Opening ceremony
The Tenth Doctor carried the Olympic Torch at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. (TV: Fear Her)
- You may wish to consult
Rose (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
- You may be looking for Rosa (TV story).
- You may be looking for the concept of a Big Bang or the specific Big Bang that started off the Doctor's universe.
Rose was the special episode of series 3d of Doctor Who.
The first story to be produced by BBC Wales, it was both the first new episode of Doctor Who since the 1996 telemovie and the first story to be part of a regularly airing programme since Survival in 1989. It also introduced recurring supporting cast Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler and Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith.
An immediate success, the episode set a record 10.81 million BBC One rating that bested the previous record-holder, Robot, and remained the most watched first episode for any new incarnation of the Doctor (not outdone by The Christmas Invasion, The Eleventh Hour, or Deep Breath) until it was finally toppled in 2018 by The Woman Who Fell to Earth.[1]
It is also the third-highest rated series-opener of all time, second only to Destiny of the Daleks and The Woman Who Fell to Earth. Due to the fact that ITV were on strike at the top of season 17, however, Destiny's numbers are often discounted. Rose is certainly the top-rating series opener when Doctor Who actually had competition from another broadcaster.
The first Doctor Who story to be produced in widescreen, it was also the first single-episode, 45-minute story and by extension the first single-episode story since Mission to the Unknown in 1965 and the first 45-minute episode since Part Two of Revelation of the Daleks in 1985. Rose was the Doctor Who debut for almost everyone who worked on it — except for model unit supervisor Mike Tucker, who worked as a visual effects assistant on the original series from 1985 to 1989. Though it was not the Doctor Who debut for visual effects company, The Mill — that had actually come on The Curse of Fatal Death — it did feature the premiere of their title sequence. (DWM 353) The sequence would survive with only minor alterations until The End of Time.
Narratively, it portrayed the Nestene Consciousness and Autons for the first time on television since Terror of the Autons in 1971. It also introduced a new recurring element in the form of the Shadow Proclamation, contained the first reference to the Last Great Time War, and introduced elements about Rose's character that would be directly referenced in later episodes.
Unusually, the introduction of the Ninth Doctor in no way explained how this incarnation had come to be, and failed to explain much of anything about who the Doctor was. Indeed, Rose started a mild story arc surrounding the mystery — from Rose's perspective — about the Doctor's identity. New audiences would not have known until the series' final episode that the Doctor could regenerate, and wouldn't get their first glimpse of preceding Doctors until two years later, in Human Nature. As for the Ninth Doctor's origins, they were not fully clarified for eight years, with 2013's The Day of the Doctor eventually revealing how this incarnation came to be.
As the global Doctor Who: Lockdown! watch-along event created by Doctor Who Magazine's Emily Cook continued with a watch-along of this story on 26 March 2020, Davies returned to the writing stool to create new content, both releasing a previously withheld 2013 short story Doctor Who and the Time War, which depicted an alternate account to the origin of this incarnation of the Doctor than what was later revealed, and a sequel entitled Revenge of the Nestene, which Russell T Davies placed as Chapter 21 of his 2018 novelisation.
The Beast Below was the second episode of series 4 of Doctor Who.
It was notable for featuring Amy Pond's first trip in the TARDIS. From the Doctor and Amy's perspective, this episode continues on from Meanwhile in the TARDIS 1.
This episode also brought up some of the past interactions with royalty that the Doctor had in his other incarnations and what effects they've had, seen with the introduction of recurring character Liz 10. Apparently, the Doctor had become well-known by the 21st century; he is accepted enough to the point where he can park his TARDIS in the Queen's garden.
Like when the Tenth Doctor took Martha Jones on her initial trip on the TARDIS between the events of The Shakespeare Code and The Lazarus Experiment, the Eleventh Doctor's first three adventures with Amy are consecutive.
This episode was the first time that the Doctor's "promise" to himself was mentioned. As he could only see a horrible compromise as the only way to make things right, the Doctor stated that he wouldn't be worthy of the title he chose, which means "never cowardly, or cruel; never give up, never give in".
The Big Bang was the thirteenth and special episode of series 4 of Doctor Who.
It concluded many aspects of the story begun in The Eleventh Hour — most obviously by marrying Amy and Rory and by seemingly closing the cracks in time — but it left the audience wondering what "the Silence" was and why it wanted the TARDIS to explode.
The series 5 finale kickstarted several overarching stories that would foreshadow major conflicts yet to ensnare the Doctor. While the identity of the Silence was a major topic explored in series 6, the question of why they wanted to blow the TARDIS up remained what the Eleventh Doctor called "a good question for another day" until the 2013 Christmas Special The Time of the Doctor answered it, while the mention of "an Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express in space" at the episode's end would later be picked up again in the series 8 episode Mummy on the Orient Express.
The Big Bang had an impact upon Torchwood as well, allowing it to, at least in Russell T Davies' mind, escape the confines of Cardiff. He said that closing the cracks in time also resulted in the closing of the Cardiff Rift.[2] Although Davies did not explicitly make this point in his subsequent Torchwood: Miracle Day scripts, neither did he allow the Rift to be central to that series, as it had been to previous Torchwood outings.
It was the final story for production designer Ed Thomas.
In February 2013, Steven Moffat revealed that The Big Bang was likely his personal favourite of all the Doctor Who scripts he had written. He further revealed that the title was deliberate sexual innuendo, and referred to what happened just after the credits rolled. Though contemporary Bang viewers wouldn't have known it, TV: A Good Man Goes to War would later explain that River Song was conceived within minutes of the conclusion of the episode. Moffat therefore claimed that the story had "a filthy joke in the title only I knew about at the time".[3]
The Time of the Doctor was the 2012 Christmas Special of Doctor Who. It was Matt Smith's final regular appearance as the series lead, but unusually it did not formally introduce his successor, since Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor had already been seen in the previous episode.
The show's 800th episode — and the last produced by Marcus Wilson — it served as a conclusion to the entirety of the Smith era. It especially tried to give final relevance to the Silence, the cracks in time, Trenzalore and the salvation of Gallifrey. As such, it was a unique attempt at narrative conclusion for storylines running through the entirety of a particular incarnation's tenure. It also significantly aged the Doctor, establishing that the Eleventh Doctor had lived much longer than any other incarnation.
But it was especially important to the history of the programme because it addressed an issue that hadn't been talked about in the series since its return in 2005: the limited amount of regenerations in a Time Lord's regeneration cycle. This episode confirmed that the Tenth Doctor's aborted regeneration in Journey's End did indeed use up a whole regeneration, and with the retroactive introduction of the War Doctor in between their Eighth and Ninth incarnations this meant that the Doctor had no more regenerations left, leaving the Eleventh Doctor as the thirteenth and final incarnation in his regeneration cycle. However, the Doctor is granted a brand new regeneration cycle at the end of the story, drastically altering his fate. This is not only the first time that a new regeneration cycle has been given on screen but the depiction of a new regeneration cycle ensured that the programme would be able to continue and keep casting new actors in the role for potentially decades.
The necessity for this had previously been unclear. Some early episodes of the show had suggested the Doctor's lifespan was practically infinite. Even Matt Smith's Doctor seemed to hint at this possibility in an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. But other stories, starting with The Deadly Assassin, set the limit to thirteen lives. Time was the first episode of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales to choose a side, confirming that a "regeneration cycle" indeed consisted of just thirteen incarnations.
The only way to do this, however, was to change some other continuity. From one perspective, getting the Eleventh Doctor to the magic number thirteen meant that no BBC Wales incarnation could technically be the number under which they were marketed. This had already been the case once The Night of the Doctor definitively showed the Eighth Doctor regenerating into the War Doctor. Time, however, incremented the number again, explicitly stating, as mentioned above, that the aborted regeneration shown at the conclusion of The Stolen Earth and the beginning of Journey's End "counted". This made the "Eleventh Doctor" the thirteenth life.
Nevertheless, writer Steven Moffat said in DWM 467 that the BBC marketing was also narratively correct: "I've been really, really quite careful about the numbering of the Doctors ... It's not a matter of counting the regenerations, but of counting the faces of the Time Lord that calls himself the Doctor."
Deep Breath was the special episode of series 7 of Doctor Who. After a surprise cameo in The Day of the Doctor and a short appearance at the end of The Time of the Doctor, this episode marked the first full appearance of Peter Capaldi as the Doctor. Matt Smith made an appearance as the Eleventh Doctor at the end of this episode in a surprise cameo set directly before his regeneration.
The episode also introduced Missy, a character whose motives and true identity would remain a mystery until Dark Water, and Courtney Woods, a mischief-making Coal Hill student.
Following the success of the theatrical simulcast of The Day of the Doctor, this premiere episode also received a release in cinemas across the world. It had an extended runtime of seventy-six minutes.
Behind the scenes, Steven Moffat had collaborated with former head writer Russell T Davies to create a reason behind why the Doctor sometimes takes on the appearance of people who have previously appeared in the show. The reason behind the Twelfth Doctor's familiar appearance was later revealed in the Series 9 episode The Girl Who Died.
Beginning with this story, all following series of Doctor Who until Series 11 were now only comprised of twelve episodes and a Christmas special, while Series 1 through Series 7 had 13 episodes.
The Husbands of River Song was the 2014 Christmas Special of Doctor Who. It was the show's eleventh Christmas special since its revival and the second Christmas special starring Peter Capaldi as the Doctor.
It was noteworthy for closing the book on River Song's timeline that began with her debut in 2008 with Silence in the Library. It also showed the Twelfth Doctor's first encounter with River. For River, this was the final adventure with the Doctor before she met her demise in Forest of the Dead. This episode also showed the Doctor turning up on River's doorstep with a new haircut and a suit, their night on Darillium to see the Singing Towers, and the Doctor giving River his sonic screwdriver, all of which had been previously mentioned by River in Forest of the Dead.
The story also introduced River's servant Nardole, whom the Doctor would reconstruct a new body for prior to The Return of Doctor Mysterio and become his companion. The story would also introduce the Shoal of the Winter Harmony.
The Return of Doctor Mysterio was the 2015 Christmas Special of Doctor Who. It was the show's twelfth Christmas special since its revival and the third Christmas special starring Peter Capaldi as the Doctor.
It saw the return of Nardole from the previous Christmas special, this time as the Doctor's companion. The circumstances leading to Nardole's return were not explained until 2017's Extremis. Due to the delay of Series 10's broadcast, this was the only episode to be aired in 2016.
Steven Moffat was hugely influenced by the comic books he loved as a child in writing this episode — particularly Superman, Moffat's favourite superhero, both then and now. By his own account, he took particular inspiration from the Christopher Reeve Superman films of the 1970s and 1980s. Though clearly humorous in tone, The Return of Doctor Mysterio explores many common superhero themes, such as the hero's secret identity, his origin story, and a love triangle involving both the hero and the man behind the mask.
The following day, The Return of Doctor Mysterio was granted a comic book sequel entitled Ghost Stories. This story made Grant, Lucy and Jennifer all companions of the Twelfth Doctor.
Synopsis
Rose Tyler believes she is living another day of her "ordinary" life, but after being threatened by Autons (living plastic) controlled by the Nestene Consciousness, she meets the Ninth Doctor.
Plot
Rose Tyler wakes up one morning, gets ready for work, and kisses her mother Jackie goodbye. She gets the bus to Henrik's, the department store where she works. In the evening, as the store nears closing time, Rose is about to walk home when she is stopped by a security guard who is holding the lottery winnings for Wilson, the chief electrician. She goes to the basement in search of him, but Wilson is nowhere to be found. She enters a large storage room and is disturbed to see a group of moving shop window mannequins that soon surround her and raise their arms to kill her. All of a sudden, a man takes hold of her hand and tells her to "run!"
She quickly obliges, and they both run to a lift whilst being pursued by the mannequins. Before the doors can close, one of the Autons reaches for them, but the man quickly pulls its arm off before it can do them any harm. On the way up, he informs Rose that Wilson's dead. When they arrive at ground level, the man holds up a bomb and tells Rose that he plans to destroy a relay device to stop the Autons. He offers a quick introduction — he is the Doctor — and tells her to run for her life.
Rose heeds his advice, and runs from the vicinity, carrying the plastic arm with her. Once she's at a safe distance, she watches in shock as Henrik's explodes in a huge ball of flame. Rose then flees away past a strange blue box. She returns home, and her boyfriend Mickey Smith comes in to check she's okay. He eventually leaves to watch football, and is asked to take the arm with him. He throws the plastic piece into one of the bins outside.
The next morning, Rose awakens, before realising that she no longer has a job to go to. Walking around the house, she suddenly hears a scratching noise from the cat flap. She assumes her mother hasn't screwed it shut, and that it's a stray cat.
She opens it up to find the Doctor; he tells her he's been tracing a signal from the plastic arm. Rose invites him in. While Rose is making the coffee, he explores the room, and looks in the mirror and is stunned by the size of his ears, implying he has recently regenerated. He peers behind the sofa and is attacked by the arm. Rose notices the strangulation, but ignores it, thinking it a jest — that is until it lets go and flies towards her. Thankfully, the Doctor manages to deactivate the Auton arm with his sonic screwdriver, though not after much damage has occurred. He throws the piece at her, and hastily rushes out.
Rose runs down the stairs to chase after him, demanding to know what's going on. He tells her that the living plastic is here to start a war that would overthrow and destroy the human race so that they can claim the Earth as their own. The Doctor then departs in a mysterious blue box in the car park, ordering her to forget about him. Rose turns away for a second; when she looks back, both he and the box are gone.
Rose cannot let go, and decides to use Mickey's computer. She tries different keywords on search-wise.net, (just "doctor" makes medical results, and "doctor living plastic" makes art results) eventually settling on "doctor blue box". She follows a link to whoisdoctorwho.co.uk, a website owned by a conspiracy theorist named Clive. Mickey drives her to the man's house, where she is invited in by his son. Out in his shed, Clive shows her images from many points in Earth's past, including the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the sinking of the Titanic and the explosion of Krakatoa. All the pictures he shows her feature the Doctor. He goes through the facts: "the Doctor is a legend woven throughout history; when disaster comes, he's there." Clive states that he believes the Doctor is an immortal alien. He tells her he is dangerous, and that he has only one constant companion: death.
Meanwhile, Mickey is keeping an eye on the house from his car. He suddenly gets distracted by a bin wheeling forwards on its own. He gets out of the car and opens the bin, expecting to see someone playing a joke. He surprisingly finds it completely empty. As he tries to close the lid, he finds that it's stuck to his hands. The plastic merely stretches as he tries to pull away. After a few attempts at breaking free, the bin suddenly tosses him into the air and swallows him whole.
Sometime later, Rose returns to the car, convinced that she's wasted her time, that this man really is just a conspiracy nutter. They decide to go for pizza. What she doesn't realise is that her Mickey has been swapped, replaced by a shiny, plastic duplicate...
The two arrive at the restaurant and plastic Mickey starts to grill Rose about the Doctor. Rose is disturbed by Mickey's speech patterns, speaking as if he is somehow malfunctioning. They are interrupted twice by the offer of champagne. Mickey finally looks up, only to find the Doctor holding the bottle. The Doctor fires the cork at Mickey's forehead, but it moulds into his plastic skull, and simply makes its way down to his mouth, where he spits it out. His hands morph into paddles, and he begins attacking all those around him. There is a brief struggle until the Doctor pulls his head off, but it simply tells him not to expect it to stop him (causing a man at the next table to scream in horror). Rose hits the fire alarm, and, while the others evacuate, the Doctor and Rose are chased out of the building by a now-headless Mickey, who flips over tables in the process.
They escape to the back courtyard, and the Doctor enters his little blue box. With nowhere to go, Rose follows him inside at the last second. The second she enters, though, she rushes back outside, thinking she has just gone mad. The inside of the box is bigger than the outside! The Doctor explains that his blue box is called the TARDIS, and that both it and he are alien. Though Rose is convinced that the headless dummy will follow them inside, the Doctor reassures her by stating that the assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door... and according to him, they've tried.
As the Doctor wires Mickey's head to the console, Rose wonders if the real Mickey is dead; the Doctor didn't even consider this. The couple's conversation is cut short when Rose points out that the head is melting; he had hoped to use it to track down the Nestene Consciousness — the entity controlling the Autons. He still manages to follow a trace of the signal, but the head is completely melted before they can find the precise location of the Consciousness. They land somewhere nearby their destination, by the edge of the River Thames. Rose is shocked to learn that they have moved.
The Doctor explains that he needs to find a transmitter of some kind, very big and round. He figures it must be "completely invisible", but Rose identifies it instantly: the London Eye would be the perfect transmitter for the Nestene. The two run together across Westminster Bridge, and Rose quickly finds an entrance to an underground base beneath the Eye.
Rose immediately notices Mickey when they enter and runs down to him; the Doctor rolls his eyes. The Doctor tries to reason with the Nestene, but the Consciousness has two of its Autons capture him when it detects the presence of the TARDIS, which it identifies as terrifyingly superior technology. They discover a vial of anti-plastic in his pocket — which he had intended to use only as a last resort.
The Nestene confronts his Time Lord enemy about its lost planet. He responds, "I couldn't save your world. I couldn't save any of them!" Terrified, it decides to start the invasion ahead of schedule.
Rose calls her mother to get her to go home to safety. Jackie doesn't hear, though, and continues into the Queen's Arcade mall for some late-night shopping. Much to her surprise, the shop-window dummies come to life, breaking through the windows as the bemused shoppers stare at them. Clive, who remarks that everything he read about was true, is confronted by an Auton who detaches its hand and presumably shoots him dead in front of his wife and son. Panic ensues as the Autons start blasting and shoppers scatter in all directions.
Below the London Eye, Rose decides to take some initiative. She breaks free one of the chains on the wall with an axe, and swings down to the Autons, both freeing the Doctor and pushing the Autons, along with the anti-plastic, into the vat containing the Nestene Consciousness. The vial leaks and the Nestene Consciousness dies in pain.
Back in the mall, Jackie runs outside to behold utter chaos: Autons are everywhere, bodies litter the ground, people run in all directions and a double-decker bus at the end of the street has crashed into a post-box and burst into flames. A black cab goes past honking its horn, only to get its rear windscreen shattered by a bullet. Jackie takes cover behind the car, as three bride Autons crash through the window behind her. Suddenly, when they are just about to shoot her dead, the transmitter shuts down and all the Autons return to lifeless mannequins again. Underneath the London Eye, the Nestene's base starts to collapse and explode. The Doctor, Mickey and Rose board the TARDIS and, just in time, escape a huge explosion. Jackie looks around at the chaos, as shell-shocked survivors struggle to come to terms with what has happened.
With the Earth saved, the Doctor suggests Rose join him on his adventures; they can go anywhere in the whole universe. Mickey, however, is not invited. Rose, much to his disappointment, refuses. He bids her farewell and leaves. Rose almost instantly regrets her decision but carries on getting a terrified Mickey back home.
As she leaves, though, she hears the TARDIS reappear in front of her. The Doctor emerges to tell Rose that the TARDIS can also travel in time. Without much thought, she kisses her boyfriend goodbye and runs straight into the TARDIS, to start her adventures in time and space.
Cast
- The Doctor Who - Christopher Eccleston
- The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
- The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
- The Doctor - Matt Smith
- Clara - Jenna Coleman
- Madame Vastra - Neve McIntosh
- Jenny Flint - Catrin Stewart
- Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
- Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
- Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
- Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri
- River Song - Alex Kingston
- Rory - Arthur Darvill
- Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke[4]
- Clive - Mark Benton
- Caroline - Elli Garnett
- Clive's Son - Adam McCoy
- Autons - Alan Ruscoe, Paul Kasey, David Sant, Elizabeth Fost, Helen Otway
- Nestene Voice - Nicholas Briggs
- Liz 10 - Sophie Okonedo
- Hawthorne - Terrence Hardiman
- Mandy - Hannah Sharp
- Timmy - Alfie Field
- Morgan - Christopher Good
- Peter - David Ajala
- Poem girl - Catrin Richards
- Winder - Jonathan Battersby
- Churchill - Ian McNeice
- Amelia - Caitlin Blackwood
- Aunt Sharon - Susan Vidler
- Christine - Frances Ashman
- Stone Dalek - Barnaby Edwards
- Dave - William Pretsell
- Mr Pond - Halcro Johnston
- Tabetha - Karen Westwood
- Dalek voice - Nicholas Briggs
- Inspector Gregson - Paul Hickey
- Alf - Tony Way
- Elsie - Maggie Service
- Cabbie - Mark Kempner
- Barney - Brian Miller
- Waiter - Graham Duff
- Courtney - Ellis George
- Policeman - Peter Hannah
- Footman - Paul Kasey
- Grant - Justin Chatwin
- The Ghost - Justin Chatwin
- Lucy - Charity Wakefield
- Mr Brock - Tomiwa Edun
- Dr Sim - Aleksandar Jovanovic
- Young Grant - Logan Hoffman
- Teen Grant - Daniel Lorente
- Reporter - Sandra Teles
- Operator - Tanroh Ishida
- Soldier - Vaughn Johseph
- Mr Huffle - Mr Huffle
Crew
| Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young |
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| Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources. |
Uncredited crew
Covers
DVD releases
Series 1: Volume 1
Region 1 US cover
Region 2 UK cover
Region 2 Netherlands cover
Region 2 Japanese cover
Region 2 Portuguese cover
Region 4 Australian cover
Region 5 Russian cover
UMD releases
Series 1: Volume 1
Region 2 UK cover
Home video releases
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- BBC Video - Doctor Who Series Five - Volume One was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 7 June 2010 (UK only), featuring The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, Victory of the Daleks, and the featurette The Monster Diaries.[6]
- The complete Series 5 boxset was later released on 8 November 2010.
External links
- BBC - Doctor Who - Episode Guide - Rose
- Rose at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- Rose at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Rose at The Whoniverse
- Rose at The Locations Guide
- Christopher Stilson's Rose novelisation (fan-made)
In-universe
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Footnotes
- ↑ Final ratings - Doctor Who news
- ↑ Berriman. Ian. "RTD on Torchwood". SFX #199. July 2010.
- ↑ Ed Stradling (20 February 2013). Gallifrey One 2013 - Steven Moffat interview. YouTube. Retrieved on 20 February 2013.
- ↑ Clarke also plays an Auton duplicate of Mickey.
- ↑ Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013: Time of the Doctor. Milk VFX. Retrieved on 18 October 2018.
- ↑ Doctor Who News Page - Matt Smith First DVD Release Date, accessed 3rd March 2010
