Rogue is an amazing Doctor Who episode. This whole episode’s got me thinking all kinds of things, but that’s the one I think more than anything, and I couldn’t wait to talk to you about it.

It’s the seventh episode of the season, the penultimate episode if you will, and of course that’s when they give us a proper Doctor Who episode again. One of the absolute properest of episodes. I loved everything about it. No notes. I literally said “no notes” out loud.

The difficult part with a review like that is that when I’ve really, really enjoyed something, I find it harder to talk about what I liked. So I’m going to walk you through the gist of the episode and stop where there’s something to say.

The Bridgerton Episode of Doctor Who

This episode is fun. It starts the way so many really good episodes of Doctor Who have started, which is right in the middle of it all. We’re in the 1800s, and it’s the Bridgerton episode of Doctor Who, if you will. The Doctor and Ruby are doing exactly what the Doctor and his companions always do. They’re playing at cosplay. In fact, cosplay literally gets name dropped.

While they’re at it, we break away to two other characters. One of them is insulting the other: how dare you have sullied my sister and her good name. The other guy’s like, yeah, and are you going to challenge me? Just go ahead and challenge me so I can shoot you and be done with it. And literally as I’m about to say “what a jerk,” the proper one says, “Wow, you really are wonderfully bad, aren’t you?” Then he tells him, I want to be you, lifts him up, and does his thing. You find out later he’s an alien, one of the Chuldur.

Back at the ball, we’ve got brand new tech. Ruby has psychic earrings, programmed to send the choreography straight into her mind. I’m okay with a new Doctor invention beyond the butterfly button. I’m totally down. But he drops a little nugget with them. Chekhov’s psychic earrings. He tells her, just don’t set them to battle mode. That’s going to come in handy later.

Then there’s interference on the earrings, which gives the Doctor something to look for, and that of course leads him to Jonathan Groff’s Rogue.

Meanwhile, Indira Varma plays the Duchess of Pemberton, and she’s totally enamored with Ruby. She pulls her aside and tells her the mark of a truly good party is the number of matches that are made, this and that, whatever. It’s all Bridgerton-type stuff, and they’re really laying it on thick. There’s a reason for that. She takes Ruby off to find a suitor, and the Doctor’s stuck with this gentleman who calls himself Rogue.

The Doctor and Rogue

Immediately there’s a thing. From that moment I could feel the tension. Jonathan Groff also notably has a very, very American accent, which I thought was fun. A lot of people are calling him the replacement for Captain Jack, and I’m like, come on, really? Because frankly, I think Jonathan Groff was sexier than Captain Jack. Just saying.

There’s such a tête-à-tête between them, back and forth, that finally Rogue says, “I think you and I should go outside.” They go outside and keep at it, and you get the idea that he’s clearly not who we think he is. He’s not from there and he’s not from this time. Come to find out he’s a space-time traveler too, though I think he’s probably closer to Jack than to the Doctor. He’s a bounty hunter who gets hired to go through space and time catching bounties. You also find out he had somebody he traveled with. I don’t want to call him a companion. Somebody he traveled with, and that person was lost. The Doctor notices that in him, and who better to notice it?

The Doctor and Rogue are clearly flirting. Now, this is the first of many issues some people are going to take with the episode, so I’m going to stop you there. To me there’s no difference between this storyline and any amount of flirting that Jack and David Tennant’s Doctor did. There really isn’t.

People have been calling this the gayest episode of Doctor Who ever. I understand why people are saying that. I don’t see it that way. I see it as the most Doctor Who episode we’ve gotten thus far: how the characters interacted and played, how they played their parts. I don’t have an issue with any of it.

A Doctor Who Doesn’t Have to Hold Back

You have to remember who Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor is. He’s someone who’s finally relieved himself of the burdens of his past. He no longer holds himself responsible for Gallifrey. He no longer holds himself responsible for any number of things that really weighed him down in his previous regenerations. That’s one of the reasons the bi-generation was so valuable. Presumably David Tennant’s Doctor, Fourteenth or whatever number we’re on, is off recovering on his own, and this Doctor is pursuing his own stuff as well. In that pursuit he’s free, and that freedom lends itself to a spirit of fun. It’s something he hasn’t felt in a long time.

You can argue, what about this and that from before? All of that was the Doctor trying to hide from what was going on inside. This Doctor’s free to express himself, love who he wants and be open, because it’s like, you know what, I don’t care. For centuries he held back. For 900 years he held back. Then he dipped his toe into desire and love and fell in love with a companion in the form of Rose, and it’s been a roller coaster ever since.

This is a guy who’s unburdened and doesn’t feel like he’s got to hold back anymore, and I dig that vibe. It’s different for sure, but I dig it because I understand it.

There’s a moment between the two of them that’s all about the music. They’re playing this song, and it’s utterly incredible. I feel the energy and the freedom of it. It felt very hippie, for lack of a better word. Modern day hippie. Like, yeah man, I want to love life, I want to love the adventure, I’m here, I’m alive.

The Faces, and the Shalka Doctor

Then there’s this legendary moment. Rogue has scanned the Doctor, and on the surface his computer says this creature is a changeling. The Doctor’s like, no, no, no, run the scan again, deeper this time. And you begin to see the faces of the Doctor.

Several things happen here. You see a couple of faces that have never been in the lineup before, and I’m down. That’s fine. But also, did they just put the Shalka Doctor into canon?

The Shalka Doctor comes from a Flash animation that was done for Doctor Who, I want to say 2004, maybe 2003. It’s pretty interesting. It was good. But it’s just become canon now. Could it be fan service? Possibly. I tend to lean more in the direction that nothing Russell does is fan service as much as potentially laying groundwork. We also get the Fugitive Doctor, we get the War Doctor, and there’s a bunch of other visuals.

They’re not in the normal order either, which I found very interesting. Anytime they show the faces, like when Matt Smith faced the Atraxi, they go in numeric order from Hartnell all the way up to whoever the present one is. This one didn’t. Everyone was shuffled around a little bit. I thought it was a wonderful moment.

Rogue apparently knows of the Time War, and you also find out he gets his name from Dungeons and Dragons. So he’s super enamored when they go into the TARDIS. He’s in love with this machine. There’s an amazing moment where it looks like the two of them are getting close, and then of course the pager goes off. Totally get it.

Ruby, the Earrings and the Trap

The Chuldur aren’t just one. There’s a little mini family of them, the bird people are basically living out their alien Bridgerton dreams, and they want Ruby. The girl she’s been talking to is literally one of them.

So the Doctor rushes back in. He takes this little trap thing Rogue had and modifies it to fit more people. He stops them and traps them, but not before Ruby is apparently killed. We get a flashback to Ruby’s mom having the same kind of conversation a lot of other people have had with the Doctor: bring her home safe, how can you guarantee she’ll be safe? And he’s like, no, I’ll totally bring her home safe. So he believes Ruby’s dead.

He traps the whole family, and the one who looks like Ruby starts asking why her feet are stuck. He tells her not to pretend. Nice try. It’s me, Doctor, she says, and she rattles it all off: what her mom’s called, what her gran’s called, that it snowed when she was born, that they met space babies, and that she’s really, really sorry.

She survived by using the earrings. Remember those? Chekhov’s psychic earrings went off, she went battle mode, and she proceeded to somewhat lacklusterly whoop the Chuldur, feather to butt, if you will. So it’s really her.

Then Rogue lays it down for him. They’re going to get away, they’re going to destroy this place and eventually the whole world. So can you do it? Can you lose your friend to save the world?

Rogue kisses him. It’s amazing. Then he comes up with a little thing, and there’s a switch.

From a storytelling standpoint, that’s a very sloppy moment. They don’t really establish the rules of the trap beyond “my feet are stuck,” and then somebody jumps in and it’s a swap. This is me being a critic. For a split second I’m like, but wait. Then I’m like, dude, move on. And I did. I rolled past it quick, but it was a stutter step for me, and that’s okay.

Rogue takes her place, says “find me,” and activates the thing. They’re shunted off to another dimension, because apparently dimension hopping isn’t a problem anymore. Totally fine. Whatever.

In the aftermath the Doctor tries to do the onward, next adventure thing, where shall we go, and Ruby’s not going to let him. She tells him he doesn’t have to be like this. “I have to be like this, because this is what I’m like.” It’s a thing, man.

The Arguments That Don’t Matter

I was taken aback by this episode, mainly because, aside from the context that’s going to upset idiots who don’t matter, this was a great episode. You swap out anything and nobody’s complaining. So you know what? I’m not going to complain either.

And don’t think I didn’t notice the timing of said episode during Pride Month. Hey, I see what you did. And again, it was brilliantly written. This is a Doctor Who episode that can stand tall with a lot of the best of this run, and by this run I mean since the 2005 reboot began. I’m here for it.

The arguments people are going to have that are stupid don’t matter, so I’m going to ignore those. If you’ve got criticisms, real criticisms, I’m down.

The Verdict

Doctor Who “Rogue” gets a 9 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.

This episode hit on all cylinders. Like I said, no notes. It blew my socks off. But it took until the penultimate episode to do that, and I’m still a little bitter about it, so I’m penalizing it a point. It’s a 9 out of 10 for this episode.

I genuinely love this episode. I know a lot of people who are critical, with real criticisms, who also enjoyed it and got a genuine Doctor Who experience out of it. That makes me excited.

Let me know what you thought of the episode, and tell me if you think I’m crazy for saying Jonathan Groff was sexier than Captain Jack. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.