And another thing: Karen Gillan’s mum, a massive Doctor Who fan, tried to persuade her to change her mind and stay on the TARDIS.
played by ARTHUR DARVILL
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The Eleventh Hour (2010)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Angels Take Manhattan (2012)
Thomas Arthur Darvill’s love of performing stemmed from accompanying his mother on tours around the country with the Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre. He landed a job as an in-vision continuity announcer for ITV children’s television in 2000, before moving on to stage roles and then TV, including Little Dorrit in 2008. Following his two-and-a-half year stint as Rory in Doctor Who, Arthur appeared opposite Billie Piper’s husband Laurence Fox on the London stage in Our Boys.
Nurse Rory Williams was always in love with Amy Pond. It took a while for the penny to drop for Amy, but she eventually cottoned on, and fell in love with him. After a rocky start involving the near-end of the universe, Rory was delighted when he finally married Amy, and they remained friends and companions of the Doctor as husband and wife. Rory’s time with the Doctor was only brought to an end when a Weeping Angel blasted him back in time, but he would always be with Amy Pond, the girl he waited for.
And another thing: Arthur Darvill has continued his Doctor Who connections appearing in ITV’s Broadchurch (2013), written by Who writer Chris Chibnall and starring David Tennant.
THEY KEEP KILLING RORY
It’s very unusual that a companion of the Doctor is killed in action. But Rory Williams seems to make a habit of it – except, he kept coming back to life.
Amy’s Choice – killed in a cloud of green gas by Mrs Poggit (an alien Eknodine), though this was in a dream world.
Cold Blood – blasted by a Silurian’s energy weapon, then absorbed by the crack in time and erased from existence. Rory later came back to life as an Auton duplicate of a Roman Centurion in AD 102. Which also died.
Day of the Moon – shot down by US agents and taken away in a body bag. But it turned out to be a ruse and he was all right really.
The Doctor’s Wife – aged to death in the corridors of the TARDIS, a trick played by the evil entity House several times.
The Angels Take Manhattan – leapt to certain death from an apartment block rooftop, erasing the time line and arriving back in 2012.
The Angels Take Manhattan – blasted back in time by a Weeping Angel, eventually dying for real at the age of 82 in the 1980s. The discovery of his gravestone caused him to be caught by the Angel in the first place. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey.
THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR’S RULES FOR COMPANIONS
Rule 1: ‘The Doctor lies.’
Rule 7: ‘Never run when you are scared.’
Rule 27. ‘Never knowingly be serious.’
Rule 408. ‘Time is not the boss of you.’
OCCASIONAL COMPANIONS
Every now and then the Doctor meets that special someone on his wanderings. They may not leave with him, but they make as much impact as his regular companions.
Sara was a Space Special Security agent sent by Mavic Chen, the treacherous Guardian of the Solar System, to assassinate the Doctor and his friends. After killing her own brother, agent Bret Vyon, Sara realised the error of her ways and helped the Doctor defeat Chen and his allies the Daleks. She was killed by the Daleks’ Time Destructor.
Astrid was a waitress aboard the doomed Titanic star cruiser. When asteroids scuppered the ship, she helped the Doctor get survivors to safety and sacrificed herself to stop the villainous Max Capricorn.
When 19th-century mathematics tutor Jackson took his family to Victorian London, a chance encounter with the Cybermen changed his life for ever. When his wife was killed, Jackson attempted to rescue his son by discharging an infostamp containing data about the Doctor. Instead, the information, stolen from the Daleks, flooded his mind. Unable to accept the loss of his family, Jackson retreated into a fugue state, believing that he was a newly regenerated incarnation of the Time Lord. Adopting his very own companion, Rosita, Jackson encountered the real Doctor and eventually faced the truth about himself, and was reunited with his son.
A professional thief who stole for the thrill of the chase, Christina stole the Cup of Athelstan from the International Gallery in London. Running from the police, she jumped onto the number 200 bus but found herself transported to a distant planet as the vehicle plunged through a wormhole. Luckily for Christina – and the other passengers – the Doctor was also on board.
A survivor of the 2009 Dalek invasion of Earth, Adelaide Brooke dreamt of exploring space. Following stints at Cambridge and Rice Universities, she joined NASA and became the first woman to land on Mars. 17 years later, in 2058, she established the first human colony, Bowie Base One, on the red planet. According to established history the colony was lost the following year. When the Tenth Doctor landed on the very day Bowie Base One was due to be destroyed – a fixed point in time – the Doctor decided to play god and returned Adelaide to Earth. Appalled by the Doctor’s flawed arrogance, Adelaide took her own life, thus protecting future history. Stunned, the Doctor realised that he’d finally gone too far.
The Doctor first met Donna Noble’s grandfather during a transmat outing from the Titanic. The newspaper seller, who had served in the army as a young man but was proud never to have taken a life, missed Donna’s first wedding due to a bout of Spanish flu. He met the Time Lord again after his granddaughter visited home during her travels in the TARDIS. In December 2010, Wilf started having nightmares about the Master and, believing the Doctor could help, formed the ‘Silver Cloak’, a crack team of OAPs, to find the Time Lord. Together, the two old soldiers stopped the return of Gallifrey, although Wilf become trapped in a radiation booth. The Doctor saved him, absorbing a fatal dose of radiation that triggered his tenth regeneration.
Born 23 November 1866, Clara Oswald encountered the Eleventh Doctor while living a curious double life: she worked as a barmaid at the Rose and Crown, but she was also ‘Miss Montague’, a governess for the Latimer children. Intrigued by the Doctor, whose TARDIS was parked on a solidified cloud high above the streets of London, she all but forced her way into his hermit-like existence. On the brink of accepting a TARDIS key and joining the Doctor, Clara was grabbed by an animated ice sculpture of the Latimer’s previous governess and fell to her death. But before she breathed her last, Clara told the Doctor to ‘Run, you clever boy… and remember’, the very same words said to him by the doomed Oswin Oswald on the Dalek Asylum. Fascinated, the Doctor headed back into time and space to unravel the mystery of Clara Oswin Oswald…
FAMILY TIES
‘I was going to do shepherd’s pie. All of us, a proper sit down…’