TL;DR – An entertainingly camp episode, playing into the current hotness.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Doctor Who Review –

It does not matter if you are Doctor Who, James Bond going into space, or that one time Deep Space Nine was James Bond. When there is a current hotness in pop culture, you know people are going to ride that vibe. Well, it doesn’t take much to see that Bridgerton is the current hotness, so slap on some suits and frocks, amp up the drama, and let’s all go to a dance.  

So to set the scene, it is the year of our Lord 1813, and we are at a high society function, my dear, in the most exotic place we can find: Bath, England. We pan down to two gentlefolk who have a row over the honour of one of their sisters. The only problem is that when a dual is called, one of the men is packing electricity. But of course, it would not be a party without The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) popping by, and well, who is that brooding man on the balcony (Jonathan Groff)? Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

From the first moments, I do have to say I loved the episode’s production. The period house, the gowns a plenty, gloves up to your arms, and suits cut tight. It is all honour and duty and scandal. The aliens were fun, with sound effects doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Add to this Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy & Lady Gaga’s Poker Face being played on a string quartet, and you have the perfect soundscape for a world that is set in the past but uses futuristic music. Even then, just when you think they haven’t had enough fun with that, we get Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, which reminded me very much of Earth getting destroyed to the Tune of Brittny Spears’ Toxic and that Kylie Minogue was a companion once.     

I think much of your enjoyment or not with this episode is how much you vibe with the setting and the chemistry between The Doctor and Rogue. Whatever the case, Ncuti Gatwa and Jonathan Groff are clearly having fun with their roles, and that won’t be the last time we see him. Also, Ncuti has one of the best smirks in the business. Millie Gibson does get a bit sidelined with her plotline this week, but that was probably to be expected, given the last two Doctor-lite episodes. Indira Varma always understands the assignment and nails it this week. People need to cast her in more things.     

While I had a lot of fun with this world and episode, you could see some cracks here and there. Firstly, I don’t think a single person would have been surprised with how the episode was going to pan out from the moment they listed a particular number of one-way trailers. I don’t think we needed the Carla Sunday (Michelle Greenidge) insert to know why The Doctor was devastated. Also, I think part of this episode got a bit mean towards cosplayers, which is odd because that is how you help grow a community, something all science fiction shows need, and also because clearly, not all owl costumes are of the same quality.   

In the end, do we recommend Doctor Who: Rogue? Look, this is an episode that you are either going to have a romp in the campness of it all or be annoyed by the campness of it all. It was nice to get some new voices into the writer’s room, and I hope we get more of that moving forward.   

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Doctor Who yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Doctor Who
Directed by – Ben Chessell
Written by – Kate Herron & Briony Redman
Production/Distribution Companies – BBC Studios, Badwolf & Disney+
Starring – Ncuti Gatwa & Millie Gibson with Indira Varma, Jonathan Groff, Michelle Greenidge, Camilla Aiko & Paul Forman and Maxim Ays, Debra Baker, Ashley Campbell, Nancy Brabin-Platt & David Charles