...what's that? Oh, right. I know, it's Saturday and you're expecting the final part of "The Mirror World"? well, it's coming. After it, we'll have something... new. Still Doctor Who, but new. More on that later, though...
Really, who couldn't like this person who is most definitely not a gigantic dumpster fire of psychopathic behavior, derangement, and failure? Certainly not I, not I. Really, it's hard to pin down it down to just ten moments that signify that Rose Tyler is the best companion that the Doctor has or ever will have in the history of the show, but I think I've managed to get it down to just ten. Blasphemous as it is to put our goddess, Saint Rose of Tyler, to a list in just the mere double digits! So, without further adieu...
Number 10: Rose takes care of Mickey at the end of Rose
At the end of Rose, Rose had assisted the Doctor in stopping an invasion of Earth by the Nestene Consciousness. During the events of the episode, her boyfriend Mickey Smith had been captured by the Nestene and had been replaced by a duplicate only to be found later on by Rose and the Doctor and rescued. Having been kidnapped and clone and likely very terrified, Rose does the only logical thing for a man she claims to love and takes him home to make sure he's alright. She definitely does not just leave him out in the street, terrified and confused, to go out gallivanting about with an ill-tempered Northerner through all of space and time.
...after sarcastically thanking him.
...rather like an asshole.
Number 9: Rose really cares about the effect her decisions have on her friends and family
In the later episode Aliens of London, Rose returns after having been gone a year from the perspective of her mother Jackie and the aforementioned Mickey, both of whom thought she was dead and Mickey was even a suspect in a murder investigation. They are naturally confused and upset, but Rose meets them with kindness, grace, and understanding with naturally the absolute best way to calm their fears and apologize to them in the best possible way.
ROSE: "I dunno, it's only been a few days for me. It's hard to tell in this thing, but I swear, it's just been a few days since I left you."
Also, at the end of the next episode, World War Three, Rose outright lies to both Mickey and Jackie about when she's going to return, showing us that she learned absolutely nothing from this whole exercise and expects her loved ones to be doormats for her to step all over when it's convenient to her.
...Jesus. Christ!
Number 8: Rose cares about the sanctity of life
Also in World War Three, Rose attempts to follow the Doctor's example of at least attempting a non-violent solution. When the access to nuclear missiles that could be used to stop the Slitheen is brought up, she definitely does not immediately bring up the idea to use them to atomize the Slitheen. How dare Harriet Jones (MP for Flydale North!) even consider that Rose could be in the wrong on this one? Or that she's some kind of violent psychopath?
I mean, it's not like she threatened the captain in The Satan Pit for not wanting to go back to get the Doctor or anything. Truly, a good, selfless, and noble individual to the end with no sadistic streak whatsoever.
Number 7: Rose knows when to let Mickey go
In Boom Town, Rose learns that Mickey has been seeing another girl due to her being absent for what are presumably long stretches of time. He's feeling abandoned and hurt, which Rose immediately uses to do the only rational thing and immediately be hostile to him. After all, it is not as if she's run off into time and space with not one, but two men who both want to get the horizontal mambo on with her!
Seriously, Mickey! How dare you forget your place is beneath Rose's feet? ...feet that you should be giving a manicure to right now. Yes, I don't care if that episode was from almost twenty years ago now! Get to it, spunky! Chop chop!
Number 6: Rose knows what's really important and it shows!
In Parting of the Ways, Rose was sent back to Earth in 2006 by the Doctor. Rather an accept defeat and give into the man's wishes to leave the TARDIS behind, Rose instead goes out of her way to guilt her boyfriend and her mother into helping her reactivate it so she can get back to the year 200,100. And why?
ROSE: 'Cos there's nothing for me here now?
MICKEY: Nothing?
ROSE: No.
Again, bonus points for the same kindness and understanding she showed Mickey in Boom Town. Absolutely exquisite and masterful writing by Russell T. Davies! No flaws at all.
Bonus points, too, for definitely not using her father's death to emotionally manipulate her mother, all the while insisting that she's only doing this because the Doctor showed her a better way of life and that it had nothing to do with the travel.
...and then in The Christmas Invasion, she refuses to give up the travel, showing that she learned absolutely nothing and still holds the feelings of her loved ones in the highest of regards.
Just... absolutely... brilliant... character...
Number 5: Rose shows tact
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| Well, duh this one got a gif! It's so appropriate and definitely not tasteless! |
In Tooth and Claw, we are subject to the Doctor and Rose having a bet to see if Rose can get Queen Victoria to say "I am not amused". This is, I think you will agree, if by far the absolute funniest joke in not only Series 2, but in all of Doctor Who history. Yep, all of it!
Just... so funny.
It never gets old.
Ever.
Never. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever.
And it is definitely always - and I mean always - appropriate for any situation it gets brought up in. Because it's Rose making the joke, and we know that she's as good at comedy as she is with every other aspect of her existence.
Number 4: Rose puts Sarah Jane in her place
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I know that people say that Sarah Jane is one of the greatest companions of the classic series, but that's the classic series, you morons! The future is now, and the future belongs to Rose! When Sarah Jane came back in School Reunion, the two immediately butted heads. Never mind that Sarah Jane is and has always been a far better written character, who is not a crazed psychopath, who actually loved the Doctor and it was clear through chemistry rather than it having to be used to beat our brains out every. Single. Bloody. SECOND! And also that whole... being a likeable person thing that she did so well.
All of that means nothing! Because Sarah Jane is not Rose.
What conceit! How dare Sarah Jane even think anywhere as low-I MEAN AS HIGH! as high as Rose Tyler is!
Number 3: Rose understands that the Doctor has a past
In Fear Her - which is by far the best episode of Series 2 - Rose gets the revelation that the Doctor did once have children. She's naturally so very, very shocked by this! After all, a 900+ year old being having had progeny? Perhaps even having had... sex? With someone who isn't her? Unthinkable!
Also, she definitely does not threaten a child whose only crime is being possessed by a space jellyfish with a ship powered by love.
...yeah, no, that's still brilliant and not at all very, very stupid.
Number 2: Rose really loves the Doctor (really, really) and cares about his feelings
Oh, yes. The romance between Rose and the Doctor is an epic and passionate one. One written in the stars. One that is so strong that Russell felt the need to tell us that it existed every single second that he could, just in case we forgot that it existed. Not that we ever could, of course.
It was such a romance that she wasn't willing to be trapped on Pete's World during the events of Doomsday, wanting to travel with the Doctor forever in blatant defiance of what she learned during School Reunion, showing that she did not actually learn anything.
Just, woven like a quilt, Russell! It's a no-brainer why the BBC wanted you to come back after Chibnall's spectacular run!
Even her heartbreaking confession on that beach in Norway during Doomsday cannot possibly be topped by the character's swan song - Journey's End. After going through all the trouble to completely ignore what the Doctor said about dimensional stability, hopping from universe to universe, and keeping the Daleks from destroying all of reality, she stands on a beach with the Doctor, Donna, and a clone of the Doctor created from his spare hand.
When the Clone Doctor tells her what the Doctor couldn't, she immediately locks lips with him right there on the beach right in front of the Doctor (who she claims to love and who, for some reason, loves her) and that is the last thing he sees of her or hears from her before he departs back to his universe.
I mean, doing that, it's almost like it was all about Rose getting what she wanted damn the consequences! But we all know that isn't true! After all, Rose is perfect!
So... perfect...
Number 1: Rose fixes time... by sacrificing nothing!
In the episode Turn Left, Donna Noble had to sacrifice everything to restore the timeline to its proper state even if she didn't remember it herself. It was a pulse pounding, heartwrencher of a journey that ended in her having to make the ultimate sacrifice to make sure that everything turned out alright. It was dark, compelling, and poignant, showing us that no one really knows how much their life (or the absence of that life) can have an effect on the course of future events.
Pfft... that was dumb, wasn't it? After all, she could have just done like Rose did in Father's Day and gotten the same result while making someone else die instead! Plus, Donna didn't have the guts to actually make the change to the timeline herself, she had to have an alien bug attach itself to her back and do psychic mumbo jumbo to the timeline. No, we all know Rose Tyler is a hands-on person... so long as she doesn't have to sacrifice anything, face any adversity, or do any real work to achieve her goals!
So what if 5.024 billion people had to die due to the temporal paradox she caused? Why did she have to do anything to change anything back? No, better to let her own father do it for her! Brilliant! I mean, any other companion - including the one literally in the previous episode - would have been likely thrown off the TARDIS for such an astounding flagrant disregard for the laws of time and space or the sanctity of sentient life in the universe. But, as we all know, this is Rose... and Rose was crying and she was "sorry", so it's totally okay!
... even if pretty much every other episode showed that she learned ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
Seriously, why do people like Father's Day? It's easily the worst episode of Series 1, and I'm still counting the ones with the farting aliens.
I'm sad that we've come to the end of this list, because these ten moments just don't seem like they're enough. Rose Tyler is such an amazing character. She's selfless, caring, brave, and stalwart. These are the reasons why she is the best companion over literally every other one the Doctor has had or ever will have. 2005 to 2009 were the absolute golden years for Doctor Who, and nothing has ever or will ever top them! Not a single one! I mean, I didn't even get to get into how much her existence completely elevated Martha's entire tenure on the TARDIS and was definitely not a terrible drag on everything every time she was brought up! Pure and simple perfection!
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I didn't even get into my favorite part of Day of the Doctor - where even Steven Moffat realized that Rose was such an important character (if not the most important character) to the Doctor and his mythos that he brought her back
Anyway, thank you for spending some time with me today to read through this list! If you weren't convinced before, I hope you are now! Next time, we'll be doing a movie review of Mamma Mia!, which both you and I know is one of the greatest-No! The greatest movie of all time! And now, for my customary sign off for all of my posts!
Shazbot Nanu Nanu!
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