The story of Amelia Pond, the Girl Who Waited, and Rory Williams, the Last Centurion, came to a close in the seventh season of Doctor Who, but it seems that the latter is returning to fill the gaps between his existence as a normal human being and a plastic Roman soldier.
Steven Moffat’s first season as showrunner on Who introduced us to Amy and Rory and concluded the story with their marriage. But before that, the Doctor had to basically reboot the whole universe and kickstart another Big Bang. As for the Ponds, Rory returned in the penultimate episode “The Pandorica Opens,” which shocked everyone since he’d only just died a couple of episodes earlier. We then realized that he was actually a Nestene plastic duplicate who served as a legionary in the Roman army. In the finale, Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor used a vortex manipulator to jump 2,000 years into the future, but Rory didn’t follow him, instead deciding to wait out those millennia and protect Amy who was inside the Pandorica.
What happened in all those years is still a mystery, but Rory gave birth to the legend of the Last Centurion on Earth. Now, Big Finish will explore those years in a new audio drama starring Arthur Darvill, who’ll reprise his role as everyone’s companion. The new series, titled The Lone Centurion, will focus on Rory’s adventures as he stands watch over the mysterious box.
Here’s the official synopsis for Volume One:
“Travelling to Rome in search of the Pandorica, Rory finds himself forced to perform as a gladiator in the Colosseum… where he attracts the attention of the Imperial household.”
While Arthur Darvill has appeared in Big Finish dramas in the past, this is his first time reprising the role of Rory Williams after “The Angels Take Manhattan.” And it seems that the actor was pretty keen to return, too, as he recently said:
“It seemed like an offer I couldn’t refuse. As soon as I read the scripts, I was like, ‘Oh well, they totally get it, they’ve really nailed his voice.’ It’s been a lovely way to revisit it in a very different way to what it was, but to do something more with this character. It’s funny but also quite epic, which is so lovely with what you can do on audio: to have these huge stories which in another medium would break the budget!”
Well, it certainly looks like we’re in for quite a ride, then, but it’ll be a while before the first volume of the new Doctor Who spinoff arrives in May 2021.
