When she first meets the Doctor, Rose Tyler is a shopgirl with no other ambition than living a normal life, stuck between a mum who’s more like a best friend or older sister than a mother figure, and a boyfriend she grew up with. Her life is pretty much like the life of anyone watching the show, which makes it so easy to identify with her.

But one night, a strange man clad in dark clothes and a leather jacket grabs her hand. Run, he tells her.


And she does. Doom and disaster follow in that man’s wake, but she trusts him, somehow. At first, he’s not making sense, because everything he says goes against what a nineteen year old human girl knows about life and science. But he shows her the world as he sees it, holding her hand, making her feel the spin of the Earth, proving her that there’s so much to see out there, so much to discover.

 
“It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour. And I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go...”

She’s so captivated that she keeps asking questions, investigates about him, discovers he’s an alien travelling in a spaceship that’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It’s a bit of a culture shock, but she doesn’t run for the woods, and when he asks her to travel with him, she can’t turn down the offer.


“Right then! I'll be off! Unless, uh... I don't know... you could come with me. This box isn't just a London hopper, you know, it goes anywhere in the universe free of charge. (...) What do you think? You could stay here and fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go, uh... anywhere.”
“Is it always this dangerous?”
“Yeah.”

At first, it feels a bit too much for her, like when he takes her to see the end of her home planet. He’s always there to support her, though. He knows how she feels, having just lost his own home, and he finds the right words to comfort her.


“The end of the Earth. It's gone. And we were too busy saving ourselves, no one saw it go. All those years... all that history and no one was even looking. It's just...”
“Come with me.”
 
Quickly, holding each other’s hand becomes a gesture of comfort that helps them both deal with whatever danger they’re in. Physical contact fulfils their loneliness: the Doctor, the last of his kind, found a mate who gives him the hope he was missing. Rose, stuck in an ordinary life and far from imagining there was something else out there for her, finds in him an escape from reality. He’s there, he supports her, he doesn’t judge her, and he needs her.


“There's me...”

On one of their closest call to death, during The Unquiet Dead, they come to realise how precious they are to the other. Their hands link, their fingers twine, and there’s a whole world of faith and trust in their eyes as they prepare for what they think is an impending death.




Of course, they’ll deny having sharing more than friendship. They probably deny it to themselves as much as others.



Problem is, danger and death are never far away when travelling with the Doctor. Rose learns to deal with it and accepts it as long as she’s by his side. The Doctor, though, soon realises that Rose is his biggest weakness, because he cares so much for her that losing her becomes unthinkable.



It doesn’t take long for the Doctor’s Arch Enemies to figure out that Rose is more to him than just another companion.



Yes, he could lose her. And he comes pretty close to doing so, several times throughout the two years they spend together. But even as she thinks she’s going to die, Rose never resents him for putting her in danger. Living her life with the Doctor is the best thing that could ever happen to her, and she doesn’t care if she loses her life in the process.



She keeps him in check, she’s the one who can stop him when he’s about to go too far. She brings him solace and hope and peace. When she first meets him, he’s destroyed by too many years fighting in the Time War, by the death of his own people, killed by his hand because he had no choice but to sacrifice them. Hatred, grief and sorrow are his companions. Rose saves him from spiralling down into complete darkness.


“Rose, get out of the way, now!”
“No! 'Cause I won't let you do this!”
“That thing killed hundreds of people.”
“It's not the one pointing the gun at me.”
“I've got to do this. I've got to end it. The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. I've got nothing left.”

Except now, he’s got Rose. Rose who holds his hand, Rose who hugs him, Rose who smiles at him and trusts him with her life, Rose who needs him just as much as he needs her.



And for Rose, the Doctor would do anything, including taking her back to the day her dad died, just to allow her to see him one more time and say goodbye.



She can't. But overwhelmed by her emotions, she can once again count on the Doctor's support to help her through her father's death.


Problem is, no matter how much tenderness they feel for each other, there comes a time when the perfect companion fails him, and the fall is hard for the Doctor, who’d placed so much faith in Rose Tyler. She’s not perfect. She’s human. She’s weak sometimes, and lets her emotions take over common sense.


“Just... tell me you're sorry.”
“I am. I'm sorry.”


And he forgives her for being so human, because that’s what he loves about her. That’s what makes her so special.

Their relationship isn’t always just about drama, though. It’s a rollercoaster, with ups and downs, tears and laughs. Flirting is a game, even more so when they meet Captain Jack Harkness, and travelling through time and space becomes even better with three.


“And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mr. Spock.”
“Mr. Spock?”
“What was I supposed to say, you don't have a name! Don't you ever get tired of 'Doctor'? Doctor who?”
“Nine centuries in, I'm coping.”

Upon first stepping into the ship, Jack walks into what looks like an established relationship between the Doctor and Rose.

  
“I trust him 'cause he's like you. Except with dating and dancing.”
“What? You just assume I'm...”
“What?”
“You just assume that I don't... dance.”
“What, are you telling me you do... dance?”
“Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume that at some point I've danced.”

The Doctor and Jack bicker a lot, fighting for the manly man status and who’s got the biggest... weapon.


“Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?”
“A sonic, er... oh, never mind.”
“What?”
“It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that.”
“Disrupter? Cannon? What?”
“It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am sonic-ed up!”
“A sonic what?!”
“Screwdriver!”
“Who has a sonic screwdriver?”
“I do!”
“Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks "oohoo, this could be a little more sonic"?”
“What, you've never been bored? Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?”

But the three of them quickly settle into a routine, enjoying every minute of their adventures together.


Barely a year’s passed since she met the Doctor, and Rose Tyler the shopgirl now talks about visiting an alien planet like it’s something completely normal. But she’s still wide-eyed and fascinated by it all.


“I don't believe it! We actually get to go to Raxa... Wait a minute!”
“Raxacor...”
“Raxacoricofallapatorius.”
“Raxacorico...”
“... fallapatorius.”
“Raxacoricofallapatorius!”
“That's it!”
“I did it!”

But life on the TARDIS is tough. It’s dangerous, and death is rearing its ugly head again, taking Rose from the Doctor and Jack, turning her into ashes right in front of them.


One of the two men in her life stays silent, powerless, shocked by what just happened. The other, human, voices his emotions, his grief for the woman he loves, who just got disintegrated, and the man he loves, broken by the loss of Rose.


“What the hell did you do to her? ... Back off! ... Don't you touch him! Leave him alone! ... You killed her! Your stupid freaking game show killed her.”

A prelude for what’s to come much, much later. It’s already too late, though. Losing Rose is something the Doctor already can’t fathom any more. He’s got her under his skin. From a travelling mate, she’s turned into someone he can’t live without. Someone he loves.

He’s ready to face Daleks again if it can save her.


“Rose?”
“Yes, Doctor?”
“I'm coming to get you.”


“Feels like I haven't seem you in years. “
“Told you I'd come and get you.”
“Never doubted it.”

He thought he’d lost her, but she’s back with him, fighting the fight, ready to lead that final battle against the Doctor’s arch-enemy, not caring for her own life. She could ask him to take her back to the Powell Estates, but it doesn’t even occur to her. Rose just doesn’t run away. With the Doctor, she’s learned to face her fears, face dangers, make a stand and not let go.

Better with three, yes... but Jack knows he’s about to die, and says his final goodbyes to Rose and the Doctor.





The Doctor soon becomes aware that this time, there’ll be no escape. And he lost Rose several times now. He can’t bear the thought of her dying this time, and so he tricks her into going back to the TARDIS. He sends her home, to safety.


“Cancels the buffers. If I'm very clever - and I'm more than clever, I'm brilliant - I might just save the world. Or rip it apart...”
“I'd go for the first one.”
“Me too. Now, I've just got to go and power up the Game Station. Hold on!”


“Doctor, what're you doing? Can I take my hand off? It's moving... Doctor, let me out! Let me out! Doctor, what've you done?

But how do you go back to a normal life once you know what life’s like with the Doctor? Rose can’t. She can’t deal with the idea that the Doctor sent her to safety and decided to deal with the Daleks on his own.


“ But what do I do every day, mum? What do I do? Get up - catch the bus - go to work - come back home - eat chips and go to bed? Is that it?”

And so she finds a way back, opening the heart of the TARDIS and using the telepathic field of the spaceship to lead her back to the Doctor.

 
She saves him. Destroys the Daleks, ends the Time War.



She didn’t think of the consequences, of what the power of the Time Vortex could do to her. She didn’t think that it could kill her.

The Doctor sacrifices his life to save her, and while the Doctor’s main intention is to get take the Vortex from Rose’s body, the kiss is full of love and tenderness and symbolism of what the Doctor’s doing to save her...



... losing his own life in the process.