THERE WAS ONCE A GIRL WHO LONGED FOR SOMETHING MORE.
One day, at the dull department store where Rose worked, scary mannequins started lumbering towards her. Then a man took her hand and told her to run. Rose immediately asked questions, trying to reason things out. The strange man – the Doctor, he called himself – could see she was perceptive. He got her safely out of the building, and then blew it up.
The explosion made the news, but Rose kept quiet about what she'd seen, knowing she'd been involved in something extraordinary. Then the Doctor turned up at her flat, where they battled the disembodied arm of one the mannequins. Rose pursued the Doctor, asking more questions. Dissatisfied with what he told her, she went online to look for answers herself. She was trying to process what she'd learned when Autons attacked – and the Doctor rescued her once more.
Rose was now confronted by the fact the Doctor was an alien, whose spaceship was bigger on the inside, a man who knew impossible things about impossible creatures. Yet Rose was also intrigued by the Doctor, attracted to him, and dared to take his hand as he ran towards the secret base of the Nestene – the alien consciousness controlling the Autons.
There, Rose's courage saved the lives of her boyfriend Mickey, the Doctor, and everyone on Earth from the alien menace. Mickey was utterly terrified by what he'd experienced, but Rose was left exhilarated. Even so, when the Doctor offered her the chance to travel with him in his spaceship, she declined. After all, there was her boyfriend to look after, and her mum. But then the Doctor told her that his ship also travelled in time. She could be back home before anyone noticed, couldn't she? Rose raced towards the open door . . .
AS THEY EXPLORED TIME AND SPACE, Rose got closer to the Doctor. He felt able to share his secret pain that he was the lone survivor of a terrible war. It made him socially awkward, but she could help with that. When the Doctor mistakenly dropped Rose home not 12 hours but 12 months after they'd left, it clearly hurt her mum Jackie and boyfriend. But Rose never reconsidered travelling with the Doctor. He needed her. Often her compassion and the easy friendships she struck up helped solve the problems they faced – notably when, through Rose's influence, a Dalek developed emotions!
When the Doctor sent Rose home in the TARDIS to protect her from an invasion of Daleks in the year 200,100, she was determined to help him anyway. Managing to gain access to the TARDIS's incredible powers, she returned to the future transformed into the Bad Wolf, a being that effortlessly destroyed a fleet of Dalek saucers and brought a friend back from the dead. But such extraordinary power was burning her up. The Doctor took it from her with a kiss, saving her life at the cost of his own. I think I know a thing or two about aliens.
The newly regenerated Doctor soon won Rose over and they enjoyed more adventures. But, while stopping Daleks and Cybermen from ransacking London, she became trapped with her family and boyfriend on a parallel Earth, with no chance of getting back to the Doctor.
She got on with defending this parallel world, taking over its version of Torchwood. Spotting a looming crisis, she worked out how to teleport back to her own Earth to help the Doctor and his other friends defeat a plot by Davros, creator of the Daleks. Rose was a soldier now, yet the Doctor still depended on her compassion.
During this adventure, a second, fully human Doctor was created, who needed Rose's guidance – or so the original Doctor said. Rose had to be the one to decide, and she did. She would spend her life with the human Doctor on the parallel world, and never see the Time Lord she'd loved again.
This is a story from Doctor Who: The Women Who Lived, Amazing Tales for Future Time Lords, a beautifully illustrated collection of tales of the remarkable women of Doctor Who and the first official book to accompany the new series with Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor. You can order your very own copy here: http://po.st/WomenWhoLived
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"Rose" from Doctor Who: The Women Who Lived by Christel Dee and Simon Guerrier
Ciencia FicciónMeet the women who run the Whoniverse. From Sarah Jane Smith to Bill Potts, from Susan Foreman to the Thirteenth Doctor, women are the beating heart of Doctor Who. Whether they're facing down Daleks or thwarting a Nestene invasion, these women don't...
