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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) When he reached his late teens, Rory began working as a nurse in Royal Leadworth Hospital due to Amy's obsession with the Doctor. (Doctor Who- the visual dictionary)
Meeting the Doctor
While working as th 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 him, Amy and the Doctor in two shared dreams. Rory escaped the trap after the Doctor figured out what was happening and killed them in both dreams so that they would wake up. His and Amy's relationship was strengthened by her realisation that she actually loved him when he died in one of the dreams and could not live without him. (DW: Amy's Choice)
Following a missed attempt to arrive in Rio, Rory, Amy, the Doctor and some new friends succeeded in stopping the renegade Silurians that lived beneath the Earth from attempting to kill humanity. However Rory was shot by their military leader Restac when he unnessarily protected the Doctor from a fatal energy beam and died, defying his death as he had seen his future self upon arrival. However, Rory was then swallowed by a crack in time near where he was shot, causing Amy to forget that he had existed as he was part of her personal past. (DW: The Hungry Earth, 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, freeing Rory from the Nestene Conciousness as it no longer existed. (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 and to free his past self from it. Once he freed the Doctor from the Pandorica, Rory refused his offer to take the shortcut to when Amy would be fully healed as the box needed protecting. Rory watched over Amy for over 1864 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. During this time, Rory met River Song and fought off an "after-image" of a Dalek. Following the Doctor's success in saving the universe and preventing the cracks in time, the real Rory was returned to a rebooted, new universe. Despite this, Rory retained memories of experiences as an Auton after Amy remembered the Doctor back into the universe from the other side of the cracks.
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, which Rory was skeptical about due to the Doctor explaining that it was a living conivious planet. (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 some time later. (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 River Song and a 1103 year-old Doctor, who was later shot and killed The group later returned to the diner they previously met up in, where they encountered a 909-year-old version of the Doctor, who possessed another copy of the blue letter. During the older Doctor's request to head for "space 1969", Rory encountered aliens known as the Silence, who had been occupying/ruling Earth for centuries. After the Doctor started a revolution against the Silence by using their own powers against them, Rory returned to traveling on the TARDIS along with Amy in order to keep her from telling the Doctor about his impending death. It was during this time that Rory began to question Amy's feelings for him yet again as she described someone she loved "fell out of the sky" and changed her life. However, his doubts were put to rest when Amy reassured him that she was only using a figure of speech to describe him, not the Doctor. (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)
Following a false distress signal that originated form outside the unvierse, Rory became trapped in the TARDIS by House, who planned to escape to the main universe using the TARDIS and leave the Doctor stranded with his TARDIS's matrix. Rory helped the Doctor get back into the TARDIS by lowering the sheilds keeping him out, where the Doctor used the soul of the TARDIS to defeat House. The soul of the TARDIS thought Rory was "pretty" and communicated instructions to him telepathically instead of Amy as the Doctor instructed. He also received a mesage from the TARDIS about something he would need to know in the future- "The only water in the forest is the river". (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
After surviving a solar tsunami in the 22nd century, the TARDIS crew found themselves caught in a clash between humans workers and their Ganger clones; Rory sympathized with the Ganger of Jennifer Lucas as he had spent time as a similar being. The Ganger used his sympathy to her advantage, tricking him into trapping the crew in a room containing an overheating acid vat. Once the crisis was resolved by saving a worker and two gangers to start a press conference about ganger rights, 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 the same 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.(Most notably in his "Last Centurion" costume which he was apparently forced to wear by the Doctor due to his rules of engagement) 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. Shockingly, River Song told him that she is 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)
Rory was extremely devoted to Amy and loved her very deeply. 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 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 - 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 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
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.
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.