Billie Piper Turns 31:Profile Of Rose Tyler

                 Doctor Who had been off the weekly television roster on "the Beeb" for sixteen years when it happily leap back onto the air in 2005. This was a very different type of Doctor Who. It was an hour long taped program with contemporary CGI special effects and a much higher fiscal budget. Producer Russel T. Davies also conceived of the show with a number of new twists. One case in point was that the ninth doctor,played by Christopher Eccleston,would be the last of his kind. One thing that hadn't changed about the show was it's concept of a human companion to guide the viewer through the doctors complex journey's through time and space. The first episode of the relaunched series was called "Rose". The story focused on the new companion Rose Tyler,played by erstwhile pop singer Billie Piper.

             With her dramatic 1960's blonde bombshell type appearance,Billie Piper portrayed the character of Rose in a very interesting way. This was a character who was rather hurriedly willing to accept the doctor at his word of being a space/time traveler and perceptive enough at that to be able to point out his weaknesses-such as her pointing out his lack of understanding over an injured Dalek. On the other hand she was also a naive young adult in need of guidance. She casually dismissed her boyfriend Micky and even her doting and chatty mother Jackie after the doctor regenerated into a physically more relatable incarnation played by David Tennant. Their journey finally led her into a position where she was forced to remain in an alternate universe.

               Despite her many flaws endemic to inexperience in life, Rose Tyler is often thought of as one of the most significant of the current Doctor Who companions. Perhaps it has to do with the redemptive nature of her story-starting out as merely a displaced young lady without a father to someone responsible for saving the universe at least twice from destruction. I had planned to review her second series of Doctor Who with David Tennant this month. But for those readers of this blog who may have wondered where I've been,health problems in the midst of being treated have led to psychological distress I am also attending to on my own. Personally I am not sure when I will return here to this,as it turns out,difficult to maintain blog. Yet wanted to chime in to wish Billie Piper a happy birthday to all Whovians out there.