Rose Tyler

Rose Tyler, originally a shop assistant from London, was the first known companion of the Ninth Doctor. After she witnessed his regeneration into the Tenth Doctor, she continued to serve as the Doctor's companion before she became trapped in an alternate world.

History
Rose Tyler was born to Jackie and Pete Tyler in 1986. ("The Unquiet Dead")


 * Rose's age is said to be 19 in "The Unquiet Dead", although her birthdate is not so clearly established in that episode nor in any other. For information about discrepancies involving Rose's date of birth as given in extended universe sources, see the Mysteries and Discrepancies section below.

Rose was only a baby when, on 7 November, 1987, her father, Pete, died in a car accident. Although she was too young to remember the incident or any other events from that year, her mother, Jackie, later told Rose the story of how Pete Tyler had died alone after having collided with a hit and run driver whose identity had never been determined. ("Father's Day")


 * The shooting script of "Father's Year" gives 1992 as the year that Jackie tells Rose about Pete's death, also mentioning that Rose is "about six years old" at the time. The episode itself gives no indication as to the timing of Rose being told the story.

Rose attended the Jericho Street Junior School, where she was a member of the under-sevens gymnastic team, and she later won the bronze medal in a school gymnastics competition. However, she ultimately left school without taking her A-levels.

By the time she was 19, Rose had started working as a shop assistant at Henrik's department store in Regent Street, London. She had a boyfriend named Mickey Smith and lived in a council flat with her mother, Jackie. ("Rose")

One night after Henrik's department store closed, Rose encountered mannequins coming to life in the basement of the shop building. These Autons were about to dispose of her when the Doctor saved her life, although he went on to destroy the building and her job in the process. She aided the Doctor in tracking down the hiding place of the Nestene Consciousness that was animating the Autons and subsequently helped defeat its plans of world conquest. She then joined the Doctor on his travels in the TARDIS ("Rose").

In her travels with the Doctor, Rose has (among other things) seen the end of the world, encountered the Doctor's oldest enemy and learned about the consequences of tampering with history. The Doctor even modifed her Nokia 3200 mobile phone to be able to communicate across time and space, among other functions. She has nicknamed it the "Superphone".

During her time with the Doctor, the words "Bad Wolf" followed the Doctor and Rose around, the phrase being scattered like clues through the places that they visited. Eventually, it was revealed that Rose was the Bad Wolf &mdash; the words were a message that she had left to herself in time and space when she absorbed the energies of the time vortex to save the Doctor and the Earth from the Daleks. The Doctor had just sent her home to place her out of harm's way, but "Bad Wolf" was a reminder that it was possible to get back to him. This led her to the point where she would absorb the energies, creating a predestination paradox and making it possible not just to destroy the Daleks but to leave those clues.

However, the energies she absorbed were destroying her body. The Doctor took those energies into himself, sacrificing his ninth incarnation and regenerating before Rose's eyes into the Tenth Doctor ("The Parting of the Ways").

Personality
Rose has shown herself to be a quick-witted, inquisitive and compassionate young woman, who despite the strange events she was thrown into was quick to adapt to them. 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 denies any infatuation with or romantic feelings towards him, despite indications to the contrary on several occasions. In Doomsday, 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.

The Expanded Universe
Rose and Jackie lived in (Flat 48, Bucknall House, Powell Estate, London, SE15 7GO). Jackie supported them by working from home as a hairdresser and, prior to Rose meeting the Doctor, her only travelling experience was a school trip to France and an annual week's holiday to South Wales with her mother ("Doctor Who Annual 2006").

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 well in her GCSE exams, she left school to live with a 20 year-old musician, Jimmy Stone, but the affair ended in tears and with Rose £800 in debt. She subsequently returned to Jackie and Mickey, and her mother called in a favour from an ex-boyfriend to get her the job at Henrik's.

Mysteries and Discrepancies
The Doctor states that Rose is nineteen years old, ("The Unquiet Dead"), and it is later established that she met the Doctor on 6 March 2005 ("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, 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 27 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.