Rose Tyler - Blog Posts
Absolutely (Not) the Same Man
Regeneration and Identity
I really l like way Christmas Invasion presents regeneration and how Rose and Ten in-universe seem to understand.
Harriet Jones says that Ten is “absolutely the same man”. Rose does not agree despite being in the scene.
She agrees that 10 is the Doctor, but…not the same. She still loves him and sees the fundamental values being retained but she sees them as different.
She unequivocally says “you’re so different”. She’s beaming when she says it, clearly not missing Nine but rather mystified by Ten. It’s so subtle, (and a lot comes from Billie’s delivery) but even after accepting it, there is something alien about the process lingering.
It’s why I don’t fault her for being upset by the potential regeneration in Journey’s End, it’s the same reason we all are sad to see a Doctor go.
Because the fundamental character traits that we love will be there (you know…hopefully) but everything else will change. Their personalities and the ways they interact with the universe and the way they see themselves all changes. All the quirks and eccentricities that make up the characterization specific to one incarnation of the Doctor as a character, which are what we latch onto change.
We may like who gets tagged, whoever is now ‘it’. But there’s still a friend we’ll miss.
This Doctor wears pinstripes and trainers, instead of leather and combat boots. He willingly wears a paper crown.
He is domestic in a way Nine would never be. He doesn’t tempt Rose from a family dinner, he joins her at one of his own volition, then relishes in it while wearing a paper crown.
I do think this works particularly well here, because it feels like a character arc. It helps Ten feel like an actual extension of Nine. I think this why that it works for them to have the same TARDIS and first companion. It makes the change easier.
Nine was reminded of the beauty of living through Rose and humanity, and reminded ordinary humans that there was no such thing. I love the moment he has with the couple in Father’s Day for this reason.
Ten, in concept and practice, takes this love for humanity and runs with it. (Sometimes way too far depending on the writer. But that’s another meta). He’s more open with his feelings while still being deeply, deeply repressed.
Arguably, I think there’s a moment he tries to learn from his mistakes with Rose. He tries to relay the happy memory of Christmas dinner to Donna before it becomes something else he’s lost. All of her other attempts at connection are shut down.
Later, he’s able to find some respite with Donna in series 4. He’s able to live with his grief and heal for a bit. And he gives Donna a chance to realize that there’s no such thing as an ordinary human.
Then he has to take it all away. All of the edges Donna had softened out, the self-confidence she built up so she didn’t need to scream at the world to feel heard. Gone.
His best friend, just like the love of his life. Gone. And this time it’s like never happened at all.
It’s the last important arc before Time Lord Victorious for a reason.
(it’s honestly more thematically satisfying to go straight to Waters of Mars after series 4)
It’s why he comes to see regeneration as dying.
It’s how we get from “All I did was change” in Born Again, to “It’s like dying.” in the of End of Time
He just watched the identity of his best friend be ripped from her. Plus he feels emotions with more humanity than any incarnation. He feels the fear of identity loss like a human fears mortality.
(This was also before the Doctor had been given more regenerations, and post-war he was burning through them, and was over half through them, so there’s an added layer there)
I never for a second felt he was “throwing a tantrum” in Journey’s End.
I hate when people, including the in universe 11th doctor, say that Ten is vain.
I mean he is. Sometimes it’s done for laughs, but he is arrogant too. Usually it’s well-meaning. He does have more knowledge than anyone and wants to use that to help.
He might be a genius, but he doesn’t understand every intricate detail of human experience. And to be fair, 11 is talking about the metacrisis, but even before Donna’s fate, Ten has begun to project the human fear of death he’s adopted along with all the other emotions onto regeneration.
Journey’s End is the end of a vanity trip. He is stripped down and deeply, deeply scared. And he is allowed to be. And he can react in an intense, emotional way.
There is no hesitation between the knocks and the resignation falling across his face.
There is no doubt what he’s going to sacrifice for Wilf no matter how afraid he is.
Because as intensely as Ten feels fear, it is nothing to how much he loves.
Regeneration and Character Arcs:
It’s a popular fan theory that Ten is a regeneration made for Rose. I have mixed feelings about the idea that he’s ’incomplete’ without her.
There’s also something kind of sweet about Nine wanting to become the pretty boy he thinks she likes or (if allowing himself to be self-loathing) deserves. It’s only sweet because he literally has to change.
The Stone Rose novel confirms that Ten’s accent in-universe specifically came from Rose. It’s a less extreme version of him being made entirely for her. Plus, it’s a cool sci-fi exploration of how humans pick up accents after long, continuous exposure. A very alien way to retain a quirk of human nature.
There’s something nearly Shakespearean and so acutely human about Ten’s arc. He loves, loses, grieves, heals, and makes new connections. He moves from ‘I exist for Rose’ to ‘I miss Rose and wish I could exist with her but I’m also allowing myself to care about these other people.’ Then he loses them. It drives him to unthinkable darkness, and by the time he claws his way into the light, it is time for him to die.
Is that arc any more impactful if he’s literally created for someone?
I don’t know.
It Needs Saying:
How Regeneration informs character
Christmas Invasion is off for Rose because the man she loves, the only person she knows that thinks she’s fantastic explodes in front of her with a really vague explanation after she wakes up from passing out with her memories missing. She is scared at first because she reasonably assumes that this could be a threat. She’s encountered malevolent shapeshifters and dangerous teleportation rays fairly recently.
And now, there’s this younger, flirty, seemingly happier man promising that he remembers everything, that swears he’s same man. Except this too-good-to-be-true man whispers seductively as he grabs her hand, and smiles like Casanova, and gives her the impression that he definitely dances and wants to with her.
Nine wouldn’t do any of this even if she wished he would, but she knew he loved her, thought of her more highly than anyone she ever met. He loved her so much that a Dalek felt it.
She’s beginning to believe him but then he passes out.
“The proper Doctor would save us” is a weird thing to say about someone who woke up from a coma because you whispered help me. It’s not a weird thing to say about someone who less than twelve hours ago didn’t need to be asked to save people. (Obviously Rose still hasn’t been told what regeneration sickness is because Nine gives a really vague explanation as it’s happening and Ten does explain it but not how to help him because he has ADHD and can’t focus even to literally save his life)
This is also Rose learning the lesson that the Doctor is not a perfect hero in a practical way. She has by now learned about the Time War, about what he did, witnessed his dark rage in Dalek. But now she’s seeing him physically vulnerable, having to take him down off the pedestal in a different way.
He’s getting worse and aliens are invading and she doesn’t know how to help him. She tries running away and saving the people she cares most for (which still includes him) but that fails. She then tries to use what information she’s picked up even if it costs her life. There’s always been a hero in Rose. She risked life in Rose, Dalek, Parting of the Ways and World War III, she does the same now.
Then the Doctor returns and saves the world, with the same fierce protectiveness as Nine. And she doesn’t have a smidge of doubt.
It used to bother me that he yelled at her for giving up on him, but in all fairness “Can you change back?” Probably deeply hurt his feelings, even if it’s hilarious now in 2023.
But she’s leaving out an important part of the question.
She’s asking, “Can you turn back into the person who thinks I actually have worth? Who I know wants me?”
In the end of the Episode, she admits that her concern was that he wouldn’t want her anymore.
It isn’t until he gives explicit verbal confirmation that he still wants her to travel with him (something he hadn’t done before) that she relaxes. (Ironically this is how the love confessions go for them too).
Because of Good Omens brain rot, I’ve been doing a Ninth/Tenth Doctor rewatch. And I was reminded of something I started to notice when I did my first ever rewatch.
The jokey attitude Rose has in the face of danger is a trait she shares with the Doctor, but it’s not something she picks up from him.
In Aliens of London/ World War III, Harriet chides her for making jokingly says something to the effect of how the Slitheen’s compression field works as a kind of weight loss program. This is the first time it’s ever been called out, but it’s not actually the first time she’s done it.
In the first episode, while the Doctor is explaining the living plastic she makes a wry comment about all of the breast implants coming to life. She’s only known the Doctor for a few hours at this point. It goes completely unremarked on, but it’s there.
She does it in the Empty Child when Jack catches her in his transmat beam. Her voice is literally shaking in this one, both from physical exertion and terror.
The thing is, I think it’s a coping mechanism. I think Rose has learned to bury her fear behind snarky remarks and jokes, one she probably picked up to deal with her life on the estates, to deal with being belittled, to deal with her abusive ex.
The first time I really came to this conclusion was while watching Tooth and Claw for the second time.
During the episode, Ten and Rose have this little bet running to see if she can get Queen Victoria to say her “we are not amused” line. Every time Rose does it, she is giggling.
Until she says it after the werewolf (this is a really strange episode even for DW…) attacks.
After taking a second to be relieved at being alive, her face kind of drops, her eyes widen and glaze over a little bit. The line “I bet you’re not amused” is rushed out of her mouth and significantly quieter than she was a minute ago. The delivery is uncharacteristically monotone until the little emphasis she puts on the end.
She does this weird almost-smile like she’s going to laugh even though she is patently not smiling. She does this small little head shake, her arms are tense.
It’s a really unsettling moment, and it was this performance by Billie Piper is what made me start thinking about this.
Queen Victoria yells at her, and Rose immediately apologizes, won’t even make eye contact with anyone. She curls in and turns away a bit.
This moment always bothered me and it took me a few watches to really articulate why.
Rose is scared.
I didn’t see it immediately because Rose displays fear in so many ways.
When she fears someone she cares about is going to leave her, (usually it’s the Doctor), Rose will lash out. This happens in Father’s Day, School Reunion, and Girl in the Fireplace. (The last one is so justified. She’s way more compassionate than I would’ve been at the end of that episode). She also does this Fear Her (when Nina Sosanya’s character continually refuses to watch her possessed daughter)
Other times, she’s able to turn her fear into action. She does this in her very first episode, the series 1 finale, the Cyberman two-parter, the Satan Pit two-parter, and earlier in Tooth and Claw.
Sometimes, she runs. In Christmas Invasion, she is facing a world-ending threat without the Doctor for the first time. She can’t do the heart of the Tardis trick again without ripping a hole in the universe.
Many times she’ll turn to the Doctor or her mother (who does her best but doesn’t always say the right thing)
But sometimes she makes a snarky comment or tells a joke to convince herself and maybe others that it will be okay.
She uses jokes for this specific reason to cheer up the Doctor in the Satan Pit.
Because Rose is compassionate. To Raffalo, to Gwenyth, to the Empty Child, to Jack. To Cassandra and Flora and Elton. She even tries to comfort Reinette, who is condescending towards her and who the Doctor repeatedly abandons her for because she regrets antagonizing Sarah Jane last episode. (I mean Sarah Jane was kind of mean too despite being a grown woman and Rose only being in her early twenties).
It’s the final confirmation the Doctor needs to realize she’s possessed on New Earth.
She will allow the Doctor to sacrifice her without question to save people and shows compassion to a Dalek both before she knows what it is and after it proves to be capable of changing.
She will drop everything for her mother despite whatever disagreements they have, will bend the universe to keep her father from dying alone.
She will literally sacrifice herself and stare into raw time to save the Doctor.
A lot of people think that Rose’s character in s2 is not as interesting. While that’s true, I think it’s more to do with the lack of interactions between her and Ten that aren’t about their romance. Nine and Rose have interactions that challenge each other’s morality. (Dalek, End of the World, Fathers Day, Unquiet Dead). On the rare occasions that Ten and Rose clash, it’s over jealousy brought on by Rose’s fear of being forgotten and Ten’s fear of committing, or feels like it’s in the shadow of his behavior with Reinette. Ironically, it’s their debate in Fear Her (a not great episode) that is one of the more interesting exchange of views that they have.
I wouldn’t completely agree that Rose loses her compassion in the second season. I think some of her more toxic pre-existing traits are just brought to the surface. And her protectiveness does become selfish.
But series 2 dumps a lot on Rose’s shoulders.
Ten’s weird hot and cold demeanor is probably emotionally taxing too. She has a lot of inferiority issues, probably because of how she’s been treated by her mother and others in her life. She frequently reiterates that she doesn’t matter. You can see how much it means to her when Nine earnestly admits she saved his life in response to her nervous teasing and posturing. And you can see how crushed she is when he calls her stupid in a moment of anger in Father’s day. (An event that is partially his fault because he didn’t explain the rules to Rose until afterwards) He immediately apologizes. (He does have that weird flirtation with Lynda but that is dropped just as abruptly as it starts).
The Tenth Doctor has this deeply frustrating set of episodes in series two where he is utterly awful to watch, and it’s after this that the relationship becomes the shallow, unhealthy, codependent one people remember. (I will expand on this in another post)
But it’s not even necessarily because of the Doctor that it’s hard for her. She says in Parting of the Ways that it wasn’t even the adventures she loved, it was him showing her a better way of life.
The adventures, the death, those are what wear her down the same way they wear down Ten.
She is, at one point, told by literal Satan that she is going to die imminently.
No matter how cheerful an episode begins, the loss always brings something melancholic out of Rose, but also someone desperate to hold onto the person she loves and carve out some sort of hope for a future. Impossible Planet does this really well with the little exchange about getting a mortgage. You can tell both of them find the idea appealing, or would if the Tardis was on call for the occasional weekend trip and weekly visit to Jackie. Because Ten likes Jackie, likes having a family.
Because deep down what these two want is each other and to rest. Not stop, they never could do that entirely. That’s why, I think TenToo works well in Empire of the Wolf (I don’t think it’s handled well in the actual show). Because they are still having new adventures with their daughter, just smaller ones.
So while Rose does have her flaws (selfishness, jealousy, a coping mechanism that is not always in the best taste). But she’s 19, she’s human. She’s allowed to and -as a character in a piece of media- should have flaws. I think they are what make a fundamentally brave and compassionate character feel like a real person. They make her more compelling.
(I want to do a later meta on Mickey, because Rose could’ve handled that better, but I also have issues with early Mickey. And it ties into some other stuff…so later meta.)
Billie Piper filming Doctor Who in Wales 2005
Doctor Who text posts
The doctor's fatal flaw is that they can't stop falling in love.
New Who Companions + birthday and signs
Doctor Who Band
The different doctors count as different people cause I say so.
15- lead singer
Ruby- key board and backup vocals
12- guitar
Bill- bass
13- drums
River- backup signer
Yaz- security
Martha- manager and medic
Rose and Jack- groupies
Donna- handles the money
Don't ask where this idea came from it kinda feels like a fever dream.
It's that time of year again
