Bad Wolf meme



“Bad Wolf” was a repeated meme throughout Rose Tyler’s travels with the Doctor through space and time, mostly throughout her travels with his ninth incarnation, but partly throughout her travels with his tenth one also.

Ninth Doctor’s era
The phrase was most commonly found in graffiti during the 20th and 21st centuries (DW: Aliens of London, Father's Day, The Parting of the Ways), but the first chronological occurance was in 1869, in which Gwyneth, a parlour maid and clairvoyant, looked into Rose's mind and declared that she had seen “The Big Bad Wolf”. (DW: The Unquiet Dead)

However, the first occurance of the phrase in the Doctor’s and Rose’s timestream was in the year 5,000,000,000 on Platform One orbiting the soon-to-be-destroyed Earth, in which the Moxx of Balhoon told the Face of Boe that the current situation was “the classic Bad Wolf scenario”. (DW: The End of the World)

It was also found in other languages - it was used in relation to a Nazi bomb used in World War II, the “Schlechter Wolf” (DW: The Doctor Dances), and to a nuclear power station, built in September 2006, the “Blaidd Drwg” power station. (DW: Boom Town)

Side note: “Bad Wolf” in German is “Böser Wolf”, e.g. a common figure in fables (Brothers Grimm).

Many companies also used the phrase “Bad Wolf”, such as GeoComTex, who used it as their helicopter call signs, for example Henry van Statten’s private helicopter was “Bad Wolf One”. (DW: Dalek)

The phrase became more common in the years 199,909 to 200,100, in which the Dalek-controlled Bad Wolf Corporation and the television channel “Bad Wolf TV” made use of the phrase. (DW: The Long Game, Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways)

It was later shown that, to save the Doctor’s life, Rose Tyler had opened the Doctor’s TARDIS, looked into its heart, and become the Bad Wolf. She had then used her seemingly unlimited reality-warping powers to destroy the Dalek Imperial Fleet and spread the Bad Wolf clues throughout space and time, so she would eventually realise she could use the TARDIS to save the Doctor (thereby creating an ontological paradox). Rose was later restored when the Doctor saved her life by taking the Time Vortex energy from the Heart out of her body and regenerating. (DW: The Parting of the Ways, Children in Need Special)

Tenth Doctor’s era
After the revelation of their significance, Bad Wolf occurrences became less common in the Doctor’s and Rose’s timestreams, although they still occurred.

The playground chalk drawing of “Bad Wolf”, seen in Parting of the Ways was still faintly visible after he and Rose returned to earth following his regeneration (DW: The Christmas Invasion).

In 1879, the Host, a Werewolf, stated that Rose had “something of the wolf about her” (DW: Tooth and Claw). The Torchwood files on Rose had been corrupted by the “Bad Wolf” computer virus (DW: Love & Monsters) and, after the Doctor and Rose had been separated in different universes, the last hole through the Void linking them led into “Dålig Ulv Stranden” - Bad Wolf Bay - in Norway. (DW: Doomsday) It also appeared in the year 5,000,000,053, on the side of a Japanese Car (DW: Gridlock)

In the Judoon monster files an insurance company is advertised called Good Wolf... a play on Bad Wolf. In the Trickster’s Brigademonster files, there is a man playing some kind of board game. One of the spaces has “BAD WOLF” written on it. While Donna Noble was traveling with the Doctor it appeared on a wall in Pompeii. (DW: The Fires of Pompeii). A red wolf was spray-painted onto the wall of an alley in (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem)And in a poster advertising the play “Bad Wolf” in an abandoned Opera house that the humans were using on the planet Messaline. (DW: The Doctor's Daughter). A picture in Charlotte Lux’ house showed a wolf and a blonde girl. Shadowing Rose Tyler’s future return. (DW : Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead)

In Turn Left, Rose whispers the words Bad Wolf into Donna’s ear and on Shan Shen, the words are written everywhere including the TARDIS. The Doctor tells Donna it means the end of the universe, as both universes would collide as the Doctor previously said. (DW : Doomsday)

Websites
Many websites also made use of the phrase “Bad Wolf”, such as the UNIT website (unit.org.uk), which had “badwolf” as the password to one of its secure areas, and a clip on Mickey Smith’s website identified the newsreader who reported the spaceship crash into Big Ben tower as “Mal Loup”, French for “Bad Wolf”. Micky also described the Doctor on the same site as “making another decision for us, all ‘I’m the big bad wolf and it's way past your bedtime.’ ”

(whoisdoctorwho.co.uk) On the FAQ of the Geocomtex website the correct sequence of the pins in the first question is morse code for badwolf.

Speculation
It can be considered that Bad Wolf was meant to be a warning for several uses instead of just the Daleks. As Rose stated she could see the past and all things that could be. Therefore she might have foreseen the challenges in season 4 and used "Bad Wolf" as a warning for those events also.