Rory (The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)

Rory was a character in a second version of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.

Rory, his friend the Doctor, and his partner Amy appeared towards the end of the play in Acts IV and V, travelling from scene to scene in a blue box called the TARDIS, which was apparently bigger on the inside. The trio mainly served to alter the original version which ended with the death of Romeo after he discovered Juliet in a state of apparent death and the death of Juliet after she awoke and found Romeo dead. One publication noted the reason for this plot point was due to Shakespeare finding himself under pressure from James Burbage to "make dark tragedie light", compelling him to write "the story as it did truly unfold, by misfortune unmarred". Rory was clearly based upon Rory Williams while Amy and the Doctor were fictionalised versions of Amy Pond and the Eleventh Doctor. It was their prominent role which merited the inclusion of this alternative draft in the Shakespeare Notebooks. (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)

Fictional biography
Rory first appeared with the Doctor and Amy in Act IV Scene III, just as Juliet took her sleeping draught and fell unconscious on her bed. The Doctor called out for her to wait and not sip the draught but Rory observed that it was "too late" as she was "cold as the winter night" and "her eyes respondeth not unto the light". He then noted "this state would be mistook for death" as well as the risk of staying to be discovered with Juliet's corpse, asking what they should do. The Doctor and Amy agreed with making a hasty retreat and the trio left, bound for a street in Mantua.

They reappeared in Act V Scene I, arriving seconds too late once again, as Rory once more correctly noted. This time they were unable to prevent Romeo from purchasing poison from an apothecary, which he planned to use on himself in the Capulet tomb so he could lie with his "dead" love. The apothecary was initally unwilling to answer the Doctor's questions but happily told him of Romeo's plans after he gave him some gold. In response, the Doctor and his friends rushed to the TARDIS again, bound for the tomb.

They were able to arrive just in time on this occasion, during Act V Scene III, emerging from behind an altar as Romeo was preparing to drink the poison. The Doctor asked him to stop his present course of action and explained to him that Juliet was not dead, telling him what a "grave tragedy" it would be if she awoke to find him dead. Rory calmly told him to put the vial down and asked what Juliet would do "in such a state of discontent", with Amy adding that she would most likely take Romeo's dagger and "do herself in". The Doctor assured him she would "soon stir" and she awoke as predicted after Romeo kissed her. Proclaiming that "fate ha[d] been re-writ", the Doctor stopped the couple from leaving Verona to start a new life together and said they had to help heal the rift between their two feuding families. Amy and Rory revealed they had a "cunning plan" and the Doctor further elaborated that their deaths would have shown them "hate's consequence and [taught] them both to end their harsh discord and emnity". Romeo spoke up about how he believed such a thing was now impossible at which point the Doctor unveiled a second Romeo and Juliet, actually a Sontaran clone and "a borrow'd Teselecta" respectively. The two doubles took up their positions as if they had been killed and the Doctor ushered everyone into the TARDIS, which Rory pointed out to Romeo and Juliet as "the box of blue", where they remained out of sight until the bodies were discovered.

After Romeo and Juliet's fathers, Montague and Capulet respectively, saw their children's bodies laying together and healed their rift as a result, all five of those concealed in the TARDIS emerged, revealing Romeo and Juliet and the subterfuge involving their doubles. Although they celebrated, Romeo noted the demise of both Tybalt and Sir Paris by his sword was "still a blemish on [their] joy". He asked to be banished from Verona but the Doctor revealed they also lived, as the Paris which Romeo had slain was really a Nestene duplicate. Tybalt, as he later quietly explained to Amy and Rory, was not the human original but a Zygon, who the Doctor had previously saved from burning as a witch, now returning the favour owed. Rory called this a "neat switch". With all the couples "set to wed", and telling his friends "their work [was] done", it was the Doctor who closed the play in this alternative draft. He stated that though it was often said "no tale could hope to overset the love of Romeo for Juliet, never was there a more joyful story than that of Amy Pond and her dear Rory". (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)