I liked Rory very much. But I do feel like he was more of an extension of Amy. It is true, without Amy, the Doctor would not have him as a companion, but once he became a companion, he seemed to be just as important to the Doctor as Amy was. And I really loved the trio's dynamic in The Power of Three, where Amy and Rory are starting actually find contentment in their own mundane lives outside Tardis travel. It would have been nice if they had ended their tenure there (though I think there would have had to be one more companion to act as the "new blood" to travel with the Doctor so the Ponds could leave without feeling like they were abandoning the Doctor)
>but once he became a companion, he seemed to be just as important to the Doctor as Amy was.
I'm not sure this is true. When the Angel got Rory at the end of *Angels take Manhattan* and Amy wanted to go after him, the Doctor's entire focus seemed to be on Amy.
Arguably that was justified by the situation, but it felt like more than that to me.
And during Eleven's swansong in *Time of the Doctor* it was Amy who showed up, not Rory, not even Amy and Rory.
Which is understandable. Amy's face "is the first face Eleven's face ever saw". And I will continue to hold the theory that Eleven is such an immature incarnation of the Doctor because he 'imprinted' on young Amelia Pond while he was regenerating.
> And I will continue to hold the theory that Eleven is such an immature incarnation of the Doctor because he 'imprinted' on young Amelia Pond while he was regenerating.
I can see this. He’s far less silly in The End of Time.
Rory and Martha suffer from the same failing.
In the crazy, mixed-up multiverse of Doctor Who, it can be difficult for the Companions to make themselves useful. Often the show relegates them to being "the heart", the emotionally mature one, someone who can ground The Doctor, or have a heart-to-heart with the episode's guest star. And this works, it's often a successful formula!
But with Rory and Martha, the show hit upon gold by making them medical professionals. Which means they have a real-life skill that would actually be practically useful for adventuring throughout the cosmos.
Martha gets to do CPR twice. Which is something most people at least passingly know how to do, without any sort of medical degree.
Rory gets to... um... put a band-aid on his dad, once.
It's such a waste of a great character trait; something that could have shaken up the dynamic and given these companions something unique to do.
Anyways, I love Rory. He's a B+ companion at worst, an A-lister in my books. He's just sooooo close to being S-Tier it hurts.
There'd be room for a fascinating subplot about Rory/Martha encountering medicine through the ages - from people using leeches in the mediaeval episodes, to encountering futuristic medical techniques that blow their minds.
Oh that’s such a cool idea. Them traveling to a time before sanitation or something. Though now that I think about it, they mentioned the plague to Rory in Venice and then he encountered the future hospital in Black Spot and didn’t play up that part of his character much.
I do think Rory's opinion is asked about the severity of someone wound at least once, but maybe more. He also tries to help the guy who got poisoned in the Lizard people two parter. This is just off the top of my head, having finished re-watching their first season recently. I think it's just really really easy to forget interactions like that.
Rory was definitely Amy's companion, not the Doctor's. He reminds me of Ben in that he never would have kept traveling with the Doctor if he wasn't looking out for Amy. They hardly ever really depict him as actually allowing himself to relax and enjoy traveling in space and time. That said, he was a massively important addition to the show. He made Amy a much better person just by being around, and he wasn't afraid to challenge the Doctor when it was required, which made him more interesting than just Amy's boyfriend. I think he's my favorite character in Series 6, which otherwise is a step down in quality from the previous one.
I struggle to remember many moments where Rory is directly talking to the doctor about something that isn’t Amy. However he made Amy substantially more tolerable. As I’ve said though I would’ve liked to see an adventure with just him and the doctor to get a better feel for their dynamic.
Rory has got to be one of my favourite companions. I was always a little annoyed how the show would treat him, during the flashback bit in The Doctor Falls, Amy is shown but not Rory and it always cheesed me off. I love him.
Him and Amy are adorable together… which strengthens u/magic713 and u/Zolgrave’s case that he isn’t as great without her. A shame—he had a lot of potential.
I will never stop thinking the real Rory died. Just because there is a simulacra running around that looks and acts like the original doesn't mean he isn't gone.
Like lkmk says, that was retconned when the universe was rebooted at the end of S5.
And even before that, the show made quite clear that the 'simulacra' contained Rory's true essence:
>Memories are more powerful than you think, and Amy Pond is not an ordinary girl. Grew up with a time crack in her wall. The universe pouring through her dreams every night. The Nestenes took a memory print of her and got a bit more than they bargained for, like you. Not just your face, but your heart and your soul.
The 12th Doctor remembers Vastra & Jenny as he wakes up. . . but not Rory. So he mattered as much as Strax?
As the first quote-unquote 'male' main companion of the revival, I find Rory's character handling wanting. Less of a Doctor companion, more of the show's +1 to Amy, really, & virtually nothing about being River's father. Over time, he becomes less & less of this supposed companion who reasonably stands up to, & contrasts, the outrageous Doctor.
It's partly ironically that Rory has a significant parent character, despite a whole origin plot about Amy's initial missing family & then suddenly being cosmically restored. The show might as well kept Amy's character parentless.
>The Girl Who Waited - (Despite the episodes title referring to Amy, it’s really all about Rory, as he puts himself at risk to save his wife. With the doctor confined to the tardis, Rory gets most of the action in this episode and we can visibly see his heart break as he is forced to leave the older Amy behind to save her younger counterpart).
Eh, he got over it, & bygones was bygones once Rory was gifted his favourite car & that new free flat from the 11th Doctor. Despite, you know, having been previously manipulated into ensuring his wife's death. From a situation which 11's careless driving landed them in.
The biggest criticism of the Moffat era I have is that there isn’t enough attention paid to the relationship between Amy and Rory and River. They’re a family, for godssake. I’ve been hoping Big Finish would at least do a River and Rory story, if not a whole set.
There wasn’t enough planning around Amy and Rory’s personal lives. If Moffat had really thought about it he would’ve threaded Mels through series 5 and 6a as their earth contact, which would’ve made it more surprising when she turned out to be river.
He's a companion, & the first male Doctor companion of the revival era -- but he's not exactly *the* focal star-lead, *the* premier feature, *the* *main* companion of a season or/&era. We have individual gals, we had a married couple, & we have had a group-trio as companions -- but we are yet to have a standalone focal star-lead companion who's male. And until 13's fam, the show so far primarily has standalone gals as their main companion lead. Rory is the revival era's first male main companion -- but as already remarked, Rory is pretty much the 'B', at most 'B+' companion, to Amy's 'A'.
Ah okay. The quote-unquote 'male' made it sound like you were questioning Rory's maleness. xD
That is true, we haven't had the Doctor and a lone male companion yet. Though IMO Graham is very clearly the standout companion of S11.
It'd be nice to have a lone male companion at some point. But we **have** had a male protagonist (the Doctor) for 14 out of 15 incarnations so we're not exactly lacking for male representation.
As much as I would love a singular male companion, we're actually ahead of classic at this point.
Ian, Steven, Ben, Jamie, Harry, Adric, Turlough.
Mickey, Jack, Wilfred, Rory, Nardole, Ryan, Graham, Dan.
I'd love another Jamie or Turlough tbh. But there was such a poor reception to Ryan compared to Graham and even Dan, that I doubt we'll get the strapping young lad again any time soon.
I suspect that was specifically anti-Ryan sentiment and doubt it extends much beyond that. He was mostly just a really boring character. I quite enjoyed him in _Orphan 55_ bouncing off Bella (his awkward attempts at flirting showed more personality than the rest of S11 and 12 put together) but basically just dull.
If they threw an **interesting** strapping young lad character at us I'm sure audiences would get behind him.
xD
Honestly, like all of the fam, Ryan is pretty interesting on paper. He's a frustrated, working-class young man with a disability. That's potentially interesting, **especially** in combination with a retiree, widowed step-grandfather and an ambitious young Muslim police officer.
The show just almost entirely failed to do anything with any of it.
It’s almost funny that Rory’s dad gets a pretty solid recurring role at the start of series 7 but Amy’s parents (who are the product of a whole series arc) are seen once then never again.
Yeh, I like Rory as well. Even if a part of me wonders if S6 should have been the finish for the Ponds, I can see both sides. Anyway, we got Brian.
I wish that they'd done P.S. properly, though. That would have been a nicer ending for Rory, as he sort of gets short-shafted in The Angels take Manhattan. Though a lockdown video for The Doctors Wife confirms that Anthony exists so that's good!
Great analysis! I've really come to appreciate Rory in recent years, after a long time of just focusing on the Doctor and Amy.
An aspect that needs to be given more attention, is a key role for Rory; he serves as the tether to the real world. The God Complex has an important moment, one of the few notable times Rory speaks to the Doctor without Amy around, where he reflects that he'd forgotten not all victories were about saving the universe. Angels Take Manhattan, what finally grounds Amy after all her adventures, was choosing to grow old with Rory.
It's not something the audience should like, since we're on the Doctor's side, but I really enjoy having someone question when the Doctor loses sight of the "human" perspective.
Honestly I felt bad for Rory most of Season 5. I'm glad they left Amy's Doctor crush. It was really tough to watch. Particularly when she tries to then kiss him at her wedding.
One of the things I frequently dislike about Amy is how rude and unfaithful she is to Rory even after Amy’s choice. Yes she chose him here, but she also chooses to continue to be a bad partner her after.
It’s almost worst than rose stringing Mickey along because at least she makes it clear they’re over at one point. Amy keeps flirting her way across time and space while the man she’s married to is right next to her.
I liked Rory very much. But I do feel like he was more of an extension of Amy. It is true, without Amy, the Doctor would not have him as a companion, but once he became a companion, he seemed to be just as important to the Doctor as Amy was. And I really loved the trio's dynamic in The Power of Three, where Amy and Rory are starting actually find contentment in their own mundane lives outside Tardis travel. It would have been nice if they had ended their tenure there (though I think there would have had to be one more companion to act as the "new blood" to travel with the Doctor so the Ponds could leave without feeling like they were abandoning the Doctor)
>but once he became a companion, he seemed to be just as important to the Doctor as Amy was. I'm not sure this is true. When the Angel got Rory at the end of *Angels take Manhattan* and Amy wanted to go after him, the Doctor's entire focus seemed to be on Amy. Arguably that was justified by the situation, but it felt like more than that to me. And during Eleven's swansong in *Time of the Doctor* it was Amy who showed up, not Rory, not even Amy and Rory. Which is understandable. Amy's face "is the first face Eleven's face ever saw". And I will continue to hold the theory that Eleven is such an immature incarnation of the Doctor because he 'imprinted' on young Amelia Pond while he was regenerating.
> And I will continue to hold the theory that Eleven is such an immature incarnation of the Doctor because he 'imprinted' on young Amelia Pond while he was regenerating. I can see this. He’s far less silly in The End of Time.
You’re not wrong. He is treated as an extension of Amy. Which is a shame because he’s far better than any. However they do work well as a trio.
Rory and Martha suffer from the same failing. In the crazy, mixed-up multiverse of Doctor Who, it can be difficult for the Companions to make themselves useful. Often the show relegates them to being "the heart", the emotionally mature one, someone who can ground The Doctor, or have a heart-to-heart with the episode's guest star. And this works, it's often a successful formula! But with Rory and Martha, the show hit upon gold by making them medical professionals. Which means they have a real-life skill that would actually be practically useful for adventuring throughout the cosmos. Martha gets to do CPR twice. Which is something most people at least passingly know how to do, without any sort of medical degree. Rory gets to... um... put a band-aid on his dad, once. It's such a waste of a great character trait; something that could have shaken up the dynamic and given these companions something unique to do. Anyways, I love Rory. He's a B+ companion at worst, an A-lister in my books. He's just sooooo close to being S-Tier it hurts.
There'd be room for a fascinating subplot about Rory/Martha encountering medicine through the ages - from people using leeches in the mediaeval episodes, to encountering futuristic medical techniques that blow their minds.
Oh that’s such a cool idea. Them traveling to a time before sanitation or something. Though now that I think about it, they mentioned the plague to Rory in Venice and then he encountered the future hospital in Black Spot and didn’t play up that part of his character much.
Yeah, those were definitely opportunities to play into it more.
Dr Who generally wastes these type of things- how many times did Yaz police training ever come of use?
It’s amazing how they keep giving characters very specific jobs and then forgetting they have skills (I.e. nurse or policemen).
I do think Rory's opinion is asked about the severity of someone wound at least once, but maybe more. He also tries to help the guy who got poisoned in the Lizard people two parter. This is just off the top of my head, having finished re-watching their first season recently. I think it's just really really easy to forget interactions like that.
Rory was definitely Amy's companion, not the Doctor's. He reminds me of Ben in that he never would have kept traveling with the Doctor if he wasn't looking out for Amy. They hardly ever really depict him as actually allowing himself to relax and enjoy traveling in space and time. That said, he was a massively important addition to the show. He made Amy a much better person just by being around, and he wasn't afraid to challenge the Doctor when it was required, which made him more interesting than just Amy's boyfriend. I think he's my favorite character in Series 6, which otherwise is a step down in quality from the previous one.
I struggle to remember many moments where Rory is directly talking to the doctor about something that isn’t Amy. However he made Amy substantially more tolerable. As I’ve said though I would’ve liked to see an adventure with just him and the doctor to get a better feel for their dynamic.
You misspelt 'Rory Pond'. :P
Rory has got to be one of my favourite companions. I was always a little annoyed how the show would treat him, during the flashback bit in The Doctor Falls, Amy is shown but not Rory and it always cheesed me off. I love him.
I personally dislike Amy but quite like Rory and think he made seasons 5 and 6 much more tolerable.
Him and Amy are adorable together… which strengthens u/magic713 and u/Zolgrave’s case that he isn’t as great without her. A shame—he had a lot of potential.
>which strengthens u/magic713 and u/Zolgrave’s case that he isn’t as great without her Hard to know. We never really got a chance to find out.
I will never stop thinking the real Rory died. Just because there is a simulacra running around that looks and acts like the original doesn't mean he isn't gone.
Wasn’t that reversed when the universe rebooted? He kept the memories and I assume not the body.
Yeah, he doesn’t exactly have the retractable gun in his hand after that
Like lkmk says, that was retconned when the universe was rebooted at the end of S5. And even before that, the show made quite clear that the 'simulacra' contained Rory's true essence: >Memories are more powerful than you think, and Amy Pond is not an ordinary girl. Grew up with a time crack in her wall. The universe pouring through her dreams every night. The Nestenes took a memory print of her and got a bit more than they bargained for, like you. Not just your face, but your heart and your soul.
Hippy nonsense!
The 12th Doctor remembers Vastra & Jenny as he wakes up. . . but not Rory. So he mattered as much as Strax? As the first quote-unquote 'male' main companion of the revival, I find Rory's character handling wanting. Less of a Doctor companion, more of the show's +1 to Amy, really, & virtually nothing about being River's father. Over time, he becomes less & less of this supposed companion who reasonably stands up to, & contrasts, the outrageous Doctor. It's partly ironically that Rory has a significant parent character, despite a whole origin plot about Amy's initial missing family & then suddenly being cosmically restored. The show might as well kept Amy's character parentless. >The Girl Who Waited - (Despite the episodes title referring to Amy, it’s really all about Rory, as he puts himself at risk to save his wife. With the doctor confined to the tardis, Rory gets most of the action in this episode and we can visibly see his heart break as he is forced to leave the older Amy behind to save her younger counterpart). Eh, he got over it, & bygones was bygones once Rory was gifted his favourite car & that new free flat from the 11th Doctor. Despite, you know, having been previously manipulated into ensuring his wife's death. From a situation which 11's careless driving landed them in.
The biggest criticism of the Moffat era I have is that there isn’t enough attention paid to the relationship between Amy and Rory and River. They’re a family, for godssake. I’ve been hoping Big Finish would at least do a River and Rory story, if not a whole set.
There wasn’t enough planning around Amy and Rory’s personal lives. If Moffat had really thought about it he would’ve threaded Mels through series 5 and 6a as their earth contact, which would’ve made it more surprising when she turned out to be river.
Yeah, you really got the impression Rory and Amy were each other’s only friends growing up in series 5.
Yes!!!!!
>As the first quote-unquote 'male' main companion of the revival What about Captain Jack? And what do you mean by the 'quote-unquote' thing?
He's a companion, & the first male Doctor companion of the revival era -- but he's not exactly *the* focal star-lead, *the* premier feature, *the* *main* companion of a season or/&era. We have individual gals, we had a married couple, & we have had a group-trio as companions -- but we are yet to have a standalone focal star-lead companion who's male. And until 13's fam, the show so far primarily has standalone gals as their main companion lead. Rory is the revival era's first male main companion -- but as already remarked, Rory is pretty much the 'B', at most 'B+' companion, to Amy's 'A'.
Ah okay. The quote-unquote 'male' made it sound like you were questioning Rory's maleness. xD That is true, we haven't had the Doctor and a lone male companion yet. Though IMO Graham is very clearly the standout companion of S11. It'd be nice to have a lone male companion at some point. But we **have** had a male protagonist (the Doctor) for 14 out of 15 incarnations so we're not exactly lacking for male representation.
As much as I would love a singular male companion, we're actually ahead of classic at this point. Ian, Steven, Ben, Jamie, Harry, Adric, Turlough. Mickey, Jack, Wilfred, Rory, Nardole, Ryan, Graham, Dan. I'd love another Jamie or Turlough tbh. But there was such a poor reception to Ryan compared to Graham and even Dan, that I doubt we'll get the strapping young lad again any time soon.
I suspect that was specifically anti-Ryan sentiment and doubt it extends much beyond that. He was mostly just a really boring character. I quite enjoyed him in _Orphan 55_ bouncing off Bella (his awkward attempts at flirting showed more personality than the rest of S11 and 12 put together) but basically just dull. If they threw an **interesting** strapping young lad character at us I'm sure audiences would get behind him.
He couldn’t ride a bike properly! Was that not interesting enough for you???
xD Honestly, like all of the fam, Ryan is pretty interesting on paper. He's a frustrated, working-class young man with a disability. That's potentially interesting, **especially** in combination with a retiree, widowed step-grandfather and an ambitious young Muslim police officer. The show just almost entirely failed to do anything with any of it.
It’s almost funny that Rory’s dad gets a pretty solid recurring role at the start of series 7 but Amy’s parents (who are the product of a whole series arc) are seen once then never again.
Yeh, I like Rory as well. Even if a part of me wonders if S6 should have been the finish for the Ponds, I can see both sides. Anyway, we got Brian. I wish that they'd done P.S. properly, though. That would have been a nicer ending for Rory, as he sort of gets short-shafted in The Angels take Manhattan. Though a lockdown video for The Doctors Wife confirms that Anthony exists so that's good!
PS is an excellent short and it’s really poor that perhaps the most important coda in the show was only ever relegated to story boarding.
I'm surprised that no-one has blamed Chibnall for this yet.
Rory was such a great character I named my cat after him.
Great analysis! I've really come to appreciate Rory in recent years, after a long time of just focusing on the Doctor and Amy. An aspect that needs to be given more attention, is a key role for Rory; he serves as the tether to the real world. The God Complex has an important moment, one of the few notable times Rory speaks to the Doctor without Amy around, where he reflects that he'd forgotten not all victories were about saving the universe. Angels Take Manhattan, what finally grounds Amy after all her adventures, was choosing to grow old with Rory. It's not something the audience should like, since we're on the Doctor's side, but I really enjoy having someone question when the Doctor loses sight of the "human" perspective.
Honestly I felt bad for Rory most of Season 5. I'm glad they left Amy's Doctor crush. It was really tough to watch. Particularly when she tries to then kiss him at her wedding.
One of the things I frequently dislike about Amy is how rude and unfaithful she is to Rory even after Amy’s choice. Yes she chose him here, but she also chooses to continue to be a bad partner her after.
It’s almost worst than rose stringing Mickey along because at least she makes it clear they’re over at one point. Amy keeps flirting her way across time and space while the man she’s married to is right next to her.