Doctor Who's Rose Tyler Wasn't That Relatable, She Was Just Bland

As with any show, when enough time passes, Doctor Who fans begin to look back on the earlier seasons without the loving haze that surrounded the series before. Though still loved, the British sci-fi franchise has changed tremendously since its reboot in 2009, and some parts of the show just can't stand comparison with the newer ones.

This is especially true for the Doctor's companion, Rose Tyler, who first appeared in the first season of the revival as the counterpart to Christopher Eccleston's 9th Doctor, and stayed on for another season with David Tennant's 10th Doctor.

Though still much loved by Whovians, Rose has come to be seen as deeply flawed in more and more fan conversations. As portrayed by Billie Piper, she was supposed to be an average working-class London girl of 2009. Instead of going to university, 19-year-old Rose worked in a clothes shop, had a boyfriend and lived with her slightly overprotective mother.

She was cute, had a good sense of style, and couldn't resist the idea of traveling through time and space with an alien called the Doctor, so she jumped into the TARDIS and left everyone to watch her go.

Although the BBC had a plan to create the most average, simple and relatable character of all time in order to involve as many people as possible in the story and give the new Doctor Who at least half the audience it once had, they ended up creating a Mary Sue with some annoying tendencies.

Rose Tyler was not a person you'd want to be friends with in real life, seeing how easily she could leave behind everything that would have mattered to any human being. She didn't listen to anyone's advice, including the Doctor's, and constantly put them both in danger, acting out of emotion rather than logic.

Was she supposed to be portrayed as a street-smart kid? Probably, but she came off as ruthless instead, and her screen presence was rather tiresome.

The saddest part, though, was a love line with the Doctor. As it was explored a little later with the Eleventh and even the Thirteenth Doctor, the relationship between a very mortal and a fairly timeless, centuries-old creature would always be fraught with complications. However, they became Rose's whole personality, which eventually led to her downfall.

From what we've explored with other companions, Rose doesn't seem at all relatable, but she was exactly what the show needed to get off the ground. If anything, we look back at the character through the prism of positive and sweet nostalgia, and pay our respects to Billie Piper for embodying her perfectly.

If you want to revisit Doctor Who, the show is going to make its debut on Disney Plus later this fall. Don't miss the 60th anniversary specials with David Tennant this November!