A DW Essay About A Certain Relationship (With Pictures)

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Doctor Who is full of slightly odd relationships, let’s face it. A 19-year-old Londoner and an 900-year-old alien, for one. But my favourite out of all of them is not one which gets thought about very often…it’s just sort of there. It’s just another story about people getting thrown together unexpectedly-

So, Mickey and Jackie. I’ve seen about a hundred good descriptions of their relationship- the best being ‘two people who both lost someone they loved.’ Which seems to mostly sum it up.

Remember Rose? Darn, it feels weird to look at that episode now, after knowing what happens. I think we can safely assume that at this point, the pair of them don’t really give much of a damn about each other- he’s Rose’s boyfriend, she’s Rose’s mother, that’s about it. Then it’s the end of the episode, Rose has gone, Mickey might have killed her, and that’s when things really get interesting.

It’s funny how Mickey’s first real act of bravery is protecting Jackie, a woman who’s been accusing him of murder for the past year. He’s got every reason to not care what happens to her, and yet he defends her armed only with a baseball bat. I suppose maybe that was our first clue of what sort of person he really was- he couldn’t leave Jackie to get murdered by aliens, especially not after running off and leaving Rose twice.

I have decided this is where their friendship really starts:

[Jackie sitting, shaken, as Mickey brings her a cup of tea]

JACKIE: Got anything stronger?

MICKEY: No chance, I’ve seen you when you’ve had a few. This isn’t the time for a conga.

JACKIE: We’ve got to tell someone.

MICKEY: Who do we trust, though? For all we know, they’ve all got great big bog monsters hidden inside.

[squats beside her, serious]

This is what he does, Jacks. That Doctor bloke. Everywhere he goes, it’s death and danger, and he’s got Rose in the middle of it.

JACKIE: Has he got a great big green thing inside him, then?

MICKEY: Wouldn’t put it past him. But like it or not, he’s the only one who knows how to fight ’em.

JACKIE: [starts to cry] I thought I was gonna die.

[She’s about to lose it, Mickey hugs her]

MICKEY: Come on now. If anyone’s gonna cry, it’s me, yeah? You’re safe now, Jacks, no-one’s gonna look for you in my flat. Since you hate me so much.

JACKIE: You saved my life. God, that’s embarrassing.

MICKEY: Telling me.

[But both smile]

hug
(Image from here– and I think it’s about to become my new default icon)

Of course, from there, there’s the small matter of saving the world without killing Rose. Jackie’s faced with the prospect of having the man she thought killed her daughter actually killing her daughter. But she doesn’t stop him- and she doesn’t stop Rose leaving with the Doctor either, as much as she might like to.

Rose promises to be back in ten seconds, but she isn’t. Jackie goes tearfully back to the flat, and Mickey stays behind waiting. And the audience waits with them, even though we follow Rose as well…

…all the way to her family’s past, where she meets a four-year-old Mickey. Being looked after by Jackie, when all hell breaks loose. That’s quite a nice touch, I thought- a sort of role reversal, since older Mickey looks after Jackie much more than she looks after him.

Does that also mean she’s know Mickey, however vaguely, since he was just a kid? Hmmmm…

From there it’s onto Boomtown, where Jackie barely gets a mention. You’d think Rose would have least have asked how she was. Bah. :p

And then the finale. The pair of them are united in wanting Rose to stay but having to let her go. Each of them get their individual moment to shine, and then the last we see of them for Series 1 is the pair of them standing together, as Rose disappears for who knows how long.

Between The Parting of the Ways and The Christmas Invasion, I think we can assume their friendship probably strengthened. Take a look at this– look at the pretty Noel pictures first, then read the bit near the bottom –‘I go round to your mum’s every Sunday now, she cooks me dinner, talks about you non-stop…’ (If you’re a ‘shipper-a) where are you and why aren’t you writing any fanfiction, and b) read the rest. XD)

Actually, speaking of actually shipping the pair…I would never have pictured it up to about The Parting of the Ways, but it’s weird how plausible it seems now. Don’t they get letters in DWM about it these days?

And of course, Noel and Camille are good friends as well. I feel that deserves a mention, because it makes me grin every time I see or read about the pair of them interacting.

I think this picture sums a lot of their relationship up pretty well- hence why it’s in my icon, I suppose. Mickey watching the sky, and shielding Jackie:
jackiemickey

I can picture there being countless scenes, between POTW and TCI (or maybe even before that) where Jackie would start crying out of fear of never seeing Rose again, and Mickey would have to calm her down, get her to sit with him and watch TV or something. It’s such a ordinary relationship, between people in extraordinary circumstances. And also, it might never have happened if Rose hadn’t met the Doctor in the cellar that evening in 2005…if it turns out the Doctor never did anything good for Mickey and Jackie, at least he brought them together.

And then they could have gone right on hating each other, or never seeing the other except for updates on Rose, or just not caring, but they didn’t. They decided to look out for each other. That’s why I love them so.