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Season 1, Episode 6: ‘Rogue’
For a long time, cosplay has been an enormous a part of the “Doctor Who” fandom, with hardcore viewers rocking as much as conventions or gathering to look at the present decked out in Tom Baker’s striped scarf or David Tennant’s slim swimsuit.
“Rogue,” this season’s sixth episode, is a meta meditation on cosplay — a portmanteau of costume play — and obsessive TV fandom, because the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby (Millie Gibson) journey to Regency-era England and face off in opposition to a shape-shifting alien species who need to “costume up and play at ‘Bridgerton.’”
Initially, the repeated express references to Netflix’s blockbuster present — in addition to the enemies-to-lovers plot, the copious wisteria and the orchestral covers of pop songs — really feel pointless. But it quickly turns into clear that “Doctor Who” is partaking in cultural cosplay of its personal.
The yr is 1813, and the Doctor and Ruby set about immersing themselves within the party of the season. Ruby rapidly beneficial properties the eye of the evening’s host, the proud Duchess of Pemberton (Indira Varma, “Game of Thrones”) and shocks the impolite Lord Barton (Paul Forman) together with her Twenty first-century slang and feminist ideas.
More than simply an old school misogynist, Lord Barton is secretly a Chuldur, a member of a species of intergalactic social climbers who stand up the ranks by taking up the our bodies of the highly effective and attention-grabbing. First, they go for Lord Barton; later, the duchess turns into their subsequent sufferer.
The Doctor has by no means met a Chuldur earlier than — not that he is aware of of, anyway — however he can inform one thing’s up. Scanning the room, his eyes fall upon a brooding, aloof nobleman referred to as Rogue (Jonathan Groff, a notable King George in “Hamilton”) and the orchestra performs Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” to actually hammer the purpose residence.
If Rogue is a Mr. Darcy kind, then the Doctor is his Elizabeth Bennet. The pair have interaction in a rapid-fire forwards and backwards, and a palpable stress simmers. Mid-flirt, they come across the duchess’s sinewy, discarded corpse and, in unison, accuse the opposite of being the assassin. But when Rogue pulls a gun on the Doctor, revealing himself as a bounty hunter despatched to trace these monsters down, the stakes change into a lot greater.
Rogue traps the Doctor on his ship, planning to ship him to an incinerator. The Doctor doesn’t take the risk too critically, and playfully blasts Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.” “Boy, your lovin’ is all I can take into consideration,” Minogue sings, and the Doctor mouths alongside, winking straight at Rogue.
Rogue lets him go, and the pair bond over their shared experiences of loss; the Doctor for his destroyed residence planet of Gallifrey, Rogue for the companion he used to journey with. It’s a young second, and the pair lean in to kiss earlier than they’re interrupted — predictably abruptly — by an alert that the entice for the Chuldur is prepared.
Ruby has been making some discoveries of her personal. On the wall of the duchess’s grand residence, she spots the face of the actor Susan Twist in a portray of the duke’s mom — Twist’s cameo for this episode. (The trailer for subsequent week’s two-part finale exhibits that Twist’s recurring appearances will lastly be defined, and certainly play an important position within the season’s arc.)
The Doctor and Rogue reunite with Ruby, and the Doctor proffers a concept. What if the Chuldur have been drawn to this era due to the inherent “drama” round it? But it’s greater than that. The Chuldur confide that they need to use their new positions of energy to take management of Parliament, then wage wars internationally. “We’re gonna cosplay this planet to demise,” the duchess gleefully crows.
Knowing a scandal is the easiest way to get the duchess’s consideration, the Doctor drags Rogue onto the dance flooring they usually dance collectively. Yet when Rogue will get down on one knee, pulling a hoop from his pocket, it’s the Doctor who’s on the again foot and runs off, flustered.
The duchess and Lord Barton observe, screeching that they “should play them” earlier than assembling their “Chuldur household.” When they rework from their Regency hosts again to their Chuldur types, their seen heads and shoulders are a combination of various animal species, feathers and fur.
Back within the ballroom, this transformation horrifies the company, because the duchess proudly declares that “a party isn’t a party and not using a costume change.” The Doctor and Rogue watch on from their hiding place as she introduces the “season finale,” and Ruby walks in on the arm of the Chuldur Lord Barton. The form shifters have “acquired her” too, the Doctor realizes.
Heartbroken, he thinks of the guarantees he made to maintain Ruby secure, and sobs, earlier than asking Rogue how lengthy Chuldur stay for. When he’s informed 600 years, he spits again: “Good. That’s a very long time to undergo.”
Bursting into the ballroom to object to the nuptials — prompting excited reactions from the Chuldur — he prompts Rogue’s entice and the marriage party. But Ruby’s imploring eyes and quivering backside lip inform the Doctor she’s not a Chuldur, and when she rattles off info about her unknown heritage, the Doctor realizes if he incinerates the Chuldur, he’ll kill Ruby too.
For the Chuldur, it’s a close to victory. “You’re too tender and feeble to dispatch your little blonde buddy,” the duchess jeers. But if he doesn’t, Rogue factors out, the Chuldur will kill Ruby, then the remainder of humanity, anyway. “Can you lose your buddy to avoid wasting the world?” he asks, providing the Doctor his very personal trolley downside.
In the tip, Rogue makes the choice for him. He pulls the Doctor right into a passionate kiss, a romantic second befitting of a interval drama. It’s not the primary time two males have kissed on “Doctor Who,” however there’s no wink behind this act. That is, till Rogue swipes the detonator from the Doctor’s hand and leaps into the triform, pushing Ruby out to take her place. The floor falls out from beneath him, bounty hunter and bounty vanishing in a single.
Distraught at yet one more loss, the Doctor staggers ahead onto the empty dance flooring, shaken, the place he and Ruby maintain one another and weep. The Doctor briefly permits himself to really feel his most human feelings, earlier than shaking himself again into motion.
For the Doctor, there’s solely ahead. But with Rogue’s ring on his finger and the bounty hunter’s departing phrases (“Find me!”) hanging within the air, it’s clear we’ve not seen the final of Groff’s romantic Rogue.
