Thought I'd just say.

Remember it well. Wow 10 years ago that's flown. England got knocked out of the world cup on pens to Portugal. Was watching in the post office and the BBC solomnly put doctor who on to follow it.

No that was doomsday. 1st july remember texting my mate where there daleks? Oh yes was the reply. They had been heavily rumoured but not confirmed.

Hated it ten years ago and still do. Yucky, slushy ending. Couldn't wait for the whole romance to bloody end.

I still adore it, the acting, the music , the characters that I actually cared about.

The first ever Daleks v Cybermen battle and a superb catty conversation between the two leaders. Just a great episode. Personally I'm not surprised Rose still tops the polls as favourite companion all these years later. A superb companion to kick off a new era of Who and this episode, where she leaves the Doctor's side, truly was 'event telly'.

That was a rather quick decade.

Memories are fuzzy in some places but I distinctly remember my Who-obsessed family being rather underwhelmed and unimpressed with the finale, and the series in general. A feeling of disappointment when we realised there was nothing about the episode to really talk about afterwards despite all the hype. I think my little sister is the only one with fond memories of it, but the rest of us let it be silently buried in the past while pining for the days of Tom Baker when the show had wit and wonder.

The show's come a long way since then, and in my opinion has changed for the better (we can actually find things to talk about regarding the show nowadays). I can't say I miss those days of Doctor Who.

I do miss the old BBC One a little, though.

How time flies. I remember actually being convinced at the time Rose was going to be killed off.

Looking back I do wish they left it at that rather than bringing her back in series 4.

I hated the romance stuff at the time,but on re-watches it never seems nearly as bad as I'd remembered.
Though i wish they'd left Rose at that point,constantly bringing her back or referencing her just seemed to be the show forcing us to accept that she was our favourite companion and that's that.The 50th appearance in particular made no sense other than in a "fans demanded it" way

Just watching Series 2 at the moment, though not got to the finale yet.

I personally love that finale though thought the Cybermen could have put up more of a fight against the Daleks. I remember being thrilled to bits at the end of Army Of Ghosts. Had heard rumours the Daleks were coming back but never saw it confirmed anywhere and glad it wasn't, it was an awesome surprise!

I guess whether you liked the ending depends on your taste. I rather liked it and would rather have a departure like that than what we had with Martha one year later.

Doomsday still is one of my favourite episodes of the New Series so far. Only Stolen Earth and Journey's End come anywhere close and nothing in the last few years has not been within touching distance of it for me.

Man I feel so old.
Remember it well, was at a friend's.

Saw both episodes last night. As good as ever, great effects, great dramatic moments and of course that ending on the beach.

Now why couldn't Moffat write something like that?


Just kidding! Just kidding. Remember we're supposed to have a bit of humour! Can anyone take a joke?

That wasn't Rose. It was "Bad Wolf". And it wasn't even really Bad Wolf, it was "The Moment" taking the form of Bad Wolf.

I don't really see how it made any less sense than anything else they come up with in Doctor Who.

I loved that it wasn't Rose. It would have been awful if it had been.

Yup, I feel old now. I was 14 at the time!

I remember how much mainstream hype there was for the episode. I remember my sister having a birthday party and everyone was talking about it there before it was actually on... the kids, the parents.

I then remember how sad I felt the ending was. I hadn't cared for the romance at all, and I still preferred Eccleston to Tennant. But losing Billie Piper marked the end of the 'original cast' for those of us who started watching in 2005. I recall how I resented Catherine Tate's end appearance for being obnoxiously comical... I insisted I was going to hate Donna (it's funny how things actually turn out ) but other than that I enjoyed the episode a lot. On rewatches it holds up well, but doesn't come close to the promises of Army of Ghosts, and isn't a patch on The Parting of the Ways.

I always got giddy seeing the Fiery Doctor Who Logo and saying it will return in (Episode name)

Although I enjoyed The Christmas Invasion (still the best of the Christmas specials, for me) I was disappointed by series 2 and gave up on it early on, before tuning back in for the finale. Having loved Rose in series 1, I found her irritating and grating in series 2 and didn't buy the romance between her and the Doctor.

However the finale felt epic and worked in a way that no finale since quite has. And if you "forget" that Rose came back in series 4, it works even better!

I don't think Rose was in love WITH The Doctor but his incarnation, if you know what I'm trying to say? If she was truly in love with him she wouldn't have gone with The Metacrisis Doctor at Darlig Ulv Stranden. I think however River Song actually loves The Doctor.

Thanks for the bad DW memories coming back to me.

That's the thing you see, everyone who complains about 'the romance' just based on the memory that there was a suggestion that the doctor was willing to say the 'L' word near the end of there relationship, seem to forget that if you actually watch it all back, their time together is not some sort of big love story at all. It's just a companion that he really bonds with, in the same way as Amy pond ( or the way they tried to force to think of 12 and Clara but it was forced and unnatural so never really stuck for me). It's only nearing the ending of their time that they have bonded so intensely that they (in what felt completely natural and believable to me, so well was their bond written) mentioned a suggestion of love, and even then it was only about twice that I remember, with RTD making sure 10 never actually officially said the word.

I feel that some fans just had such distaste for even the suggestion that the doctor might love a companion, that they judge the entire 10/rose era upon it, along with others who say things like 'I hate ten and rose just because everyone keeps going on about them' as though they have some sort of duty to hate what is popular. These two things combined mean that, I feel, although ten and rose, separately and together are still hugely popular in the mainstream, they often get harshly judged by 'fans' because of these prejudices.


The 50th appearance of Billie piper as 'the moment' (not rose) made just as much sense as putting anyone else in the role. Had they chosen freema for it, people would have complained 'why not Billie?' and the same if they'd chosen Catherine or Karen, and if they'd chosen a classic companion actor then that would have meant nothing to half of the target audience. Billie was at least the most popular companion actor that all the audience would recognise, and still one of the most popular overall.

Also, far from pandering to Rose fans as you suggest, I actually saw it as more of a cynical dig to them. The way it was done was almost like Moffat thinking 'So Ten and Rose still more popular than my creations are they? well lets see what people think when I include both Tennant and Billie in the special to grab myself some publicity, but then purposely make sure that Billie isn't playing rose, and that she and Tennant don't even get any lines together'.


I don't really agree. I think that the bond that the doctor/ Rose had by the end of series 2 was a natural progression of the relationship which started when he was 9 (think the doctor trying to keep her dad alive for her in fathers day for example even though he knew he shouldn't, or how utterly distraught Rose was in the christmas invasion when she didn't understand regeneration properly and thought she'd lost him as a person) and just flowered into a more intense relationship the longer they spent together and came to a head when he just happened to have that face.

You have to remember the meta crisis had all the doctors memories, including the times they spent together when he was the 9th doctor. The whole point of her kissing the doctor 10.5 was that it was a version of the doctor she could grow old with and who could admit he loved her. Even then they showed her a little shaken when the real doctor left as if she hadn't actually made a decision to pick the 10.5 doctor, and might still have wanted the real doctor given the choice. It's just she wasn't really given the choice.

Completely disagree with your comment about Billie in 'Day of the Doctor', DBB. Rose was a big part of the 2005 success and whilst my favourite companion of the era is Donna, I liked her as a character. (Even when I wasn't supposed to particularly, Piper pulled it off...) But she'd had two full series, a 'flashback' in 'The Runaway Bride', a cameo in Donna's first story as a full-time companion, and a return in the last 3 stories of series 4. Plus a cameo in 'End of Time' and numerous name checks in Series 3!

If it had been Rose again in DOTD I would've thought Gawd, she's had more comebacks than Sinatra! Moffat giving Billie such an important role in the 50th, and something a bit different to play was not only a big compliment to Piper, but probably really pleased her as an actress to do something a bit different....

I actually thought Billie was superb as 'The Moment' and don't buy the idea that SM was deliberately 'snubbing' the Rose devotees. Not for a, heh, Moment....

The romance thing definitely plays a part in it for me, it's something I felt they made quite obvious throughout the second series. But I also found Rose to be a completely unlikeable and horrid character, and her relationship with the Doctor felt contrived, superficial and lacked any real subtlety. There was also the whole "she's so normal because she works at a shop and likes chips thing", and what I felt was the usual RTD trope of expecting everybody to love the character regardless of what they do because they're the main character, so I don't feel her motivations as a character were all that strong or compelling. Her overshadowing of what could have been a great companion with Freema, and the apparent need to keep selling her as one of the most important characters ever just further cemented my distaste for her.


Based on... what exactly? I don't think that's a very rational conclusion. :P

I was dreading the prospect of Billie Piper returning for the 50th as I thought she was playing Rose, but I was actually quite impressed with how she played the Moment. Not bad acting at all and it was a fun role.

She was good as the moment, but come on, when they announced her and Tennant would both be in the 50th, I doubt anyone would have expected they wouldn't even have a single line together, and that it would be written in such a way that 10 wouldn't even physically be able to see her. Maybe he wasn't exactly intentionally snubbing Ten/Rose fans, but it seems a strange and inexplicable decision nevertheless.

I can see how for some people, her re-returning would be tedious, but for me she is still the best, most well written and believable companion we've had, so like my feelings on jack and river I was always happy to see her return.

Not to mention that if she'd been Rose but it had been her and ten plucked together from the series 2 era, then that wouldn't actually been another return, more just her from a time when we already knew she was with the doctor then.


Fair enough if you didn't like her based on her overall personality, but as I said earlier I think the 'romance' stuff is way more pronounced in people's memories than what was actually portrayed on screen, which was actually for the most part, in my opinion, just an intense doctor/companion relationship like that with many other companion, with only the suggestion of full on romance towards the end.


It's a bit unfair for a companion to be judged on elements that were nothing to actually do with them as a character, and things that happened when the character wasn't even there.

Saying a reason to dislike Rose was the 'overshadowing' of Martha would be like me saying a good reason to dislike Sarah Jane was because she came in and overshadowed Rose in school reunion and then further overshadowed most of the new who companions by having her own spin off show (which isn't my actual opinion, quite like Sarah Jane)


I don't understand how anyone who likes Clara can make such a comment about any other companion. She is the ultimate example of a constant 'need to keep selling her as one of the most important characters. At least with Rose, if RTD did make her seem overly important to some, it was organically so, with her importance to the doctor being based on things that happened to them and their ever growing bond. Clara's supposed importance was the most artificial thing ever. Oh look, she's saving the doctor every day of his life, or oh look, she's affecting his lifelong fears by visiting him as a child etc, and all that sort of stuff did was hurt the credibility of what I was watching rather than going anyway as to making me think of Clara as important or likeable.



Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I am just overly suspicious. I just find it odd to include a popular on screen pairing and write a script in which the pair don't actually interact at any point and can't think of a reason why someone would write it like that.

To me it's akin to getting for example, all the members of an internationally famous band to agree to perform at a music festival, but then asking them to all perform solo sets on different stages. I just don't get it.

Even if they had returned, I think it would have just been undermined by all the more interesting things going on in the episode, such as the War Doctor and the salvation of Gallifrey, and the Moment just seemed like a more natural fit within the story as opposed to the usual practise of plucking a companion out. Most people just seemed happy to see Tennant and Piper returning and I appreciated what they brought to the episode even if their characters hadn't been favourites of mine.


Personally I think RTD has an annoying habit of making most of his characters horny and frequently flirting with each other, rarely writing many other character interactions except for "generic mum character", and it was especially pronounced in Series 2 between Rose and the Tenth Doctor.


Perhaps, but it certainly didn't make me appreciate the writer's ability or his character any more. I wanted to learn more about Martha, not just where she works and how much she fancies the Doctor, but about her personality and how travelling with the Doctor shapes her. We didn't seem to learn much, however, as her development was thin and she just seemed to be there to further the relationship between Rose and Ten.


See, I never felt like Clara was being sold at all and I thought her relationship with the Doctor, post-Smith, was a lot more natural and layered. Perhaps it's because I found it more relatable: there wasn't much for me to invest in in what dwindled into a dull and generic love story between Ten and Rose, in my opinion, but Twelve and Clara's bond had a bittersweet element in it, being two very different people, one terribly misunderstood and difficult, finding a lot of comfort in each other and driven by every obstacle that comes in their way.

Just finished watching Doomsday now.

It's just occurred to me Rose didn't actually have to lock the second lever back in place. The Daleks were almost done going through to the void and still going I'm even if slowly.

Much easier for a girl clinging on for dear life.

Still where would the story be if it had happened like that