Doctor Who Does Pride, and Prejudice

The Doctor’s romantic history has extended been a fraught subject for the show to dive into—but in its modern day incarnation, the Doctor’s identity as a sexual character, and how that interplays with their gender fluidity, has gradually but certainly broken down barriers to enable interpretations of the Time Lord that broach all types of queerness, from asexuality, to gay and lesbian attractions, and every little thing in amongst. And so, Delighted Pride, Medical doctor Who fans: now we can have camp, largely aimless silly adventures that also take place to be gay!

That is possibly a bit imply to say of “Rogue”—an 1813 period piece that is a fantastic 60% largely an excuse to run down lavish manor hallways and make the identical “ooh, just like Bridgerton!” joke about seven instances additional than it should’ve been created, and 40% a bittersweet romance amongst the 15th Medical doctor and the Guest Homosexual of the Week, Jonathan Groff’s titular Rogue.

Rogue is a delightful turn from Groff: a mysterious, charmingly tragic bounty hunter who is in 19th century England on the hunt for a group of Chuldur, shapeshifting avian LARPers who are just as into Bridgerton as Ruby apparently is (they say “cosplay” a lot this episode, as the Chuldur obsess more than which toffy aristocrat they’ll murder and take the spot of subsequent, but truly, they’re LARPing. I guarantee this is the most annoying I’ll be about this certain factor). He’s also the factor that weaves this 60-40 camp split collectively, immediately after he 1st pegs that a) the Medical doctor is similarly not of this time as he is, and a probably candidate for the Chuldur he’s hunting, and b) that truly, yes, the Medical doctor is incredibly eye-catching and charming and clever, is not he? But here’s the factor: the 60% of this episode that is not about the Medical doctor and Rogue attempting to charm every single other’s period-acceptable pantaloons off of every single other is just largely fine.

This is not a unique point of concern—we saw the perils final week of Medical doctor Who attempting, and spectacularly failing, to marry an more than-the-major premise with a incredibly delicate and really serious message. That “Rogue” is largely brainless exciting as the Medical doctor and Ruby, largely separate from every single other, uncover just why Rogue and then a bunch of bird aliens (one particular of which is played by Indira Varma, permitting her, by way of Torchwood, the likelihood of her third on-screen Medical doctor Who universe death when her innocent Duchess is the target of the lead Chuldur’s wish to cosplay) are hanging out in 1813 England is not completely a undesirable factor. It is Medical doctor Who in its charming, silly, but most harmless of types: a lot of operating about and screaming, a lot of camp, but not considerably additional to say than that. And honestly, this season hasn’t truly had that type of rompy, alien creature function caper yet—even “Space Babies” attempted to have a small additional going on beneath the surface—so it is good to get a thing in that style, even if the style is not one particular with considerably dramatic meat on its bones. Bird individuals shriek! Human individuals faint! Ruby gets a incredibly silly small fight scene, thanks to some psychic earrings the Medical doctor let her borrow for dance lessons, set to a Bridgerton-style string rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”! Did I mention this episode was glued collectively by possibly a couple of as well quite a few Bridgerton jokes? Ah nicely, nonetheless.

Anyway, that is not truly the bit of “Rogue” that is exciting: it is the like story amongst the Medical doctor and Rogue that provides the episode a thing to chew on amongst the scenery-chewing. Groff and Gatwa are electric collectively from the moment they start attempting to suss every single other out, and the episode efficiently manages to string you along a “are they truly going to go there?” moment as they go from possible rivals when Rogue thinks the Medical doctor is a disguised Chuldur, to a hero/anti-hero duo immediately after every single others’ hearts. It is a windswept romance, but one particular that functions in the short time the Medical doctor and Rogue get to know every single other, there’s a connection that feels as electric and captivating as any time the Medical doctor 1st gets to know a future companion. They share a bond more than the losses they’ve faced and the struggles they every single really feel in paradoxically craving connection when pushing other people away, simply because their day jobs—being queer disasters in space—are so harmful.

But it is also transgressive in fascinating ways—not simply because this is the 1st time we’ve observed this sort of textual queerness in Medical doctor Who, it is absolutely nothing of the sort. The 1st on-screen queer kiss in the series occurred virtually 20 years ago at this point. And immediately after the final era of the show failed spectacularly in its handling of the lingering feelings amongst the 13th Medical doctor and Yaz, it falls to “Rogue” to be the 1st time the Medical doctor explicitly gets to have a queer like story, and is permitted to go beyond expressing romantic interest or arousal and have that romance be a basic portion of the narrative. It is a bit “Girl in the Fireplace,” but for males who like males. In June, to boot!

If that wasn’t sufficient, “Rogue” even efficiently manages to outdo final week’s “Dot and Bubble” in a roundabout way, as well, simply because the transgressive nature of the Doctor’s romance with Rogue also becomes important to solving the whole story. If “Dot and Bubble” was meant to play with Ncuti Gatwa’s identity as the 1st Black man to play the Doctor—only to dump it all into a final scene that can not say considerably additional than “racism exists and is bad”—“Rogue” plays with the actor’s identity as the 1st openly queer man to play the Medical doctor, when producing it an inherent aspect of the text. The denouement of the episode sees the Medical doctor and Rogue sweep into the middle of the ballroom dance that has been taking spot in the background of all the shenanigans, realizing that the Chuldur, additional than something else, crave drama, deciding on their shapeshifting targets out of who they can most be a queen through—they want to be the undesirable boy turning down dowries, the duchess, or, the two males in early-19th century England who are dancing the most romantic tango prior to their eyes.

It is a wonderful moment once again, simply because Gatwa and Groff have an awesome rapport, but it is also wonderful simply because it is the Medical doctor making use of his queerness in that moment to expose his villains and save the day: it is leveraging that this is transgressive for 1813 simply because it is two males possessing a sensual dance and then turning down a public proposal to get the Chuldur out in the open! And for as considerably as Rogue and the Medical doctor are playing up the drama, there is nonetheless an element of truth beneath it that truly sells it—in one more life, possibly the Medical doctor and Rogue do get collectively, travel the universe and fall in like. But even with that exaggeration for the Chuldur’s stake, this is a resolution to the story that can not have been told unless you are categorically writing the Medical doctor as a queer individual, and permitting what has been layered by means of years of interpretation and allusions to truly turn out to be portion of the story.

Alas, queer or otherwise, that suggests we also have to run into the other pitfall of writing the Medical doctor into a romance: there’s generally an inevitable tragic ending to this type of story, inherent to the show’s premise—the Medical doctor has to be this quasi-lonely angel, continually wandering and moving on from one particular spot to the subsequent, and romance represents a status quo shift that ties the character down to one particular individual, if not one particular unique spot. It is not like romance with the Medical doctor on a extended term basis can not operate appear at how the show handled River Song for so extended through Steven Moffat’s tenure—but additional frequently than not, the Doctor’s stories of like have to finish in heartbreak. And so, Rogue has to sacrifice himself—choosing to save Ruby from the trap he and the Medical doctor have tricked the Chuldur family members into—so the Medical doctor can really feel sad, admire what had occurred amongst them, and move on.

Possibly we could see Rogue transform from a one particular-off fling into a thing additional extended term. The episode ends with the Medical doctor taking the ring Rogue faux-proposed with and adding it to the quite a few this incarnation currently wears on his fingers, and immediately after all, Rogue’s sacrifice wasn’t a fatal one particular, he was just sent to one more dimension with the Chuldur: one particular amongst quite a few, as the Medical doctor says to Ruby. He could generally be located if one more story desires the character to be located. And even if he is not ever observed once again? Maybe it is much better for the Medical doctor to have loved and lost, than to have by no means loved at all: specifically when Medical doctor Who utilizes the likelihood to make a queerness in the character that has extended been at the edges of the series a basic aspect of their present identity and beyond.

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