Doctor Who - Rogue

Reversing
the Bipolarity

Doctor Who - Rogue
Airdate: 8th June 2024
BBC 1

Well now... I’d been primed by friends and family, who saw it before me, that the latest episode of Doctor Who, Rogue,  was a truly a terrible and uncomfortable watch. Yeah, it went places with The Doctor which I am unhappy with (although clearly not as unhappy and many other very long term Doctor Who fans I know, who I think may finally have reached their last straw with the series as to carrying on watching it)... but the mental health issue clearly on show in the episode is what it is. I have friends of a similar disposition in real life so I’m perhaps more tolerant and accepting of it than most. That’s probably as much as I’m saying about that particular ‘romantic’ aspect of the episode but, contrary to literally everyone I personaly know who has seen this one, so far... the over wokeness of the story does not make this the most terrible episode of the new series... it’s still not as bad as The Church On Ruby Road, Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord, for sure. Although nowhere near as good as the last three episodes either.

So this is the ‘Bridgerton’ episode, a show I’ve not seen and have no interest in. And, indeed, the show is referenced by name a good few times, as this one is set at a social party in 1813, where shape-shifting bird people are preparing to cosplay the human race to death. But, honestly, it’s truly not as bad an installment as people are making it out to be. I’ll come back to that in a little while though.

Asides from the almost unwatchable romance between The Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa and new character Rogue, played by Jonathan Groff, there are some interesting moments where, for example, we get to see The Doctor’s previous incarnations as holographic projections at one point... so that was a nice touch. Millie Gibson was brilliant, as usual, as Ruby Sunday... she has good chemistry with the show’s lead. Alas, I can’t help but think something bad is going to happen to her character in the next week or two and, I suspect, she may even become a villain in future seasons of the show (that could be interesting). That’s just me speculating, mind you... I guess we’ll find out sometime soon, is my guess.

Indira Varma, who’s no stranger to the Whoniverse (as a traitorous Torchwood member, if memory serves) is kinda wasted here as the leader of the owl people, I thought. But I wish her well and am looking forward to seeing her in more Hollywood movies at some point... she seems to be one of those actresses who turns up in everything.

Okay, I’m trying to find some nice things to say about the episode to counter the negativity I know a number of people I know are feeling about this one so... here’s two.

One is... I loved this week’s Susan Twist sighting... she’s just a portrait painting hanging on the wall in the mansion house. That was a nice touch.

And then there’s Murray Gold’s score, which was one of his better ones and had some good action/running music for The Doctor, slightly reminiscent of similarly functional themes for David Tennant and Matt Smith’s Doctors (he certainly puts the fun in functional).

Okay... so not too much more to say but, coming back to that big, pink elephant in the room... I am kinda unhappy about the way things are going with the show in terms of certain elements and, it seems I’m not alone in that because, from what I can tell, the ratings for the show, in general, are even more of a disaster than they were in the Jodie Whittaker seasons. I was talking to my friend Andrew in the BFI bar about this yesterday and between us we came to the conclusion that, if things go on like this with the ratings and the show runner possibly not ‘reading the room’ as it were, this time around, then it’s possible Disney may well pull the funding after the next series (which is already ‘in the can’, as far as I know). Would the BBC want to go back to the show with a very reduced budget or would that spell the end of everyone’s favourite timelord for a bit? I don’t know but I can’t help but think that the good Doctor may find him/herself having a long rest if things don’t improve.

But, as far as Rogue goes (and the character who the episode is named after... please don’t bring him back in future installments, people!) then it’s not the weakest episode of this series so far but... yeah... it’s not great.