What Happened to Rose Tyler?
I’m having a bit of a Doctor Who themed day. I remembered this was sitting on my hard drive and thought I may as well post it.
Title: What Happened to Rose Tyler?
Author: meddow
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Length: ~700 words
Spoilers: Doomsday, possible Invasion of the Bane
Summary: An editorial taken from the Sunday Times dated 16 December 2007
Author’s Notes: This is fictional non-fiction fic.
Editorial: What Happened to Rose Tyler?
By Sarah Jane Smith
It appears that the truth is emerging about last week’s events at Canary Wharf. The ghosts that so readily became a prominent feature of our lives are quickly being forgotten, just as those cybermen that entered our homes and threatened our families. We shall dismiss what happened that day along with it we shall dismiss those that lost their lives in a battle about which we have no truth. But before we do, someone has to ask: what happened to Rose Tyler?
Rose Tyler’s name will never appear in the history books. On paper she is on all accounts your average young woman, no different from the people we pass on the street whose names we may never know. If you ask those that knew her they will tell you how lovely she was, barely twenty-one with a big smile, warm heart and bright mind. You may have encountered her when she worked in Henrik’s on Regent Street, or maybe you have not. You see, Rose Tyler loved to travel. In her last few years of life her appearances in London were sporadic, always running off somewhere to have an adventure, according her neighbours. In that respect Rose Tyler was special, she was living a life some of us only dream of.
Rose Tyler died that day at Canary Wharf. Her name is on the list of the dead besides the name her mother, Jacqueline Tyler. What happened to Rose Tyler? How did she end up on that list?
If you listen to the government, they will say a build up of hallucinogenic toxins in the atmosphere caused by a solar flare led to outbreaks of violence centring on Canary Wharf, and I am certain the majority will believe that version of events. After all, our apparent group delusion was of such a horrific nature that it certainly makes it easier to go about or lives when we think that it was all just a dream.
But that does not tell us what happened to Rose Tyler or her mother. It does not tell us how so many people vanished into nothingness, for surely if the violence was committed by average people gone mad from the delusion then bodies would have been recovered. Nor does it tell us what happened to Yvonne Hartman, who graduated with first class honours at Cambridge just to vanish into obscurity, her name not appearing anywhere for twenty years except for on that list. Nor Adeola Jones or Rajesh Singh or Anthony Keller or Melissa Hubert or any other the other names on the list, many of them with stories similar to Yvonne’s. What happened to those people? Why are they missing? Just what has been going on underneath our noses?
We do not ask what happened to those nameless people on the street we pass everyday. One person we do not have an answer for means little to us when they are nobody of importance to us. But those people are always somebody to another, maybe for all of us. And just maybe one day it maybe someone you know on that list. One day it may be you. To allow our government to lie once gives them permission to do the same again.
But grand conspiracies and precedents aside, what would Rose Tyler have achieved if she had lived? A young life so full of potential lost - that alone should act as motivation for standing up and demanding an answer.
I fear that I shall never know what happened to Rose. It is the job of a journalist to ask power to answer with the truth, but there is only so much we can do. A small group alone rarely can shift the attitude of power. It is a matter up to everyone. If we all demand the truth we shall eventually receive it.
So often our questions fall on ears that will not or cannot listen. So often we do not receive the answers we demand. I can only hope that if we ask frequently and loudly enough, we will get the truth. And so I am asking from the one podium I have available to me: what happened to Rose Tyler?
After thirty-five years as an investigative journalist, Sarah Jane Smith retires from the field today to focus on other pursuits. We wish her well for the future.
Title: What Happened to Rose Tyler?
Author: meddow
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Length: ~700 words
Spoilers: Doomsday, possible Invasion of the Bane
Summary: An editorial taken from the Sunday Times dated 16 December 2007
Author’s Notes: This is fictional non-fiction fic.
Editorial: What Happened to Rose Tyler?
By Sarah Jane Smith
It appears that the truth is emerging about last week’s events at Canary Wharf. The ghosts that so readily became a prominent feature of our lives are quickly being forgotten, just as those cybermen that entered our homes and threatened our families. We shall dismiss what happened that day along with it we shall dismiss those that lost their lives in a battle about which we have no truth. But before we do, someone has to ask: what happened to Rose Tyler?
Rose Tyler’s name will never appear in the history books. On paper she is on all accounts your average young woman, no different from the people we pass on the street whose names we may never know. If you ask those that knew her they will tell you how lovely she was, barely twenty-one with a big smile, warm heart and bright mind. You may have encountered her when she worked in Henrik’s on Regent Street, or maybe you have not. You see, Rose Tyler loved to travel. In her last few years of life her appearances in London were sporadic, always running off somewhere to have an adventure, according her neighbours. In that respect Rose Tyler was special, she was living a life some of us only dream of.
Rose Tyler died that day at Canary Wharf. Her name is on the list of the dead besides the name her mother, Jacqueline Tyler. What happened to Rose Tyler? How did she end up on that list?
If you listen to the government, they will say a build up of hallucinogenic toxins in the atmosphere caused by a solar flare led to outbreaks of violence centring on Canary Wharf, and I am certain the majority will believe that version of events. After all, our apparent group delusion was of such a horrific nature that it certainly makes it easier to go about or lives when we think that it was all just a dream.
But that does not tell us what happened to Rose Tyler or her mother. It does not tell us how so many people vanished into nothingness, for surely if the violence was committed by average people gone mad from the delusion then bodies would have been recovered. Nor does it tell us what happened to Yvonne Hartman, who graduated with first class honours at Cambridge just to vanish into obscurity, her name not appearing anywhere for twenty years except for on that list. Nor Adeola Jones or Rajesh Singh or Anthony Keller or Melissa Hubert or any other the other names on the list, many of them with stories similar to Yvonne’s. What happened to those people? Why are they missing? Just what has been going on underneath our noses?
We do not ask what happened to those nameless people on the street we pass everyday. One person we do not have an answer for means little to us when they are nobody of importance to us. But those people are always somebody to another, maybe for all of us. And just maybe one day it maybe someone you know on that list. One day it may be you. To allow our government to lie once gives them permission to do the same again.
But grand conspiracies and precedents aside, what would Rose Tyler have achieved if she had lived? A young life so full of potential lost - that alone should act as motivation for standing up and demanding an answer.
I fear that I shall never know what happened to Rose. It is the job of a journalist to ask power to answer with the truth, but there is only so much we can do. A small group alone rarely can shift the attitude of power. It is a matter up to everyone. If we all demand the truth we shall eventually receive it.
So often our questions fall on ears that will not or cannot listen. So often we do not receive the answers we demand. I can only hope that if we ask frequently and loudly enough, we will get the truth. And so I am asking from the one podium I have available to me: what happened to Rose Tyler?
After thirty-five years as an investigative journalist, Sarah Jane Smith retires from the field today to focus on other pursuits. We wish her well for the future.