Doctor Who: Rogue: Review

The last "regular" episode before the season finale of Ncuti Gatwa's first season of the 15th Doctor seemingly has it all.

References to Bridgerton, a riff on the murder-mystery genre and alien edges, Rogue sees the Doctor and Ruby land in 1813, where guests at a duchess's party are being murdered.

But as if that wasn't enough, a mysterious bounty hunter called Rogue is about to change the Doctor's life forever.

With the writers clearly in love with the Bridgerton setting and also the Shondaland series itself, the script busies itself with the idea of splitting Ruby Sunday and the Doctor up and sending them off on differing storylines.

As a result, it gives Gatwa's Doctor the chance to swoon and flirt with Jonathan Groff's Rogue, a bounty hunter of unknown origin - and Gibson's Sunday the opportunity to play among the tropes of the genre.

Consequently, the story and alien threat feels a little weaker than what is to be expected. While Indira Varma has fun playing up the camper edges of her menace, she and her posse of perils never really feel much of a threat to match both Rogue, the Doctor and Ruby.

Perhaps though this is the point - with Groff's turn as Rogue clearly taking cues from John Barrowman's banned flirty-man Captain Jack as a bounty hunter with a thing developing for the Doctor. Both Gatwa and Groff clearly have some chemistry, but it never quite feels like it burns up the screen when it needs to.

But there are some tender moments - and one in particular - that are more about communicating an acceptance and a message during Pride Month of all timings that feel important and wonderfully underplayed. Again it showcases Gatwa at his absolute best. He may have had limited appearances in the first season of his own show, but every second has been seized on, every moment made his own.