Mickey Smith

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Doctor Who universe character
Mickey Smith
Affiliated with	Rose Tyler Tenth Doctor
Species	Human
Home planet	Earth
Home era	Early 21st century
First appearance	"Rose"
Portrayed by	Noel Clarke Casey Dyer (child)

Mickey Smith is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Noel Clarke.

Mickey is introduced as the boyfriend of the Ninth and Tenth Doctor's companion Rose Tyler, and a recurring character on the programme. He first appears in the 2005 series episode "Rose." In that story, he is caught up in the events of the Auton invasion when Rose meets the mysterious Doctor. Later, he briefly joins the TARDIS crew as the Tenth Doctor's second companion in the 2006 series, before reappearing again in the 2008 series, having broken up with Rose and matured into a much more heroic character.

Mickey lives on the same Southeast London council estate as Rose, and works as a mechanic at the local garage. Mickey is the first black human companion of the Doctor ever seen on screen.

[edit] Character history

Mickey's father, Jackson Smith, left for Spain when Mickey was very young. Mickey's mother could not cope with raising him alone and left him to be raised by his blind grandmother, Rita-Anne. A few years prior to the events of "Rose", Rita-Anne died after slipping on a damaged carpet and falling down the stairs. Mickey felt responsible for her death, because, despite frequent reminders, he did not repair the carpet.

When Rose, while investigating the Doctor, goes to visit a conspiracy theorist named Clive, Mickey is captured by the Nestene Consciousness, which created a living plastic facsimile of him to gather intelligence about the Doctor. Kept captive by the Nestenes to maintain the duplicate, he is overwhelmed by the revelation that alien life exists, and is in a state of paralysed panic throughout most of the Doctor and Rose's final confrontation with the Nestenes.

Mickey's initial cowardice (and his panicky description of the Doctor as an "alien... a thing") did not impress the Doctor, and when the Doctor offers to take on Rose as his newest companion, he pointedly states that Mickey "is not invited". While mere days pass for Rose in the TARDIS, a year had passed in London when she returned in "Aliens of London." In the interim, she had been declared missing. Mickey was suspected of Rose's murder and interviewed by the police on five occasions but was not arrested due to lack of evidence. Mickey spent the year unearthing information about the Doctor and waiting for Rose to return, taking over the www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk website formerly run by Clive (see Doctor Who tie-in websites).

Although still dismissive of Mickey (deliberately calling him "Ricky" and terming him "Mickey the Idiot"), the Doctor relies on him when the Doctor and Rose are trapped inside 10 Downing Street during the events of "World War Three". Mickey's actions in that story, bravely defending Rose's mother Jackie from the Slitheen and helping end the alien threat, earns him a degree of the Doctor's respect. At the conclusion of the story, the Doctor offers Mickey a place aboard the TARDIS but he declines, asking the Doctor not to tell Rose that he has done so. The Doctor in turn gives Mickey a compact disc containing a computer virus that will wipe out all mention of him on the Internet, but according to his website, Mickey was undecided whether or not to use it.

A younger (around six years old) version of Mickey appeares in the episode "Father's Day" (played by Casey Dyer), where he meets the time travelling Rose in 1987, although he is not made aware of the role she will play in his future. The present-day Mickey reappears in "Boom Town", where he tells Rose that he started dating Trisha Delaney. Whether this is true or merely stated to make Rose jealous and return to him is uncertain.

Mickey returns in the 2005 Christmas special, "The Christmas Invasion", and also briefly appears at the beginning of "New Earth". After "The Christmas Invasion" he takes a more proactive stance in investigating extraterrestrial threats to Earth, alerting Rose and the Doctor to strange events at a local secondary school in "School Reunion". At the end of that episode, he joins the TARDIS crew as a regular companion. However he expresses the worry that he is a third wheel and taken for granted, comparing himself to "the tin dog" (K-9).

When visiting a parallel Earth in "Rise of the Cybermen", he is mistaken for, and meets, his counterpart, Ricky Smith. Ricky is the leader of the resistance group called the Preachers. Mickey also meets the parallel version of his grandmother, who had not died. When Ricky is killed by the Cybermen before Mickey's eyes, something inside him changed as a result. Mickey goes on to become instrumental in defeating the Cybermen.

As the Doctor and Rose are about to leave, Mickey announces he is staying behind to assist the Preachers in mopping up the remaining Cybermen and to look after the parallel version of his gran now that Ricky is gone. The Doctor states that travel between parallel universes is impossible, it seems that Mickey will be stuck in this alternate reality, never to meet the Doctor or Rose again. However, he reappears in "Army of Ghosts", having infiltrated the Torchwood Institute under an assumed name. The Cybermen of the parallel Earth, on the verge of defeat, followed an interdimensional craft through to Mickey's own universe. He is the first member of the Preachers to follow them, armed with parallel Torchwood technology. He appears more confident and self-assured than previously, but he still did not expect the Daleks to emerge from the Void Ship. He soon becomes part of the fight against the Dalek and Cyberman armies. At the conclusion of "Doomsday", Mickey returns to the parallel universe and the breach is sealed. Mickey then lives with Rose, Jackie, and the Pete Tyler of that world.

He returns in "Journey's End", the finale of series 4, along with Jackie Tyler in order to assist Rose Tyler, saving Sarah Jane Smith from Dalek extermination as they arrive. This trio then surrenders to other Daleks in order to be taken to the Dalek headquarters, the Crucible. There they join forces with Captain Jack Harkness but are captured. Eventually, with the help of Donna Noble, they escape into the TARDIS. Once the crisis is averted, Mickey chooses to remain in his own universe while Rose and Jackie return to the other - his gran in the parallel world died peacefully in her mansion, and he and Rose broke up. Leaving the TARDIS, he follows after Jack and Martha Jones. Torchwood series three director Euros Lyn comments that the production team had intended for Aygeman and Clarke to join Torchwood for its third series, but their careers led them elsewhere.^[1]

[edit] Ricky Smith

Ricky Smith (also played by Noel Clarke) was the parallel universe counterpart to Mickey, first appearing in "Rise of the Cybermen" (although prior to broadcast he appeared in the online TARDISODE prequel to the episode). Unlike Mickey's perceived status as the "tin dog," Ricky was seen to be tough, decisive, and in control of the situation. He is the leader of the Preachers, a gang of freedom fighters fighting against John Lumic's Cybus Industries and claimed to be London's "Most Wanted". (He later admitted this was for parking tickets)

Ricky was electrocuted by a Cyberman when trying to climb over a wire fence, while Mickey watched helplessly from the other side. After helping to defeat the Cybermen in London, Mickey decided to take on the role of his parallel counterpart, partly to look after Ricky's blind grandmother Rita-Anne, and partly to aid Preacher Jake Simmonds (portrayed by Andrew Hayden-Smith) in eliminating the Cybermen threat in other countries.

Russell T Davies originally intended Ricky to be gay, and in a relationship with Jake.^[2] Despite no mention being made of this in the episodes as broadcast, on the Series Two DVD Box Set Deleted Scenes, a deleted scene from the end of "The Age of Steel" shows Mickey and Jake in the van and when Mickey mentions how he may be different from Ricky, Jake mentions how Ricky was his boyfriend before he died, to which Mickey replies "OK, definitely not replacing him."^[3]

[edit] Other appearances

Mickey appeared in three New Series Adventures novels. In Winner Takes All by Jacqueline Rayner, Mickey became involved in an alien war being fought by remote control. The "soldiers" in the war were abducted humans controlled by other humans who thought they were playing a video game. Under the Doctor's instruction, Mickey organised the controllers to keep the abducted humans alive.

In The Stone Rose, Mickey had been volunteering to take schoolchildren round the British Museum. It was his discovery of a statue of Fortuna that looks exactly like Rose which set the chain of events in motion.

In The Feast of the Drowned, Mickey helped when the Doctor and Rose investigated the mysterious sinking of a naval vessel and the apparent ghost of the brother of Rose's friend Keisha. It was revealed that, at some point between "Rose" and "Aliens of London", Keisha propositioned Mickey but was rebuffed. In revenge, she encouraged the idea that he had murdered Rose, even sending people to beat him up. Mickey himself was unable to remember what had happened that night, and she told him he had made the advances.

The Doctor Who Magazine comic strip The Lodger (DWM #368) focused on Mickey being increasingly annoyed by the Tenth Doctor when the latter lodged with him for a few days, particularly since the Doctor is able to outdo Mickey at everything without effort.

Mickey also appeared as the webmaster for the tie-in website "Defending the Earth!" (formerly "Who is Doctor Who?")

[edit] List of appearances

Series 1 (2005)

• "Rose"
• "Aliens of London" / "World War Three"
• "Father's Day" (child)
• "Boom Town"
• "The Parting of the Ways"

Series 2 (2006)

• "The Christmas Invasion"
• "New Earth"
• "School Reunion"
• "The Girl in the Fireplace"
• "Rise of the Cybermen" / "The Age of Steel"
• "Army of Ghosts" / "Doomsday"

Series 4 (2008)

• "Journey's End"

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mickey Smith on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
• Mickey Smith on the BBC's Doctor Who website
• "Defending the Earth!" website