By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriots and Zombie Blues
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
Rose Tyler a villain??? What? What? What?
Yep, it’s true. As much as you cried and wailed over the doomed love story between her and the Doctor in Doomsday and cheered when she got a duplicate but human Doctor in Journey’s End, it wasn’t a smooth journey. But there was something at times that made me dislike Rose, for example the way she treated Sarah jane Smith and her rolling her eyes when Mickey joined her and the Doctor on their travels. Add to that her flirting with Captain Jack and the fact the Doctor dropped her completely to live a life with Madame de Pompadour which went unmentioned, made her a nasty and unlikeable figure to me at times. If any fella did that to your sister you’d have something to say about it.
The Doctor was all she cared about as her mum Jackie, pointed out in Parting of the Ways. She also pointed out how much Rose had changed and she didn’t recognise her any more. But it wasn’t until Turn Left episode that we saw just how much of a selfish bitch Rose Tyler truly was. Her obsession with the Doctor was way out of control which h shares responsibility for given the speech he gave Sarah Jane in School Reunion and the fact he can regenerate into a woman.
Having been trapped in the parallel universe at the end of Doomsday, it was clear Rose had been working on a way to get back to the love of her life,. But even writing that phrase doesn’t sit well with me. We all do things for love that might seem crazy to others but Rose takes it to a whole new level. If the Doctor really is the love of her life, would ending up with a human version of him really be enough for her? Did she take him because she knew the other version would outlive her and watch her wither and die. It has never sat right with me even now.
In Turn Left, Donna has a world created around her when a time beetle courtesy of Sarah Jane Smith’s enemy the Trickster, attaches itself to her. In this reality, she wasn’t there to save the Doctor when he fought the Racnoss. He died leaving Earth wide open and history began to take a new darker course all because she turned right instead of left on a road thanks to the nagging of her mother, Sylvia.
While Rose has used the alternate universe version of Torchwood to break through to our Earth to find the Doctor. Yes, stakes were high because Davros’ reality bomb was causing entire realities to collapse and the stars were going out in the heavens. However, it is her callousness towards Donna in order to achieve this that is most disturbing. It verges on psychotic. Rose knows Donna is the lodestone upon which everything depends. She must break free of the Trickster’s beetle to restore time to the correct path. The Doctor must survive the flooding of the Thames when he destroyed the arachnid Racnoss. As we learn from Turn Left, the world falls apart without him allowing the reality bomb to destroy everything. All of our heroes die as events from other episodes take a different turn like the Judoon stealing the hospital where everyon dies or Torchwood dying to save the Earth from the Sontaran Atmos weapon.
When Rose first shows up as the Doctor’s body is driven away by UNIT, you can see in her face that Donna is simply someone to be used. When Donna asks what Rose is looking at on her back, Rose’s whole demeanour is one of dismissiveness. As London is destroyed by the falling Titanic from Voyage of the damned, Donna and her family find themselves allocated to housing in Leeds where they are forced to live in shared housing, sleeping on a kitchen floor. Donna is hopeful she will get a job and get them a proper house but her mother Sylvia has a complete breakdown due to the state of the world. While Rose does try to convice Donna she is vital to saving everything, Donna doesn’t want to know. When she refuses, Rose takes a stand and casually and confidently tells her that she will come with her in three weeks and she is going to die. The delivery of this is harsh, almost matter of fact. It isn’t until she witnesses the stars going out that Donna realises that she has to go with Rose.
Using the nearly dead tardis, Rose sends Donna back in time to the moment her life changed. Donna that doing this will result in the whole world getting back to normal. I can’t help but feel that her encouraging Donna to step inside the Tardis and see the wonders for herself is simply Rose’s way of buttering Donna up for what is to come. Rose’s dislike for taking orders from UNIT are obvious for all to see even going so far as to tell them not to salute her just as the Doctor used to do. Is this a sign of some sort of complex?
When Rose uses the Tardis tech to show Donna the beetle on her back, she uses technobabble to explain it confusing Donna. When she asks what that means Rose laughs almost manically saying she doesn’t know, it was something the Doctor would say. Donna’s distress has no effect on her whatsoever which if the Doctor saw that, he would turn away in shame.
As Donna is about to be sent back in time to restore the timeline, she asks how Rose knows this will work. Rose answers she doesn’t as they are just guessing. When Donna babbles that she won’t really die as everything will be returned to normal. She asks that she will not die if things are sorted and she and the Doctor live. Rose stares at her impassively and says sorry. To Rose, Donna is simply a means to an end something to use. This is a trait that the Doctor has been accused of and it seems Jackie’s fears for her daughter are coming true. This Rose is cold, calculating but in her defence she is trying to save reality. This is the only way she can do it but it doesn’t feel right.
Even when Donna kills herslef by stepping out in frnt of a lorry to force her other self to turn left due to the traffic jam, Rose still hovers over her like an angel of death to ensure she delivers two words to the Doctor; two words that will alert him to the danger.
While Rose may seem to have noble intentions here, no pun intended, her execution of it makes for some uncomfortable viewing. This is a Rose that like the Doctor killing the Racnoss. She needs someone to step in and pull her back from the brink. There was another way to get Donna’s help and this cold interaction wasn’t it. It really just hughlighted how selfish Rose could be when she wanted something. Yes she was trying to warn the Doctor but her real focus was getting back with the man she loved. She stepped on and used anyone that could make thaat haappen regardless of the consequences, And that’s what makes Rose of Turn Left, the true villain of the piece.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 