Pete Tyler

See also Pete Tyler of another universe

Peter Alan Tyler or Pete, was the deceased father of Rose Tyler and the husband of Jackie Tyler.

Pete was a jack-of-all-trades and a budding entrepreneur who was constantly involved in various money-making schemes, from selling flavoured health drinks (named "Vitex") to trying to market solar power panels. Most of these schemes were unsuccessful, however, leading to tension in his marriage to Jackie, Rose's mother. Jackie also accused Pete of cheating on her on a few occasions. Pete was born on 15 September, 1954 and died on 7 November, 1987 in a hit-and-run accident when Rose was about a year old.

Rose asked the Doctor to take her back to 1987 so she could witness her father's death. Jackie had told Rose as a child that her father had died alone, and Rose wanted to be there for him. When she was faced with the reality of what she was seeing, however, Rose impulsively rushed forward and saved Pete from being run down, changing history and causing a temporal paradox that damaged time. This attracted the destructive Reapers, who began to "sterilise" the wound in time by devouring everything in sight.

Pete eventually figured out that Rose was his daughter and on listening to her describe what an ideal father he had been, also realised that Rose was lying to cover up the fact that he was supposed to be dead. The presence of Rose awakened Pete's paternal instincts, and to save everyone and restore history, he deliberately stepped in front of the car that should have killed him, dismissing the Reapers and putting time back on track. History did change to a small extent, however; this time the driver did not flee the scene and Rose was there to hold his hand while he was dying. Pete died with a smile, while looking on his daughter's face (DW: Father's Day).

Although Pete was gone, it was his persistent spirit that Rose inherited, and a penchant for (as Jackie put it) "mad ideas" that pushed Rose to keep trying even when all hope seemed lost and save the world again. Rose revealed to her mother later that she had been the one to hold his hand as he died and tried to convince her mother that what she was trying to do (open the TARDIS in order to be able to fly it back to the Doctor) was something he would have agreed with. Initally her mother told her off and left, but realizing she was right, came back with the solution to Rose's problem admiting that she was right about her father.

Rose met Pete again, this time on an alternate Earth where he did not die (DW: Rise of the Cybermen). He worked for John Lumic but was in reality only doing that to get information and spread it to what he thought were security forces but were in reality the Preachers. He joined the Preachers, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey in their assult on Battersea Power Station and he killed the converted Lumic by using the Doctor's sonic screwdriver to sever a rope ladder sending Lumic falling to his death. He did this in revenge for the death of his Jackie Tyler. Rose tried to show him the TARDIS and revealed that she was his daughter but he just left.

When the Cybermen invaded our reality, he and the Preachers came to everyone's aid. He initaly tried to distance himself from Jackie and Rose but was unable to mantain his attempt. He got the Doctor motivated to save the Earth and decided to take Jackie and Rose to his world for their protection. Rose teleported back to help the Doctor and he prevented Jackie from going after her. Ultimatly Jackie seemed to convince to go and help Rose himself as he teleported back just in time to catch Rose and teleport out with her before she could be sucked into the Void through the closing breach. Afterwards Rose was unable to return due to the sealed breach and he formed a new family with Jackie and Rose. Jackie ended up getting pregnant by him and he was there when Rose and the Doctor said a final goodbye on a beach.


 * Coincidentally or otherwise, "Peter Tyler" was credited as "Lighting Cameraman" on the TARDIS-Cam films which appeared on the early DVD releases.