Rose Tyler Canon Question

[amberfocus]

Does anyone know if Rose Tyler has an established birthdate in canon?  For some reason I'm thinking it's April 27th but that may have just been in a fic I read.  Anyone know for sure?  This is for A Sky Without Zeppelins so I can fudge it to whenever I want it, but if there's a real date I'd like to know.  Thanks.

Comments

[angelfireeast.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure but if you have a screen cap you could try to look on Rose's missing poster Jackie made. I'm sure it had her birth day on it. It's just whether you can read it or not.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I tried that, it doesn't say her birthday on it. Thanks, though.

[simplyn2deep.livejournal.com]

looked on Wikipedia and I do believe you are right

Rose Tyler was born to Jackie and Pete Tyler, on 27th April 1987.

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Rose_Tyler

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The year isn't really important since this is AU, but the April 27th is what I wanted confirmed.

[apurplepatch.livejournal.com]

I think there was an issue about the birthdate being moved at some point -

In fact... via Wikipedia.

Mysteries and Discrepancies

The Doctor states that Rose is nineteen years old (DW:The Unquiet Dead, DW:Dalek), and it is later established that she met the Doctor on 6 March 2005 (DW: Aliens of London). However, the Annual article states that Rose was born on 27 April 1987. Although this contradicts the age as stated on screen (she would have been 17 when she met the Doctor, not 19), it is consistent with the appearance of the baby Rose in "Father's Day," set in November 1987, where the baby is clearly no more than a few months old. The 27th April birthdate is also inconsistent with a statement on the BBC's website: during the lead-up to the episode "Bad Wolf," the website was altered to tie in with the story's Big Brother theme, and a "contestant portrait" for Rose stated that she was an Aries (March 21 to April 19). Rose's age at the time of her reunion with the Doctor is not revealed, although she is clearly more mature; given that time has been established as moving somewhat faster on Pete's World (fast enough that Rose was able to detect the coming of the Darkness and return to her original world with time to stop it), it's possible that several years at least may have elapsed for Rose since the Battle of Canary Wharf. Her apparent position of authority with UNIT in the "Donna's World" alternate timeline suggests she was there for some length of time. At several times during her search for the Doctor (for example when she prepares to leave Sylvia Noble and Wilfred Mott), Rose is heard communicating with an entity called "Control" (DW: The Stolen Earth); the identity and location of Control is not known (though it may be on Pete's World).

[corusca.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I find it slightly hilarious that none of the many people involved in this show could, ya know...do math. 2005-1987 =/= 19. The only episode that contradicts is Father's Day, so personally I just pretend that it all took place in '86 instead...

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Plus the year she missed when he took her back the first time, that's got to wreak havoc on her age as well.

[corusca.livejournal.com]

You could *almost* fanwank it with the year, but she's referred to as being 19 in the 'where's Rose?' posters...

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, the year didn't really matter all that much as it was for Zeppelins anyway. I more wanted the month and day. But I've been thinking, those Where's Rose posters were done up after a year of her being missing. So technically she would have been 18 when she first went into the TARDIS for her to be 19 according to Jackie when she shows up again in Aliens of London.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info.

[doctor10-crazt.livejournal.com]

Just saying: If it is 27th April, that's a day after my birthday.

Weird........

[cptjacksavvy.livejournal.com]

Your icon is very true.

I haz reserch, let me sho yuse it

[beneficia.livejournal.com]

I had to research this same thing for my sonic_hellmouth fic exchange entry, "Howling in the Wilderness (http://beneficia.livejournal.com/27108.html)". *pimps*

I've always gone with the fact that the strongest canonical evidence for her birthday is her father's death on Nov. 7 1987, and she was definitely less than a year old, so she must have been born the early 1987. Jan 1987 at the earliest, maybe if she was a preemie or really small.

Now, Doctor Who never gives us dates for present day stuff (that I can recall, someone correct me if I'm wrong). In the Christmas Invasion mini-pre-episode, the Doctor aims for Oct. 6, 5006 for Barcelona, but when he switches to Christmas Eve, he just says Dec. 24th, Powell Estate. He doesn't give the year. Even in Rise of the Cyberman, Mickey looks at the newspaper and says Febuary first of this year, but doesn't say what year. The only canonical date is the one on Rose's missing flier in Aliens of London, but I'll get back to that later. Setting that aside, the strongest (but still not canon) evidence for a Doctor Who timeline is that the Christmas specials happen on the date they're aired (Christmas invasion 2005, Runaway Bride 2006, Voyage of the Damned 2007). But if the Sycorax invaded in Dec. 2005, and if Rose had only been traveling with the Doctor for a few months present time, plus that year he misplaced her, she must have met him in 2004, when she was 17.

Now I don't have the DVD's, but when I looked for early references to Rose's age, I couldn't find any. I wasn't sure where this 19 years old business came in except for in Army of Ghosts, when Rose says, "For the first 19 years of my life nothing happened." So the theory that Rose was maybe lying about her age early on, saying she was 19 instead of 17 kind of flies out the window, when you have her saying she met the Doctor when she was 19. Again, no dates for her meeting him are given.

So, we have a definite birth in early 1987, and a definite age of 19 when she met the Doctor, so she must have met him in 2006 (or early 2007, I believe there was something about her being "almost twenty" and not just 19, but lets ignore that for now), and with the year that she lost in Aliens of London, the Christmas invasion must have happened in Dec. 2007. With the canon conversation the Doctor had with Wilf in Voyage of the Damned, the Sycorax, the Racnoss, and the Titanic all happened in sequential years, meaning Voyage of the Damned took place in 2009, and season 4 was in 2010.

Now, this looks like it will actually work itself out in canon, because they haven't given us specific dates in episodes, and the next Christmas special looks like it takes place in the past, and with there only being specials until 2010, Doctor Who can pick up a new season in 2010, with the show taking place in 2010 or 2011. So the timeline all works out if Rose met him in 2006, and Aliens of London was in 2007.

The only thing contradicting this is Rose's missing person's flier (found here) (http://ninthdoctor.time-and-space.co.uk/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=38) that says she met the Doctor in March 2005. But, you could always say they got the date wrong and that they misplaced one digit, and Rose met the Doctor in 200#. Or you could ignore the flier completely since it's so small a piece of canon.

In summary, the best way to match up the timelines in keeping with Doctor Who canon, is to have Rose born in 1987, meet the Doctor on March 6, 2006 (saying they made a mistake on the flier and put a five instead of a six on the year), and have the Doctor's tenth regeneration taking place in Christmas 2007.

For my fic, I had to match up the wonky Doctor Who timeline with the slightly less wonky Buffy season 7 timeline. I got so sick of trying to work out dates that I ended up tossing Rose in a hell dimension (where time runs much faster) prior to her meeting the Doctor, so that she could be born in '87, but be 19 in '04. But I don't think that'll work with whatever you're writing.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Re: I haz reserch, let me sho yuse it

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks.

[beneficia.livejournal.com]

Of course, now I realize that entire post I just wrote doesn't actually help in answering the actual question, but maybe it'll be useful somewhere down the road. April 27th seems to be as canon as it gets, but since Rose's birthday was never definitively mentioned in the show, you can fudge it to be anywhere in early or mid '87 and still be canon compliant.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'll just use April 27th. It's AU so birth year doesn't actually matter. Thanks.

[doctorsdiva.livejournal.com]

In Aliens of London the signs about Roses' disappearance say she is 19. Then in Dalek the Doctor says that they are in 2012 and Rose says she should be 26 which means she was born in 1986. As to the day and date I have no idea and can't find anything to help with that.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[shield-wolf.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Rose's original age was intended to be 17 but that once it was established that CE and BP had obvious sexual chemistry, it was changed to 19 simply to ensure that she was "legal."

That certainly would explain the canon-ish confusion between those two specific ages, at any rate....

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good reason to change it to me. I don't think I would have been very happy if her character was 17 and they were radiating that kind of chemistry all over the place!