10 Best Rose Tyler Episodes on Doctor Who, Ranked

Doctor Who’s Rose Tyler was played by Billie Piper, and was a fascinating character. She encountered the Doctor after an alien attack on the shop where she worked, and she fell completely in love with him. She left her mother Jackie and boyfriend Mickey behind as she traveled with him throughout time and space, dodging dangers and sometimes barely escaping with her life.

Rose had many good qualities, such as being kind, brave and smart, but she also had some bad ones. She often didn’t consider the feelings of others, and there were times when she was blinded by her love for the Doctor. Her best episodes showed off all these sides of Rose’s personality.

10 ‘Boomtown’ Highlighted Rose’s Selfishness

In “Boomtown” Rose has her old boyfriend Mickey meet up with her again, after she left him to go traveling with the Doctor. The pair of them have no idea where they stand with each other anymore. When Mickey says he’s seeing someone else, Rose isn’t happy.

At the end of the episode, the alien threat is defeated via the Heart of the TARDIS, but Rose is still upset over where she’s left things with Mickey. She knows she’s picked the Doctor over him, and she knows that she always will, but that’s a hard pill for her to swallow.

9 ‘School Reunion’ Teams Rose With Sarah Jane Smith

When Rose first started traveling with the Doctor, she assumed she was the only human woman ever to do so. She was wrong, however, as she found out when Sarah Jane Smith turned up. Sarah Jane traveled with the Fourth Doctor, but he left her. Rose found herself questioning if the Tenth Doctor would do the same to her.

Rose is forced to really consider her relationship with the Doctor, and also attempt to bond with Sarah Jane Smith, who isn’t terribly friendly at first to her “replacement.” It’s a very poignant episode, made all the more poignant by the sad death of Sarah Jane’s actor, Elisabeth Sladen in 2011.

8 ‘The Satan Pit’ Put Rose in Terrible Danger

In both “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit,” the Doctor proceeded into the titular pit while Rose remained on the surface of the planet Krop Tor. But Rose wasn’t safe there, because a being known simply as The Beast had control over the entire planet via his possession of the Ood.

As the rest of the Krop Tor crew attempted to leave the planet, Rose planned to stay, even if it meant her own death, as she couldn’t bear to leave the Doctor in the pit. Placed on the escape ship anyway, Rose found herself face to face with The Beast himself, possessing the body of a crewmember. She shot him out of the window, saying, “Go to hell.” It was a truly standout moment for her.

7 ‘The Christmas Invasion’ Saw Rose Deal With Regeneration

Rose had no idea the Doctor could regenerate, but after the events of “The Parting of the Ways” he changed from the Ninth Doctor into the Tenth. It was as if the man Rose loved had been replaced with an entirely different one. But after the Sycorax invaded, Rose came to see the new Doctor in an entirely different way.

His appearance had changed, but this Doctor had all his memories intact and he still loved Rose. She was more than happy to continue to go on adventures with him throughout time and space, even if that meant leaving Jackie and Mickey behind once more.

6 ‘The Parting of the Ways’ Saw Rose Become Bad Wolf

All throughout Season 1 of the rebooted Doctor Who, Rose and the Doctor were followed by the words “Bad Wolf.” Wherever they went, they heard or saw the words somewhere. It transpired in the episode “The Parting of the Ways” that Rose herself was the Bad Wolf.

In an attempt to save the Doctor, Rose looked into the Heart of the TARDIS and was transformed. She scattered “Bad Wolf” through space and time as a message to herself, and destroyed the Dalek fleet. One very ordinary woman had saved the world, and she even harnessed the power of life and death and brought Jack Harkness back to life. Rose’s actions in this episode had long ramifications for the whole Whoniverse.

5 ‘The Stolen Earth’ Reunited Rose and the Doctor

Season 4 of Doctor Who had Rose appear multiple times in the background of scenes, and then eventually she became part of the action in the episode “Turn Left.” That story heralded her return to the Doctor’s universe, with the text on the TARDIS turning into “Bad Wolf.”

Rose dropped back into her own universe for the events of “The Stolen Earth” and demonstrated that she’d become a capable warrior after separating from the Doctor. When she finally met him again, it was a heart-warming scene that would be continued in the next episode, “Journey’s End.”

4 ‘The End of The World’ Was Rose’s Second Adventure

After Rose’s introduction in “Rose”, the Doctor swept her away to a space station to watch Earth be destroyed many centuries into the future. It was an odd choice for a “first date,” but it turned out the Doctor was hiding a great deal of pain about his own home planet, Gallifrey. It was gone.

Billie Piper got to play so many emotions in this episode, like joy, wonder, sadness and fear. She definitely put to rest any fears anyone might have had about casting a former pop star as the Doctor’s companion.

3 ‘Doomsday’ Separated Rose and The Doctor

The finale of the rebooted show’s Season 2 had a lot of work to do. There were battles between the Daleks and the Cybermen, there were two worlds colliding, there was the return of Mickey, and finally, there was the separation of Rose from the Doctor. It had to be done, as Billie Piper wished to leave the show.

In the end, the Doctor and Rose were able to dispose of the Daleks and Cybermen at the cost of leaving Rose trapped in another reality. However, the Doctor was able to contact Rose one last time, and the two bid a tragic goodbye to each other on a beach called “Bad Wolf Bay.” That was it for Rose until Piper returned to the show a couple of years later.

2 ‘Rose’ Was a Great Re-Introduction to the Show

“Rose” was the first episode of the rebooted show, and had a lot riding on it. It needed to introduce the new Doctor, the TARDIS, the concept of a Time Lord and so much more. It chose to do this through the eyes of Rose, a regular teenager who lived in London and worked in a shop.

When Rose’s shop is blown up by an alien invasion, Rose finds herself working with the Doctor to stop said aliens, the Autons, before they take over the world. Along the way, she realizes that she’s not getting what she wants out of life. It was the start of a beautiful adventure.

1 ‘Father’s Day’ Had Rose Meet Her Dead Father

Rose always felt sorrow over the death of her father, Peter Tyler, who died in a car accident while she was just a baby. In “Father’s Day,” she asks the Doctor to take her back to the moment of his death. When she gets there, however, she can’t help but save him.

This episode delved deep into Rose’s love for both her parents, and her relationship with the Doctor. The Doctor is furious at what Rose has done, but can’t bring himself to abandon her. In the end, Rose has to accept that she cannot change time and her father is doomed to die. It’s thoughtful, sad little gem of an episode.