Doctor Who: Rogue

Doctor Who embraces the Bridgerton craze with its Regency Era episode, Rogue, the first story written by a non-showrunner in four years as it introduces Jonathan Groff as our tenacious titular character.

“Beware the Duchess,” warned the Doctor Who social channels over a year ago when they announced Jonathan Groff’s joining the show. A rogue announcement sparked speculation as fans attempted to decipher the mystery of Jonathan Groff’s character and the Regency Era costumes.

The Duchess, audiences learn, is Indira Varma, returning to Doctor Who once more after starring as Suzie Costello in the spin-off show Torchwood.

Written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman and directed by Ben Chessel, Rogue is the first episode of Doctor Who to be written by a non-showrunner in four years, with the last being Nina Metivier’s Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror (2020). In fact, not only is it the first episode in four years not written by a showrunner, but it is also the first in that time to be written exclusively by women.

Herron, who previously wrote and directed the first series of Sex Education (2019), which gave Ncuti Gatwa his career breakthrough performance, had recently concluded the two-series show Loki (2021-2023) on Disney+ before penning this episode.

On the other hand, Redman has been a working actor and comedian, closely partnering with Herron over the years, such as on short films since 2012 and an upcoming feature film project adaptation of The Sims, produced by Margot Robbie‘s LuckyChap Entertainment.

Writing Rogue together, the pair introduce the Doctor (Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) to a Regency Era-inspired party in 1813’s Bath, as guests are mysteriously murdered, with romance and intrigue playing out in the corridors as a brooding figure, Rogue (Groff) laments from the balcony.

Before the episode aired, rumours suggested that Jonathan Groff was to play a recasting of rogue time-agent Captain Jack Harkness, initially played by West End star John Barrowman. Despite being heavily shrouded in secrecy ahead of the episode’s airing, fans speculated the recasting was due to Barrowman’s inappropriate behaviour on-set during his initial time in the show. Jonathan Groff and Barrowman share American roots and theatrical backgrounds, which fans believed would have made it a believable replacement for the role.

In truth, Rogue is a character entirely of the writers’ creation, alongside the villainous Chuldur, a half-man, half-beast concoction family headed by the Varma’s Duchess. Rogue, the subject of the episode’s title, delivers an electrifying chemistry as Jonathan Groff and Ncuti Gatwa bounce off each other with flawless alignment, a fine-tuned, choreographed battle of wits, charm and sexual tension.

However, when the companion, Ruby Sunday, is the person the Doctor supposedly has the most robust relationship with, Rogue does illuminate a lingering concern from the last couple of episodes in how the Doctor and Ruby interact. Especially as, here, in episode six of a season of eight, the relationship between the Doctor and companion, Ruby Sunday, feels incomplete, with the pair rarely interacting in three consecutive episodes: Boom (2024), 73 Yards (2024) and Dot and Bubble (2024).

With the double-part finale soon to fixate on The Legend of Ruby Sunday (2024), it would have been better to see the Doctor and Ruby here explore their relationship rather than separate, as Ruby leads the subplot. The Doctor and the Rogue explore the Chuldur Family’s motives and each other with flirtatious glances and sharp-tongued retorts.

I compare this to The Girl in the Fireplace (2006), historically set thirty years before Regency’s Rogue. Madame de Pompadour leads as the companion alongside the Doctor in a narrative similar to the Doctor and the Rogue. However, where The Girl in the Fireplace shows the emotional heartbreak of the Doctor’s investment in Sophia Myles’ de Pompadour, as a foreshadowing of the Doomsday (2006) finale, the projection of the future was subtly handled, burying this as episode four in its series. Thus, the goodbye to Rose Tyler feels earnest and emotionally devastating as the echoes ripple in time.

Nevertheless, Rogue accentuates the feeling of disassociation between the Doctor and Ruby. The charming swagger of the Rogue accelerates the one-off guest star to lofty heights, likely to be an instant fan favourite and a character audiences will be no doubt asking to see more of, sparring in wit, charisma and romantic tension with Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. Even when the Doctor manipulates Rogue’s sound system, playing Can’t Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue nods to the pair’s chemistry. Indeed, to quote Jane Austen, a resident of Bath a couple of years before Rogue’s setting: “I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter in all my feelings; the same books, the same music must charm us both.” (Sense and Sensibility, 1811)

The glitz and glam of the ballroom all signpost the episode’s roots in Bridgerton, the hit Netflix show. Even Jack Murphy, the choreographer for the episode, is directly borrowed from the popular show starring Nicola Coughlan. And it’s in one scene, between Groff and Gatwa, that causes heartbeats to rise, for, as Austen puts it best, “to be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.” (Pride and Prejudice, 1813)

With the show even getting a name drop multiple times, “Oh my Bridgerton!” the episode carries itself with the subtlety of a lead balloon in how it borrows inspiration from the show. A string quartet adaptation of Billie Eilish’s bad guy (2019) even compliments the introduction of Rogue, as though borrowed directly from Bridgerton’s first series. It is no surprise then that Bridgerton becomes more than the basis for the episode’s structure, with its resolution, and reveals relying on the Chuldurs acting aware of of the Netflix show, deciding to cosplay as Lady and Lords.

The episode is an opportunity for Herron and Redman to express their creative freedoms fully, pushing the limits of their storytelling abilities and, in the process, taking us, the audience, on an incredibly unique adventure that makes clear their identity as writers and hopefully a mainstay for years to come.

Though the episode does have the aftertaste of an amalgamation of two beloved Doctor Who stories, The Girl in the Fireplace and Human Nature (2007), the relationship between Gatwa and Groff propels itself into one audiences will revisit and recount endlessly, much like the other revered stories from the show’s golden years.

But with a devastating sacrifice and the mystery of Rogue still incomplete, it is likely this isn’t the last we’ve seen of our enigmatic bounty hunter. To quote Austen once more, “the distance is nothing when one has motive.” (Pride and Prejudice, 1813)

Doctor Who: Rogue is available for UK audiences on BBC iPlayer. New episodes are released weekly on Saturday at midnight on the streaming platform or broadcast later in the day on BBC One. For viewers outside the UK, the show can be watched exclusively on Disney+.