Doctor Who – Rogue Review

After last week’s emotional gut-punch of a final note (which we didn’t get any further commentary on this week, not that it was expected but it might have been a nice touch), this episode was much more in the vein of your traditional Doctor Who adventure – except much more queer than in past seasons (at least in episodes that didn’t also include Captain Jack Harkness). And what a delightful send up of cosplay, Bridgerton, and the fascination with how fandom can be toxic once fans decide they want to be a part of the action rather than just observers (a bit of a heavy-handed commentary on that piece, but still a fun watch and rather timely considering all the chatter about various genre shows out there now).

This episode doesn’t work without the exceptional chemistry between Ncuti Gatwa and guest star Jonathan Groff. While Groff tends to just exude charm in pretty much every role – seriously, even when he’s being rather villainous, it’s hard not to love him – his chemistry with Gatwa was particularly electric. Much has been made of how the Fifteenth Doctor has a much more outwardly flirtatious disposition than past versions, and that’s certainly true. But we’ve also seen this Doctor get angry, despair, and go through a deep gamut of emotion in these last several episodes. Hell, I think Gatwa has cried more than most Doctors do in their entire multi-season runs on the series in just this handful of episodes. So, sure, he’s flirty, but he’s also much more in touch with his emotions than past Doctors, which, in turn, means that when he meets someone who catches his eye, he’s not above some flirtatious banter – and even a lovely parting kiss.

The balance between Groff’s Rogue and Gatwa’s Doctor was also wonderfully calibrated. Rogue was the serious guy, the one with the clear mission who was going to complete it without fail – even if that cute guy was making doe eyes his way. While The Doctor was able to be much looser, to roll with the punches, and tease Rogue about his mission, his bounty hunter status, and his lack of knowledge of Regency England. Was this a particularly heavy story with high stakes? Not really, which meant more space for character development and fun. And, as some have pointed out, we haven’t gotten a lot of The Doctor in the last two episodes – one focused exclusively on Ruby and last week saw both The Doctor and Ruby delegated to FaceTime calls and out of the main action – so getting a chance to see him play off a potential romantic interest was a fun change of pace.

And it also helped that the villains, while potentially dangerous, were also pretty funny. Led by the always excellent Indira Varma as the Duchess (who I just saw play Lady Macbeth opposite Ralph Fiennes – the woman has range), the Chulder were more comic relief that a true threat to anyone (or, well, anyone who happens to be an intergalactic traveler of space and time with access to special earrings with attack mode). It was fun to watch them flail around, desperate to play the different “roles” of their particular fandom. And sure, they ended up killing a handful of folks, but they were expendable redshirts in the grand scheme of things (harsh, yes, but that’s the nature of the game). But after some of the heavier fare of late, it was nice to have a caper where the villains were rather easily dispatched, albeit with the sacrifice of Rogue – who ended up being a really stand-up guy, saving Ruby and saving The Doctor from yet another broken heart at the loss of a Companion. I genuinely hope we get to see him again – although, perhaps with Captain Jack in tow? Why not make Doctor Who even gayer?

One of the best aspects of Who is that it has the ability to slide through frivolous stories into complex meditations on life and love and back into more light, fun fare. But what has made this season particularly interesting has been the strength of the show’s guest cast in carrying larger swaths of the story than in past seasons of the series. Aside from “Space Babies,” we’ve gotten some strong guest characters each time out, with their appearances serving to enhance our understanding of not only Ruby and The Doctor, but also the general theme of the episode as a whole. Last week, Lindy was representative of the heinous nature of her entire people. The Duchess highlighted the frivolous thought process of the Chulder who only care about their own enjoyment at the expense of real people (like I said, the commentary on toxic fandom was not at all veiled here). And Rogue was someone who, perhaps in another timeline, The Doctor could have traveled through space and time with, content and happy in their relationship. We have two more episodes left (a two-partner, no less), wherein we’ll get the reveal of just who that mysterious woman has been, appearing in all of Ruby and The Doctor’s adventures this season, and we’ll hopefully find out who Ruby really is. Let’s see if Russell T. Davies can stick this landing.