Rhys Williams (Torchwood)

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Rhys Williams
Torchwood character
First appearance"Everything Changes"
Last appearance"The Blood Line"
Portrayed byKai Owen
In-universe information
AffiliationTorchwood Institute
Home eraEarly 21st century

Rhys Alun Williams, portrayed by

television programme Torchwood, a spin-off from the long-running series Doctor Who. The character is introduced in the premiere episode as the co-habiting boyfriend of the principal character Gwen Cooper. Initially a recurring character, Rhys' role is increased after the second series; actor Kai Owen is given star billing from the show's third series — a five-part serial subtitled Torchwood: Children of Earth — onwards. The character has gone on to appear in expanded universe material such as the Torchwood novels and audiobooks, comic books
and radio plays.

Throughout the first series (2006), Rhys is initially unaware of Gwen's vocation as a

Starz co-production — Rhys again finds himself having to assist Torchwood, though he would rather live a domestic life with Gwen and their daughter Anwen
.

The original intention of the writers had been to kill off Rhys at the end of the first series, but series creator Russell T Davies found it necessary to keep the show grounded through Rhys as Gwen evolved as a character. Producer Richard Stokes stated that "without him, it simply becomes a sci-fi show about sci-fi people, running around and hunting aliens." Following from the first series the production team decided to make Rhys less of a "sap" whilst continuing to use him as a contrast to Torchwood's activities and its charismatic leader Jack Harkness. Whilst early response to the character was mixed — the character was parodied as "Barry Backstory" — subsequent reviews praised the character's larger role in later episodes.

Appearances

Television

Rhys is introduced in the

Combat" but drugs Rhys with an amnesia pill so he will not remember her confession.[6] Rhys is murdered by Bilis Manger (Murray Melvin) in "End of Days", but this event is erased from history after the Torchwood team reset time by opening the space-time rift located in Cardiff.[7]

The

Weevils out of the police station.[12][13]

Rhys is referenced, but does not appear onscreen, in the Doctor Who crossover episode "

dénouement, set six months later, shows Rhys still at Gwen's side, awaiting the arrival of their child.[19]

Series four,

vigilante justice and so takes the latter to Shanghai to protect her husband.[26] In the series finale, Rhys gains entry to the overflow camp where Geraint has been recaptured in order to sit by his side as "Miracle Day" ends and death is restored. After Esther's funeral, he is hopeful that Jack will not reform Torchwood.[27]

Literature

He wasn't even sure he could survive without Gwen in his life. She had intertwined herself into his very existence to the point where the thought of being single again was like the thought of losing an arm, or an eye.

— Excerpt from Slow Decay by Andy Lane (p.89),
Torchwood literature explores Rhys' feelings, prior to his increased role in the series.

Rhys appears in all three Torchwood novels in the first wave published by BBC Books in January 2007, set between episodes of Torchwood series one. These novels expand on the difficult period in Gwen and Rhys' relationship — whilst his appearances in Another Life,[28] and Border Princes,[29] are relatively minor, he has a more significant role in Slow Decay, where he unwittingly brings himself into danger by taking an alien diet pill.[30] Reviewer Patrick Holm feels that the success of these novels lies in the fact that they help readers empathise with characters such as Rhys.[31] Rhys makes cameo appearances in Something in the Water[32] (set between "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and "Meat") and Trace Memory,[33] and has a significant role in The Twilight Streets, (released March 2008) which depicts an alternate future where Gwen and Rhys start a new Torchwood to make a safe world for their son after the Torchwood Team are destroyed fighting sentient particles known as the dark.[34] Three more Torchwood books were released in October 2008 in which Rhys has an involved role. In Pack Animals Rhys assists Gwen in her investigation and becomes part of a car chase,[35] SkyPoint sees them inadvertently discover an alien presence whilst flathunting[36] and Almost Perfect, the first novel set after "Exit Wounds", depicts Rhys speed dating undercover.[37] Rhys makes further appearances in later Torchwood novels Bay of the Dead,[38] The House that Jack Built,[39] and Consequences,[40] all set between "Exit Wounds" and Children of Earth.

Rhys appeared occasionally in the Torchwood Magazine comic strip during its publication between January 2008 and December 2010. In part three of the serialised ten-part comic Rift War he aids Gwen in her Torchwood duties by helping care for an infant alien left stranded in Cardiff.[41] A scene in Gareth David-Lloyd's comic "Shrouded", published in May 2010, includes a scene set after Children in Earth which shows Gwen cradling her young child; as Gwen is busy, Rhys is required to team up with Captain John Hart to save the timeline.[42] Non-fiction tie-in The Torchwood Archives gives an "insider's look" into the Torchwood world, including Gwen's domestic life with Rhys. The book includes unpublished photographs of Gwen and Rhys used as set dressing in the TV series and also provides some background information on Rhys' friends and his working life.[43]

Audio drama

Rhys makes an appearance in the Torchwood

radio play "The Dead Line" (2009), where he assists Gwen with her investigations into the phone-line induced comas.[44] He also has a central role investigating a mystery in the audio book Ghost Train (2011), read by Kai Owen. With Gwen dead and Jack missing Rhys is left alone to figure out the strange goings on involving cargo trains.[45] Rhys also appears in "The Devil and Miss Carew" (2011), one of three additional radio plays set between "Exit Wounds" and Children of Earth, which shows his reaction to the death of his elderly Uncle Bryn. In this play Rhys rescues Gwen from a woman under the influence of a malevolent devil like entity.[46]

Characterisation

[Russell T Davies] realised that, if we lost Rhys, we would lose Gwen's heart. He is one of the key things that makes her character so fantastic, and by extension the entire show. With Rhys there, it's a show about real people dealing with extraordinary situations in the real world. Without him, it simply becomes a sci-fi show about sci-fi people, running around and hunting aliens.

— Producer Richard Stokes on the decision not to
kill off the character.[47]

Rhys is a "down to earth trucker",

Stephen James Walker feels that Rhys "originally didn't look to have much to him initially but really came into his own as Series One progressed", attributing this to the "spot-on performance of the perfectly cast Kai Owen."[50] The original intention of the writers had been for Rhys to die at the end of series one, but Richard Stokes explains that it was overruled by show creator Russell T Davies, who felt that without Rhys, the show's main link to the real world would be lost.[47] Executive Producer Julie Gardner expands on this by stating that "It's a show where you've got to contrast the ordinary everyday with the extraordinary and (with) Gwen going home to Rhys and then going to work in an underground secret base ... it's right to have that balance."[51] Actor Kai Owen attributes part of his character's success to his on-screen rapport with actress Eve Myles.[52]

Kai Owen pictured with on-screen wife Eve Myles in 2013. In a 2009 interview Owen spoke positively of the effect his rapport with Myles had on his character's development.[52]

After reprisal from death, Davies felt further development was necessary for the character to continue as part of the drama; one of the first decisions the production team made was that "we can't make this guy look like a sap any longer. He's got to be made aware of what's going on." The events of the episode "Meat", in which Rhys learns the real nature of Gwen's job, are seen by Davies as a "rite of passage" for the couple. Director

literary foils for one another, insofar as their relationships with Gwen are concerned. In her critical essay Gwen's Evil Stepmother: Concerning Gloves and Magic Slippers, Valerie Estelle Frankel compares Rhys to Jack, likening the former to a "sweet, kind handsome prince" and the latter to a "compelling trickster."[55] Whilst Eve Myles feels that "Jack highlights how ordinary Rhys is", she states that it is precisely this ordinariness which makes Rhys a benefit to Gwen's strength of character.[56]

The plot of Children of Earth results in Rhys becoming more directly involved with the Torchwood team's activities, and actor Kai Owen also receives star billing for the first time.[57] Whilst Gwen by the third series has become a more militant character,[49] Rhys retains his everyman status and takes on the role of audience surrogate; press material describes him as "the ordinary guy in the street" and "the normal person's eyes and ears" who "says what he thinks about the situations Torchwood find themselves in, bringing the reality back to them".[58] Paul Collins comments of the significance of Rhys having the first dialogue in the serial, remarking that this is Torchwood's "determination to establish its domestic credentials before subverting them".[59] Rhys becomes a reluctant hero; Kai Owen states that he "would rather not get involved if he had the choice", but when faced with the life-or-death situations in the serial "he doesn't run away from it" because the character has "seen so many things".[58] This, in Owen's eyes, makes the Rhys seen in Children of Earth a "very brave hero who has grown in stature".[60] Rhys retains core character status for the fourth series, Torchwood: Miracle Day.[61][62] Whilst Kai Owen explains that Rhys will always be at the forefront of "Gwen's troubles or fights or adventures" because of his concern for her,[61] he remains unafraid to tell her when she has become too consumed by her job.[62] Davies links the relationship between Gwen and Rhys in the fourth series to the show's continued exploration of human sexuality, stating that "open sexuality has to include everything" including "a husband/wife great big crime-fighting team ... happily in love".[63]

Reception

The on-screen rapport between Kai Owen and Tom Price has been praised by reviewers as a particular example of the character providing comic relief.

Rhys' incidental role in the series was initially mocked in

AfterElton's Steven Frank.[69]

Dan Martin of The Guardian singles out the scene where Gwen and Rhys become stowaways in Children of Earth as "just lovely" and "a credit to both actors, particularly Kai Owen, who has finally made Rhys likable",[70] whilst IGN writer Asham Haque also feels that Rhys' "meatier role" provides "some great sequences" for the couple.[71] Rawson-Jones speaks favourably on Owen's role in the overall ensemble opining that he, along with Barrowman, Myles and David-Lloyd managed to guide the audience through the serial with "panache and verve".[72] The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan feels that the initiated Rhys is key to the show, and is a "very enjoyable character", describing his appeal to government PA Lois Habiba to pay for his and Gwen's dinner as "priceless".[73] Speaking of the show's fourth series premiere, Simon Brew highlights the central returning trio of Barrowman, Myles and Owen as the show's most engaging actors, and further describes Owen's performance as mixing "humour with an earnest, and a real sense of drive".[74]

References

  1. ^ a b Russell T Davies (writer), Brian Kelly (director), Richard Stokes (producer) (22 August 2006). "Everything Changes". Torchwood. Series 1. Episode 1. BBC Three.
  2. ^ a b Chris Chibnall (writer), Brian Kelly (director), Richard Stokes (producer) (22 August 2006). "Day One". Torchwood. Series 1. Episode 2. BBC Three.
  3. ^ Helen Raynor (writer), Colin Teague (director), Richard Stokes, (producer) (29 October 2006). "Ghost Machine". Torchwood. Series 1. Episode 3. BBC Three.
  4. ^ Catherine Tregenna (writer), Alice Troughton (director), Richard Stokes (producer) (17 December 2006). "Out of Time". Torchwood. Series 1. Episode 10. BBC Three.
  5. ^ Chris Chibnall (writer), Andy Goddard (director), Richard Stokes (producer) (19 November 2006). "Countrycide". Torchwood. Series 1. Episode 6. BBC Three.
  6. Combat
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  8. ^ Chris Chibnall (writer), Ashley Way (director), Richard Stokes (producer) (16 January 2008). "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang". Torchwood. Series 2. Episode 1. BBC Two.
  9. ^ Catherine Treganna (writer), Colin Teague (director), Richard Stokes (producer) (6 February 2008). "Meat". Torchwood. Series 2. Episode 4. BBC Two.
  10. ^ Phil Ford (writer), Ashley Way (director), Richard Stokes (producer) (5 March 2008). "Something Borrowed". Torchwood. Series 2. Episode 9. BBC Three.
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  14. ^ Russell T Davies (writer), Graeme Harper (director), Phil Collinson (producer) (28 June 2008). "The Stolen Earth". Doctor Who. Series 4. Episode 12. BBC One.
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External links

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