Editor’s Note: This recap contains spoilers for Doctor Who Season 1, Episode 6, “Rogue.”

The Big Picture

Doctor Who
‘s “Rogue” episode perfectly balances humor, high-stakes drama, and a groundbreaking queer romance.
Ncuti Gatwa shines with charisma in a delightful episode filled with excellent supporting cast performances.
Jonathan Groff’s performance starts slow but warms up, making “Rogue” one of the funniest episodes of the season.

Doctor Who has always had the uncanny ability to genre-hop within the sci-fi world for wild adventures that wouldn’t necessarily be high on your list when you think about aliens and space. With yet another delightful episode in a season full of bangers, the series has gone full Bridgerton in the best way. After a trio of hard-hitting emotional episodes, “Rogue” is here to brighten your day and leave you with a full heart — even with its heart-pounding climax.

Written by dynamic duo Kate Herron and Briony Redman, this episode has everything you would want from a “Doctor Who does Bridgerton” extravaganza. Romance, scandal, plot twists, and plenty of drama make “Rogue” arguably the most fun episode of the season, and it doesn’t sacrifice any of the high-stakes action we’re used to in the process. With the introduction of Jonathan Groff’s Rogue, we also get an exciting new love interest for the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) that affirms what queer fans have always known about the genderfluid time-traveling alien.

Doctor Who The show follows the adventures of a Time Lord, “The Doctor,” who is able to regenerate, and the Doctor’s human friends. The Doctor and his companions journey through time and space in the TARDIS – a time-traveling ship shaped like a police box – saving the universe with a combination of wit, bravery, and kindness.Release Date March 17, 2006 Studio BBC America Streaming Service(s) Disney+

‘Doctor Who’s “Rogue” Is a Blast in the Past
This week’s episode finds Ruby (Millie Gibson) and the Doctor taking a trip to the Regency era in 1813, Bath, England. The new episode starts with a cold open on a pair of blokes we don’t actually know, taking us to a spat between a pair of eligible bachelors, each of whom is giving the two sides of Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), the ton’s most beloved reformed rake. For those not in the know, one of these guys is defending his sister’s honor as the other confesses to having taken, ahem, liberties with her all throughout the mansion. Taking an abrupt left turn from Bridgerton to remind us that we are still watching Doctor Who, the nobleman decides it would be much more fun to be the bad guy, and uses his alien powers to zap the life out of him and snatch his body.

Inside and ignorant of the alien body snatching going on around them, Ruby and the Doctor are having a grand ol’ time at the ball, dancing the night away without a care in the world. We also get the revelation that Ruby has some fancy new psychic earrings that beam all the right dance moves directly into her body like “instant Strictly,” according to the Doctor — and they also have a battle mode. As Indira Varma’s Duchess comes to greet her newest “out of town” guests, Ruby and the Doctor split up for much of the rest of the episode. Ruby is whisked away as one of the new eligible bachelorettes of the evening, while the Doctor finds himself transfixed with a brooding bounty hunter he’s clocked as a fellow time traveler.

Both of their flirtatious endeavors get off to a rocky start as Ruby sets eyes on the aforementioned rake, only to be completely turned off by him the second he opens his mouth. Ruby’s anachronisms in this episode only serve to make her more charming, as Gibson eats up every line she’s given, making Ruby the real diamond of the evening. Meanwhile, the Doctor goes into full flirt mode, putting on the moves with Rogue in a way we haven’t seen him behave since River Song (Alex Kingston) was around. However, Rogue is having none of it, as the reserved bounty hunter is on a mission, and he has no time for the fun the Doctor is here to engage in. In the background, you may recognize the Vitamin String Quartet rendition of Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy,” sending us some real mixed messages about Rogue’s intentions.

Outside, the Duchess gets body-snatched by another one of those alien creatures after giving a housemaid an undeserved scolding for merely existing in her eyeline during the evening’s festivities. Back inside, Ruby keeps living out her Bridgerton fantasy as she spies on a pair of lovers having a clandestine meeting in the library and fighting the temptation of their romance despite their disparate statuses. When she accidentally fangirls too hard, she’s found out, sending Emily, the young debutante with her heart set on true love with Lord Barton (the rake from earlier), into an absolute tailspin about her ruined reputation. Luckily for Emily, Ruby holds no such notions of outdated scandal standards and promises to keep her secret. She also just happens to teach her new friend some modern slang like “cushy” and “okay” while she’s at it.

As the Doctor and Rogue stroll through the gardens, their flirting session is interrupted when they happen upon the Duchess’s dead body. Both wildly smart and highly capable, they come to the same conclusion at once, each thinking the other has committed the crime. After a quick bit of back-and-forth banter, Rogue gets the upper hand when he pulls out his sonic blaster and takes the Doctor into custody. He reveals he’s been sent here to find a Chuldur — a shapeshifting birdlike alien species that tries people on like costumes — and now he’s convinced the Doctor is his target. Never one to admit he’s defeated, the Doctor continues to put on a casual sort of charm as Rogue carts him off to his cloaked (and massive) spaceship.

‘Doctor Who’s Latest Episode Is ‘Bridgerton’ Meets ‘Galaxy Quest’

Back in the ballroom, Ruby and Emily take to the dance floor while Barton and the Duchess, who are both Chuldurs now, discuss their new costumes — who they want to be for the grand finale wedding. The Duchess already has her sights set on Ruby. With a lot of quick cuts back and forth between Ruby’s story and the Doctor’s, we jump back out to Rogue’s ship where he’s actively trapping the smooth-talking Doctor in a triform transporter. Mildly irritated that he can’t turn the thing off with the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor continues trying to get to know his captor by examining his surroundings. Here’s what he learns in quick succession: Rogue is a huge D&D nerd, he lost someone because his ship is meant to be piloted by two, he’s a total slob, and he has a penchant for traditional Earth ballads by Kylie Minogue.

Revoking the sonic before the Doctor can break into full karaoke mode, Rogue tosses out a throwaway line about his “new boss.” This could mean nothing, but viewers who watched the 60th-anniversary specials late last year will remember the Meep also mentioning “the boss.” Knowing Russell T Davies’ tendency to pepper clues for season or even series-long storylines, it’s entirely possible they’re talking about the same two-hearted creature. Rogue is about to send the Doctor straight into the incinerator and, with a mere five seconds left between himself and certain death, the Doctor finally takes things seriously and begs Rogue for his life. To prove he’s not a Chuldur, the Doctor flings the psychic paper (which previously told on him for thinking Rogue is hot) at the scanner to reveal all of their past faces, including both David Tennant’s, the Fugitive Doctor, the War Doctor, and a Doctor I am assuming is the Valeyard. Rogue is, suitably, blown away.

Back inside, Ruby is starting a mini-revolution with Emily as she promises there is more to life than getting married, popping out a couple of kids, and dying. As Ruby is telling her there are mountains to climb and places to see, they happen across another dead body, cluing into the mystery Rogue and the Doctor are already working on. Outside, the newly freed Doctor takes the opportunity to show Rogue his ship, which as we all know, is much bigger on the inside. With one of the best newcomer reactions to the TARDIS in years, Rogue instantly confesses he’s in love… with the spaceship, of course. While the Doctor supes up the triform to change its destination from the incinerator to a random barren dimension, the TARDIS makes a familiar groaning sound similar to the one heard in “Wild Blue Yonder” and “The Devil’s Chord.” Now on more equal footing, Rogue admits that he’s never heard of the fallen planet of Gallifrey, but nonetheless, he and the Doctor are still able to find common ground. They’re both space travelers who’ve lost people that they love, leaving them both hopeful yet jaded in their quests for companionship.

The Doctor explains that Ruby is his best friend, putting her in the ranks of companions like Donna Noble and Clara Oswald. As he proposes that Rogue join them so they can “argue across the stars” when all of this is over, the pair lean in for an almost kiss. However, they’re swiftly blocked by a soft ding from the TARDIS letting them know the triform is ready. With their bubbling romance on the back burner, they head back inside and immediately debrief with Ruby and Emily. Talking a mile a minute, Ruby and the Doctor share everything they know while Rogue watches in bewilderment and Emily confesses she knows the word “okay.” It’s a hilarious little button on the moment, and Camilla Aiko deserves a shout-out for one of the best line deliveries in the whole episode.

In a move I’m impressed made it past the suits at Netflix and Disney+, Ruby actually directly references Bridgerton multiple times throughout the episode — and as the Doctor does the math, it becomes clear that we’re in a sort of Regency reverse Galaxy Quest situation. The Chuldur run around to different planets trying people on like cosplay. He presumes that they somehow picked up the signal for Bridgerton and decided to play out the series in actual Regency England for their own entertainment, ala the “historical documents” of Galaxy Quest. The section of the audience that identifies as both Doctor Who and Bridgerton enjoyers are in for a treat with this episode, as the romance and drama take a sharp curve upward from here to the end of the episode.

‘Doctor Who’s Regency Romance Gives ‘Bridgerton’ a Run for Its Money

The Doctor hatches a plan to catch their feathered foes, but it involves causing a scene. Fortunately, the Doctor knows how to attract attention, and this time he doesn’t have to run around yelling “Look at me, I’m a target,” and simply offers his hand to Rogue for a dance. Well aware of the clandestine nature of queer romance in the early 1800s, the Doctor explains to Rogue that they are the scandal, baby. As whispers whip around the room, the Doctor and Rogue briefly disappear into their own little world as they lock eyes and spin each other across the floor. Once everyone’s looking at them, the Doctor takes the scene to the next level and starts a fake fight. Theatricality isn’t in Rogue’s vocabulary, so instead of engaging in the argument, he does something arguably even more over the top and gets down on one knee. While I have to admit it’s a little hard to believe that Rogue nicked his name from D&D but isn’t familiar with cosplay and roleplay, he sure knows how to steal a scene.

The Doctor, too stunned to speak, takes the ring and storms out of the ballroom, hoping that Rogue, and the Chuldurs, will follow. Once outside, we get a very classic Doctor Who sequence as Rogue and the Doctor run through the gardens and courtyards holding hands, chased by a flock of feathery aliens. I also have to take a moment to give the make-up department their flowers for making these guys look a delightful Jim Henson-level of ridiculous. The Doctor and Rogue get their own carriage scene as they successfully hide from the Chuldurs and must revise their trap to hold as many as six of them after only expecting to find one or two of the creatures. Inside, Ruby explains to Emily that she’s not from this time, but Emily then pulls the rug out from under both Ruby and the audience as she reveals she’s also a Chuldur.

The rest of the Chuldurs ramp things up to fifteen as they declare it’s time for the grand finale before they “cosplay this planet to death.” Everyone returns to the ballroom for the main event and the Doctor gets his first emotional gut punch of the evening when it appears that the Chuldurs have killed and “birdie”-snatched Ruby. Here, we finally get that flashback to the Doctor promising Ruby’s mother Carla (Michelle Greenidge) that he’ll keep her daughter safe. It’s a lovely moment, but as we all know, rule number one is the Doctor lies — even if he doesn’t intend to. Back in the present, Gatwa gives us a taste of the Doctor as the oncoming storm as he vows revenge on the Chuldurs for taking Ruby’s life.

Stomping into the ballroom with the perfect amount of dramatic flair to object to the unholy Chuldur union. The Doctor smooth-talks his way into trapping all the Chuldurs — including the one he thinks is wearing Ruby’s face — in the new and improved triform. Gut punch number two arrives for the Doctor when Ruby confesses that it’s actually her and that she was just pretending as a means of self-defense. We get another fun little flashback of Ruby putting her earrings in battle mode and facing off against Emily to the Vitamin String Quartet cover of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.” Back in the present, Emily emerges with a broken nose ready to kill the Doctor, but Rogue comes in hot and hauls her right into the triform, locking it in at six people.

The Doctor is now faced with his own nightmare scenario trolley problem — he can save planet Earth from a full Chuldur invasion, but to do it he’ll have to sacrifice Ruby. One of the Doctor’s best traits is just how hard they love. Despite losing people time and time again, the Doctor gives their whole heart to their companions and can’t bear to be the reason they end up hurt, dead, or worse. Devastated, the Doctor looks to Rogue for an alternate solution, tears streaming down his face as he confesses he can’t lose Ruby, even as she herself is tearfully telling him it’s okay. It’s a great callback to previous moments like Nine saying he could save the world but lose Rose, or Fourteen begging for a way to save London without losing Donna in “The Star Beast.”

Rogue, understanding the severity of the moment and the pain in the Doctor’s heart, steps in to offer a moment of comfort with a kiss. It’s tender and emotional, and just like Ruby, I’m immediately swooning. As a character who can change bodies, there has always been an inherent element of queerness to the Doctor, and even more so since Davies rebooted the series in 2005, effortlessly writing in elements of his own queer experiences. This isn’t even the first time the Doctor has experienced same-sex attraction, as Jodie Whittaker’s thirteenth Doctor also had feelings for Yaz. And yes, I could argue that all the Doctor’s past relationships are queer from the simple fact that they’re a pansexual genderfluid alien, but we don’t have time to unpack all of that. However, this is the first time the Doctor has actually gotten to fully engage in an explicitly queer relationship on-screen. It’s groundbreaking and breathtaking, and exactly as chaotic and sweepingly romantic as any relationship with the Doctor would be.

Mid-kiss, Rogue steals the transporter controls from the Doctor, and before we can even worry that he’s going to push the button and doom Ruby to a lost dimension, he dives into the triform and sacrifices himself in her place — very River Song of him if you ask me. Tossing Ruby’s bouquet to the stunned Doctor, Rogue wishes his new lover farewell with the request to come find him before pushing the button and disappearing to parts unknown. Heartbroken but happy to still have Ruby at his side, the Doctor puts Rogue’s ship in orbit around the moon so it’ll still be there for him if he ever makes it back to Earth. Before he can pack up his feelings and move on, as the Doctor is wont to do, Ruby cuts through his bravado to offer him a much-needed hug as he mourns what could’ve been with Rogue. Still, as Ruby heads back to the TARDIS, the Doctor takes out Rogue’s ring and slides it onto his finger, looking toward the sky with hope in his heart.

With a balance of humor and romance, “Rogue” is a wonderful addition to a tight season filled with strong episodes. While it’s unclear if we’ll ever see Rogue again, there’s plenty of room for him and the Doctor to cross paths again in Season 2. And for those who aren’t ready to give up living in the beautiful cross-section of Bridgerton and Doctor Who, we may have to wait a few months, but we can all look forward to Nicola Coughlan guest-starring in this year’s upcoming Christmas special.

Doctor Who “Rogue” is the funniest episode of the season while also delivering high-stakes drama and romance.ProsThe Doctor gets an explicitly queer romance after decades of hints and offhand comments.Ncuti Gatwa once again shows off his dynamic range and unparalleled charisma.The episode is filled with an excellent supporting cast with great comedic timing. ConsJonathan Groff’s performance starts a little flat, though he does warm up by the end.

New episodes of Doctor Who will air on Disney+ on Fridays at 7 PM ET.

WATCH ON DISNEY+