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Rose Tyler is a fictional character played by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A shop assistant from London, she became a companion of the ninth and tenth incarnations of the Doctor.

 

Character history

 

When first seen by the audience, Rose is working as a shop assistant at Henrik's (a replica of Harrods, London)department store in Regent Street, London. She has a boyfriend named Mickey Smith, and lives in a council flat with her mother Jackie in the fictitious Powell Estate. Rose left school without taking her A-levels but won the bronze medal in an under-sevens gymnastics competition at her junior school. Her father, Pete Tyler died in 1987 in a car accident, the year after Rose was born.

 

One night, after the shops close, she encounters mannequins coming to life in the basement of Henrik's. The Autons are about to dispose of her when the Ninth Doctor saves her life, although he proceeds to destroy the building, thus costing Rose her job. She aids the Doctor in tracking down the hiding place of the Nestene Consciousness that is animating the Autons and subsequently helps defeat its plans of world conquest. She is initially reluctant to join the Doctor on his travels in the TARDIS, feeling that someone must stay to look after Mickey, but changes her mind when the Doctor returns to tell her they could travel in time.

 

During her time with the Doctor, Rose sees the end of planet Earth, watches her father (Peter Allen Tyler) die on November 7 1987, encounters the Doctor's oldest enemies and learns about the consequences of tampering with history. It is revealed that Rose herself is the Bad Wolf, the words being a message that she must return to the future to absorb the energies of the time vortex, saving the Doctor and the Earth from the Daleks. By absorbing the power of the TARDIS, she creates a predestination paradox and makes it possible not just to destroy the Daleks but to leave the clues seen throughout the series. The vortex energies also allow Rose to resurrect Jack Harkness, an act which grants him a level of immortality although the Doctor notes in Utopia that Rose had been unaware of this.

 

Soon the energies she absorbed begin to destroy her body. The Doctor, through a kiss, absorbs the power, sacrificing his ninth incarnation and regenerating before Rose's eyes into the Tenth Doctor.

 

Rose is initially disconcerted at the Doctor's transformation, and is even more distressed when the Doctor falls into a post-regenerative coma, unable to counter the threat of a Sycorax invasion. However, when the Doctor recovers and defeats the Sycorax, Rose happily accepts his new face and manner.

 

She was taken to New Earth by the Tenth Doctor, where Cassandra invaded her body. Cassandra, in Rose's body, becomes very flirtatious and even kisses the Tenth Doctor (This is the only time that Rose and the Tenth Doctor kiss, although technically it was Cassandra using Rose's lips). Rose is knighted by Queen Victoria, making her Dame Rose of the Powell Estate, although immediately afterwards the two are banished from the British Empire. When the Doctor, Rose and Mickey accidentally travel to a parallel Earth, Rose meets an alternative version of her father, who has become a success, unlike Rose's actual father. Mickey elects to stay on the parallel Earth to fight the Cybermen, and Rose is upset that she will never see him again.

 

Rose and the Doctor return to their own universe, but later find that both the alternate Cybermen and the Daleks are invading their Earth. Although Rose and the Doctor manage to remove both enemies from Earth, Rose is nearly pulled into the "Void" between worlds in the process, and is only saved by being transported to the alternate world on the other side of the breach. There, she finds herself trapped on the parallel Earth albeit reunited with Jackie, Mickey and the alternate Pete Tyler. Later, the Doctor manages to project his image through the last crack between the universes, sharing a tearful farewell with her. He informs Rose that she is presumed dead in the aftermath of the invasion, thus verifying Rose's soliloquy at the start of the episode "This is the story of how I died". Rose in turn mentions working with that parallel Earth's (non secret) version of the Torchwood Institute due to her experience with aliens. Finally, Rose tells him she loves him, even though they denied it many times during the course of their time together. The Doctor begins to reply, getting as far as "If it's my last chance to say it...Rose Tyler--" before the connection fails.

 

After last seeing Rose, the Doctor would often become depressed at the mere mention of Rose, or whenever he is reminded of her. In "The Runaway Bride", he is reminded of Rose while attending a party, and a very brief clip of Rose from "New Earth" is used to illustrate this. Donna Noble, in "The Runaway Bride", discusses Rose with the Doctor, as does Martha Jones in the 2007 series.

 

In the series 3 episode, "Utopia", Jack Harkness mentions that while he was waiting for the Doctor to appear during the 20th century, he went to see Rose once or twice while she was growing up. He says that in order to preserve established events, he never spoke to her in that time.