I’ve lived over two thousand years, saved the world,
and made Hitler my bitch. What you got?

Coming up Saturday night on BBC America’s hit sci-fi show Doctor Who, we are being hit with quite a different episode than normal. In “The Girl Who Waited”, lovable companions Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) are put center stage when are forced to deal with a crisis without The Doctor being able to assist them in what they call a “Doctor lite” episode. Recently we had the chance to talk with Arthur Darvill about playing Rory and tomorrow’s episode featuring him as well as what to expect coming up for the rest of the season!

Darvill explained how much Rory has changed since we first met him last season and what brought him up to this point of taking charge: “This wasn’t anything that he really expected.It just happened in his life and I think when he started traveling with the Doctor he didn’t think he’d be there very long.” explained Arthur, “I think he’s gotten to a point now where he’s so within this kind of world within the, you know, the fact that he can go and travel through time and comes face to face with really horrific things. It’s just become almost normal for him. And yes he really steps up to the plate and proves himself even more than he has I think he has in the past.”. With that “manning up” Rory has gotten to do his fair share of stunts this season to which Arthur remarked “Yes it was a lot, you know, it’s kind of funny it’s not really anything that I’d considered before I got this job. I’d be kind of running around and, you know, flying through the air and doing fighting sequences. But it has been a quite a joy to do.” going on to mention how the Doctor Who stunt team let him do as many of his own stunts as possible, especially in this episode.

On Rory’s relationship with the Doctor and how it has changed since they first met  “I think Rory and the Doctor’s relationship has grown so much over the last season. And, you know, it’s not as simple as, you know, because before he was obviously kind of quite jealous of the Doctor. But I think that’s gone now and they’ve got a real bond, they’ve got a real kind of true friendship. You know, I think most of us kind of, I don’t know I just find a lot of my friendships by, you know, I can only be really, really good friends with someone probably if I’ve had a massive falling out with them at some point or a big argument. And I think that kind of makes all relationships stronger. And I think Rory and the Doctor’s falling out so much that they still need each other and they still are great, great friends. So I think they’ve got, you know, a very, very strong relationship and, you know, as much as Rory can be a bumbling idiot at times I think he’s proved to the Doctor and to, you know, to everyone else around that, you know, when everything starts kicking off you can really step up to the plate and deliver and be of use. I think fundamentally he’s a good person and the Doctor kind of constantly seeks good people. Rory’s up there with the best of those.”

When asked about the events of last season and the possible fallout from Rory waiting 2,000 years (Making him essentially older than the doctor) how it has affected him, Darvill explained “I think it’s kind of a few different effects on him. I think in a way it’s made him know himself a bit more. And, well, the biggest thing he’s gotten is proved to him that his love for Amy, his relationship with Amy, is the most important thing in his life. And he’ll do anything for her. I think it’s also kind of made him know that he can do things like that and kind of be a bit more of a hero. So it’s kind of given him the… I think also he’s kind of been wearing him down slightly, I think as well it has made him, you know, as well as kind of inspiring him and making him more confident. I think in a way it’s kind of tired him out. Not in a way that he’s now kind of sluggish or lazy but just, you know, the weariness that that does to you has kind of made him kind of a bit wiser but also even more wants to kind of stay out of danger because he doesn’t want anything like that to happen again.”

On the subject of the many different types of monsters and aliens, when asked which was his favorite out of all of them, Darvill explained that he has taken quite a liking to The Silence who have been the main adversary for this and the previous season saying “the psychological element of what they can do and how they affect people is brilliant. You can’t remember their names but they could even be walking around, you know, around our cities at the moment but we’d never know and I just think that’s a really brilliant, scary idea.”

When asked about what can we expect to see from the rest of the season Arthur talked about the upcoming episode “The God Complex” which is set in a hotel with a minotaur in it. “Each room is kind of a different freaky thing.” going on to say if anyone’s kind of scared of clowns or ventriloquists then they will possibly want to hide behind their sofas for this episode! Also mentioned was the return of James Corden from last year’s stand out episode “The Lodger” where The Doctor and him would end up dealing with some pesky Cybermen. Finally Darvill goes on to hint at the upcoming season finale which he explains that while he can’t talk about it too much, “it’s about as epic as Doctor Who has ever got and it answers some more questions which I think everyone’s dying to hear the answers to.”

Finally when the subject of Rory dying over and over again was brought up, Arthur was pretty sure that by now Rory must be a bit sick of it explaining “I think I kept seeing it as a bit of a running joke and I’ll ask Steven [Moffat] if there’s any kind of big reason for that constantly happening and he’s as bad with us as he is with all you guys, with the press and with the public. He won’t tell us anything. So I have no idea if this is going to keep happening. I don’t know if he’s got a big plan for it. But I personally hope that Rory just stops dying.”

Be sure to catch Arthur Darvill as Rory “The Roman” Williams-Pond on the upcoming new episode of Doctor Who “The Girl Who Waited” on BBC America, this Saturday, September 10 at 9 pm!

Point your TARDIS toward ComicsOnline.com for more interviews, more coverage of Doctor Who, and everything geek pop culture!