Meet Rose (short story)

Meet Rose was the fourth short story and eleventh release exclusively published in the Doctor Who Annual 2006 in September 2005 by Panini UK and the BBC. Paired with Meet the Doctor, Meet Rose was one of two prose pieces submitted to the Annual by then-showrunner Russell T Davies.

As the title implied, it served to familiarise the readers with the character of Rose Tyler, giving a lot of detail about Rose's life prior to meeting the Doctor. The story, while also establishing many details about Rose's life that were later mentioned in other stories, made reference to most of the first series of the 2005 revival of Doctor Who and to several novels from the BBC New Series Adventures.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Born in mid-1987, Rose Marion Tyler soon lost her father to a car accident at a wedding on 7 November, so her mother, Jackie Tyler, has to raise Rose by herself, residing in Flat 48 of Bucknall House, in the Powell Estate. Rose has dreams of travelling, and while she doesn't get far, when she is thirteen, she manages to get to France on a school trip with her "best mate", Shareen Costello — they try to flunk off, but are caught by the police and sent home, along with their teacher, Mrs Kissock, who has to accompany them. A year later, when Rose is fourteen, she begins going out with Mickey Smith, and a year after that, when she is fifteen, she is suspended from the Jericho Street Comprehensive for three days after convincing the school choir to go on strike. In September, she dumps Mickey as she has fallen in love with Jimmy Stone, and she moves into a bedsit with him, dropping out of school. It ends in heartbreak, five months later.

To repay her debt, she first began to work as a clerk in the Christmas Shop on Clifton's Parade, and six months later, Jackie pulls some strings and Rose gets a job at Henrik's Department Store, and she works hard, despite how "boring" the job is. Then, one day, her life — and Henrik's — blows up as she meets the Ninth Doctor. She finds that the universe is just so much bigger than her mundane life, and she goes off travelling with the Doctor, to Cardiff in 1869, to Platform One in the year Five Billion, to Utah in 2012, to Downing Street, to Satellite Five in the future Earth Empire, to World War Two, to the 1920s, to her trials on the Justicia Penal System, and to the war against the Mantodeans. Rose has fallen in love with the Doctor, but isn't ready to share her feelings to anybody... yet. She completely trusts him, willing to go anywhere with him. She's having the trip of her lifetime, and it's only just begun.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

(In order of appearance)

• Rose Marion Tyler
• Rose's father
• Jacqueline "Jackie" Tyler
• Shareen Costello
• Mrs Kissock
• Mickey Smith
• Jimmy Stone
• Noosh
• Geoff Moon
• Ninth Doctor

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Rose was born on 27 April 1987.
• The wedding that Rose's father died at was of Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clark.
  • The wedding took place outside a local church.
• The Powell Estate is located in London, SE15 7GO.
• Jackie made a living, doing hairdressing from home.
• The intended destination of the school trip was Musee de Louvre, but Rose and Shareen caught a train to Parc Asterix, where they attempted to get onto the Menhir Express.
• After the France incident, Jackie would still take Rose on holiday to Tenby on the South Wales coast every year.
• Rose's GCSEs were fairly good, as she got one A, two Bs, four Cs, and a D in science.
• Jimmy Stone was twenty years old, playing bass guitar in a local band called No Hot Ashes. He was known as "Fittest Boy" on the estate.
• After her relationship with Jimmy collapsed, Rose was left £800 in debt, and Jimmy moved to Amsterdam with a woman called Noosh in a camper van. Mickey forgave Rose.
• Jackie called in a favour from Geoff Moon, an ex, to get Rose a job at Henrik's Department Store.
  • While the job "bored her to tears", Rose felt she had a duty to pay her mother rent and "earn her way in the world."
• Sometimes, after eating chips, Rose would have to wash the smell of grease out of her jeans.
• Rose dumped Mickey after she started travelling with the Doctor.
• While her life changed forever, in some ways, thing remained the same: her wallet was still empty, her mother kept "nagging and complaining", and Mickey was still waiting for Rose.
• Jimmy went to prison for eighteen months, and then had to sell brushes, from door to door.
• Rose and the Doctor encountered Slitheen at Downing Street.
• There existed books about some of Rose's adventures.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

• There is a seemingly accidental fourth wall break when some of Rose's adventures are described having books about them. However, this may also have been intended as a meta joke, or similar.
• Both this story and Meet the Doctor are categorised as features in the annual's table of contents.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Rose's father was killed in a car accident. (TV: Father's Day)
• Rose was born in 1987. (TV: Father's Day, Rise of the Cybermen)
• Rose and Shareen missed out on seeing the Mona Lisa after they flunked off. (COMIC: Art Attack)
  • The Mona Lisa is located in the Louvre. (TV: City of Death, Mona Lisa's Revenge, PROSE: City of Death, etc.)
• Mickey Smith also lived in the Powell Estate. (TV: Rose, PROSE: Rose)
• Rose got into a relationship with Jimmy Stone. It didn't go well. (TV: Rose)
  • The exact details of their relationship were brought up again in AUDIO: Flight Into Hull!, although some accounts had differing information. (PROSE: Rose)
• Clifton's Parade is a place in London. (TV: The Parting of the Ways, Rise of the Cybermen)
• Rose worked at Henrik's. (TV: Rose, PROSE: Rose)
• The Doctor has two hearts. (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask, TV: The Mind of Evil, etc.)
• Rose went to Cardiff in 1869, (TV: The Unquiet Dead, PROSE: Rose sighting confirmed, Mickey's Blog) to Platform One in the year Five Billion, (TV: The End of the World) to Utah in 2012, (TV: Dalek, PROSE: Dalek) to Satellite Five, (TV: The Long Game) to World War Two, (TV: The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances) to the 1920s, (PROSE: The Clockwise Man) to the Justicia Penal System, (PROSE: The Monsters Inside, TV: Boom Town) and the war against the Mantodeans. (PROSE: Winner Takes All)