10 Doctor Who Companions Who Just Couldn't Stay Away
2. Rose Tyler
Played by Billie Piper First appearance: Rose (2005) Last appearance: The Day of the Doctor (2013) Rose Tyler's devotion to the Doctor was so fierce that she quite literally defied the realms of time and space in order to find him again. After being separated forevermore at the climax of the Battle of Canary Wharf in the heartbreaking Series 2 finale Doomsday, Rose was faced with a life of loneliness and solitude after falling through the void into a parallel universe. She had a huge mansion, health and her beloved family, including a parallel version of her deceased father, in tow of course, but that apparently wasn't good enough for this shop girl turned Earth Defender as she promptly set about finding a way back to our world and, more importantly, into the arms of her beloved Doctor. But how did her dedication to the Time Lord get so strong? Arguably, he saved her life in more ways than one. Not only did he literally rescue her from death by Auton (and then on countless other occasions after that), he also whisked her away from her mundane existence which, as she pointed out on more than one occasion, mostly consisted of work, chips, buses, and more chips. God, Rose, eat something else for a change. Ultimately though, the tale of the Doctor and Rose was, at its heart, a love story. Well, as conventional as a love story will probably ever get for the Doctor, anyway. He saved her and she saved him, too, proving that there was hope and joy still left to be found in the universe following the climactic events of the Time War. By the time the Ninth Doctor regenerated into the Tenth he was a heeled man thanks to Rose, and that was just the start of their unbreakable bond. That's why, when Rose eventually found a way back in Series 4 (after a string of ultimately unexplained cameos), it was such a nice gesture that the Doctor 'gave' her his human/Time Lord counterpart. It was a tribute to her, if anything - his way of ridding her of her self doubt by reassuring her that she does have an impact on people and she doesn't need to rely on him to make her feel important. Admittedly he did this by giving her a version of him to rely on, but that's besides the point. It was (the second) end to a beautiful story. And then she came back again, of course, for a fleeting appearance in The End of Time, which helped bring the Tenth Doctor's era to its spectacular and heartbreaking conclusion. And then she came back again, for the 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, last year. She wasn't really Rose in this one, but the landmark episode did highlight her overriding significance within the Doctor's life. Still, three returns isn't too shabby for a character who was irrevocably stuck in a parallel universe for the rest of time. As the old saying goes, in science fiction anything really can happen.
Dan Butler is the Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture.com. When he isn't writing his own articles or editing other people's, he can be found trawling the internet for gifs of Steven Moffat laughing. Contact him via dan.butler@whatculture.co.uk.
By the time the Ninth Doctor regenerated into the Tenth he was a heeled man thanks to Rose, and that was just the start of their unbreakable bond. That's why, when Rose eventually found a way back in Series 4 (after a string of ultimately unexplained cameos), it was such a nice gesture that the Doctor 'gave' her his human/Time Lord counterpart. It was a tribute to her, if anything - his way of ridding her of her self doubt by reassuring her that she does have an impact on people and she doesn't need to rely on him to make her feel important. Admittedly he did this by giving her a version of him to rely on, but that's besides the point. It was (the second) end to a beautiful story. And then she came back again, of course, for a fleeting appearance in The End of Time, which helped bring the Tenth Doctor's era to its spectacular and heartbreaking conclusion. And then she came back again, for the 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, last year. She wasn't really Rose in this one, but the landmark episode did highlight her overriding significance within the Doctor's life. Still, three returns isn't too shabby for a character who was irrevocably stuck in a parallel universe for the rest of time. As the old saying goes, in science fiction anything really can happen.