Jackie Tyler

"those who get left behind. Because it’s hard and that’s what you become: hard. But if there’s one thing I’ve learnt is that I will never let her down and I’ll protect them both until the end of my life."

Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler (née Prentice), born 1st February 1967, was a resident of early 21st century London and the mother of Rose Tyler. She lived with Rose in a council flat on the Powell Estate.

Jackie is a single mother, her husband Pete Tyler having died in 1987 when Rose was six months old, and does not seem to have any form of steady employment.

Biography
Jackie first met the Doctor after the department store where Rose worked was destroyed. When the Doctor arrived at the flat Jackie and Rose share, Jackie attempted to flirt with the Doctor, to little avail. This first encounter set the stage for a sometimes antagonistic relationship between the two. During the final phase of the Auton invasion, several Autons attacked Jackie, but her life was spared when Rose and the Doctor managed to destroy the physical form of the Nestene Consciousness. (DW:Rose)

When Rose left with the Doctor in the TARDIS, she intended to be back within hours. However, when Rose did return to London, she discovered that twelve whole months had elapsed. Out of her mind with worry, Jackie had in the intervening year organised a poster campaign to search for her missing daughter, and even accused Rose's boyfriend Mickey of murdering her. When Rose returned, Jackie was furious with the Doctor for taking her away. Jackie also could not understand why Rose would not tell her where she had been, but discovered the truth when she saw the TARDIS. She was also nearly killed by a Slitheen disguised as a policeman (which she killed herself in the end using an idea the Doctor came up with), and began to truly appreciate how dangerous Rose's new lifestyle was when the Doctor ended the Slitheen's plans by calling a missile strike down on 10 Downing Street where he and Rose were trapped at the time. (DW: Aliens of London/World War Three)

While Jackie appears flighty at times, she genuinely loves her daughter and is extremely concerned for her safety, particularly given the life the Doctor leads. Even though her attitude towards the Doctor has softened from hostility to grudging acceptance, she continues to worry about Rose and waits for her daughter's return.

Despite Rose's idyllic image of her parents' marriage, the relationship she saw when she travelled with the Doctor back to 1987 was stormy, and Jackie was threatening to divorce Pete. However, these fights were short-lived, and it was clear that both Jackie and Pete loved each other despite the arguments. After Pete's death, Jackie would tell Rose about her father, painting a picture of Pete as the ideal husband he was not. (DW: Father's Day)

When the Doctor sent Rose back to her own time to escape the Dalek attack, Jackie was initially glad to have her daughter home again. However, she eventually helped Rose open the TARDIS console and return to help the Doctor. Her relationship with the Tenth Doctor was warmer than it was with his earlier incarnation: the Doctor was more open and friendly than the Ninth, and she seemed to trust him more.

She later ends up befriending Elton Pope, a young man searching for the Doctor, not realizing he's just using her to get to Rose and the Doctor. She tries to have sex with him but is interrupted by a call from Rose. She gets mad when she finds a picture of Rose on him and realizes the truth. She is so upset she apparently tells Rose which actually saves the day as Rose and the Doctor go to confront Elton about it and arrive in time to save his life. When she yells at Elton she reveals that it is very hard for her to be left behind while Rose is with the Doctor not knowing where her daughter is, but despite that she is willing to defend the Doctor. (DW: Love and Monsters)

By the time of the episode Army of Ghosts, Jackie appears to have accepted the Doctor as part of her life, showering him with kisses upon his return with Rose. She ends up accidentally joining the Doctor and Rose when they travel to Torchwood and impersonates her daughter in order to help conceal her whereabouts. Acting as the Doctor's companion, she encounters Pete Tyler (Pete's World), an alternate version of her husband, and begins a relationship with him. She is transported to Pete's alternate universe, and convinces Pete to rescue Rose after the latter returns to help the Doctor. After the rift between universes is sealed, Jackie is stranded with Rose in the alternate universe, and the three eventually rebuild their lives as a family. Jackie eventually becomes pregnant with Pete's child. (DW: Doomsday)

Jackie returns to her original universe alongside Mickey Smith in the episode Journey's End. Her character has noticeably changed from her original self-absorbed attitude. She engages in combat with the Daleks in an effort to help her daughter, showing a new aptitude for firearms in the process. She also shows compassion for a woman she is unable to save from death. Returned to the alternate universe along with Rose at the end of the episode, she reveals that she gave birth to a baby boy, (Tony Tyler). She and Mickey save Sarah Jane Smith from death (with Jackie actually killing a Dalek herself) and actively assists the Doctor acting as a companion. Given Rose's shock at her appearence and her response she wasn't supposed to have come but couldn't take sitting back while Rose was in danger and came to help. She and Donna Noble were the only companions on the TARDIS that weren't allowed to help pilot it with the Doctor actually telling her to just stand back and not touch anything.

Personality
When Jackie is first introduced she has a very strong personality and while she cares greatly for Rose, she doesn't like the Doctor much. This may be due to him taking her daughter away for a year, by accident (DW:Aliens of London). She doesn't seem to have a problem speaking her mind and doesn't mind physically hitting someone as she does with the Doctor. She's actually one of the few things that scare him. As time goes on however, she grows to like and respect him especialy after he sticks to his word and sends Rose back home safely away from the Daleks (DW:The Parting of the Ways) and increasingly in his tenth incarnation. Jackie also thinks her husband's ideas were daft, but she may have changed that opinion after seeing the success of her husband in an alternate world. She also seems reluctant to help someone in need out as she needs a lot of convincing to help Rose and Mickey out with their plan to save the Doctor although she ultimately does provide the solution to their problem. When she finds out that Elton Pope was using her to get to the Doctor, she yells at him and tells him that its very hard for her to have to stay behind and not hear from Rose much and Jackie also expresses that she will protect the Doctor for as long as she can (DW:Love and Monsters). She clearly misses Rose terribly and gets tearful after a conversation with her. She may also panic easily as when she accidently comes with the Doctor to Torchwood, she is so frightened by what's happening that she can barley tell him where she is. Also she somewhat despises Mickey Smith and is horrified to be rescued by him during the Slitheen invasion. When Jackie returns in Journey's End, her personality has changed somewhat: she comes despite not being supposed to due to wanting to help Rose and not being able to sit around. In Army of Ghosts and Doomsday she doesn't like that she has accidently been dragged along and doesn't contribute anything, but in Journey's End, she willingly goes to the Doctor's aid and even surrenders despite not knowing what's going to happen to her just to get close to Rose. Jackie displays compassion to a woman who falls during the Daleks test of the Reality Bomb and dispays remorse that she is unable to save her. Also her relationship with Mickey has changed: the two willingly work together and Mickey even admits she's the one he's going to miss the most when he returns to living in his own dimension and she is very sympathetic to him.

Other Events

 * Jackie nearly fell for a scheme to take humans "on holiday" to fight in an alien war. A thug who lived in the council estate mugged Jackie and took the "winning ticket" that qualified her for the vacation. Jackie ended up in hospital, but her assailant fared worse: he took her place as a remote-controlled soldier on an alien planet, and was killed. (NSA: Winner Takes All)


 * A time-lost Neanderthal flirted with Jackie at a London nightclub before Captain Jack Harkness steered him away from her. (Captain Jack and Jackie never actually met; Jack scaned Jackie's DNA with his wrist device and identified her as Rose Tyler's mother.) (NSA: Only Human)


 * Rose used the "superphone" to call Jackie from a human colony world in the future. Jackie complained that Rose did not let her know she was going to be in Cardiff during her recent visit to the city. (NSA: The Stealers of Dreams)

Behind the Scenes

 * Jackie was originally named "Judy".
 * A press trailer for series 4 revealed that Jackie would return in the finale along with Rose and Mickey.
 * Although generally not considered a companion, Jackie fulfils much of the duties of a companion during her unintentional sojourn in the TARDIS in Army of Ghosts and Doomsday. Her role in Journey's End would seem to indicate that she is considered to be a companion on some level, since the writers include her in the group of 'proper companions' who directly assist the Doctor in the episode.