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Planet Earth. This is where I was born. And this is where I died. The first nineteen years of my life, nothing happened. Nothing at all, not ever. And then I met a man called the Doctor. A man who could change his face. And he took me away from home in his magical machine. He showed me the whole of time and space. I thought it would never end.
Profile
Rose Tyler was born to Jackie and Pete Tyler, on 27th April 1987. (DW: The Unquiet Dead, Dalek). But see also: Mysteries and Discrepancies.
By the time Rose was 19, she and 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 (DWA: Doctor Who Annual 2006).
Her first encounter with the mysterious time-traveller known as the Doctor happened just after midnight on 1st January 2005 (from his personal perspective, however, it was their last meeting prior to his regeneration out of his tenth incarnation). While walking home with her mother, Rose stumbled into the Doctor who, unknown to her, was dying. 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. With that, Rose, smiling, continued home (the Doctor, meanwhile, returned to his TARDIS to regenerate).(DW: The End of Time, part two)
Adventures with the Ninth Doctor
Rose meets the Doctor again (with a different face and not recognising him) when he saves her from an attack of mannequins in Henrik's. 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 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
But I've heard that before, Bad Wolf. I've heard that lots of times...
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. 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).
Adventures with the Tenth Doctor
There's just so much out there. So much to see. I've...got to.
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)
- It is unclear whether Rose recognized the new Doctor as the individual she had mistaken for a drunk on New Year's Day 2005; considering the Doctor kept to the shadows in that encounter, she may not have gotten a clear look at him.
The Doctor took Rose to New Earth, where poor Rose was unwillingly showered in disinfecant while taking a lift up the hospital. There, they once again encountered Lady Cassandra. Cassandra used a psycho-graft to implant her consciousness over 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. Cassandra uses Rose's body to kiss the Doctor, this being the only occasion that Rose and the Doctor's lips have met aside from in Journey's End. (DW: New Earth)
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, but the Doctor promised Rose that he would not do that to her. (DW: School Reunion) On a spaceship in the 51st Century, Rose is kidnapped by Clockwork Robots, strapped to her back on a table and almost disected her along with Mickey, before a drunk Doctor manages 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. 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)After they got back the Tardis Rose and the Doctor defeated the Hoix, they then defeated the Abzorbaloff when he tried to absorb Rose and the Doctor.(DW: Love and Monsters) Rose and the Doctor then traveled to attened the 2012 Olympic Games, they investigated 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 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 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)
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 there". 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 79 AD 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 or in the present.
Rose reveals to Donna Noble that she can travel between worlds and alternate timelines, and had done so many times while searching for the Doctor. 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 the Atmospheric Omission System ATMOS (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky) was thwarted by Torchwood Three 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 the Earth
Oh, my god! He found you!
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
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 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. Hearing the TARDIS departing, Rose wrenched free of the kiss to run toward it. When last seen, Rose and the clone Doctor were holding hands, while glancing at each other as the tardis vanishes for the last time. (DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)
Key Life Events
- Her father dies in a car accident. (Mentioned DW: Father's Day)
- Meets the Tenth Doctor on the 1st January 2005 without knowing. (DW: The End of Time)
- Meets the Ninth Doctor and accepting his offer to travel with him. (DW: Rose)
- Witnesses the Earth's destruction. (DW: The End of the World)
- Encounters the Slitheen family and meets Harriet Jones. (DW: Aliens of London / World War Three)
- Encounters the Daleks for the first time. (DW: Dalek)
- 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, and witnesses the Doctor regenerate. (DW: The Parting of the Ways)
- Agrees to travel with the Tenth Doctor after he defeats the Sycorax. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
- Has her body taken over by Cassandra O'Brien.Δ17 on New Earth. (DW: New Earth)
- Meets Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 Mark III. (DW: School Reunion)
- Meets her parallel father and watches her parallel mother become a Cyberman. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen)
- Takes part in the Battle of Canary Wharf, and becomes separated from the Doctor. (DW: Doomsday)
- Travels through parallel and alternate universes in order to help Donna Noble restore the natural timeline. (DW: Turn Left)
- Reunites with the Doctor, Donna and Captain Jack. (DW: The Stolen Earth)
- Meets Martha Jones. (DW: Journey's End)
- Helps defeat Davros. Is left in the parallel world with the half-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 (DW: Doomsday). BBC Producers have confirmed during Journey's Ends' extras that the Doctor meant to say "I love you." Also, besides Jack Harkness, she is the only companion of the Doctor's that seems to be willing to kill the Doctor's enemies regularly (DW: The Parting of the Ways, DW: The Satan Pit). With other companions such as Martha and Donna, they were much more reluctant, with Martha only killing a couple of times and being horrified that she did it, and Donna only killing once after being left no choice as it was the only way to save Agatha Christie. She asks if the Doctor is going to kill the Nestene Consciousness but then she didn't know about aliens and didn't know what to expect. (DW: Rose) Rose did willingly kill a Dalek during the Medusa Cascade Incident, but was completely necessay to save Wilfred and Sylvia. (DW: The Stolen Earth)
Known relatives
- Pete Tyler - father (deceased)
- Jackie Tyler - mother
- Pete Tyler of "Pete's World" - stepfather
- Tony Tyler - brother/half-brother
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 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. 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.
- The Sun reported she would be returning in the last 2009 special along with Martha Jones and Donna Noble.
- Billie Piper has filmed a cameo for the New Year Doctor Who Special.
- 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
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.