| Season Twenty-Seven (2005): The Trip Of A
Lifetime |
| Companions and Recurring Characters |
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Rose Tyler was a teenaged department store
worker in 2005 London who helped the Doctor stop an invasion by the
Nestene Consciousness.
Billie Piper (bio) made her first appearance as Rose
in Rose (March 2005) and her
last in The Day Of The Doctor
(November 2013).
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Mickey Smith was Rose Tyler's boyfriend before
she decided to travel with the Doctor. After reluctantly assisting the
Doctor and Rose on several occasions, Mickey finally accepted their
invitation to join them aboard the TARDIS.
Noel Clarke (bio) made his first appearance as
Mickey in Rose (March 2005) and
his last in The End Of Time
(January 2010).
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Mother to Rose, Jackie Tyler was suspicious of
the Doctor's role in her daughter's life, until she finally came to
understand how travelling in the TARDIS had changed Rose's life for the
better.
Camille Coduri (bio) made her first appearance as
Jackie in Rose (March 2005) and
her last in The End Of Time
(January 2010).
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Harriet Jones was a back-bench Member of
Parliament for Flydale North until her involvement in the Doctor's
defeat of the Slitheen propelled her swift ascent to the Prime
Minister's office.
Penelope Wilton (bio) made her first appearance as
Harriet in Aliens Of London
(April 2005) and her last in The Stolen
Earth (June 2008).
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Adam Mitchell was a young computer genius
employed by Henry van Statten's Geocomtex corporation when a Dalek was
unleashed upon its Utah facility.
Bruno Langley (bio) made his first appearance as
Adam in Dalek (April 2005) and
his last in The Long Game (May
2005).
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Pete Tyler was Rose's father, a ne'er-do-well
who died when she was still a baby. However, Rose was twice reunited
with her dad during her travels with the Doctor: first when she
uncovered the truth behind his death, and then when she met his
counterpart from an alternative reality.
Shaun Dingwall (bio) made his first appearance as
Pete in Father's Day (May 2005)
and his last in Doomsday (July
2006).
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The man who called himself Captain Jack
Harkness was a Time Agent turned con artist who met the Doctor in
London during the Blitz. Inspired to more altruistic pursuits by his
travels in the TARDIS, Jack became the leader of the Cardiff branch of
the Torchwood Institute, tasked with protecting the Earth from
extraterrestrial threats.
John Barrowman (bio) made his first appearance as
Jack in The Empty Child (May
2005) and his last in Revolution Of The
Daleks (January 2021).
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The composition of the Doctor Who production team evolved
considerably between the end of the original series in 1989 and its
twenty-first century revival. Previously, the programme had usually been
overseen in partnership by a producer and a script editor. Now the
creative vision was principally the responsibility of a single
individual: Russell T
Davies (bio), often referred to as the
“showrunner” in parlance borrowed from Hollywood. Both an
executive producer and the head writer, Davies was administratively
supported by other executive producers, while the day-to-day management
duties would be handled by one or more producers of various kinds.
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Rose by Russell T Davies, directed by
Keith Boak
Rose Tyler is a normal young woman. She lives with her mum, Jackie. She
has a semi-serious boyfriend, Mickey. And she works a mundane job at
Henrik's department store. One night, however, Rose's life is turned
upside-down when she finds murderous animated mannequins in the store
basement, and is rescued by a mysterious stranger who calls himself
“the Doctor”. Rose becomes determined to delve deeper into
the mystery of the Doctor, but her life is imperilled again when Mickey
is replaced by a plastic doppelganger. Only together can Rose and the
Doctor stop a secret invasion of the Earth.
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The Doctor invites Rose to join him in his travels.
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The End Of The
World by Russell T Davies, directed by Euros Lyn
The Doctor and Rose arrive on the orbiting Platform One in the year Five
Billion. Some of the richest beings in the universe have gathered there
to watch the destruction of the Earth, as its Sun erupts into a red
giant. While Rose grapples with the implications of her decision to
travel in the TARDIS, an army of robotic spiders takes control of the
space station. Is the mastermind Jabe, the serene Tree from the Forest
of Cheem? Cassandra, the last pure human in existence? The diminutive
Moxx of Balhoon? Or the impassive Face of Boe? And whoever it is, can
the Doctor stop them before Platform One perishes along with the Earth?
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The Unquiet Dead by Mark Gatiss,
directed by Euros Lyn
The TARDIS materialises in Cardiff on Christmas Eve 1869. An undertaker
named Gabriel Sneed has been tormented by corpses walking out of his
funeral parlour. When one of the dead interrupts a reading by esteemed
author Charles Dickens, Rose intervenes, only to be kidnapped by Sneed
and his maid, Gwyneth. The Doctor and a sceptical Dickens track Rose to
the mortuary, where the Doctor learns of the existence of a mysterious
Rift. Meanwhile, Rose befriends Gwyneth, who is gifted with the
“second sight” -- and who may be the key to unlocking the
terrible secret of the Rift.
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Aliens Of London / World War
Three by Russell T Davies, directed by Keith Boak
The Doctor thinks he has brought Rose home twelve hours after she left,
only to discover that it has instead been twelve months. But before they
can explain the situation to a panic-stricken Jackie and a wary Mickey,
a spaceship crashlands in the heart of London. Much to the Doctor's
astonishment, its pilot appears to be a pig. Meanwhile, lowly MP Harriet
Jones discovers that the Prime Minister has gone missing, and some of
the senior administrators in Whitehall are behaving very strangely.
These events are all part of a deception engineered by the alien
Slitheen, who have infiltrated 10 Downing Street itself.
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Dalek by Robert Shearman,
directed by Joe Ahearne
In 2012, the foremost collector of alien artefacts is the wealthy Henry
van Statten. The TARDIS is drawn to his underground museum in Utah by a
distress call from van Statten's latest acquisition. He has dubbed it a
“Metaltron”, but the Doctor is horrified to recognise it as
a Dalek. The creature is badly damaged and virtually powerless, but it
is inadvertently freed by Rose and Adam Mitchell, one of van Statten's
brilliant young researchers. As the reinvigorated Dalek rampages through
van Statten's compound, Rose begins to uncover the awful truth behind
the Doctor's hatred of his enemy.
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The Doctor and Rose invite Adam aboard the TARDIS.
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The Long Game by Russell T Davies,
directed by Brian Grant
The Doctor, Rose and Adam find themselves on Satellite 5 in the year
200,000, when Earth is meant to be at the forefront of a mighty galactic
empire. But something has gone wrong: humanity's development has
stalled, and the Doctor suspects that it has something to do with the
media transmissions which bombard the populace, all emanating from
Satellite 5. The answer lies on the mysterious Floor 500, abode of the
sinister Editor. But while the Doctor and Rose investigate, Adam decides
to take full advantage of the opportunity to immerse himself in the
knowledge and technology of the distant future.
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Having betrayed the Doctor's trust, Adam is returned home to 2012
England.
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Father's Day by Paul Cornell,
directed by Joe Ahearne
The Doctor takes Rose back to the 7th of November 1987, the day her
father Pete was killed in a hit-and-run accident while she was still a
baby. Rose just wants to comfort Pete as he dies but, on impulse, she
instead saves his life. Not only is the Doctor furious, but mysterious
events soon begin to occur: Rose's cell phone picks up the distant past,
and the TARDIS turns into a regular police box. While Rose discovers
that her father is a more complex man than she had expected, her
well-meaning interference with history summons forth the Reapers, who
threaten to heal the wound in time by devouring the world.
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The Empty Child / The Doctor
Dances by Steven Moffat, directed by James Hawes
The TARDIS pursues an object hurtling through the time vortex to 1941
London, in the middle of the Blitz. The city is being haunted by an
eerie child, his face covered by a gas mask, searching for his mother.
The Doctor meets a group of orphans led by Nancy, who informs him that
the mysterious child is her dead brother, Jamie. Now his horrific
transformation is spreading through the city like a plague, passed from
victim to victim by touch. Meanwhile, Rose is saved from certain death
during an air raid by the enigmatic Captain Jack Harkness, a man from
another time and place who may be the key to the mystery.
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The Doctor rescues Jack from the detonation of a bomb aboard his
spaceship.
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Boom Town by Russell T Davies,
directed by Joe Ahearne
The Doctor, Rose and Jack land in modern-day Cardiff, where they mean to
refuel the TARDIS using the time rift they encountered in 1869. They
learn that the new mayor is none other than Margaret Blaine: one of the
Slitheen who infiltrated 10 Downing Street. Really Blon Fel-Fotch
Passameer-Day Slitheen, she plans to construct a nuclear reactor which
will tap into the rift, destroying the Earth and providing the energy
she needs to escape into space. With Mickey's help, the time travellers
set out to stop Blon. But the Doctor is confronted with a painful choice
when it's revealed that Blon faces a death sentence on her homeworld.
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Bad Wolf / The Parting Of The
Ways by Russell T Davies, directed by Joe Ahearne
The Doctor, Rose and Jack find themselves competing in lethal futuristic
versions of modern reality and quiz shows. They have somehow been
brought aboard the Game Station, which the Doctor realises is what
Satellite 5 became following his intervention a century earlier. Now it
transmits dozens of programmes to keep humanity docile, under the
direction of the mysterious Bad Wolf Corporation. But the true power
behind the Game Station is the revitalised Dalek Empire. When Rose is
captured by the Daleks, the Doctor must risk everything to save his
friend, and the Earth itself.
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The Doctor regenerates after absorbing the energies of the time vortex
to save Rose's life. In the confusion, Jack is left behind on the Game
Station.
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In the wee hours of September 26th, 2003, it was announced that
Doctor Who would return to television in 2005, more than fifteen
years after the cancellation of the original series. Under the guiding
hand of Russell T Davies, a lifelong fan who had risen to prominence in
the television industry, the revival would respect what had gone before,
while striving to appeal to a modern family audience. Davies' vision for
Doctor Who was a monumental critical and popular success,
attracting a new legion of fans -- many of whom had not even been born
when the programme went off the air in 1989. But there were still
substantial challenges to navigate, not least being Christopher
Eccleston's decision to leave the show after a single season as the
Doctor.
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