15.7: Rogue
In which we relive our favourite stories.
Broadcast: June 2024
Watched: December 2024
“Just try not to get engaged, or accidentally invent tarmac.”
Just so much *fun*. Love the Bridgerton rip off (the very relaxed, multi-racial version of the Regency, with a contemporary pop played by a string quartet). Love the bit where the Doctor and Ruby simultaneously explain the plot to each other. Adore the sense of two people who really fancy each other introducing each other to their worlds.
One lovely thing here is that you think you’re watching Doctor Who trying to do Bridgerton because that’s just what it does, and then it turns out it’s actually the aliens in the story trying to do Bridgerton: it isn’t just riffing on it, it’s the actual plot (“It’s cosplay! All of this”!)
Emily’s delight in learning modern language is adorable (”I know the word okay!”). Indira Varma, meanwhile, is having the time of her life – the scene in which, uncommented, she just takes glass after glass of champagne from a nearby waiter and downs them is delightful. Her comment that “We can start wars with the French and the Spanish and the Portuguese and everyone who doesn’t look British” is a bit weird – it’s 1813; there’s plenty of war already going on, and the fact no one seems aware of that reminds me of Woman Who Lived’s failure to notice the massive civil war. But I suppose it’s another aspect of the Bridgerton parody.
+++COMMERCIAL MESSAGE: MY BOOK HAS SOLD OUT ON AMAZON BUT IS STILL AVAILABLE FROM ALL GOOD BOOK SHOPS+++
Okay, enough about that, let’s talk about the other thing. It’s a very RTD1 structure – as with Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror there’s a definite vibe that this has been written by someone who grew up on the 2005 iteration of the show – but with the single twist that the Doctor’s love interest is his own sex. In a fairly radical season, it’s a weirdly trad episode, by which I mean, the same sort of thing the show might have done nearly 20 years earlier. The only radicalism here is being utterly unflinching in putting a gay love story for the Doctor front and centre, and portraying it as the most romantic thing the show’s ever done.
Like Rose or The Girl in the Fire Place, Rogue’s name being the title feels significant (”Just the Doctor?” “Just Rogue?”). Before broadcast, I’d assumed it was a sort of comment on a character type rather than an actual name, that it was essentially an episode called “Cad”. The man himself is very clearly an inversion of Captain Jack – a sexy guy in a long blue coat who’s undercover and has a cloaked spaceship (a bounty hunter is basically a time agent, after all). But he’s serious to the Doctor’s more relaxed persona: both Rogue and Jack are clearly there to mirror the Doctor they’re up against (Spock/not Spock, to quote Rose in The Empty Child.)
And Jonathan Groff is amazing in it, really selling the idea that somewhere behind all that brooding this guy is actually sad and vulnerable, and for a mostly straight sort of chap I found his performance confusingly hot. The bit where it turns out this serious, smouldering man listens to Kylie is hilarious, and, delightfully, means that Kylie exists in the Whoniverse despite having been in the show. Also, he has a huge teddy bear!
The twist at the end where Rogue acts like he’s going to press the button, getting rid of the aliens even though it’ll mean losing Ruby too, then sacrifices himself instead is structurally inevitable and bordering on cliche. But it’s so well done that I don’t even care that I’m being manipulated.
73 yards is probably the most interesting episode this season. But this is the one I would say I most love.
Other things:
This week, Susan Twist is a portrait. Everyone else in Regency garb.
“This is no way to die” – okay Doctor what’s a good way then?
Hugely enjoyed Chekhov’s psychic earrings. “Instant Strictly!”
“This job has so much paperwork ever since we got that new boss” – is this meant to be the evil boss who comes up a lot? If so, why is Rogue working for them? (I assume we haven’t met them yet, it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense that Rogue and the Meep would be working for Sutekh.)
I’ve got a note here that says “The birds speak French and everyone screams”, does that actually happen or have I gone weird? Anyway, the bird costumes are delightfully absurd.
The Doctor cries, again, FFS? Seems reasonable this time though I guess.
I LOVE that the parade of Doctor faces has Richard E. Grant off Scream of the Shalka in it, they’re really not messing about any more when it comes to canon. Or possibly they really are messing around. I also thought I saw Cushing but can find no other reference on the internet so surely not.
“Do you ever wonder… why keep going? “Because we have to. We have to live each day because they can’t.” That… really got me.
“Why isn’t it cloaked?” “It’s behind a tree” may be the funniest line of the season.
Is it possible I’m overrating this episode because I really fancy Rogue?