"You know what's dangerous about you? It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down. You have NO idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around!"
With that little bit of dialogue Rory Williams became better than Mickey Smith, the entire Jones family, and Sylvia Noble (I'm not going to mention Wilfred, that just wouldn't be fair). I'm talking of course about the previous people weighing the companion down. That's mostly how they were used during Russel T. Davies's tenure. Mickey would pout and be angry about being left behind, Martha's mother would make disapproving faces, and Donna's mother would...well, make disapproving faces. It was the same story every time, they were always meant to be the losers out of the loop, simply there for some sort of tension to exist, even if we weren't sure what that tension was supposed to be.
Rory is different, and I point to his assessment of The Doctor as evidence. He's not in danger of losing a girlfriend, or a grown daughter, he could lose his wife, either by death or infatuation. In "The Eleventh Hour" it's plain to see that he has known her, and been in love with her, for most of his life. He even used to dress up as The Doctor, her imaginary perfect man, and tried to become a doctor to fill the role, becoming a nurse instead. He has worked, and clawed, and sacrificed for the girl of his dreams, and now she's going to marry him in the morning. At the start of "Vampires of Venice" he learns he's lost her, or is at least losing her. He's been losing her for who knows how many days or even weeks in the Tardis, while he's been experiencing a single night on Earth.
Typically these situations are grating and annoying because the odd-character-out is such an obvious jerk or fool compared to The Doctor, and the only thing keeping their relationship with the companion going is either family ties or just not wanting to break it off. I give a ton of credit to Arthur Darvill for his performance as Rory, because his humor is able to give the role the "lovable" part that's been missing from the show's lovable losers. So when he hits the nail on the head about the true danger The Doctor poses there's extra power to it, because he's a character we actually care about instead of window dressing. Okay, maybe not WE care about, but I certainly do.
Another thing that might be helping is the obliviousness Matt Smith expresses when The Doctor is in a tricky social situation. If Amy had tried to jump David Tennant's bones it would've been all secrets and attempts to save face. Instead, this Doctor shows up at Rory's bachelor party and flat out tells him that Amy kissed him and it's a problem they need to fix together. Frankly, I think it makes The Doctor more endearing as well. I'm sure it's a wonderful fantasy for all the girls out there (since it's been all female main companions so far, except for Wilf who we aren't mentioning) that this handsome super hero will appear outside your home one day in his blue box to whisk you away on great adventures and tell you how important you are. For the guys the only message seems to be, "at any moment a handsome genius with time machine that you can NEVER compete with might show up and take your girlfriend or fiancée away and she WILL fall in love with him and there is nothing you can do to stop it." So to have The Doctor make it clear that he wasn't trying to have that happen, and that he is NOT okay with stealing Rory's soon-to-be wife (it might have something to do with the destruction of time itself, but still) avoids me having mixed feelings about him.
It's a side of the show that's never really been explored in much depth, because there was never a good third point for that love triangle. I think Rory changes that, and that's why he's a Tivo Roster Key Addition.
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