Rose reveals to Donna Noble that she can travel between worlds and alternate timelines. She appears at several points in Donna's 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 Atmos systems (c.f. The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky) was thwarted by Torchwood 3 at the cost of their lives;
- Approximately three weeks later, when 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.
Donna agrees, and is sent back to force her past self to turn left and not right on that fateful day in June 2007, and so work at H.C. Clements and set up her meeting with the Doctor six months later. Donna does so, at the cost of her life, and Rose whispers a message to her as she dies: Bad Wolf. (DW: Turn Left)
Defending Our Earth
Rose teleported to our world only to find it being invaded, she quickly finds access to the Daleks message of EXTERMINATE and is visibly upset at 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 manage to get him to the TARDIS where he begins 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 a touch from 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 had to return 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. Being part human, he was able to say things the original Doctor could not. He was able to tell her that he wanted to spend his life with her and for them to grow old together. Still feeling as if this was unfair to the original Doctor, she asked both what the last thing they would have said to her would have been when she was first trapped on the parallel Earth. Because he is purely a Time Lord and unwaveringly self sacrificing, the original Doctor said that she knew what his answer was, but would not answer her. The Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor, having that little bit of human in him, had the ability to whisper to her what he would have said, and will always feel. Hearing these words, she knew this was still her Doctor, even if not the "original", and they kiss as the original Doctor left with Donna. When last seen, Rose and the clone Doctor were holding hands. (DW: The Stolen Earth\Journey's End)
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 will be included on the Series 4 DVD Box Set.
Key Life Events
- Meets the Ninth Doctor and accepting his offer to travel with him. DW: Rose (TV story)
- Encounters the Slitheen and meets Harriet Jones. DW: Aliens of London/World War Three
- Encounters the Daleks for the first time. DW: Dalek (TV story)
- Meets her father, Pete Tyler while unleashing the Reapers upon Earth. DW: Father's Day
- Meets Captain Jack Harkness. DW: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
- Absorbs the heart of the TARDIS to become the Bad Wolf entity, and witnesses the Doctor regenerate. DW: The Parting of the Ways
- Meets Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 Mark III. DW: School Reunion.
- Meets her parallel father and watching her parallel mother die. DW: Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel
- Takes part in the Battle of Canary Wharf, and becomes separated from the Doctor DW: Doomsday
- Travels through parallel and alternate universe, in order to help Donna Noble restore the natural timeline. DW: Turn Left
- Reunites with the Doctor, Donna and Captain Jack.
- Forced to watch the Doctor regenerate for a second time, only for him to transfer the remaining regenerative energy into his severed hand.DW: The Stolen Earth
- Helps defeat Davros. Is left in the parallel world with the human Doctor. DW: Journey's End
Personality
Rose has shown herself to be a quick-witted, inquisitive and compassionate young woman, who was quick to adapt despite being thrown into strange events. She fell easily into the role of the Doctor's latest companion and showed both determination and courage while facing various alien threats. It is also obvious that she cares deeply about the Doctor, although she originally denied any infatuation with 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.
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 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 as stated on screen (she would have been 17 when she met the Doctor, not 19), 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. The 27th April birthdate is also inconsistent with a statement on the BBC's website: during the lead-up to the episode "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 (March 21 to April 19). 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. 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, utilizing leftover footage from an earlier episode (likely The Idiot's Lantern). 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.