More than a decade on, Arthur Darvill reflects on that “shocking, surprising, sad” ending.
It’s been more than a decade since beloved companions Amy and Rory left Doctor Who, but their final episode, The Angels Take Manhattan, remains one of the most emotional in the show’s history.
After three seasons of travelling through space and time together, Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor and his companions, played by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, were cruelly ripped away from him by the Weeping Angels.
While Rory went first in a shock ending for his character, Amy decided to follow her husband, saying a heartbreaking goodbye to the Doctor.
Speaking about his first reaction to the scene, Darvill admits that he couldn’t wait to find out how he left – but Gillan couldn’t face reading the script until the last minute.
“We’d been talking about it for a while. When I started, I didn’t think I’d be in it for very long. Steven [Moffat] says, ‘Oh no, I always had a plan,’ which I don’t necessarily believe! But I felt like I was just kind of waiting to be killed at any point but it didn’t happen,” he recalls, exclusively chatting to RadioTimes.com.
“Then they sat us down in, I think, mid season 6. And they’re like, ‘Look, how long do you want to do this? This is what we think, but what do you want?’ which is really rare, and it was real testament to the kind of nurturing nature and caring nature of the producers and writers. It felt like a family, so that was good being involved in that in that conversation.
“Because the writing was so good and Steven is so brilliant, the whole thing was like a big fairytale, and I just think the arcs that he’d written for everyone were so detailed and nuanced and brilliant and exciting that every time we opened – well, any script but especially his scripts – it would be a real treat.”
Darvill added: “Then we got the script and I read it straight away because I just wanted to find out what happened… I was really into the story so it was just fascinating to see what happened.
“Obviously I found it very emotional, but also, I just thought was a perfect ending for them – slightly open ended, but also really emotional and I liked that Rory had just been whisked away.
“I think that was a really good, shocking, surprising, sad thing. But Kazza refused to read it. She refused to read the script for ages. And I was desperate to talk to her about it, because obviously it involved both of us.
“But every time I spoke to her about it, she was like, ‘I can’t quite bring myself to read it yet,’ which was really sweet. But then I was like, ‘I mean, we’re filming it next week! You have to read it!'”
As for anything he’d change about Rory’s storylines?
Darvill said: “There were some episodes where I did just end up standing in the background nodding, so I would have given myself more lines! But no, [I wouldn’t change anything], those bits actually just helped his character arc because he ended up being a bit of a third wheel at times and then he had to really prove himself.
“I think it’s a pretty perfect story arc, I’ve got no regrets really, which is really rare.
“I haven’t seen it for years – maybe I should just watch them all again. I just look back on it with such fondness and I think his arc of having to step up and being a Roman soldier and wait for 2000 years, it’s such a great thing as an actor to be able to do.
“I’ll obviously never get the chance to do anything like that ever again. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Like any Doctor Who fan, Darvill is also super excited for the return of Russell T Davies and the series’s future.
“I just love the fact that it evolves and changes. It’s interesting with someone going back to write it – it’s funny, all the actors are always asked, ‘Would you go back?’ and it’s now really interesting that Russell’s gone back.
“I’m just such a fan of his, I think the stuff he’s done over the past few years is so brilliant and It’s A Sin was so amazing and I’ve just done a thing that’s been produced by him with Lenny Henry called Three Little Birds. He’s just all over some of the best TV that’s made in this country. I’m very excited to see what he does with it next.”
Darvill also added: “Ncuti [Gatwa] is so different to everyone who’s ever played [the Doctor] before. I haven’t really seen any of what he’s done but I’ve seen a couple of pictures and it just looks like a whole new thing and I think that’s what the show should be – always changing and always evolving.”
