Rose ( TV story ) Rose was the first episode of BBC Wales - produced " Doctor Who " , and was the first new episode of " Doctor Who " since the 1996 telemovie and the first story to be part of a regularly airing programme since " Survival " , the last serial of " Doctor Who " ' s 1963 - 1989 " classic " run . It introduced Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor , Billie Piper as Rose Tyler , and recurring supporting cast Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler and Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith . An immediate success , it remains , , the most - watched first episode for any new incarnation of the Doctor . Its 10 . 81 million BBC One rating bested the previous record - holder , " Robot " , and was not outdone by " The Christmas Invasion " , " The Eleventh Hour " , or " Deep Breath " . It is also the second - highest rated series - opener of all time , second only to " Destiny of the Daleks " . Due to the fact that ITV were on strike at the top of season 17 , however , " Destiny " s numbers are often discounted . " Rose " is certainly the top - rating series opener when " Doctor Who " actually had competition from another broadcaster . The first " Doctor Who " story to be produced in widescreen , it was also the first single - episode , 45 - minute story . It was the Doctor Who debut for almost everyone who worked on it — except for model unit supervisor Mike Tucker , who worked as a visual effects assistant on the original series from 1985 to 1989 . Though it was not the " Doctor Who " debut for visual effects company , The Mill — that had actually come on " The Curse of Fatal Death " — it did feature the premiere of their title sequence . ( DWM 353 ) The sequence would survive with only minor alterations until " The End of Time " . Narratively , it portrayed the Nestene Consciousness and Auton s for the first time on television since " Terror of the Autons " in 1971 . It also introduced a new recurring element in the form of the Shadow Proclamation , contained the first reference to the Last Great Time War , and introduced elements about Rose ' s character that would be directly referenced in later episodes . Unusually , the introduction of the Ninth Doctor in no way explained what had happened to his predecessor , nor did it illuminate the life he led during wartime , and failed to explain much of anything about who the Doctor was . Indeed , " Rose " started a mild story arc surrounding the mystery — from Rose ' s perspective — about the Doctor ' s identity . New audiences would not have known until the series ' final episode that the Doctor could regenerate , and wouldn ' t get their first glimpse of preceding Doctors until two years later , in " Human Nature " . As for the Ninth Doctor ' s origins , they were not fully clarified for eight years , with 2013 ' s " The Day of the Doctor " eventually revealing how this incarnation came to be . Synopsis . Rose Tyler believes she is living another day of her " ordinary " life , but after being threatened by Auton s ( living plastic ) controlled by the Nestene Consciousness , she meets the Ninth Doctor . Plot . Rose Tyler wakes up one morning , gets ready for work , and kisses her mother Jackie goodbye . She gets the bus to Henrik ' s , the department store where she works . In the evening , as the store nears closing time , Rose is about to walk home when she is stopped by a security guard who is holding the lottery winnings for Wilson , the chief electrician . She goes to the basement in search of him , but Wilson is nowhere to be found . She enters a storage room and is disturbed to see a group of moving shop window mannequins that soon surround her and raise their arms to kill her . All of a sudden , a man takes hold of her hand and tells her to " run ! " She quickly obliges , and they both run to a lift whilst being pursued by the mannequins . Before the doors can close , one of the Autons reaches for them , but the man quickly pulls its arm off before it can do them any harm . On the way up , he informs Rose that Wilson ' s dead . When they arrive at ground level , the man holds up a bomb and tells Rose that he plans to destroy a relay device to stop the Autons . He offers a quick introduction — he is the Doctor — and tells her to run for her life . Rose heeds his advice , and runs from the vicinity , carrying the plastic arm with her . Once she ' s at a safe distance , she watches in shock as Henrik ' s explodes in a huge ball of flame . Rose then flees away past a strange blue box . She returns home , and her boyfriend Mickey Smith comes in to check she ' s okay . He eventually leaves to watch football , and is asked to take the arm with him . He throws the plastic piece into one of the bins outside . The next morning , Rose awakens , before realising that she no longer has a job to go to . Walking around the house , she suddenly hears a scratching noise from the cat flap . She assumes her mother hasn ' t screwed it shut , and that it ' s a stray cat . She opens it up to find the Doctor ; he tells her he ' s been tracing a signal from the plastic arm . Rose invites him in . While Rose is making the tea , he explores the room , and looks in the mirror and is stunned by the size of his ears , implying he has recently regenerated . He peers behind the sofa , and is attacked by the arm . Rose notices the strangulation , but ignores it , thinking it a jest — that is until it lets go and flies towards her . Thankfully , the Doctor manages to deactivate the Auton arm with his sonic screwdriver , though not after much damage has occurred . He throws the piece at her , and hastily rushes out . Rose runs down the stairs to chase after him , demanding to know what ' s going on . He tells her that the living plastic is here to start a war that would overthrow and destroy the human race , so that they can claim the Earth as their own . The Doctor then departs in a mysterious blue box in the car park , ordering her to forget about him . Rose turns away for a second ; when she looks back , both he and the box are gone . Rose cannot let go , and decides to use Mickey ' s computer . She tries different keywords on search - wise . net , eventually settling on " doctor blue box " . She follows a link to whoisdoctorwho . co . uk , a website owned by a conspiracy theorist named Clive . Mickey drives her to the man ' s house , where she is invited in by his son . Out in his shed , Clive shows her images from many points in Earth ' s past , including the assassination of John F . Kennedy , the sinking of the " Titanic " and the explosion of Krakatoa . All the pictures he shows her feature the Doctor . He goes through the facts : " the Doctor is a legend woven throughout history ; when disaster comes , he ' s there . " Clive states that he believes the Doctor is an immortal alien . He tells her he is dangerous , and that he has only one constant companion : death . Meanwhile , Mickey is keeping an eye on the house from his car . He suddenly gets distracted by a bin wheeling forwards on its own . He gets out of the car and opens the bin , expecting to see someone playing a joke . He surprisingly finds it completely empty . As he tries to close the lid , he finds that it ' s stuck to his hands . The plastic merely stretches as he tries to pull away . After a few attempts at breaking free , the bin suddenly tosses him into the air and swallows him whole . Sometime later , Rose returns to the car , convinced that she ' s wasted her time , that this man really is just a conspiracy nutter . They decide to go for pizza . What she doesn ' t realise is that her Mickey has been swapped , replaced by a shiny , plastic duplicate . . . The two arrive at the restaurant and plastic Mickey starts to grill Rose about the Doctor . Rose is disturbed by Mickey ' s speech patterns , speaking as if he is somehow malfunctioning . They are interrupted twice by the offer of champagne . Mickey finally looks up , only to find the Doctor holding the bottle . The Doctor fires the cork at Mickey ' s forehead , but it moulds into his plastic skull , and simply makes its way down to his mouth , where he spits it out . His hands morph into paddles , and he begins attacking all those around him . There is a brief struggle until the Doctor pulls his head off , but it simply tells him not to expect it to stop him ( causing a man at the next table to scream in horror ) . Rose hits the fire alarm , and , while the others evacuate , the Doctor and Rose are chased out of the building by a now - headless Nestene duplicate of Mickey , who flips over tables in the process . They escape to the back courtyard , and the Doctor enters his little blue box . With nowhere to go , Rose follows him inside at the last second . The second she enters , though , she rushes back outside , thinking she has just gone mad . The inside of the box is bigger than the outside ! The Doctor explains that his blue box is called the TARDIS , and that both it and he are alien . Though Rose is convinced that the headless dummy will follow them inside , the Doctor reassures her by stating that the assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn ' t get through that door . . . and according to him , they ' ve tried . As the Doctor wires Mickey ' s head to the console , Rose wonders if the real Mickey is dead ; the Doctor didn ' t even consider this . The couple ' s conversation is cut short when Rose points out that the head is melting ; he had hoped to use it to track down the Nestene Consciousness — the entity controlling the Autons . He still manages to follow a trace of the signal , but the head is completely melted before they can find the precise location of the Consciousness . They land somewhere nearby their destination , by the edge of the River Thames . Rose is shocked to learn that they have moved . The Doctor explains that he needs to find a transmitter of some kind , very big and round . He figures it must be " completely invisible " , but Rose identifies it instantly : the London Eye would be the perfect transmitter for the Nestene . The two run together across Westminster Bridge , and Rose quickly finds an entrance to an underground base beneath the Eye . Rose immediately notices Mickey when they enter , and runs down to him ; the Doctor rolls his eyes . The Doctor tries to reason with the Nestene , but the Consciousness has two of its Autons capture him when it detects the presence of the TARDIS , which it identifies as terrifyingly superior technology . They discover a vial of anti - plastic in his pocket — which he had intended to use only as a last resort . The Nestene confronts his Time Lord enemy about its lost planet . He responds , " I couldn ' t save your world . I couldn ' t save any of them ! " Terrified , it decides to start the invasion ahead of schedule . Rose calls her mother to get her to go home to safety . Jackie doesn ' t hear , though , and continues into the Queen ' s Arcade mall for some late - night shopping . Much to her surprise , the shop - window dummies come to life , breaking through the windows as the bemused shoppers stare at them . Clive , who remarks that everything he read about was true , is confronted by an Auton who detaches its hand and shoots him dead in front of his wife and son . Panic ensues as the Autons start blasting and shoppers scatter in all directions . Below the London Eye , Rose decides to take some initiative . She breaks free one of the chains on the wall with an axe , and swings down to the Autons , both freeing the Doctor and pushing the Autons , along with the anti - plastic , into the vat containing the Nestene Consciousness . The vial leaks , and the Nestene Consciousness dies in pain . Back in the mall , Jackie runs outside to behold utter chaos : Autons are everywhere , bodies litter the ground , people run in all directions and a double - decker bus at the end of the street has crashed into a post - box and burst into flames . A black cab goes past honking its horn , only to get its rear windscreen shattered by a bullet . Jackie takes cover behind the car , as three bride Auton s crash through the window behind her . Suddenly , when they are just about to shoot her dead , the transmitter shuts down and all the Autons return to lifeless mannequins again . Underneath the London Eye , the Nestene ' s base starts to collapse and explode . The Doctor , Mickey and Rose board the TARDIS and , just in time , escape a huge explosion . Jackie looks around at the chaos , as shell - shocked survivors struggle to come to terms with what has happened . With the Earth saved , the Doctor suggests Rose join him on his adventures ; they can go anywhere in the whole universe . Mickey however is not invited . Rose , much to his disappointment , refuses . He bids her farewell and leaves . Rose almost instantly regrets her decision , but carries on getting a terrified Mickey back home . As she leaves , though , she hears the TARDIS reappear in front of her . The Doctor emerges to tell Rose that the TARDIS can also travel in time . Without much thought , she kisses her boyfriend goodbye and runs straight into the TARDIS , to start her adventures in time and space . Story notes . Filming locations . Mostly filmed in Cardiff , but with some location filming in London :