Leave Well Enough Alone? Part 1: Rose Tyler
Guest contributor James Kirkland begins a new series examining companions’ departures and their latter returns.
When Series 9 drew to a close, with it came the end of Clara Oswald’s time as the Doctor’s companion. And with her departure came a theme that has occurred several times throughout New Who. That is the return of a companion after their initial departure. While other companions waited a series or more to return, Clara’s initial exit was changed after one episode. This recurring trend got me thinking: were these second departures better than the ones they overrode? And so here we are. I’m going to examine each of the main revival companions departures and say what I think worked and didn’t in each occurrence.
Oh, Rose Tyler. Few companions are as divisive as her. And few things about her are as divisive as her ending in Series 4, in which she is given her very own clone of the Doctor she loves so much to live with for the rest of her life. Some find this ending beautiful and heartwarming. Some find it overly happy, unearned and nonsensical. I myself am in the latter camp. But, I will approach this from a neutral standpoint (as best I can, anyway).
Rose’s first exit came in the Series 2 finale, Doomsday, in which she was teleported to an alternate earth by her alternate father to save her from being imprisoned for eternity in the Void. This episode is most famous for the scene between the Doctor and Rose at Bad Wolf Bay. It was tragically heartbreaking, yes. But it was also beautiful and fitting. Rose’s love for the Doctor is what grew to define her. She was willing to leave her old life, and those she loved, behind just to be with him. She was willing to throw herself into dangerous situations against deadly foes if it meant continuing her journey with the Doctor. How thematically perfect, then, would an ending be where she once again throws herself into an incredibly dangerous situation, only to have it result in her being taken away from the Doctor forever? The ending to Doomsday was the culmination of a love that brought forth a dangerous desire to be with a man. Thematically, a perfectly tragic ending to that story.
Series 4 saw Rose return in brief snippets throughout. The walls of reality were breaking down across all time and space, allowing her to eventually return to the main universe and her Doctor. Here she joined with the rest of his friends and companions in the final battle against Davros and his Dalek Empire. In the aftermath of the battle, there stood the Meta Crisis Doctor, a human clone of the Tenth Doctor who was banished by the Time Lord to the alternate earth for his genocide of the Daleks. And so, Rose finally could have the love she never could. She could love her Doctor and grow old with him. This exit was the culmination of the story of a young girl who fell in love with a man she could never be with for the rest of his life. But here she was given the chance to be with him, without the threat of him regenerating into someone else or him watching her age and die. It was the happy ending she always wanted but thought she could never have.
And so then, should well enough have been left alone? Should Rose’s Series 2 departure have been her final appearance? I believe it should have. Thematically speaking, both stories do tie together with Rose’s story well. Both are culminations of her character arcs and are fitting. But her end in Doomsday was so much better because of the powerful way it was presented. Her end in Journey’s End, however, was so out of left field that it seems like it was designed specifically to give her a happy ending. It was not fluid, nor did it feel earned, certainly not more than her heartbreaking end in Doomsday. And the happiness of her Series 4 ending, the fact she was granted the happiness she was denied in Series 2, I feel damaged her initial ending irreparably. The tragedy of the Bad Wolf Bay scene is lost when you see it play out again with the outcome she wanted, and one that was born so randomly.
Do I inherently think those who love her ending with the Meta Crisis Doctor are wrong for thinking that? No. I think those people feel that the culmination of her love for the Doctor was a more fitting ending to end the character on. But, I would argue that, when presented as perfectly as it was in Doomsday on the cold shores of Bad Wolf Bay, tragedy is just a fitting and beautiful an ending as happiness ever can be. Is it sad that Rose would have been gone forever, separated form the man she loves with no way to get back to him? Absolutely. But, in doing that, it would have woven a beautiful story of a woman who loved a man so much, she’d risk anything to be with him and, in that same willingness to risk anything, she loses the one thing she was willing to risk it all for.
Verdict: So in the case of Rose Tyler, I believe her Doomsday ending should have been left as her final appearance. Well enough should have been left alone.
Join us next time for the verdict on Martha Jones’ exit(s).
