WHO REVIEW: 14-6 - "Rogue"

 

Tremendous fun. Sure, there were some more serious aspects, but basically, this was fifty minutes of gorgeously realised fun. 

This is, as telegraphed back in the series trailer, the Bridgerton episode. I've never seen an episode of Bridgerton, but this works as a pastiche if you've ever watched or read an Austen-style regency melodrama. I do think that maybe the script labours the point a bit, with Ruby mentioning Bridgerton three times, but it's refreshingly honest for an episode of Doctor Who to wear its influences to brazenly. It's also timed brilliantly; not only is it Pride Month, but it's aired just before the second half of Bridgerton's current season is released. This is an episode that's courting a very specific audience, and if though I'm not exactly in that audience, I can admire the skill there.

The fact that this is the queerest the show's ever got is bound to rub some viewers the wrong way but, frankly, bollocks to them. Doctor Who has been beloved by the queer community since the universe was half its present size. The alleged fans who are bashing out their screaming hatemail in caps were left behind a long time ago and the show doesn't need them. This is Doctor Who for a modern, queer-friendly, emotionally-free audience, and quite rightly, we have a modern, queer, emotionally-free Doctor. As good as Gatwa is when playing the Doctor as anguished, angry or scared - and we get some brilliant work from him there as well this week - he just sings when his Doctor is having fun. Literally.

It's funny to think back to 1996, when we had a handsome young Doctor in a wig and a velvet frock coat, fans were gnashing their teeth at his kissing a woman. Now, we've got another one, and he's throwing caution to the wind, kissing a man and being joyfully scandalous. The Fifteenth Doctor is the sexiest, flirtiest, most passionate Doctor we've ever had, and he's just perfect for this new version of Doctor Who. Still, it seems even more of a shame that we couldn't have Jodie and Mandip kiss in "The Power of the Doctor" in retrospect.

Jonathan Groff is almost as good, but in a very different way. Ahead of broadcast a lot of fans were convinced he was going to be a recast Captain Jack and, while he does display some similarities and could well be another ex-Time Agent, he's a distinctly different character. In keeping with the overall cosplay theme of the episode, Rogue seems like he's playing at being a space adventurer, without the confidence that his character displays. He's got the brooding down pat, but when he has to improvise an entirely new gamepla, he falters. He's a bounty hunter who's completely unprepared for anything but the simplest mission - he didn't even think to bring more than one trap - and he named himself after a D&D class. The poor, sweet geek, no wonder the Doctor likes him so much.

Even with the focus on the Doctor and Rogue, it's another strong episode for Millie Gibson, who gets to have her own side adventure that plays to her and her character's strengths. The plain-talking Northern girl barging her way into polite society is always a winner, and when you throw in the carelessly futuristic talk and increasing adventure savviness she works brilliantly. The Chekov's earring, letting her take her downloadable choreograpy and swap it for battle mode, is a silly but brilliant way to feasibly allow her to kick alien ass, and her taking the deception of the aliens too far and getting herself almost chucked into a prison dimension by the Doctor is spot on too. 

While Ruby's scam was the obvious get-out, I could have believed she was really dead, and that the closing two-parter would have involved the Doctor fighting to bring her back somehow, so convincing was the Doctor's fury. It's also the first time we've seen this Doctor act like a real bastard, condemning the Chuldur to centuries of solitary misery. This is from the man who pleaded with a bunch of racists who hated him to let him save them, but hurting Ruby is clearly a step too far for him.

The Chuldur themselves are a fun, if fairly throwaway monster of the week. Indira Varma is a joy to watch, as always, both as the Duchess of Pemberton and the Chuldur inhabiting her form, and she's a hoot (sorry) when in full-on bird form. I still kind of wish the Duchess had been the Rani, since Varma would be perfect for the role and it would be the one time it would actually make sense for a female villain to actually turn out to be her, but one-off shapeshifting bird lady is fun. I liked Camilla Aiko evne more, as the wonderfully positive young Emily, who turns out to be one of the aliens cosplaying really well. The fact that the entire dramatic scene witnessed (and crashed) earlier by Ruby between Emily and her suitor is completely fake is hilarious.

This is the first script we've had from someone new to the series since 2020, and we really need some more of that. Getting Kate Herron, fresh from Loki, is a great move - if there's anyone who should be working on Doctor Who, it's the Loki team. I don't know much about her writing partner, Briony Redman, but based on this they're a team to follow. If there's an issue with the script, it's down to the episode's length; there simply isn't time to fully convince us that the Doctor and Rogue have fallen for each other, not with everything else that's going on. There'll be time to work on that later, though (because Rogue is definitely coming back. let's be honest). 

Pretty much everything else works, though. The dialogue, direction, music and costumes are all exceptional. This is campy, OTT, silly, fun Doctor Who that's a step above either of the season's opening episodes. They should have kicked everything off with this.

Setting: Bath, Somerset, 1813.

Maketh the Man: Gatwa looks incredible in a burgundy frock coat and full Regency garb, and Groff doesn't look half bad either in his blue and silver outfit. The flashback to Ruby's home has the Doctor in another bright orange jumper. I'm surprised they didn't just make the frock coat orange.

The Many Faces of Doctor Who:

As always with this series and its midnight streaming, I have to try to avoid spoilers online until I have a chance to watch it. This time, I had no trouble avoiding actual plot points, because everyone was raving about this moment. Gatwa gets his moment with a montage of past Doctors, giving us snapshots of all the previous incarnations - including Jo Martin and both David Tennants - and, out of the blue, Richard E. Grant.

This is a surprise, to say the least. Grant played the "other" Ninth Doctor in the animated webcast Scream of the Shalka in 2003, who was rapidly overwritten by Eccleston's Doctor. Suddenly making him part of visual TV canon is a shock, and it's not clear what this means. Is he a past or future incarnation of our Doctor, now that the Timeless Child reveal has left everything up for grabs? Or is Doctor Who paving its way to get on the Multiverse bandwagon, showing us a variant Doctor, as Herron would no doubt put it?

The most surprising thing is RTD allowing this, given how much he hated Grant's portrayal of the Doctor, and how he very publically said so. Surely it was Herron's idea, what with her having worked with Grant as the "Classic Loki" variant on her own series? 

Of course, it's possible he's meant to represent the Comic Relief Tenth Doctor from The Curse of Fatal Death, but that would be even more of a headscratcher.

Dedication: Some quick work made this episode dedicated to William Russell, who played Ian Chesterton back in the very beginning of Doctor Who, and who died on the 3rd of June aged 99. He last appeared in a brief cameo in "The Power of the Doctor."

Music of the Spheres: Loved the use of "Bad Guy" in the early part of the episode, which I understand is a direct lift from Bridgerton, and "Poker Face" later on. Can't beat a bit of Kylie on the spaceship, either. The best musical moment, though, was the Doctor singing "A World of Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (and it would be no surprise at all if Gene Wilder's Wonka turned out to be an incarnation of the Doctor too).