Doctor Who, season 14, episode 7: Rogue by Kate Herron and Briony Redman (review).
Out of all the current seasons of ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Rogue’ received the most promotion, primarily due to the Ncuti Gatwa Doctor’s period attire. Indeed, the period male clothes and wigs are specifically designed for Ruby Sunday. Russell T. doesn’t write the story.
Another thing to keep in mind for future seasons is that all of the male Doctor’s regeneration hair grew over each season, with the exception of the Tennant version, although he frequently changed his hairstyle.
It’s 1813—the year, not the time. Bath, a city in Somerset, is the place. There is also a family of body-swapping aliens, which should not be confused with Body Shop, which has been extinct for several centuries.
The doctor and Ruby are attending the ball, and they are likely to become victims themselves. It’s up to you to identify the villains involved. There is also the alien bounty hunter Rogue (actor Jonathan Groff), who is on the lookout for aliens and recognizes the Doctor as one. The Chuldurs are on Earth, and the Doctor hasn’t met them. You would have thought Rogue would have heard of the Time Lords, even if he’d never met them. It’s also a situation where you show me your spacecraft, and I’ll show you mine. Both of them have experienced the loss of their own loved ones. I believe this episode, set in the schoolrooms on Monday morning, will be captivating. This, along with the fact that a chulder has taken control of Ruby, makes the remainder of the episode a spoiler.
When compared to, say, the Krillitanes, who were occupying a school during the first Tennant era, the Chulders prove to be a more formidable threat. The doctor couldn’t defeat any threat he encountered due to the device’s limitations. All right, it’s Rogue’s device, but he does have access to his spaceship.
I believe Russell T.’s passion for his 19th-century period piece featuring aliens overshadowed his desire to create something more robust, focusing primarily on the character development. From an objective perspective, after seven episodes, it appears that the show is still experimenting to determine which episodes garner the highest viewership. This is a surprising response, given that a significant portion of season 2 has already concluded, and any new information will only surface in the third season.
I have to confess that I have mixed feelings about this episode. Rogue bears a resemblance to Jack Harkness, albeit without the invulnerability, and possesses a unique motivation. Touching spoiler: it doesn’t make sense to rescue Ruby for an emotional doctor who is, until now, a merciless mercenary. I mean, 29 minutes earlier, he was prepared to kill the doctor. Speaking of which, I could be mistaken, but when the doctor showed his earlier regenerations, there were far more than thirteen, and in an odd order. The Whovians are going to have a field day, hoping to find some significance in it.
Unleashed is set in the present century, looking behind the scenes or a three-week night shoot. I’ve also not seen ‘Bridgerton’, although I am familiar with period pieces. We can’t be familiar with everything out there. There are a lot of statistics here, and the cast is likely one of the largest.
An episode for the birds. If the Chulders are going to be a bigger menace, then they need a better episode than this one. I keep going over other threats with similar abilities, like the Zygons, who were far more deadly.
Geoff Willmetts
08 June 2024
