Rory Williams: Difference between revisions

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{{merge|Rory Williams|It was made clear in ''The Big Bang'' that the Auton was Rory and that Rory had been the Auton '' "I was plastic" ''}}
{{Infobox Individual
{{Infobox Individual
|image          = [[File:New Rory.png|250px]]
|individual name = Rory Williams
|individual name = Auton Rory Williams
|image          = [[File:Ultimate Rory.jpg|250px]]
|alias          = The Lone Centurion
|alias          = <ul><li>Mr. Pond</li><li>The Boy Who Waited</li><li>Rory the Roman</li><li>The Nose</li><li>Stupid Face</li><li>Pretty</li><li>Idiot</li><li>Roranicus Pondicus</li> <li>Rory Pond</li> <li>The Lone/ Last Centurion
|race            = [[Auton]]
|species        = [[Human]]
|home planet    = [[Earth]]
|home planet    = [[Earth]]
|appearances    = [[DW]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'' / ''[[The Big Bang]]''
|appearances    = [[Rory Williams - List of Appearances|Full list of appearances]]
|mentions        = <ul><li>[[DW]]: ''[[Flesh and Stone]]''</li><li>[[DW]]: ''[[Vincent and the Doctor]]''</li><li>[[SJA]]: ''[[Death of the Doctor]]''</li><ul>
|actor          = [[Arthur Darvill]]}}
|actor          = [[Arthur Darvill]]}}
:''For the human the [[Auton]] was based on, see [[Rory Williams]]''
{{semi-protect}}
'''Rory Williams''' was an [[Auton]]-based duplicate of the [[Eleventh Doctor]]'s companion Rory Williams, who had been killed by a [[Silurian]] and then erased from history by the [[Time Field]] emanating from the cracks in space and time.
:''For the [[Auton]] based on Rory, please see [[Rory Williams (Auton)|here]].''
'''Rory Williams''' was the "sort of" boyfriend and later husband of [[Amy Pond]]. He became a companion of the [[Eleventh Doctor]], but later died and was removed from time after being absorbed by the [[Time Field]]. Following the "Big Bang Two" he was restored to the timeline, married Amy and continued to travel with her and the Doctor. He was later revealed to be the father of [[River Song]] (Melody Pond).


== Biography ==
==Biography==
The Auton that took the form of Rory Williams was created as part of a plan by an [[The Alliance|Alliance]] of races that had united to prevent the Eleventh Doctor from destroying the universe. This alliance included the [[Nestene Consciousness]], creators of the living plastic creatures known as Autons.
===Early life===
Rory was a childhood friend of [[Amy Pond|Amelia Pond]]. He was privy to her tales of the [[Eleventh Doctor|&quot;raggedy Doctor&quot;]], and an unwilling participant in the dress-up games she based around her stories. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Eleventh Hour]]'') At one point in his youth, Rory was a member of the Cub Scouts. ([[DWA]]: ''[[If You Go Down to the Woods Today]])''


Utilizing psychic residue obtained from the home of the Doctor's companion [[Amy Pond]] - including a children's book on Roman soldiers and a photograph of Amy and her fiancé Rory Williams taken at a costume party (at which Rory had worn a Roman soldier costume) - the Nestene Consciousness created a faux Roman army, including a replicant of Rory Williams, and placed them near [[Stonehenge]] in the year [[Early human history|102]] AD as part of an elaborate trap for the Doctor. While the Auton Roman soldiers believed they were, indeed, Romans -- and were even susceptible to [[River Song]]'s [[Hallucinogenic lipstick]] -- the Auton version of Rory retained the memories and personality of the real Rory, and initially Auton Rory dismissed his other life as a dream.
=== Meeting the [[Eleventh Doctor]] ===
[[file:DoctorAndRory.png|thumb|200x|right|The [[Eleventh Doctor|Eleventh Doctor]] is surprised to see Rory. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'')]]
==== First Meeting ====
When news came to the Roman encampment of strange visitors, Auton Rory decided to volunteer to help, which led him to encounter both the Doctor and Amy, saving the latter by destroying a [[Cyberman (Pete's World)|Cyberman]] with his sword, though Amy was knocked unconscious. The Doctor initially did not recognize him', but eventually welcomed him back after an awkward reunion, though how Rory still existed was a mystery - as the Doctor was not aware of the Auton connection as yet.
Whilst working as a [[nurse]] at [[Royal Leadworth Hospital]], Rory took notice of [[Prisoner Zero|coma patients&nbsp;roaming]] about the village when they should have been in the hospital. He helped [[Eleventh Doctor|the Doctor]] defeat [[Prisoner Zero]] by lending him his phone to write a computer virus to attract its jailers and watched him warn the [[Atraxi]] away from [[Earth]] after they threatened to roast it. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Eleventh Hour]]'') He later got engaged to Amy and began looking up the latest scientific theories after the ordeal in case more aliens arrived in Leadworth. ([[DW]]: ''[[Flesh and Stone]]'')


As he assisted the Doctor, Auton Rory learned he had been erased from time, and from Amy's memory, when she did not recognize him after regaining consciousness. Encouraged by the Doctor - who returned the engagement ring that Rory had given Amy before his death - Auton Rory set out to try and make Amy remember him. His efforts were successful, as Amy's memories began to return. However, Rory's Auton nature briefly reasserted itself as the Alliance's trap began to close around the Doctor. Rory attempted to resist the Nestene orders while the other "Romans" came under its control. He urged Amy to run, but she refused. Just as she hugged him, the Auton programming activated and the duplicate Rory's hand opened up into a blaster which shot Amy, seemingly killing her. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'')
=== Travels with the Doctor ===
[[file:RW 5.png|thumb|200x|left|Rory cries after he was forced to shoot [[Amy Pond|Amy]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'')]]  
[[file:RoryAmyTARDIS.png|thumb|right|Rory accepts [[Amy Pond|Amy]]'s proposal. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice]]'')]] Not knowing Amy had taken off in the TARDIS and had spent days away from Leadworth, Rory had his stag party crashed by the Doctor, who was fetching him to make Amy focus on her life outside her travels. The Doctor took Amy and Rory on a "romantic break" to [[Venice]] in 1580 as a wedding gift. There, they encountered the [[Saturnynian]]s, who planned to flood Venice and repopulate it with their species after losing their home planet. Rory also defended Amy against [[Francesco]], one of the [[Saturnynians]], who had taking a liking to her. The Doctor defeated the Saturnynians and Rory agreed to continue travelling with the Doctor after Amy asked him to do so. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice]]'')
As Auton Rory wept over the body of Amy, the Doctor suddenly appeared in front of him, informing him that Amy wasn't quite dead and instructing him (after a couple of interruptions) to open the Pandorica using the [[sonic screwdriver]] and rescue the Doctor's earlier self. Rory followed the Doctor's instructions, which led to a reunion with a somewhat bewildered Doctor. In hopes of saving Amy, the Doctor placed his companion in the Pandorica, where her life functions would be restored, though she would be in there for close to 1,900 years. The Doctor, using a time vortex manipulator, offered to take Auton Rory to retrieve Amy in the future, but Rory refused, stating that he had to make sure no harm came to the Pandorica. The Doctor admired Rory's humanity, Auton or not, and left him to his duty.


Rory watched over Amy for nearly two thousand years, following the box wherever it went and becoming the stuff of legend as the 'The Lone Centurion' - a mysterious figure dressed as a Roman soldier who stood guard over the Pandorica. During the [[London Blitz]] of [[1941]], Rory was spotted moving the Pandorica out of harm's way during a bombing, but after that the Lone Centurion disappeared from history and was believed killed or destroyed. In reality, Rory continued to look after the Pandorica in other ways, and by 1996 was working as a security guard in the [[National Museum]], where the Pandorica was on display.
Between destinations, aboard [[the Doctor's TARDIS]], Rory fell victim to the same [[Psychic Pollen]] that ensnared his companions in two shared dreams. Rory escaped the trap after the Doctor figured out what was happening. His and Amy's relationship was strengthened by her realisation that she actually loved him when he died in one of the dreams. ([[DW]]: ''[[Amy's Choice]]'')


After a younger version of Amelia Pond freed her older self, and the Doctor arrived from the past, the group was immediately attacked by a [[Stone Dalek]] from Stonehenge that coincidentally had been put on display with the Pandorica and had been restored by the Pandorica's energy. Rory rescued them by shooting the Dalek with his hand-laser.
Rory, Amy, the Doctor and some friends succeeded in stopping the [[Silurian]]s that lived beneath the Earth from attempting to kill humanity. However Rory was shot by their military leader [[Restac]] when he protected the Doctor from a fatal energy beam. Rory was then swallowed by a crack in time causing Amy to forget that he had existed. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Hungry Earth]]'', ''[[Cold Blood]]'')
[[File:Autonrory.jpg|thumb|Rory's Auton gun arm. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Big Bang]]'')]]
[[File:SoPretty.png|thumb|left|Before dying, Rory tells Amy that she is beautiful. ([[DW]]: ''[[Cold Blood]]'')]]
A tearful and romantic reunion with Amy followed, but the Doctor pulled them away in order to rescue River Song from a time loop within the exploding [[The Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]], but not before Auton Rory informed the Doctor about his earlier encounter with the "future Doctor", which led to the Doctor taking care of old business.


Ultimately, the Doctor was able to pilot the Pandorica into the heart of the exploding TARDIS, which restored the universe, but in the process rewrote aspects of history. The Doctor, for one, was removed from history. And with him removed from history, the Auton version of Rory was likewise removed from history as the original, human Rory was restored, his death having never occurred.
When [[the Alliance]] scanned the psychic imprint left by Amy, they used her dormant memories of Rory to create a [[Rory Williams (Auton)|Nestene duplicate]], which, due to Amy being affected by the crack in her room, possessed Rory's actual emotions and personality. Once the Nestenes' trap for the Doctor was complete, the Nestenes tried to control him, which caused him to shoot Amy, leaving him grievng about what he had done. The cracks got out of hand and all the universe save the earth was swallowed by them. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'')


===Memories===
A version of the Doctor from the future came to Rory, instructing him to place Amy's body in the [[Pandorica]], which had the ability to keep its occupants alive. After refusing the Doctor's offer to take the shortcut to when Amy would be fully healed, Rory watched over her for almost two thousand years, following the Pandorica wherever it went; he earnd the sobriquet the Lone Centurian. Nearing the end of the Second World War, Rory decided to take a more discrete approach to guarding the box by becoming the night security guard at the national museum where the Pandorica was held. In 1996, young Amelia provided the genetic material needed to revive Amy, but the "eye of the storm" from the cracks was closing and little time was left before it closed and the earth would cease to exist as well. Following the Doctor's success in saving the universe and preventing the cracks in time, the real Rory was never erased. Despite this, Rory somehow still remembered his experiences as an Auton after Amy remembered the Doctor back into the universe from the other side of the cracks.
Despite the fact that the Auton Rory now never existed, elements of his memory remained within the human Rory. After Amy was successful in restoring the Doctor and the TARDIS through her own memories, Rory likewise remembered having been an Auton, uttering "I was plastic!" at one point. Also, the Doctor himself considered the human Rory to be a continuation of Auton Rory, privately admiring Rory's devotion to Amy over 2,000 years, dubbing him "The Boy Who Waited". ([[DW]]: ''[[The Big Bang]]'')
[[File:Rory_and_Amy.jpg|thumb|214px|Amy and Rory as a newly-married couple ([[DW]]: ''[[The Big Bang]]'')]] He married Amy and was given the nickname of "Mr Pond" by the Doctor as he is under Amy's thumb. Following the wedding reception, they returned to Amy's garden where the TARDIS had been parked and bade farewell to their lives in Leadworth to continue journying with the Doctor. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Big Bang]]'')


The real Rory somehow obtained his Roman armour from this incarnation (or he used the armour from the picture seen in a photo in ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'') and used it during his Christmas adventure. ([[DW]]: ''[[A Christmas Carol (TV story)|A Christmas Carol]]'') The real Rory is shown to have the memories of the Auton version of himself, when the Doctor said that he was at Rome when the empire fell with Rory replying "So was I." Rory tells the Doctor that he can remember being the Lone Centurion but he doesn't always remember, it's like a "door" in his mind and he tries not to think about it. ([[DW]]: ''[[Day of the Moon]]'')
::''In the new version of reality, the first time Amy and Rory were together in the TARDIS was during their honeymoon despite their memories of previous adventures with the Doctor ([[DW]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War]]'')''
 
===Honeymoon===
After their wedding, Amy and Rory went on a long honeymoon on board the TARDIS, spending their wedding night on the ship itself, apparently conceiving [[Melody Pond|their first child]] at the time. ([[DW]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War]]''). The Doctor left Amy and Rory on a honeymoon planet shortly before the TARDIS was stolen by [[Claw Shansheeth]], but soon returned for them after he recovered it with the help of his past companions. ([[SJA]]: ''[[Death of the Doctor]]'').
 
The couple continued their honeymoon on board a spaceship in the honeymoon suite, where Rory donned his auton counterpart's Roman armour as part of something their were doing. The ship began to crash, and the Doctor had just under an hour to save Rory and Amy, in addition to the other 4001 people on the ship. With help from Amy and Rory, the Doctor succeeded, and the trio left for another honeymoon location. ([[DW]]: [[A Christmas Carol (TV story)|''A Christmas Carol'']])
 
At some point, Rory began helping the Doctor repair the TARDIS, much to Amy's annoyance. However, he accidently caused the TARDIS to materalize inside itself after dropping a thermocoupling when he accidently looked up Amy's skirt. The Doctor was able to figure out how to demateralize the TARDIS from the resulting [[space loop]]. ([http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/DW DW]: ''[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Space_(TV_story) Space]'' /''[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Time_(TV_story) Time]'')
 
===America===
 
Soon after their honeymoon, Rory and Amy returned to Earth and moved into a house together, but she was, unknown to him, replaced with a duplicate known as a [[Ganger]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War]]'')
 
In April 2011, they received a TARDIS-blue letter, which led the couple to America. There they met a 1103 year-old Doctor, who was later shot and killed The group later returned to the diner, where they encountered a 909-year-old version of the Doctor who possessed another copy of the blue letter. Rory helped the Doctor to start a revolution against [[the Silence]], who had been occupying Earth for centuries and returned to traveling with him, keeping Amy silent about the Doctor's future. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut]]'' / ''[[Day of the Moon]]'')
 
===Further travels===
 
In the [[17th century]] Rory was present while the Doctor stopped a [[Siren]] from kidnapping the crew of a [[pirate]] ship, and was one of the people it took; it took him while he was drowning. It was later revealed that the Siren was really a virtual doctor from an invisible spaceship taking up the same space as the ''Fancy''. After being disconnected from the ship's life-support, Rory was revived by Amy, whom he instructed in how to perform CPR. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Curse of the Black Spot]]'')
 
Rory was later trapped in the TARDIS by [[House]], who planned to escape to the main universe using the TARDIS. Rory helped the Doctor get back into the TARDIS where he used the soul of the TARDIS to defeat House.  The soul of the TARDIS thought Rory was "pretty" and communicated instructions to him telepathically. He also received a mesage from the TARDIS about something he would need to know in the future. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Doctor's Wife]]'')
 
When the TARDIS crew found themselves caught in a clash between humans workers and their [[Ganger]] clones, Rory found himself sympathising with the [[Jennifer (Ganger)|Ganger]] of [[Jennifer Lucas]] (Perhaps due to his own past experiences as a [[Rory Williams (Auton)|duplicate]] of himself). The Ganger used his sympathy to her advantage, tricking him into trapping the crew in a room containing an overheating acid vat. Once the debacle was resolved, Rory was stunned when the Doctor revealed that Amy was herself a [[Amy Pond (Ganger)|Ganger]], and that the real Amy was elsewhere. Rory vowed to find her no matter what just as the Doctor had told Amy before destroying her duplicate. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Rebel Flesh]]''/''[[The Almost People]]'')
 
===Demons Run===
 
Rory helped the Doctor raise an army to save Amy and his daughter [[Melody Pond]] from Madame [[Kovarian]] and the Church. Melody was then taken from Rory and Amy by using the same trick as before; a Ganger. This made Rory willing to do anything to get her back safe and sound. River Song told him she was his daughter, using a Prayer Leaf with Melody's name written in the language of the Gamma Forest translated by the TARDIS as proof. The Doctor then left Rory with Amy, to be returned to their home era by River while he looked for the infant Melody. ([[DW]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War]]'')
 
==Personality==
Rory appeared timid during his first encounter with the Doctor. He was easily intimidated by [[Dr Ramsden]] and was unsettled by the ensuing events caused by the Doctor and Prisoner Zero. Despite this, he did have the presence of mind to record evidence in order to prove that his patients were appearing outside the hospital. He also assisted Amy in attempting to clear the hospital of patients before Prisoner Zero could exploit them. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Eleventh Hour]]'')
 
During the events in Venice, Rory was unnerved that the Doctor actually wanted to get back into the [[Saturnynian]] stronghold. However, he was capable of bravery, as shown when he challenged [[Francesco]] in order to protect Amy, ([[DW]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice]]'') and later when he took a lethal Silurian energy beam meant for the Doctor. ([[DW]]: ''[[Cold Blood]]'') It was also notable that when he saw Francesco had attacked a girl, his immediate reaction was to see if she was all right. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice]]'')
 
He was greatly devoted to Amy. Perhaps the greatest testament to this personality trait was when his Auton self was willing to guard the Pandorica, with Amy in it, for almost two thousand years, even knowing that he would remain conscious the entire time. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Big Bang]]'') He was also willing to go to any length to get his point across when angry, such as destroying all but one of the Twelfth Cyber Legion's squadron just to be told where Amy was being held captive ([[DW]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War]]'') or punch the Doctor when he was grieving over shooting Amy to prove she's more important to him than the universe never happening. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Big Bang]]'')
 
Initially, Rory was jealous of Amy's infatuation with the Doctor and uneasy at her obsession with him when she was little. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice]], [[Amy's Choice]]''). However, after the [[Dream Lord]]'s double trouble dreams ([[DW]]: ''[[Amy's Choice]]''), Rory became less tense and more comfortable with the Doctor's presence in their lives, even trying to have civil conversations with him and help out on TARDIS maintenance. ([[DW]]: ''[[Time]]/[[Space]]'') He was willing to put up with insults hurled at him by Amy and annoying nicknames the Doctor came up with.
 
==Other information==
===Known family===
*[[Amy Pond]] - Wife
*[[River Song]] (Melody Pond) - Daughter
*[[Tabetha Pond]] - Mother-in-law
*[[Augustus Pond]] - Father-in-law
*[[Sharon (The Big Bang)|Sharon&nbsp;]] - Aunt-in-law
 
===Skills===
Rory was a trained nurse, and knew medical procedures, and how to examine bodies. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Eleventh Hour]]'', [[DW]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice]]'', [[DW]]: ''[[The Curse of the Black Spot]]'') Also, due to being a Roman Centurion, he was acomplished at fighting with a gladius. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens]]'', [[DW]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War]]'') After spending two millenia guarding the Pandorica, Rory became a very effective warrior. In the attack on [[Demon's Run]], he survived the battle with the [[Headless monk]]s while two experienced soldiers ([[Strax]] and [[Lorna Bucket]]) were killed. ([[DW]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War]]'')


==Behind the scenes==
==Behind the scenes==
*The special circumstances surrounding Auton Rory have led to some fans considering him a separate companion. If so, it is a matter of debate whether Auton Rory should be considered a deceased companion as he technically no longer exists, even though at least some memories live on in the human Rory.
*In a deleted scene from ''[[The Hungry Earth]]'', the Doctor admits to Amy that he likes Rory a lot.
*An [[Mickey Smith (Auton)|Auton duplicate]] of [[Mickey Smith]] was also made. This makes Rory the second Male companion to be turned into an Auton. ([[DW]]: ''[[Rose (TV story)|Rose]]'')
*Rory's death is very similar in nature to Jenny's ([[DW]]: ''[[The Doctor's Daughter]]''). In both cases they died taking a shot intended for the Doctor, and in both cases the shooter was a violent member of a race that the Doctor had helped bring peace to. ([[Restac]] and [[Cobb]] respectively).
*Auton Rory is the second duplicate of a companion to be created based on the memories of another; during the novel ''[[Interference: Book Two (The Hour of the Geek)|Interference]]'', the [[Eighth Doctor]]'s companion [[Fitz Kreiner]] was abducted and apparently killed by [[Faction Paradox]], the Doctor eventually 'replacing' him with a [[Kode|biomass duplicate]] created from others' memories of the original Fitz as he assumed that the original Fitz had died, 'perfecting' the duplicate by allowing him to be shaped by both the Doctor and the TARDIS's own 'perceptions' of Fitz.
*Coincidentally Rory temporarily "dies" in some manner in three consecutive episodes of [[Series 6]] ([[DW]]: ''[[Day of the Moon]]'', [[DW]]: ''[[The Curse of the Black Spot]]'', and [[DW]]: ''[[The Doctor's Wife]]''). Totalling up, his temporary deaths come to six. The other three 'deaths' occured in [[DW]]: ''[[Amy's Choice]]'', [[DW]]: ''[[Cold Blood]]'', and the erasure of his Auton duplicate's existence in [[DW]]: ''[[The Big Bang]]'' (In addition, earlier in that episode, Amy mourns him when the museum documentary concludes he died in the Blitz). This means he has died more than any other televised companion.
**Incidentally, every time Rory "dies" in a given story, he dies in at least one adjacent story as well.
**Additionally, in the story immediately following [[DW]]: ''[[The Doctor's Wife]]'', Rory is the only character for whom a version ''doesn't'' die; at least one version of every other character has an on-screen death, including the Doctor and Amy ([[DW]]: ''[[The Rebel Flesh]]''/''[[The Almost People]]'').
 
===Nametag controversy===
[[file:Rory's ID.jpg|thumb|right|Rory's troublesome ID badge]]
The question of Rory's "home" time period is one that baffled fans in the aftermath of the broadcast of [[The Eleventh Hour|''The Eleventh Hour'']]. This was largely fueled by an image of Rory's [[Royal Leadworth Hospital]] identification badge, that was given an extreme closeup in the episode. This closeup plainly shows the badge to have been issued on [[30th November]] [[1990]], which would seem implausible given the presence of various bits of technology in the episode, such as laptop computers and the named 2008 [[Blackberry]] phone. The existence of Facebook, Bebo, and Twitter were also mentioned; the phone had Facebook. So perplexing was this badge ID that [[Steven Moffat]] was specifically asked about it in [[New York City|New York]] by an [[American]] fan on [[13th April]] [[2010]]. His response was recorded and released in the podcast, ''Meet the Filmmaker'':
{{quote|I have never actually looked at Rory's name tag to be completely honest with you...it's not a signficant plot thing.|Steven Moffat at the SoHo Apple Store}}
Though it seemed a genuine, spontaneous answer, Moffat had earlier enthusiastically extolled the virtues of lying to the public and press about the content of ''Doctor Who'', in a question-and-answer session following the New York theatrical screening of ''The Eleventh Hour''. In any event, judging by the technology in existence at the time of the Atraxi incident, it seems unlikely that the 1990 date on the name tag could be genuine. But adding fuel to the fire, 1990s cars were seen, but so were cars said to be of a 2005+ period. ''[[Flesh and Stone]]'' later had the Doctor remark that June 25th/26th 2010 was "Amy's time", meaning that the 1990 date was an error.
 
However, in the same latter episode, the clock in Amy's bedroom jumped from 11:59am June 25th to 12pm June 26th, twenty-four hours missed in one second - and it was night time outside. This was likely also a production error, and was supposed to transition from 11:59 pm to 12:00 am. In the episode ''[[Amy's Choice]]'', Leadworth was referred to as "the village that time forgot," these things all together causing many fan theories that something has gone wrong with Leadworth involving time itself. It was discovered in The Big Bang that time was shrinking due to the cracks. This may have caused these events, although it was not explicitly stated.


{{Companions of the Eleventh Doctor}}
{{Companions of the Eleventh Doctor}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Rory}}
[[Category:Artificial beings]]
[[Category:human nurses|Williams, Rory]]
[[Category:The Alliance]]
[[Category:Auton facsimiles]]
[[Category:Companions of the Eleventh Doctor]]
[[Category:Companions of the Eleventh Doctor]]
[[Category:Enemies of the Daleks]]
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[[Category:Centenarians]]

Revision as of 22:51, 13 June 2011

ProtectedTab.png
For the Auton based on Rory, please see here.

Rory Williams was the "sort of" boyfriend and later husband of Amy Pond. He became a companion of the Eleventh Doctor, but later died and was removed from time after being absorbed by the Time Field. Following the "Big Bang Two" he was restored to the timeline, married Amy and continued to travel with her and the Doctor. He was later revealed to be the father of River Song (Melody Pond).

Biography

Early life

Rory was a childhood friend of Amelia Pond. He was privy to her tales of the "raggedy Doctor", and an unwilling participant in the dress-up games she based around her stories. (DW: The Eleventh Hour) At one point in his youth, Rory was a member of the Cub Scouts. (DWA: If You Go Down to the Woods Today)

Meeting the Eleventh Doctor

First Meeting

Whilst working as a nurse at Royal Leadworth Hospital, Rory took notice of coma patients roaming about the village when they should have been in the hospital. He helped the Doctor defeat Prisoner Zero by lending him his phone to write a computer virus to attract its jailers and watched him warn the Atraxi away from Earth after they threatened to roast it. (DW: The Eleventh Hour) He later got engaged to Amy and began looking up the latest scientific theories after the ordeal in case more aliens arrived in Leadworth. (DW: Flesh and Stone)

Travels with the Doctor

Not knowing Amy had taken off in the TARDIS and had spent days away from Leadworth, Rory had his stag party crashed by the Doctor, who was fetching him to make Amy focus on her life outside her travels. The Doctor took Amy and Rory on a "romantic break" to Venice in 1580 as a wedding gift. There, they encountered the Saturnynians, who planned to flood Venice and repopulate it with their species after losing their home planet. Rory also defended Amy against Francesco, one of the Saturnynians, who had taking a liking to her. The Doctor defeated the Saturnynians and Rory agreed to continue travelling with the Doctor after Amy asked him to do so. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)

Between destinations, aboard the Doctor's TARDIS, Rory fell victim to the same Psychic Pollen that ensnared his companions in two shared dreams. Rory escaped the trap after the Doctor figured out what was happening. His and Amy's relationship was strengthened by her realisation that she actually loved him when he died in one of the dreams. (DW: Amy's Choice)

Rory, Amy, the Doctor and some friends succeeded in stopping the Silurians that lived beneath the Earth from attempting to kill humanity. However Rory was shot by their military leader Restac when he protected the Doctor from a fatal energy beam. Rory was then swallowed by a crack in time causing Amy to forget that he had existed. (DW: The Hungry Earth, Cold Blood)

File:SoPretty.png
Before dying, Rory tells Amy that she is beautiful. (DW: Cold Blood)

When the Alliance scanned the psychic imprint left by Amy, they used her dormant memories of Rory to create a Nestene duplicate, which, due to Amy being affected by the crack in her room, possessed Rory's actual emotions and personality. Once the Nestenes' trap for the Doctor was complete, the Nestenes tried to control him, which caused him to shoot Amy, leaving him grievng about what he had done. The cracks got out of hand and all the universe save the earth was swallowed by them. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)

A version of the Doctor from the future came to Rory, instructing him to place Amy's body in the Pandorica, which had the ability to keep its occupants alive. After refusing the Doctor's offer to take the shortcut to when Amy would be fully healed, Rory watched over her for almost two thousand years, following the Pandorica wherever it went; he earnd the sobriquet the Lone Centurian. Nearing the end of the Second World War, Rory decided to take a more discrete approach to guarding the box by becoming the night security guard at the national museum where the Pandorica was held. In 1996, young Amelia provided the genetic material needed to revive Amy, but the "eye of the storm" from the cracks was closing and little time was left before it closed and the earth would cease to exist as well. Following the Doctor's success in saving the universe and preventing the cracks in time, the real Rory was never erased. Despite this, Rory somehow still remembered his experiences as an Auton after Amy remembered the Doctor back into the universe from the other side of the cracks.

File:Rory and Amy.jpg
Amy and Rory as a newly-married couple (DW: The Big Bang)

He married Amy and was given the nickname of "Mr Pond" by the Doctor as he is under Amy's thumb. Following the wedding reception, they returned to Amy's garden where the TARDIS had been parked and bade farewell to their lives in Leadworth to continue journying with the Doctor. (DW: The Big Bang)

In the new version of reality, the first time Amy and Rory were together in the TARDIS was during their honeymoon despite their memories of previous adventures with the Doctor (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)

Honeymoon

After their wedding, Amy and Rory went on a long honeymoon on board the TARDIS, spending their wedding night on the ship itself, apparently conceiving their first child at the time. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War). The Doctor left Amy and Rory on a honeymoon planet shortly before the TARDIS was stolen by Claw Shansheeth, but soon returned for them after he recovered it with the help of his past companions. (SJA: Death of the Doctor).

The couple continued their honeymoon on board a spaceship in the honeymoon suite, where Rory donned his auton counterpart's Roman armour as part of something their were doing. The ship began to crash, and the Doctor had just under an hour to save Rory and Amy, in addition to the other 4001 people on the ship. With help from Amy and Rory, the Doctor succeeded, and the trio left for another honeymoon location. (DW: A Christmas Carol)

At some point, Rory began helping the Doctor repair the TARDIS, much to Amy's annoyance. However, he accidently caused the TARDIS to materalize inside itself after dropping a thermocoupling when he accidently looked up Amy's skirt. The Doctor was able to figure out how to demateralize the TARDIS from the resulting space loop. (DW: Space /Time)

America

Soon after their honeymoon, Rory and Amy returned to Earth and moved into a house together, but she was, unknown to him, replaced with a duplicate known as a Ganger. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)

In April 2011, they received a TARDIS-blue letter, which led the couple to America. There they met a 1103 year-old Doctor, who was later shot and killed The group later returned to the diner, where they encountered a 909-year-old version of the Doctor who possessed another copy of the blue letter. Rory helped the Doctor to start a revolution against the Silence, who had been occupying Earth for centuries and returned to traveling with him, keeping Amy silent about the Doctor's future. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon)

Further travels

In the 17th century Rory was present while the Doctor stopped a Siren from kidnapping the crew of a pirate ship, and was one of the people it took; it took him while he was drowning. It was later revealed that the Siren was really a virtual doctor from an invisible spaceship taking up the same space as the Fancy. After being disconnected from the ship's life-support, Rory was revived by Amy, whom he instructed in how to perform CPR. (DW: The Curse of the Black Spot)

Rory was later trapped in the TARDIS by House, who planned to escape to the main universe using the TARDIS. Rory helped the Doctor get back into the TARDIS where he used the soul of the TARDIS to defeat House. The soul of the TARDIS thought Rory was "pretty" and communicated instructions to him telepathically. He also received a mesage from the TARDIS about something he would need to know in the future. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)

When the TARDIS crew found themselves caught in a clash between humans workers and their Ganger clones, Rory found himself sympathising with the Ganger of Jennifer Lucas (Perhaps due to his own past experiences as a duplicate of himself). The Ganger used his sympathy to her advantage, tricking him into trapping the crew in a room containing an overheating acid vat. Once the debacle was resolved, Rory was stunned when the Doctor revealed that Amy was herself a Ganger, and that the real Amy was elsewhere. Rory vowed to find her no matter what just as the Doctor had told Amy before destroying her duplicate. (DW: The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People)

Demons Run

Rory helped the Doctor raise an army to save Amy and his daughter Melody Pond from Madame Kovarian and the Church. Melody was then taken from Rory and Amy by using the same trick as before; a Ganger. This made Rory willing to do anything to get her back safe and sound. River Song told him she was his daughter, using a Prayer Leaf with Melody's name written in the language of the Gamma Forest translated by the TARDIS as proof. The Doctor then left Rory with Amy, to be returned to their home era by River while he looked for the infant Melody. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)

Personality

Rory appeared timid during his first encounter with the Doctor. He was easily intimidated by Dr Ramsden and was unsettled by the ensuing events caused by the Doctor and Prisoner Zero. Despite this, he did have the presence of mind to record evidence in order to prove that his patients were appearing outside the hospital. He also assisted Amy in attempting to clear the hospital of patients before Prisoner Zero could exploit them. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)

During the events in Venice, Rory was unnerved that the Doctor actually wanted to get back into the Saturnynian stronghold. However, he was capable of bravery, as shown when he challenged Francesco in order to protect Amy, (DW: The Vampires of Venice) and later when he took a lethal Silurian energy beam meant for the Doctor. (DW: Cold Blood) It was also notable that when he saw Francesco had attacked a girl, his immediate reaction was to see if she was all right. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)

He was greatly devoted to Amy. Perhaps the greatest testament to this personality trait was when his Auton self was willing to guard the Pandorica, with Amy in it, for almost two thousand years, even knowing that he would remain conscious the entire time. (DW: The Big Bang) He was also willing to go to any length to get his point across when angry, such as destroying all but one of the Twelfth Cyber Legion's squadron just to be told where Amy was being held captive (DW: A Good Man Goes to War) or punch the Doctor when he was grieving over shooting Amy to prove she's more important to him than the universe never happening. (DW: The Big Bang)

Initially, Rory was jealous of Amy's infatuation with the Doctor and uneasy at her obsession with him when she was little. (DW: The Vampires of Venice, Amy's Choice). However, after the Dream Lord's double trouble dreams (DW: Amy's Choice), Rory became less tense and more comfortable with the Doctor's presence in their lives, even trying to have civil conversations with him and help out on TARDIS maintenance. (DW: Time/Space) He was willing to put up with insults hurled at him by Amy and annoying nicknames the Doctor came up with.

Other information

Known family

Skills

Rory was a trained nurse, and knew medical procedures, and how to examine bodies. (DW: The Eleventh Hour, DW: The Vampires of Venice, DW: The Curse of the Black Spot) Also, due to being a Roman Centurion, he was acomplished at fighting with a gladius. (DW: The Pandorica Opens, DW: A Good Man Goes to War) After spending two millenia guarding the Pandorica, Rory became a very effective warrior. In the attack on Demon's Run, he survived the battle with the Headless monks while two experienced soldiers (Strax and Lorna Bucket) were killed. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)

Behind the scenes

  • In a deleted scene from The Hungry Earth, the Doctor admits to Amy that he likes Rory a lot.
  • Rory's death is very similar in nature to Jenny's (DW: The Doctor's Daughter). In both cases they died taking a shot intended for the Doctor, and in both cases the shooter was a violent member of a race that the Doctor had helped bring peace to. (Restac and Cobb respectively).
  • Coincidentally Rory temporarily "dies" in some manner in three consecutive episodes of Series 6 (DW: Day of the Moon, DW: The Curse of the Black Spot, and DW: The Doctor's Wife). Totalling up, his temporary deaths come to six. The other three 'deaths' occured in DW: Amy's Choice, DW: Cold Blood, and the erasure of his Auton duplicate's existence in DW: The Big Bang (In addition, earlier in that episode, Amy mourns him when the museum documentary concludes he died in the Blitz). This means he has died more than any other televised companion.
    • Incidentally, every time Rory "dies" in a given story, he dies in at least one adjacent story as well.
    • Additionally, in the story immediately following DW: The Doctor's Wife, Rory is the only character for whom a version doesn't die; at least one version of every other character has an on-screen death, including the Doctor and Amy (DW: The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People).

Nametag controversy

Rory's troublesome ID badge

The question of Rory's "home" time period is one that baffled fans in the aftermath of the broadcast of The Eleventh Hour. This was largely fueled by an image of Rory's Royal Leadworth Hospital identification badge, that was given an extreme closeup in the episode. This closeup plainly shows the badge to have been issued on 30th November 1990, which would seem implausible given the presence of various bits of technology in the episode, such as laptop computers and the named 2008 Blackberry phone. The existence of Facebook, Bebo, and Twitter were also mentioned; the phone had Facebook. So perplexing was this badge ID that Steven Moffat was specifically asked about it in New York by an American fan on 13th April 2010. His response was recorded and released in the podcast, Meet the Filmmaker:

I have never actually looked at Rory's name tag to be completely honest with you...it's not a signficant plot thing.Steven Moffat at the SoHo Apple Store

Though it seemed a genuine, spontaneous answer, Moffat had earlier enthusiastically extolled the virtues of lying to the public and press about the content of Doctor Who, in a question-and-answer session following the New York theatrical screening of The Eleventh Hour. In any event, judging by the technology in existence at the time of the Atraxi incident, it seems unlikely that the 1990 date on the name tag could be genuine. But adding fuel to the fire, 1990s cars were seen, but so were cars said to be of a 2005+ period. Flesh and Stone later had the Doctor remark that June 25th/26th 2010 was "Amy's time", meaning that the 1990 date was an error.

However, in the same latter episode, the clock in Amy's bedroom jumped from 11:59am June 25th to 12pm June 26th, twenty-four hours missed in one second - and it was night time outside. This was likely also a production error, and was supposed to transition from 11:59 pm to 12:00 am. In the episode Amy's Choice, Leadworth was referred to as "the village that time forgot," these things all together causing many fan theories that something has gone wrong with Leadworth involving time itself. It was discovered in The Big Bang that time was shrinking due to the cracks. This may have caused these events, although it was not explicitly stated.