David Tennant and Billie Piper have a hilariously dark theory about the Doctor and Rose’s relationship
The former Doctor Who co-stars were asked what happened to Rose and the human Doctor after Journey’s End, and they had the perfect response
This 5th July will mark the ten-year anniversary of one of Doctor Who’s most bittersweet goodbyes, when the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) bid farewell to former companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) in series 4 finale Journey’s End, leaving her in a parallel world with his half-human clone to begin a new life.
Rose got her own Doctor (well, sort of) and the Time Lord was free to travel the stars without her – but was that the end of the story?
- Matt Smith says he nearly turned down Doctor Who
- David Tennant hints he might return for Doctor Who's 60th anniversary
Well, according to Piper and Tennant themselves it most certainly was not, with the duo revealing their own theories about Rose and the human Doctor’s future life when the actors reunited at Wizard World con over the weekend.
Asked whether the pair could have had children, Tennant initially responded incredulously.
“What do you think – was that biologically possible?” he asked the crowd, who enthusiastically replied in the positive.
“Well then, apparently they DID have a family,” he laughed. “The hall at this particular comic-con has decided.”
Turning to Piper, he asked: “How many kids did they have?”
“Hmmm… maybe…. two?” she suggested. “They’re quite self-involved, anything more would’ve [been an issue].”
“Jackie’s probably bringing them up,” Tennant said, before whipping out his own impression of actor Camille Coduri, who played Rose’s mum in the series from 2005 to 2010.
“Yeah, she would be one of those really smothering mums,” agreed Piper.
“I think they would’ve had a couple of kids. Have a few dogs. Maybe a lizard on a lead! He’d like weird pets.”
All sounds fairly idyllic so far – but then things took a darker turn.
“They’d have slid into alcoholism…” Tennant joked, with Piper continuing: “and died of boredom.
“You wanna see that, right?” she asked the crowd.
Frankly, at this stage we wouldn’t be surprised if a gritty kitchen-sink drama starring a half-human Time Lord and a former time traveller ended up being the sleeper spin-off hit the BBC has been looking for. And if not, well, Tennant had a suggestion for what fans could watch instead to get a sense of the pair's future lives.
“Have you seen the sitcom the Royle Family, the British show?” he asked. “No? Oh, that’s not gonna work.”
“I have, and I get it,” Piper assured him.
And if nothing else, this is a whole new avenue for the fan fiction writers to explore. Rose and the Doctor hit the bottle? Finally, the drama we’ve been waiting for.
Doctor Who returns to BBC1 this autumn