Doctor Who Reviews: "Rogue"

During Russell T. Davies’ first stint running Doctor Who, he infamously pitched a Christmas special that would take the Doctor into the Harry Potter universe -be a kind of crossover event with the movies- before David Tennant vetoed the idea for obvious reasons. Doctor Who melding with other franchises is such a creatively cheap idea -no one wants to see the Doctor spend an hour simply advertising another TV show or movie series. But easily-dated pop cultural touchstones are an occasional weakness of Davies’ writing -from the joke about the Doctor crying over the then-unpublished final Harry Potter book in “The Shakespeare Code” (combined with some very uncomfortable flattery towards its author) to all the early-2000s UK reality shows spotlighted in “Bad Wolf”. And in “Rogue”, this same tendency comes back in a pronounced way.

Certainly, it’s nowhere as bad as that Harry Potter episode would have been, but there is a similar train of pandering to the way it makes itself emphatically about Bridgerton cosplay. Before it was released it was drawing comparisons to the popular period romance series -as was apt to happen given its aesthetics. But I didn’t expect the episode to go as far as it does with the period as mere Bridgerton tapestry, often referenced as such, and the main villains just a niche fan collective -the only restraint seems to have been that they didn’t actually rope in someone like Regé-Jean Page or Nicola Coughlan to be in it. However, amidst this the episode does have its one very strong and engaging feature.

“Rogue” is the second and last episode of the series not written by Russell T. Davies. It’s credited to Kate Herron and Briony Redman -Herron of course the executive producer of the first season of Loki, a show which Davies notably criticized for its lacklustre queer representation. That certainly isn’t the case on this show, which once again touches down on the Doctor and Ruby already hanging out in this time period -so soon after the racism he experienced by the people of Finetown, he’s curiously made perfectly at home among the early nineteenth-century English gentry. But there is an alien in disguise at this estate, leaving behind the bodies of those whose likenesses it takes on. Before long, Ruby goes off to explore this society a little more, while the Doctor investigates a mysterious figure who catches his eye, watching everyone from above.

This is the titular Rogue, known only as Rogue -an early tip-off to his true nature- played by Jonathan Groff. And after engaging in a sharp and flirtatious rapport inside, they leave the estate, where in the garden on uncovering a body Rogue accuses the Doctor -and endeavours to apprehend him with a high-tech gun. He is in fact an intergalactic bounty hunter who has been hired to capture and execute a shapeshifting alien called a Childer in the area, and is convinced that it is the Doctor. It’s a character type and reveal that isn’t completely unfamiliar to Davies’ Doctor Who -you can’t help but get a little whiff of Captain Jack Harkness and how he too was initially revealed as a roguish spaceman in the midst of a period-set story where he appeared to blend in. But Rogue doesn’t have the sheer confidence and bravado of Captain Jack, though he is just as American. Groff plays him with a bit of that Han Solo cool detachment, though coloured by a very gay sardonic attitude. And that is something that everybody who had a hand in this character’s construction is keen to emphasize, alongside a matching demeanour in the Doctor.

If you had any doubts of the Doctor’s or this era of Doctor Who’s queerness, this is the episode that settles it. Because the Doctor, more than simply flirting with Rogue, is somewhat smitten by him. And sexual tension is dripping through the whole of their interactions here. A lot of it is quite fun, a little bit witty (Rogue calls out the Doctor’s already demonstrated constant chattering), and when they’re on his grubby ship, the Doctor casually pokes at him about being on it alone before teasing him ruthlessly with his taste in music (it’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” by Kylie Minogue -who was of course previously a one-time companion of the Doctor). They play off each other incredibly well, Groff and Gatwa developing a very good rhythm with the snappy dialogue. Rogue functions well as a challenge for the Doctor -his screwdriver doesn’t work in his ship and his psychic paper backfires on him embarrassingly. This is a guy who’s just as in control, more-so even, than the Doctor usually is -and that intrigues the Doctor in a newly considered way. It helps that Groff makes his character out to be very cool and interesting at the same time, even as it is revealed he got his name from the Dungeons & Dragons class -a minor thing, but another specifically role-playing element that seems a little too targeted.

Where the episode goes further is once the Doctor takes Rogue to the TARDIS. After nearly being incinerated by one of Rogue’s traps, only at the last minute convincing him he’s not the Childer by revealing all his previous faces in digital rotation. Rogue is amazed by the TARDIS, and I like the little touch of the Doctor singing “Pure Imagination” as Rogue explores it. They have a heart to heart here where Rogue reveals his own former travelling companion, lost in some unexplained tragedy, bonding with the Doctor over a shared curse of loneliness. And the Doctor here does his thing where he tries nudging Rogue away from his uncertain life, inviting him to come along in the TARDIS, only for Rogue to turn the tables and offer him the same back -which the Doctor, rarely in a companion role himself, does seem tempted by as the two lean in for a near kiss. It’s the most overtly non-heterosexual situation the Doctor has ever been placed in, played not with the cheekiness of past flirtations, but a genuine romantic atmosphere that has before been reserved for only a select few figures and companions.

The plot comes a calling though. All this time, Ruby has been interacting with the posh folks, rubbing off particularly on one Emily Beckett (Camilla Aiko), whose courtship she accidentally spoils by witnessing a romantic conversation with a gentleman outside of her social class -and who she bombards with modern scouse slang that Emily takes to with enthusiasm. At the same time the actual Childers -there are a small band of them- are observing Ruby and singling her out to impersonate for a grand wedding. The one playing the Lady Pemberton is the main instigator here, played by Indira Varma (you might remember her as Suzie Costello from Torchwood), and is particularly keen on seeing these people as mere archetypes for her to impersonate and manipulate. It’s this that the Doctor and Rogue on re-convening with Ruby and Emily pick up on, and directly link to cosplay -theorizing that the Childers are fans of Bridgerton and are enacting their own kind of LARPing fantasy, thankfully that phrase isn’t actually used. But it does take this episode dropping the term ‘cosplay’ multiple times, and even in a semi-serious context by the alien villains, that makes me realize how much I don’t like it. Maybe it is the best way to describe that particular activity/hobby/lifestyle, but it’s so silly, and the way it’s used here feels very lame. It evokes fan culture, which is already something Doctor Who shouldn’t wade into for multiple reasons, and it can’t help feel a touch tacky and forcefully hip.

And as to the Bridgerton thing and the aliens basically going meta with manufacturing the plot of a “season finale”, I get the sense it’s meant to be clever and subversive, but it isn’t either at all. Apart from the free advertising for another show, it’s just kind of shallow and creatively dull. Doctor Who can do meta-text -I think it did its musical number in “The Devil’s Chord” rather well; but this is trying to turn TV tropes into a vehicle for equal parts comedy and serious drama. Herron and Redman aren’t able to square that -I doubt even Davies would be able to- especially with how surface-level it all is that again just comes off as empty pandering to a very specific subset of genre fans.

We see it in the motivation behind the Doctor and Rogue initiating a scandalous gay dance together (one that is nicely cut across both a real and vacant romantic plane) and subsequently improvising a heated exchange and proposal as a plot twist to expose the Childers; and then even more emphatically in an actual plot twist that reveals Emily was a Childer too and takes on Ruby’s form -subsequently twisted again. The revealed shape-shifters in their bird-like appearances -less elaborate, non-digital make-up that hearkens back to the cheap weird-looking animal aliens of Davies’ earlier run- just force their wedding through in front of the remaining guests. Assessing that Ruby has been replaced and probably killed, he and Rogue cause another scene and set up their triangular transportation trap to banish the Childers to another dimension -mercilessly for the Doctor, angry about Ruby’s fate (we get a poorly-oriented and unnecessary flashback here to Ruby’s mum making the Doctor promise he’ll keep her safe).

It turns out though, Ruby was just acting (she calls it cosplay to keep beating that drum), leaving her frozen in the trap and the Doctor unable to unset it without risking the Childers’ escape. Rogue asks the Doctor if he can lose a friend to save the world, which this Doctor interestingly concludes he can’t. Rogue understands, and here gives the Doctor a full-on passionate kiss, which the Doctor reciprocates in earnest -but it’s in part to steal the activation device off him, which Rogue then runs with, shoving himself into Ruby’s place in the trap and asking the Doctor to find him before condemning himself and the Childers to exile in another dimension. The Doctor is clearly affected by this, though he tries to save face in front of Ruby -credit to her, she doesn’t simply let him sweep it under the rug with his faux enthusiastic talk about moving forward onto the next adventure. She gives him a tender hug and he adds to his collection the ring that Rogue had propositioned him with.

A certain indication that the Doctor will on some level try to find him -even though as he tells Ruby, there are as many dimensions as there are atoms. Talking of the relative boldness we’ve seen in this series, the Doctor having a new implicitly quite serious romance, and a queer one at that, has got to be one of the bigger moves. It’s a gamble to give the Doctor a love story at all, though I do prefer a case like this where it isn’t with his actual companion (see also Joan Redfern), and I think the dynamic is distinct enough -if not wholly fleshed out- to be worth exploring continually as will likely happen. The gayness can’t be ignored, and I’m sure Davies will receive push-back, but something in the way that kiss was shot, lingered on, suggests this is something he’s wanted for a while, possibly as far as back as 2005. And it’s a milestone for this program.

This compelling relationship and the Rogue’s character more generally is where the excitement of the episode lies, but most of the story and its architecture that they have to be set against fails to come to life beyond the novelties exploited. The hackneyed allusions, facile condescensions, and just plain dull motivational conceits weigh the episode down considerably. Last week saw Doctor Who in the playground of Black Mirror, but that’s quite different from factoring Bridgerton fandom into the narrative’s central construct. It makes for an awkward and weak episode that’s going to look more so in even just a year or two’s time. But at least it’s got a little bit of Roguish salvation.

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