Howling:Why is Rory Williams so similar to Mickey Smith?

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Why is Rory Williams so similar to Mickey? Here are some of the similarites I spotted:

  • Both are the boyfriend/husband of one of the Doctor's companions (Rose Tyler and Amy Pond respectively).
  • Both have appeared as an Auton (in their first series too).
  • Both have departed/died in a story which featured a classic enemy.
  • both are "the tin dog" :)
  • Both had a suprise return in their second series' finale (TV: Army of Ghosts and The Pandorica Opens).
  • Both were recurring characters during their first series.
  • Both joined the TARDIS crew in their second series.

See? Is this Steven Moffat's reimagening of Mickey or not? Or is it just coincidence...? BroadcastCorp (talk | contribs) 10:51, August 14, 2011 (UTC)

As shown there, they do have quite a few similarities with what has happened to them, but personality-wise, they are completely different. --MrThermomanPreacher 13:23, August 14, 2011 (UTC)

Why is Rory Williams so similar to Jamie McCrimmon? Here are some of the similarities I spotted:

  • Both can (and do) pull off a manly skirt.
  • Both are frequently flustered, especially when dealing with complicated situations, or with women.
  • Both are madly in love with (Victoria/Amy).
  • Both are frequently teased by the Doctor, but end up very close to him.
  • Both have been replaced by a shapeshifting alien (the Chameleons vs. the Autons).
  • Both talk longingly of their home in a way the others find amusing at times, annoying at other times.
  • Both have been stuck inside a dead TARDIS, have seen an exploding TARDIS, and have stepped out of an invisible TARDIS.
  • Both have seen the Doctor use a Time Lord hypercube.
  • Both were fatally shot, only to return in another form, before finally becoming himself again thanks to the Doctor's actions and Zoe/Amy's memory. (The Mind Robber vs. Cold Blood/The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang)

There are also similarities between 2/11 (both love hats, wear a bow-tie, are often seen checking a diary, snap at their companions and other allies, are very vocal about non-violence but seem to get involved in a lot of it--including both destroying entire Cyberfleets, don't like alcohol, have a tendency to come of like bumbling fools, usually solve problems through diplomacy), and for that matter Zoe and Amy (both can't remember the Daleks even though they should, etc.), although the Scottish accent is on the wrong companion this time.

I'm sure I could also find nearly-unique situations and character traits that many other pairs of characters share in Doctor Who history (River and Benny, Amy/Rory/River and Barbara/Ian/Susan, etc.) It's a fun game, but I don't think it means anything. Or, if it does, it's probably Moorcock's point that there are only so many Champion/Companion relationships so they all end up repeating each other (especially since Amy, like Sam Jones in the novels, was definitely written with the idea of the "Eternal Companion" in mind). --173.228.85.35 19:24, August 16, 2011 (UTC)

I think my findings here is that they would both be very entertaining with in an episode together. (50th anniversairy cometh...)

Gallifrey102 21:14, August 18, 2011 (UTC)

Rory and Mickey, Rory and Jamie, or Rory and Steven Moffat? :)
Personally, if I could put any two companions together for the anniversary special, it would be River and Benny. Except that River would probably end up shooting her. --173.228.85.35 02:32, August 19, 2011 (UTC)

What about Rory and Rhys:

  • Both of their names start with "R"
  • Both of their last names are Williams
  • Both started out as the boy friend of a main character and over the course of the show became their fiance and then husband
  • Both had pretty eventful weddings with the Doctor/Jack bursting in in the middle
  • Both died and got better
  • Both have daughters
  • Both their daughters have been kidnapped
  • Amy/Gwen both cheated on them at some point
  • Both sometimes seem jealous of Amy/Gwen's relationships with the Doctor/Jack
  • Both were mad or at least annoyed that Amy/Gwen told the Doctor/Jack that they were pregnant before they were told.

Icecreamdif 19:58, August 19, 2011 (UTC)

Good points all. (Well, Amy didn't actually cheat on Rory, but not through lack of trying.) Plus, Rory's daughter has the Doctor's power of regeneration, while Rhys's daughter has Jack's immortality. And both were far from their wives when Amy and Gwen both went to America for the first time in 2011. And… You could go on and on with this kind of thing. :) --173.228.85.35 05:50, August 20, 2011 (UTC)

"Rhys's daughter has Jack's immortality": I don't think she does. Rhys tried to persuade Gwen not to investigate the Miracle and used the argument that the Miracle might mean Anwen could live forever. If Rhys suspected Anwen had Jack's variety of immortality, he'd be leaping to conclusions and yelling accusations at Gewn. --89.240.247.37 13:38, August 20, 2011 (UTC)

Considering what we know about the Miracle so far, it sounds like all of humanity (except Jack) currently has Jack's immortality, including Anwen. --173.228.85.35 20:21, August 20, 2011 (UTC)

All of humanity (except Jack) seems to have some kind of immortality but it's not Jack's variety. Jack's wounds heal. Usually, they heal very rapidly. Compare almost any of Jack's "fatal" wounds with Rex's persisting chest wound. That's not to say there's no connection with Jack; there obviously is, as the hitman revealed before Rex shot him in the throat. It might, I suppose, be that Jack's immortality has been "diluted" by being spread across the whole of the rest of humanity, so the healing is far slower, but I'm inclined to think it's a different kind of immortality. --89.241.74.197 21:27, August 20, 2011 (UTC)

As I understand it, Jack's seeming immortality isn't exactly that - he's a fixed point in time, he must always 'be'. When he is killed, time rushes in to fill the void he leaves, and he 'becomes' again. It's time that resets Jack (ie. he doesn't so much heal as reboot). The Miracle isn't immortality either, not really, it's more a form of zombification - even those who should've died continue to function.

An interesting fact is that the dead pre-miracle didn't come to life. This means whatever 'lives so strongly' in the Cat 1s and Cat 2s wasn't 'inside' humans before the Miracle.

Immortality means not dieing - Jack dies but time snaps him back into being, those effected by the Miracle can die but continue to function like live humans. Makgrey 12:50, August 22, 2011 (UTC)

Not exactly. You are right about Jack, he dies but then gets better. Everyone else efefected by the Miracle don't die at all. Parts of them may stop working if they are damaged, but overall they remain alive. The zombification you are suggesting is more of what happenned to Owen. He died, and basically became a corpse, but continued to walk and talk.Icecreamdif 19:53, August 22, 2011 (UTC)

Sure, the whole world's immortality must have nothing to do with Jack's because some of the details are different. The fact that Jack became mortal at the same time everyone else became immortal is just a coincidence. RTD spent the whole last episode showing Angelo and those three mysterious people who might be the heads of the mysterious Three Families in possession of Jack's body back in 1927 just as a nice break from all the tedious Miracle-related stuff; it's not as if they could have derived a slightly different form of immortality from samples of Jack, after all… --173.228.85.35 05:18, August 23, 2011 (UTC)

Obviously the Miracle is somehow related to Jack's former immortality, but it also obviously doesn't work exactly the same as it. Is also a bit of a stretch to make Anwen having Jack's immortality a similarity with Melody, as everybody in the world has Jack's immortality. We will probably find out the connection between Jack and the Miracle on Friday, anyway.Icecreamdif 05:48, August 23, 2011 (UTC)

Since they were both caused by Q (or maybe by Z), as I'm pretty sure someone has established in another thread, of course they're similar. --173.228.85.35 06:44, August 23, 2011 (UTC)