Leave Well Enough Alone? Part 4: Amy & Rory

Guest contributor James Kirkland continues looking at companions’ departures and their returns.

• See part one of this article examining Rose Tyler here.
• See part two of this article examining Martha Jones here.
• See part three of this article examining Donna Noble here.

Now, I know many of you are already saying, “But wait, Series 6 was never meant to be the last series for Amy and Rory”. And that may be so, but I still feel that the situation of their initial “departure” and their second one merits an analysis in this series of articles.

At the end of Series 6’s “The God Complex”, the Doctor drops Amy and Rory off at their house. Having been forced to destroy Amy’s faith in him to save her from the Minotaur, the Doctor then decides to leave Amy and Rory behind, encouraging Amy to go on another “big adventure” in a normal life with Rory. He tells her that the decision is being done to save them, that he’d rather leave them behind than run the risk of standing over their graves or broken bodies. Amy, somewhat hesitantly, comes to terms with the decision and says her farewells before the Doctor leaves. I feel this ending showed a great deal of maturity for both characters. Amy’s story, to me, was about a girl who was still waiting to grow up. A girl who wanted the night before her wedding to last forever and to play with her “imaginary friend” instead of facing the life that awaited her. And, with this departure, she finally “grew up”. She didn’t need her imaginary friend any more and was prepared to move on with her life with Rory. The Eleventh Doctor is often framed as a very “childlike” Doctor, and his tenure is described as a ‘”airy tale”. Thematically, then, it works well that he decides to leave his “childhood friend” behind so that she can live her life. And, when one grows up, they usually stop believing in fairy tales. So, with that maturity, Amy’s departure from the fairy tale that was the Eleventh Doctor’s life made perfect thematic sense.

Series 7 saw Amy and Rory return, however. After several adventures with the Doctor that helped repair their relationship and solidify their love for each other, their time in the TARDIS came to and end in “The Angels Take Manhattan”. Both were teleported back in time by a Weeping Angel, doomed to live their lives locked away from all their friends and family. This ending, thematically, was just as strong as the first. It was about the love between Amy and Rory, which we saw grow from their first appearance on the show. We saw her stall their wedding, saw him wait thousands of years for her and saw their relationship almost come to an end. But through it all, they always persevered and stayed with each other. And, in the end, Amy first chose to kill herself with Rory to defeat the Angels and then chose to be teleported to the past just so that she could be with him again. This ending showed that Amy’s love for Rory knew no bounds, at that she would do anything to be with him after all they had already been through. Once again, Amy was choosing a life with Rory over adventures with her imaginary friend, despite the Doctor’s protests. She was prepared to settle down and live her life with the love of her life, even if that meant she’d never be able to see her best friend ever again.

So, when looking at these endings in this light, do I believe well enough should have been left alone? Well both endings, in essence, thematically represent the same thing. They both represent Amy choosing a life with Rory over adventures with the Doctor. The circumstances of these decisions, however, are dramatically different. In one ending, Amy and the Doctor are deciding to both grow up. And Amy is making the decision under normal circumstances. She is choosing a normal life with Rory. Whereas the second ending has her choosing Rory with the alternative being her being separated from him forever. And the life she is choosing isn’t going to be a normal one. It will be one in a time they will need to adjust to. In the first ending, she likely could have decided to journey with the Doctor again, if she insisted. But, in the second, there was no other option available to her that would allow her to be with Rory again. And that is why their departure in Series 6 works much better to me. Because the choice is mutual and mundane. It isn’t made under dire or extraordinary circumstances and displays remarkable maturity for both characters.

But Amy and Rory’s ending in “The Angels Take Manhattan” is not inherently flawed in my eyes, like the second endings for Rose and Donna. Both endings are successful in conveying what they intend and work well with the story of the characters. It’s just that one approached it in, what I think, is a much smarter and more mature way. So do I think well enough should have been left alone, if it could have been? In my opinion, yes. But, as it stands I have no real qualms with their ending as told. I just think that a mutual decision between friends, one letting the other live their life without putting them in unnecessary danger again, is far more powerful than the “do or die” type scenario that followed. Having the Doctor and Amy say goodbye, and then even having him still show up to say hello at the end of “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe”, showing that he still keeps in touch with them, could have been a stronger ending to see. Because there’s something so human and relatable about having to say goodbye to someone who has to go away to move on with their lives. And just because they move on, it doesn’t mean you’ll never see them again.

Verdict: So, in the case of Amy Pond and Rory Williams, I believe their The God Complex ending should have been their final appearance. But what we got instead was still a strong enough ending.

Join us next time for Clara Oswald…