The Stone Rose (novel)

The Stone Rose is a BBC Books original novel written by Jacqueline Rayner, and features the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler.

Summary
Rose, Jackie, and the Doctor visit the British Museum where Mickey has discovered a statue of the goddess Fortuna from second century Rome, which looks exactly like Rose. So the Doctor and Rose head off for Rome.

The TARDIS brings them to AD 120. Rose and the Doctor save an elderly man named Gracilis from muggers. They learn that he is looking for his son, Optatus. A few people overhear his converstation with the Doctor and Rose and recommend a slave girl named 'Vanessa' and when she is told what Gracilis wants, she starts to work calculations on a bit of parchment. After some discussion, Gracilis buys her from her 'owner'. The next morning, the Doctor and Rose see the new statue of Optatus. The sculptor is an unpleasant person named Ursus, Ursus invites Rose to come to his workshop the next day to be a model for a statue of a goddess.

Later, Rose goes to find Vanessa, who is with Marcia. Marcia tells them that she has known Ursus since he was a child, but that ten months ago his statues started appearing in temples. The Doctor comes bounding in to tell them what he has discovered. Prior to his disappearance, Optatus had been visiting Ursus for a couple of weeks. The impression that he had was that the statue was still in the planning stages and then Ursus states that statue was almost done.

Vanessa wakes Rose the next morning to get ready for her modeling appointment; Vanessa is prevented from accompanying her, but remains watching outside. Rose feels herself nodding off, then realizes that she cannot move as Ursus removes his gloves and touches Rose...

The Doctor goes to the studio and tackles Ursus, Vanessa comes up with a bronze lamp, but hits the Doctor by mistake. When he awakes, the Doctor tells Vanessa that he thinks she knows more than she is telling, because she knows of an unbuilt wall dividing two countries that do not yet exist. She starts to talk, and admits to being scared for a long time, since she first arrived in Rome.

Vanessa and the Doctor go into the workshop, but there is nothing there and the Doctor believes that the statue was Rose herself. The Doctor returns to the villa, asking Gracilis for help. The Doctor arrives in Rome on the 19th, which is Quinquatrus. He begins checking temples, starting with Minerva's, and asking about statues made by Ursus. He spends all day searching, and as evening approaches, he enters another shrine to Fortuna, and find a statue who shares the pose, but isn't Rose. The Doctor comments "Rose is prettier than you." and is surprised to hear the statue reply "Thanks." As he starts forward, a glass phial of green liquid rolls from behind the statue to his feet, and the voice says it will bring back Rose and all the others. The Doctor steps forward again, but is interrupted by Gracilis who shouts a warning. Unfortunately, thee Doctor is dragged away and he drops the phial.

The Doctor is taken to the Flavian Amphitheatre, thrown into the dungeon, and had his sonic screwdriver taken away. The Doctor is awake all night, and the guards come in the morning to tell him he is being set free. On the way, he grabs his sonic screwdriver and he meets up with Gracilis again once outside, and they go back to Fortuna's temple. The phial is not there, but Gracilis had picked it up last visit. The two of them go looking for statues done by Ursus, and find Tiro first. After bringing him back to life, they begin scouring Rome for the rest, using Gracilis's art contacts to help in their search. Gracilis arranges transport for all of the slaves, plus the TARDIS. They arrive back at the villa, and bring Optatus back to life.

The Doctor is wondering how he is going to ever find Rose, and then decides to go back to the museum in 21st century London. He lands the TARDIS inside and finds Mickey there. Mickey states that "Whoever made this must have really known her." The Doctor tells Mickey that the statue isn't of Rose, but is Rose. Mickey gets mad at the Doctor, and they decide it's best to bring her back, but nothing happens when the liquid pours on her. His hand brushes her face, and then he runs back to the TARDIS. He returns with Rose's denim jacket, and shook out her earring. Meaning that Rose is only wearing one earring. The statue, however, is wearing two, so it can't be her. He runs back to the TARDIS and leaves.

Rose wakes up with the Doctor grinning in front of her. Vanessa arrives, The Doctor again asks how Vanessa got to Rome, and she says her father worked in AI (Artificial Intelligence). Vanessa was watching a vidcast on Rome in her father's study, with a box sitting on the desk. And she remembered herself saying that she wished she lived back then, and then she was here.

The three of them come in to Ursus' workshop and while speaking to Ursus and the goddess, the Doctor figures something out. He says to Minerva "I wish I could see what you really look like." and Rose spies a creature in a box that looks like a cross between a dragon and a platypus. Ursus in fury, lunges at the Doctor with a knife, but Ursus touches Vanessa (turning her to stone), and Rose jumps on Ursus' back. She knocks him down and he falls on his own dagger, but the Doctor was also turned to stone during the chaos. Rose wishes that he had never come to Rome, and then The Doctor had vanished.

Rose talks to the creature in the box, and is told that it is a GENIE (Genetically Engineered Neural Imagination Engine). Its purpose is to grant all wishes it hears. Rose realizes what has been happening and as a test, makes a very careful wish for chips. She then wishes for the phial to be refilled, and brings Vanessa back. Vanessa asks if the GENIE can return her home, but the GENIE says there isn't enough energy available. Soon, Rose wishes for herself and Vanessa to be safe.

Safe turns out to be a white nothingness. However, during her time in the white nothingness, Rose works out that if she said the words "I wish you'd never come here." then the Doctor would have never come to Rome and he wouldn't have took to Rome so she wouldn't have been there to make the wish and she wouldn't be in Rome after she made the wish. So, Rose wishes that she and Vanessa were back in the temple and they could see everything as it really is. The world reappears, and Rose sees the figure of The Doctor, who explains about the GENIEs, how they became a problem for Earth and that time was re-written to save the Earth, resulting in all the GENIEs expect Vanessa's one to have never existed.

They take the TARDIS from the villa, and arrive in Fortuna's shrine. The Doctor gives Rose the phial and a metal device to talk through. She hides behind the statue, and sees the Doctor coming in. She rolls the phial out to him, and then watches his arrest by Rufus. Gracilis sees the phail, picks it up and walks away. The Doctor and Rose then take Vanessa home, but are having trouble deciding what to do with the GENIE. Rose tells the GENIE is a slave, and if it is set free, it would be able to fulfill wishes if it wanted to. Rose wishes it free, and the GENIE disappears.

They are getting ready to head home themselves, when Rose realizes there is a problem because her Fortuna statue was never made. However, The Doctor says he made the statue that appeared in the 21st century museum, because he went to the Renaissance and took a sculpting course with Michelangelo. They make one final trip to the villa, and gave the statue to Gracilis and Marcia, to take the place of the statue of Optatus.

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Rose Tyler
 * Mickey Smith
 * Jackie Tyler
 * Gnaeus Fabius Gracilis
 * GENIE
 * Marcia
 * Ursus
 * Vanessa

Continuity
At one point in the story, both the TARDIS and the Doctor are in two places at one time, which means he crossed his own timeline, something he said he couldn't do in (amongst others) "The Girl in the Fireplace" and "The Parting of the Ways". This causes him to take great care 'for the purposes of not destroying the time lines'. He does not allow his earlier self to see his later self (perhaps due to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect), care which does not seem to be needed when meeting earlier incarnations of himself (such as in The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, The Two Doctors and "Time Crash").

Timeline

 * This story occurs after DWM: Interstellar Overdrive
 * This story occurs before NSA: The Feast of the Drowned

Audio release

 * The story was released as an audiobook on 2x CD read by David Tennant