"My impression of it was that Rory was very much the eyes of the audience, and the person on the outside questioning everything," he recalls
Sitting down for an in-depth chat for Radio Times' Doctor Who Insiders, Darvill looks back on his time as Rory Williams, husband to Karen Gillan's Amy Pond and companion in his own right.
"I went for a recall with Matt, which was lovely," he remembers. "Then we got a car - because Matt got driven everywhere, very important! We got in the back of the car back to London, and he was like, 'I think you've got a job, mate! It's gonna be great.'
"So I got really razzed up about it. He took me to show me the TARDIS set, and I was like, 'I think I'm building my hopes up a little bit too much!'"
View Green Video on the source websiteBut Darvill recalls being "so protected" from those pressures. "Obviously I was quite nervous because I think I was more nervous as a person back then, but I tried to put that into the character, which was useful. But we just had such a laugh," he recalls.
"There was this fateful day where we watched a rough cut of it with no music," Darvill remembers. "The music does so much work in Doctor Who, but we watched it with no music, no VFX. So it was all just like little cartoons on the screen of Prisoner Zero and whatever. We sat in the flat with Piers [Wenger] and Beth [Willis] and Steven, who were the producers on it, and myself, Matt and Karen watched.
"I still don't really watch myself on anything, it's kind of traumatising. I just don't find it very helpful, it makes me quite self-conscious. So just watching an edit of it was the first time where I was like, 'Oh wow. This is real.' It had the opening titles music, and as soon as that came on, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I was like, 'Oh yeah, this is real. It's going to be on television and everyone's going to watch it.'
"That episode is one of the only ones I've watched more than once. Some of them I've never seen but I think it's a brilliant piece of television. It's got fairytale. The emotional setup of it is so beautiful.
Darvill added of his close relationship with Smith and Gillan: "We all just bonded so closely and had this mad shared experience that I think will take us through the rest of our lives.
At the time, Darvill had no idea how important or impactful his character was going to be. Well, he believed he didn't. A recent conversation with Moffat has revealed that the showrunner did in fact tell Darvill the full storyline, a chat that the actor swiftly forgot.
Over his time in the show, Rory's role gradually got bigger and bigger, with one of the highlights being the Last Centurion storyline, which saw the character guarding his wife Amy for almost 2,000 years.
"It was such an amazing thing," he says of that storyline. "All the scripts, especially Steven's scripts, that have that through-line, the big story, you just open them and go, 'Oh, wow.' It's always surprising. He always does it in a surprising way and in a really emotionally true but very entertaining way.
As for the memorable plot twist that saw Alex Kingston's River Song being revealed as Amy and Rory's daughter?
Plus, the trio got the chance to work with incredible guest stars.
"Toby Jones, man, he's so good - and that episode was so strange. I've worked with him since, and he applied the same rigour and dedication to that part as he does with everything else.
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But perhaps Darvill's most memorable moment on the show was his and Gillan's tear-jerking ending, which saw Amy and Rory trapped in the past by the Weeping Angels.
"Obviously it's hard to separate my experience of making it to what it is on screen, I suppose, because it was also our ending, leaving the show. I mean, those scenes weren't the very last things we filmed, but we knew we were going, so there was all of that in there.
"But I'm glad it wasn't lingered on, and I'm glad it wasn't drawn out. It was like, rip the plaster off and they're gone. And I think it's really good storytelling."
"We all joke with each other because we're all still good mates, we'll joke like 'maybe this year, maybe we'll be back.' I like the idea that when we're really old, we'll go back. I presume it's going to go on forever.
"Reminiscing is dangerous at times, but you look back and go, well, it was really formative and the most fun I've had on almost anything. I think it would be silly to rule it out. But it's not in our hands. If the opportunity came up, yeah, of course, I think we'd all jump at the chance."
The latest episode of Doctor Who stunned fans when Ncuti Gatwa's departing Doctor regenerated into Billie Piper. While it's uncertain at the moment as to whether she's the new Doctor or not, surely the search will soon be on for a new companion.
"Just enjoy it," he says.
"I can't think of another example of it that does what this does, because it manages to straddle that sci-fi thing with being also Saturday night TV. It shouldn't work as an idea, but it does. It works so brilliantly well.
"As a companion, you will spend a lot of time just saying the word 'Doctor' and standing in the background, and that's fine, but when you do get to do stuff, it's going to be really exciting, brilliant, challenging stuff, and you have to take it as seriously as any other job and any other role and immerse yourself in it - but it's just so much fun.
Radio Times' Doctor Who Insiders will continue soon – register now to make sure you don't miss a thing. Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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