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Aafter four decidedly substandard episodes, including two in which Ncuti Gatwa hardly appear and one where he was stationary on mine, it was nice to get a reasonably straightforward episode of Doctor Who. It was a good old sci-fi costume drama, complete with a murderous, shape-shifting, body-sapping alien menace seeking thrills as they attempt to destroy the world.
The explicit references to fandom, cosplay, and the season finale only added to the feeling that much of this series was incredibly meta, with frequent fourth-wall breaks and callbacks to its own earlier episodes. Indeed, the sparring between Rogue (Jonathan Groff) and the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) felt like a turbocharged version of when the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) met Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) in 2005. The doctor dancesincluding a joke about the sonic screwdriver moving furniture.
While Captain Jack was always flirting with Rose Tyler and the Doctor (and pretty much anything that moved, really), Rogue only had her sights set on one, and the show showed just how scandalous that matchup would have been in the early 1800s. Indira Varma as the Duchess of Pemberton, the leader of the group Chuldur, literally screams for everyone attending her party and doesn’t waste a second of his screen time.
The Doctor’s eventual dilemma over saving Ruby Sunday (Milly Gibson) and Rogue’s voluntary self-sacrifice neatly tied up the episode, but also hinted at a potential sequel involving Rogue at some point. Too much has been made of the Doctor and Rogue’s burgeoning relationship to leave it as a one-off, surely?
Sum it up in one sentence?
The doctor suffered a broken heart while attending a convention in Bridgerton in 1813.
Life aboard the Tardis
Rogue inviting the Doctor to travel through the stars with him was a new inversion of the usual Time Lord and their companion dynamic. The fact that there was a whole group of Chuldur aspiring to be the Doctor was like the Blood Family from Human nature, as well as the Doctor’s desire to see them suffer long after he believed they killed Ruby. For the second episode in a row, Ruby proved to be an emotional support to the Doctor after he suffered a devastating stroke.
Fear factor
Chuldur may not have been the most threatening of villains in his natural state, but he’s always very good Doctor who fun to start the show with a murder in the gardens of a stately home. The revelation that Camila Aiko is also a Chuldur was a clever twist after what we saw of the naivety of her earlier interactions with Ruby.
Riddles and questions
At one point, Rogue says the bounty hunt has a lot more paperwork “since we got the new boss.” Could this be the same boss Meep mentioned at the end of The star beast?
after the promotion of the newsletter
Russell T. Davies sidestepped the question of where he placed Joe Martin’s incarnation in the Doctor’s timeline by having the Doctor’s previous incarnations appear in a jumbled order. But is Richard E Grant canon as the Doctor on TV now? It would have been even wilder if Susan Twist had appeared in the Doctor’s previous line-up, but this time she was the doom-eyed portrait.
Deeper into the maelstrom
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The first time we saw the Doctor kiss someone was when Paul McGann kissed Daphne Ashbrook, who played Grace Holloway in the 1996 TV movie. The fans were furious. Since then, the Doctor has kissed – with varying degrees of romantic intensity or consent – Rose Tyler, Captain Jack, Astrid Perth, Amy Pond, River Song, Rory Williams, Tasha Lem, Missy, Jenny Flint and Elizabeth I, among others. in Doctor’s Daythe War Doctor, seeing the 10th Doctor marry Elizabeth I, even asks “Is there much of this in the future?”
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Speaking of Astrid PerthThe doctor who makes Rogue’s spaceship game Can’t Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue it’s not the first time Journey of the Damned guest star has been made canon in Doctor Who. In a 2006 episode The Idiot’s Lantern, before the Aussie pop star appeared on the show, David Tennant’s 10th Doctor said: “It’s never too late, as a wise man once said. Kylie, I think.
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The Doctor said “No thank you sir” to be called “Doc”, which is what Graham (Bradley Walsh) used to call the 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker).
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As incredible as it may seem, Rogue is the first Doctor Who episode not to feature a writing credit for either Chris Chibnall, Russell T. Davies or Steven Moffat since Maxine Alderton wrote The Haunting of Villa Diodati for Whittaker’s Ph.D in February 2020 when much missed Dan Martin was making these generalizations.
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And speaking of many missed, this week we said goodbye to William Russellwho played Ian Chesterton with such aplomb in the original 1963 Tardis crew. He died aged 99 after setting a world record in 2022 when he reprized the character in 2022. The power of the doctor after a gap of 57 years.
Next time: The Legend of Ruby Sunday
An eight-part series just flies by and we’re already rushing towards the two-part season finale. Bonnie Langford! Lenny Rush! Gemma Redgrave! More Susan Twist! Satanic looking horned alien hidden in static! Vworp Vworp!
A quick guide Doctor Who: all our episode-by-episode recaps
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