Rose (novelisation)

Rose was a novelisation based on the 2005 television episode Rose, written by Russell T Davies. It was the first release under the Target Books banner since The Paradise of Death in 1994.

In 2020, Davies released a 21st chapter, following on from page 197, where this novelisation ends. This was entitled Revenge of the Nestene, and released independently through Davies' Instagram as part of a COVID-19 crisis Doctor Who: Lockdown! event, celebrating the 15th anniversary of the television episode.

Publisher's summary
Meet the new Doctor Who classics.

“Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!”

In a lair somewhere beneath central London, a malevolent alien intelligence is plotting the end of humanity. Shop window dummies that can move – and kill – are taking up key positions, ready to strike.

Rose Tyler, an ordinary Londoner, is working her shift in a department store, unaware that this is the most important day of her life. She's about to meet the only man who understands the true nature of the threat facing Earth, a stranger who will open her eyes to all the wonder and terror of the universe – a traveller in time and space known as the Doctor.

Deviations from televised story

 * H.P. Wilson is renamed to Bernard Wilson, while his position at Henrik's is Senior Caretaker instead of Chief Electrical Officer.
 * Rose is recalling these events from Bad Wolf Bay.
 * The novelisation includes the scene from the end of the television story The End of Time where the Tenth Doctor visits Rose Tyler right before his regeneration.
 * Mickey's mother, named Odessa, father, and grandmother are expanded upon. Three of Mickey's mates live in his flat and they form the Bad Wolf band. One is a trans woman named Sally Salter, the others are two young men named Mook and Patrique who are attracted to each other.
 * Clive shows Rose pictures of incarnations other than the Ninth Doctor: He seems to know the first thirteen known incarnations of the Doctor, except the War Doctor. Rose was distracted when being shown pictures of "a man with two suits, brown and blue". The shown Doctors include
 * "an old man with white hair and a black cape"
 * "a little man with a Beatles mop of hair"
 * "a man with a fabulous grey bouffant with a hovercraft
 * a "man in [a] long scarf", by the Thames next to the Loch Ness Monster;
 * "a rather hot blond man at Heathrow Airport;
 * "a curly-haired man [...] dressed as a picnic";
 * "a short man with an umbrella";
 * "a dashing, Byronic man" at an atomic clock opening;
 * "a man with a fantastic jaw, dressed in a tweed jacket and bow tie";
 * "an older, angry man in a brown caretaker's coat, holding a mop", as well as;
 * a photo of "a blonde woman in braces running away from a giant frog in front of Buckingham Palace".
 * He has photos of them in folders in incarnation order, seeing that the Ninth Doctor was in a box-file labeled "09". He also has two pictures of possible Doctors, including "a tall, bald black woman wielding a flaming sword" and "a young girl or boy in a hi-tech wheelchair with what looked like a robot dog at their side".
 * Clive explains to Rose that his father was present during the Shoreditch Incident of 1963. It is revealed that he was exterminated by an Imperial Dalek when Clive was two years of age. This led Clive to begin his research into 'the Doctor'. Rose empathises with him and explains that her own father died when she was six months old.
 * However, according to The Persistence of Memory, Clive was 14 in 1979, meaning he was born in 1965, two years after he claimed his father had died and four years after he claimed he was born.
 * The original broadcast contained an unintended error where TV presenter Graham Norton's voice was heard over a scene. This is included in the narrative with his voice being heard on a radio in the background.
 * The Auton invasion is more gruesome, and includes decapitations, where the Autons form their hands into sharp blades.
 * The Doctor blows up Henrik's because the building is infested with plastic.
 * There is no mention of Rose passing the TARDIS after the Henrik's explosion.
 * Jackie walks in on the Doctor and Rose in a compromising position after their encounter with the Auton arm.
 * The Doctor wonders why he's never been ginger while examining his reflection, a disappointment which will carry onto his immediate successors.
 * Clive has two sons, Ben and Michael, instead of the one unnamed son on screen.
 * Rose tells Mickey that Clive is helping her with her compensation.
 * Clive tells Rose a theory that people's memories of alien encounters have been wiped by cracks in time, presaging the revelations in Series 5.
 * Mickey lets the Nestene-controlled wheelie bin out through a gate.
 * The duplicate of Mickey threatens to kill the people in the restaurant if Rose doesn't tell him about the Doctor.
 * The duplicate of Mickey has one of his eyes pop out of his head during dinner with Rose.
 * The Doctor names the Autons to Rose; on screen, the name is only used in the closing credits.
 * The Doctor and Rose encounter a group of Autons posing as statue people near the river.
 * The Doctor tells Rose that the Time War rewrote the Nestene's history so it is now made of plastic instead of just controlling it.
 * Rose notices the cut the Doctor got when the table smashed has disappeared and he says twelve weeks have passed for him. During that time he has fought a pterodactyl.
 * The Doctor tries to convince the Nestene to colonise an empty planet.
 * The first Mickey that Rose finds in the Nestene lair is another duplicate, whom she lets slip about the anti-plastic to, ending the Doctor's negotiations.
 * Instead of saying he fought in the war, the Doctor says he tried to stop it.
 * Since the novelisation states Mickey's mother committed suicide, instead of saying she'll have to tell his mother he's dead, Rose says she'll have to tell his friends, his uncle and the kids from the estate.
 * Clive deliberately slows the Autons down so his family can escape.
 * The Auton massacre is told from the point of view of several victims, including Rose's old boyfriend Jimmy Stone who is robbing his current girlfriend when he is killed.
 * Donna has a cameo appearance sleeping through the Auton massacre.
 * Rose speaks to Jackie on the phone after the massacre instead of hanging up when she answers.
 * The Doctor shows Rose and Mickey the view outside the TARDIS doors.
 * Rose is less dismissive of Mickey at the end, with their conversation ending after her "Thank you."
 * The security guard that hands Rose the lottery money is given a name, Lee Lin.

Audiobook
This story was released on 21 June 2018 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Camille Coduri.