Rory Williams

Portrayed by: Arthur Darvill
Travelled with: Eleventh Doctor
Series: Five, Six

Rory Williams first appears as a nurse at the local hospital in Leadworth, and is described by Amy as her “sort of” boyfriend, despite being in a relationship with her for some years. He assists the Eleventh Doctor and Amy to find Prisoner Zero and give him back to the Atraxi before the Doctor disappears (again). Two years after this, Rory is set to marry Amy when she agrees to join the Doctor in the TARDIS on the night before her wedding. Rory becomes an official companion in the episode The Vampires of Venice (Series 5 : Episode 6) when the Doctor interrupts his stag do to take him and Amy on a date to Venice. In this episode he assists the Doctor and Amy in defeating the Saturnyians and begins to repair his relationship with Amy. Throughout the episode he has a go at the Doctor about how he takes people who then want to impress him, and put themselves in danger to help him (prompted by Amy agreeing to go undercover in the school the Saturnyians were hiding out in). At the end of the episode Amy asks him to join them on their travels and he agrees, becoming a companion of the Doctor and the TARDIS crew.

Rory Williams in The Eleventh Hour.

In the episode Amy’s Choice (Series 5 : Episode 7), during the Leadworth reality Rory has become a medical doctor in Upper Leadworth and has finally married Amy, where they are expecting a child together. Rory is happy in this reality and is convinced that it is the real one so much, that he sacrifices himself to save Amy, telling her to look after their baby before dying. Amy however does not wish to live in a world without Rory and kills herself and the Doctor to return to the TARDIS reality and back to Rory. In the episode Cold Blood (Series 5 : Episode 9), despite his prior argument with the Doctor about making people sacrifice themselves, Rory takes a bullet intended for the Doctor and dies. His body is consumed by one of the cracks in time, resulting in him being wiped from history and Amy’s memories.

Rory Williams is consumed by a crack in time while the Doctor makes Amy leave.

Rory is not seen again until The Pandorica Opens (Series 5 : Episode 12) when he returns as one of the Roman soldiers in 102AD, but it is revealed near the end of the episode that this is merely an Auton duplicate of Rory, taken using Amy’s memories when the Autons, along with other species that are enemies with the Doctor, design their trap of the Pandorica. The duplicate Rory tries to resist its Auton programming, but ends up shooting Amy at the end of the episode. In the series finale, The Big Bang (Series 5 : Episode 13) the duplicate Rory releases the Doctor from the Pandorica who realises that when the Alliance created the duplicate, it reproduced his soul along with his personality. This is confirmed when the Doctor pretends to be very dismissive of Amy’s death, which results in the duplicate Rory punching him in the face. The duplicate Rory watches over Amy while she is preserved in the Pandorica for over 2000 years, creating the legend of “The Lone Centurion” before Amy is revived.

The Auton duplicate Rory holds Amy.

When the Doctor saves the universe and closes the cracks in time, he creates a new timeline in which Rory did not die at the end of Cold Blood, but lives to marry Amy. After he marries Amy, they both join the Doctor once again on the TARDIS ready to start off their next adventure. In the Sarah Jane Adventures story Death of the Doctor (Series 4 : Episode 5 & 6), the Doctor mentions that Amy and Rory are spending some time on a honeymoon planet after their wedding and the events in The Big Bang.

Rory and Commander Starx prepare to fight the headless monks in the series 6 mid-season finale, A Good Man goes to War

Rory returned in A Christmas Carol (2010 Christmas Special) when he was trapped on a crashing spaceship with Amy while on their honeymoon. Unable to do anything, Rory more stood around in his Roman Centurion costume while the Doctor saved the day again. In Series 6, Rory joins the Doctor and Amy (now his wife) in Utah to witness the Doctor’s death (The Impossible Astronaut (Series 6 : Episode 1)) and help dispose of the body. Rory then joins in the search and fight against the Silence with Amy and River. In The Almost People (Series 6 : Episode 6) Rory learns that Amy was a flesh avatar and had been since the start of Series 6. Rory was protective of Amy when the Doctor initially told him to step away so that he could dissolve her into liquid flesh, but then trusted the Doctor and moved away. Rory also appeared to die again in The Curse of the Black Spot (Series 6 : Episode 3) when he drowned and was taken off life support. Luckily for Rory, Amy was able to revive him and he lived to fight another day. In The Doctor’s Wife (Series 6 : Episode 4), Rory appeared to die multiple times when House was messing with Amy’s mind, but all proved to be just illusions to scare Amy. In A Good Man goes to War (Series 6 : Episode 7), Rory proves himself to be as brave as any companion to ever step foot on the TARDIS when he confronts the Cybermen to demand the location of Amy. Dressed again in his Roman Centurion costume, Rory confronted the Cybermen and tried to gain the alliance of River. With the help of Captain Henry Avery and his son Toby, Rory was able to take over the escape ship that Madame Kovarian intended to escape on with his baby, Melody. Returning the baby to Amy, Rory shows his sensitive side again, but is quick to defend both wife and baby when the headless monks attack at the end of the episode, showing excellent fighting skills. Rory also tried to protect River when Amy started pointing guns at her, but became just as shocked as Amy when River revealed that she is Melody, Rory’s daughter. Rory, along with Amy, was left on Demon’s Run at the end of A Good Man goes to War while the Doctor went off to rescue their baby.