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Rory Williams

Rory Williams is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.[1] He was played by Arthur Darvill. Rory was first seen at the start of the 5th series. He joined the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) as a companion in the middle of Series 5.[2][3][4] Rory began as Amy Pond's fiancé. He was uncomfortable around the Doctor at first. This was because he believed that Amy cared more for the Doctor than she did for him. Later, he shows that he is truly a hero. Amy learns that she has always loved him and they get married. They conceive Melody Pond inside the TARDIS while it is travelling through time. Their baby is kidnapped at birth. Rory and Amy learn that their daughter is River Song, and become related to the Doctor when he marries River in The Wedding of River Song.

Doctor Who universe character
Rory Williams
With Eleventh Doctor
Race Human
Home planet Earth
Home era 21st Century
First appearance "The Eleventh Hour"
Last appearance "The Angels Take Manhattan"

Appearances

Television

Early life

Rory Williams has been a close friend of Amelia "Amy" Pond since they were children. They grew up in Leadworth, a fictional village near Gloucester, in South West England,[5] along with their friend Mels. Mels secretly knows that she is their future daughter, Melody and is, oddly enough, who Melody is named after.[6] (Yes, she is named after herself. Time is all "wibbily-wobbly" like that where the Doctor is involved) The kids often played dress up. Amy makes Rory dress as her "imaginary friend" the "Raggedy Doctor".[5]

Amelia first kisses Rory while dancing the macarena.[7] Amelia grew up thinking of herself as "counting as a boy" and Rory was afraid to ever tell her his feelings toward her. She never thought that Rory was in love with her. Because of this, she never acted on her own feelings towards him. A year or two before the Doctor returns to Leadworth,[8] Mels tells Rory and Amy that they have feelings for each other. This starts their relationship and in the end causes herself to actually be born.[9]

Series 5 (2010)

Rory is first seen in "The Eleventh Hour" (2010). At this point he is in a romantic relationship with Amy (Karen Gillan). In 2008, he works as a nurse at the local hospital. He is curious about coma patients that he sees in the village. He is shocked to meet Amy's 'imaginary' "Raggedy Doctor" (the Eleventh Doctor - Matt Smith). Although meeting him is confusing, he know it is the Doctor without being told.[5]

During the next two years, the Rory and Amy decide to get married. The Doctor returns the night before Rory and Amy's wedding. She travels in time with him but only after the Doctor promises to return her before the next morning.[10][11] After Amy tried to seduce the Doctor, the Doctor takes her and Rory to 1580s Venice to fix the couple's relationship.[11] Rory has always a problem with the Doctor because of his connection with Amy and her interest in him. He grows more annoyed and even paranoid with the relationship. It gets worse when the Doctor tells Rory that she kissed him. When Rory says that they should go back to Leadworth, Amy asks him to travel with them. The Doctor agrees and Rory accepts.[12] In the episode "Amy's Choice", They have a shared dream in which they are married and Amy is pregnant. As Rory is about to die, he tells Amy to look after their baby. This causes Amy to see how much she loves him. Rory travels with the Doctor and Amy until "Cold Blood". In that episode, he is shot dead after saving the Doctor. He is then absorbed by a crack in time and space. The crack removes him all of time. As he is a part of Amy's history, she does not remembers him any more because he never existed He was removed from existence completely.

He is seen again in "The Pandorica Opens". He is a Roman soldier in AD 102. It is shown that it is not really him but a plastic duplicate with Rory's memories. He tried to fight his programming, but still shoots Amy. In the last episode of series 5, "The Big Bang", the false Rory frees the Doctor from the Pandorica. He puts Amy inside the Pandorica to keep her safe. The Pandorica is said to be the greatest prison. It was built to keep the person inside it healthy forever. The fake Rory guarded the Pandorica (and Amy) for 1,894 years. He became known as the "Last Centurion". He guarded the Pandorica wherever it was taken. He moved it to safety when the warehouse in London it was being kept in was destroyed during The Blitz.[13] Finally, he helped a young Amy open the Pandorica and set free the adult Amy who had been fully healled over time. The Auton Rory helped the Doctor, Amy, and River Song (Alex Kingston) save the universe from the explosion that caused the cracks in time.[13]

After the cracks were fixed, Rory was returned to his timeline. Everyone's memories were returned and he and Amy got married. When the Doctor went to the reception, he called Rory "Mr Pond". Rory did not like the name at first but accepted that is basically the truth.[13] The Doctor left Rory and Amy for their honeymoon.[13][14]

Series 6 (2011)

In series 6, Rory is a full-time companion. After the Doctor saves the cruise ship they were on during their honymoon from crashing,[15] Rory and Amy join him again in the TARDIS.[16] After some time travelling with the Doctor, Rory and Amy return to Leadworth for two months.[17]

Rory and the Doctor are friends but their relationship is troubled by Rory's feelings that Amy may love the Doctor more than him. In "Day of the Moon", he thinks that some of the things he hears Amy say are about the Doctor and not about him. He later learns that the comments were about him. He also gets concerned when he hears Amy tell to the Doctor that she never told Rory that she thought she was pregnant. He forgives this when he learns that she was worried that would be a problem with the baby because of traveling in the TARDIS so much.

Sometime before "The Rebel Flesh",[18] the Doctor learns that the Amy with them is not the real Amy. She is a "Flesh" avatar. The real Amy had been kidnapped. At the end of "The Almost People", Rory did not know it was not the real Amy. When the Doctor tells him to move away from Amy, Rory does not want to but finally trusts the Doctor. Rory lets the Doctor destroy the false Amy just as the real Amy begins to give birth to her baby. Amy gives birth to their daughter Melody Pond, between "The Almost People" and "A Good Man Goes To War". The baby is kidnapped and replaced by a Flesh version as Rory and the Doctor fight to get to them. Rory shows courage against a group of Cybermen. He destroys their fleet with help from the Doctor. Rory's memories of being a centurion in the alternate timeline help him to fight the Headless Monks. After the battle, Rory helps a dying Sontaran nurse. In his final words, the Sonaran speaks of Rory and himself both being a warrior and a nurse. At the end of the episode River Song appears and it is learned that she is the daughter of Amy and Rory. In the alien language of the people who raised her there are no words for Melody or Pond. The closest translation of "Melody" and "Pond" is "River" and "Song".[19] In "Let's Kill Hitler", it is learned that Rory and Amy named their daughter Melody after their childhood friend Mels. Rory and Amy later learn that Mels is also Melody. They also see her regenerate into River Song.

As they travel, Rory sees that it can be dangerous to be on the TARDIS. He gets to the point in his travels that he tells the Doctor he does not want to travel any more if they are going to always be as risk.

In "The God Complex" Rory is the only person on the TARDIS is not hunted by the creature that feeds on faith. The Doctor thinks this is because Rory has no faith of his own. Rory also says that after traveling in the TARDIS there was very few things he was afraid of any more. The Doctor sees the danger he is putting his friends in. He takes Amy and Rory back to Earth and gives them a house and a car as a gift.

When River creates an alternate reality by not killing the Doctor at Lake Silencio, Rory is now "Captain Williams". He is a soldier working for Amy Pond. They are not a couple in this version of history but Rory is still in love with Amy. He almost dies fighting the Silence, but is saved by Amy. The two are at River's marriage to the Doctor. In the now-fixed (main) timeline, Rory and Amy are still married and Amy has become a model/spokeswoman for a line of perfume. They are visited by their daughter River, who tells them that the Doctor is still alive.

Reception

The fact that Rory dies often has been criticized. Digital Spy reviewer Morgan Jeffery wrote, "One of the key elements in Doctor Who is obviously the sense of danger and the lingering presence of death, but Rory's repeated demises and resurrections are now becoming so frequent that comparisons to South Park's Kenny seem almost inevitable."[20] SFX gave Rory the third spot in the top 10 resurrections of science fiction TV. It said "it's becoming a cliché. But it's not one we mind too much, mainly because it's always done with such gusto. Except, perhaps, in the pirates episode which was a fairly gusto free zone all round".[21]

However, critics have liked that Rory has had many times to be heroic in series 6. After "A Good Man Goes to War" as broadcast, io9's Charlie Jane Anders compared the character to Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Denisof). That characters story in American television programmes Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel showed him changing from comic relief to a warrior. Anders said: "Yes, we're thrilled that Rory is getting his Wesley Wyndam-Pryce on. Badass Rory is, as we already observed, totally badass. But this episode exemplified the recent trend towards Amy being reduced to a bystander, victim, or worse."[22] Rory's change into a heroic character has also led to a series of "Rory Williams Facts" in the style of the popular Chuck Norris Facts internet meme.[23]

References

  1. ↑ . Radio Times. 3 April 2010. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ↑ Harrison, Mark (31 May 2010). For Doctor Who: Cold Blood Viewers Only. http://www.denofgeek.com/television/496221/for_doctor_who_cold_blood_viewers_only.html. Retrieved 1 June 2010. 
  3. ↑ Tribe, Steve (2010). Doctor Who: The TARDIS Handbook. London: BBC Books. p. 124. ISBN 978-1-846-07986-3.
  4. ↑ "Christmas Guest Stars Revealed!". News & Features (BBC). 2010-07-12. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_100712_01/Doctor_Who_Christmas_Special_Guest_Stars_Revealed. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "The Eleventh Hour"
  6. ↑ "Let's Kill Hitler"
  7. ↑ Older and yonger Amy Ponds synchronise their times in "The Girl Who Waited" by reciting the words and making the hand motions; Rory looks on and says to himself, "The Macarena - our first kiss."
  8. ↑ Rory is studying nursing when Mels triggers the relationship,
  9. ↑ "Let's Kill Hitler".
  10. ↑ "Flesh and Stone"
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Victory of the Daleks"
  12. ↑ "The Vampires of Venice"
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 "The Big Bang"
  14. ↑ Death of the Doctor
  15. ↑ "A Christmas Carol"
  16. ↑ "Space" and "Time"
  17. ↑ "The Impossible Astronaut"
  18. ↑ The Doctor explains at the end of "The Almost People" that he took Amy and Rory to the factory in "The Rebel Flesh" to learn more about Amy's Flesh doppelgänger.
  19. ↑ "A Good Man Goes to War". Doctor Who. BBC. 4 June 2011. No. 6.
  20. ↑ Jeffery, Morgan (7 May 2011). "'Doctor Who' review: 'The Curse of the Black Spot'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
  21. ↑ "Top 10 Resurrections: Rory Williams". SFX. 24 May 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  22. ↑ Anders, Charlie Jane (11 June 2011). "What do Doctor Who and The Dark Knight have in common?". io9. Gawker Media. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  23. ↑ http://rorywilliamsfacts.tumblr.com/, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rory-Williams-is-the-New-Chuck-Norris/206862529349188

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