Doctor Who And The Man Who Does
Apr. 24th, 2011 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinThere were a lot of good lines in the first episode of the new Doctor Who season, but the one that stands out as my favorite isn't particularly clever or funny:
Rory had a few hurdles to overcome in being a really likable character. There was always something endearing about him, but his first few appearances didn't really position him to be seen at his best. He achieved full likability and even heroism in the course of his first season; in the first episode of this season, I started to love him, and it was in that line.
Rory is a man who will literally run into a burning building to save someone he loves. He has managed the trick of living longer than the Doctor himself (so far). He still doesn't like the idea of going down into a dark tunnel or opening a locked door for the thrill of seeing whatever's locked up on the other side, which is probably why he never died in his long life of being a semi-mythical box guardian... he'd run into a burning building if that was what needed doing, but only in that case.
And that's Rory. He does what needs doing. Even back in his first appearance, where he was timid and nervous and jealous and more than a little bit redundant in the style of a Doctor Who serial title ("Deadly aliens. Aliens of death."), he still did what needed doing. You could see it in his first appearance, when he wanted to tell the doctor at the hospital about the patients walking around town... well he didn't, in fact, want to. You could tell he would have rather been doing just about anything besides telling his superior this wild impossible thing that he had witnessed, had evidence of in his hand, and that concerned the patients in their mutual charge. He was standing there with his phone in his hand, jeopardizing his career and his reputation in a very small town, because it needed doing.
That's why I love Rory. He waited around for nearly two millennia, but he's not The Boy Who Waited... he's The Man Who Does What Needs Doing. And he's not the stereotypical image of such, all hard and grizzled and ruggedly good-looking ("Oh, thanks.") He's still shy, still nervous, still the same Rory we met way back when.
That just makes it all the more impressive.
"If we're gonna do this, let's do it properly."
Rory had a few hurdles to overcome in being a really likable character. There was always something endearing about him, but his first few appearances didn't really position him to be seen at his best. He achieved full likability and even heroism in the course of his first season; in the first episode of this season, I started to love him, and it was in that line.
Rory is a man who will literally run into a burning building to save someone he loves. He has managed the trick of living longer than the Doctor himself (so far). He still doesn't like the idea of going down into a dark tunnel or opening a locked door for the thrill of seeing whatever's locked up on the other side, which is probably why he never died in his long life of being a semi-mythical box guardian... he'd run into a burning building if that was what needed doing, but only in that case.
And that's Rory. He does what needs doing. Even back in his first appearance, where he was timid and nervous and jealous and more than a little bit redundant in the style of a Doctor Who serial title ("Deadly aliens. Aliens of death."), he still did what needed doing. You could see it in his first appearance, when he wanted to tell the doctor at the hospital about the patients walking around town... well he didn't, in fact, want to. You could tell he would have rather been doing just about anything besides telling his superior this wild impossible thing that he had witnessed, had evidence of in his hand, and that concerned the patients in their mutual charge. He was standing there with his phone in his hand, jeopardizing his career and his reputation in a very small town, because it needed doing.
That's why I love Rory. He waited around for nearly two millennia, but he's not The Boy Who Waited... he's The Man Who Does What Needs Doing. And he's not the stereotypical image of such, all hard and grizzled and ruggedly good-looking ("Oh, thanks.") He's still shy, still nervous, still the same Rory we met way back when.
That just makes it all the more impressive.