‘RORY’S STORY’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Rory’s Message to Anthony

‘Rory’s Story’ by Neil Gaiman was originally presented as a webcast on YouTube to coincide with the global online re-watch of ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ for the ‘Doctor Who: Lockdown!’ season. It stars Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond. Amy Pond is off-screen in the webcast.

Arthur Darvill filmed himself at home in a 1940s-like costume during the spring 2020 lockdown. I like that the script of this later got published in ‘Adventures in Lockdown’ and Neil Gaiman gave Arthur Darvill instructions on what to do when filming ‘Rory’s Story’ at home. Very fascinating to check out!

The short takes place after Amy and Rory’s adventures in time and space ended with ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’. Rory records a video message using ‘the only working smartphone in the world’ in 1946. The message is for his and Amy’s son Anthony, who fought in the Second World War recently.

Anthony is a character who was in the webcast ‘P.S.’, which detailed Amy and Rory’s end after their adventures with the Eleventh Doctor. I’ve not come across ‘P.S.’ yet, but it’s intriguing that Amy and Rory adopted a son during the years they spent once ‘zapped’ back in time by the Weeping Angels. 🙂

Rory of course is introducing the ‘next chapter’ of a series of past adventures he’s recounting to Anthony via the smartphone he’s using. He previously told the stories of Series 5 and early Series 6 beforehand. I like how Rory remarks on how relieved he is that the Second World War is finally over. At the end of the tale, Amy interrupts him so that he can help her out with painting the baby’s room.

‘Rory’s Story’ rating – 8/10