I hew closer and closer to your opinion every day. Actually, that’s where a lot of my ideas of 8 as queer-coded come from, specifically from like, Scherzo onwards where they make it very clear that yes he loves Charley, but it’s not a love that she’s ever going to be capable of receiving or understanding, and that basically extends for all humans.
The fact that in 2005 you couldn’t market anything without a love story in it probably hampered this characterization going forward, or you could argue that 9 > 10 was making very conscious efforts to be more human in that regard. I like that it’s fluid, because honestly my own perception of my sexuality and gender has changed a lot in even my thirty years. I can’t imagine how much it could change and shift when you not only could live centuries in one life, but at the end of that life your entirely biology can be re-written. Especially when we consider that The Doctor is bad at regenerating, so the dysphoria of every regeneration must be pretty destabilizing.
It’s one of the best things about the Doctor - the fact that the show is so old now and has had so many voices adding to it means that there isn’t really one single coherent characterisation beyond the generic Time Lord who gets into trouble, and that means it’s very easy to interpret and take away whatever you like from the show.
And agree, I feel like the Doctor loves all their companions with utter intensity, but in a way that defies simple labels like ‘platonic’ or ‘romantic’, even in the cases that are meant to be read more romantically.
Really hoping rogue returns next season and beyond. Feels a similar vibe to River (someone familiar with aliens and able to handle themselves) but distinct personality wise.
(Looking forward the the Big Finish ‘The Diary of Rogue Range coming 2027)
Okay, first impressions: I thought this one was fine. I wasn’t particularly enamoured with Rogue: he allowed Fifteen to play fun and flirty, which I enjoyed, but I didn’t find him interesting enough to carry the episode. I did like all the sweet, small details we got from him, though- like the DnD dice and the teddy in his spaceship.
I thought the alien menace felt a bit by-the-by, too. That, and Rogue’s sacrifice at the end felt unearned. All of that adds up to just a pretty average episode overall. Enjoying all the love from others though!
Oh, and let’s focus on the most important thing: The Shaka-Doctor is canon! (Of course, he always was to me… )
my feelings on this episode are umm, complicated. I can understand and appreciate that the stuff between Rogue and the Doctor was well done and well made, I get it and I’m not going to begrudge anyone else for liking it, but I just can’t.
Romances between the doctor and absolutely anyone is something I fundamentally do not like, I would go so far as to say I have hated every time it has been made explicit.
As an ace person, the Doctor as an aroace character is something incredibly important to me and fundamental to my understanding of the show. on the rare occasion where an episode insists against that interpretation of the character it breaks something in the show for me. I’m sorry
I enjoyed the episode for what it was, but I still don’t like the way the Doctor has been so sexualised in NuWho (This has nothing to do with making him gay BTW, if he had been chasing after a female human I would be saying exactly the same.) At least River was part-Timelord which makes it more OK. Also I think the hip-thrusting to Kylie was just a bit too explicit for a supposedly family show.
Rogue was clearly a replacement Jack Harkness and I am assuming he will either be returning at some point or provide ample inspiration for EU material in the future.
Once again we didn’t get to see Ruby & the Doctor arrive at the ball or get many scenes with them together - this is a real shame as their dynamic together is one of the best things about this season, and now we are almost at the finale when it is bound to be irrevocably changed.
I would also like to know at which point Emily was replaced by a Chuldur - had she been one all along, or was it just part of their strategy to get to Ruby? I’m leaning towards the latter, since her personality did seem to have changed by the end, and there was an opportunity to ambush her after she ran away in tears at the end of her previoous scene.
Was anyone else confused by the order the pictures of the past Doctors were shown?
I was a bit confused why the switcheroo between Rogue and Ruby worked, but didn’t really care much. It happened to create drama and it did that, so I don’t really care.
I liked that Ruby got her own sort of companion for some time. The Doctor thinking she died was a bit annoying imo. It’s just not enough episodes in a season to really make in impact with how often this happens.
I can’t keep myself from joking about the fact that they even now keep killing Suzie. (I’ve been joking about that since I first saw the actress in the trailer as @intodrkness could probably confirm)
One thing I can’t stop thinking about is the orchestral versions of popular songs that kept popping up. (I know that has been mentioned before and I know it could just be another Bridgerton reference, but I can’t help thinking that it could have some kind of meaning? idk…)
Anyways, I really enjoyed the character of Rogue in this. And I really kind of enjoyed the way that he and the Doctor made the drama. It was fun.
Sure.
I guess in the circumstance when that kiss happened Jack was aware that there was a very real possibility that he was going off to die and being Jack he says goodbye in a way that is meaningful to him, by giving both Rose and the Doctor a kiss. Both the Doctor and Rose accepts that this is the perfect was for Jack to say a final farewell. There is nothing inherently romantic or sexual about the scene which is why I take it more as a sign of Jack being Jack rather than it being indicative of the Doctor’s sexuality.
Does the 9th Doctor ever really show any romantic interest in anyone? Or is he the closest we have to a classic series Doctor romance-wise?
There’s a bit of tension between him and Jabe of the Forest of Cheem in End of the World, but I’ve always seen that as a little bit of the Pertwee action man bleeding through.
One thing that’s lovely is that apparently the other role Ncuti Gatwa would have really liked to play besides the Doctor was Willy Wonka, so singing one of Willy Wonka’s songs while playing the Doctor must have made his day…
I adored this episode. I think it was a tonne of fun and a fantastic break from so many heavy episodes we’ve had this season. I really appreciate the gay romance, though I agree with the people here who said it felt a bit rushed to have a proper impact. I loved Rogue and his chemistry with the Doctor was fantastic. I’m not a huge fan of the regency era, and I’ve never seen Bridgeton, so the constant references did get on my nerves a little. Frankly, I often feel that covers of pop songs feel cheap (just write your own!) and it made me even more annoyed about the lack of Beatles songs in The Devil’s Chord, since they clearly had the budget. Still, that’s all nitpicking and I had a great time watching it, so 9/10 from me.
I still need to write a full review, but I watched this episode right before leaving for a DnD session that lasted six hours and now I’m much too exhausted. It was fun having DnD referenced in Doctor Who right before going to play a DnD character based on the Doctor.
Very much your mileage may vary on this front. With covers, it can be interesting to hear what another artist does with it, and a lot more songs then people realise are covers. Even the ones that aren’t are often written by different people. (i.e. Elvis was mostly covering songs, Whitney Houston’s “I will always love you” is by Dolly Parton, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just want to have fun” is by Robert Hazard, Softcell’s “Tainted Love” is by Ed Cobb and was originally sung by Gloria Jones, etc…)
I personally like a genre of music called bardcore, where people take pop and rock songs and play them as if they were medieval songs, sometimes as instrumentals, sometimes with fake old english, sometimes with anglo-saxon or latin or such, so I did like the pop song covers.
Before airing I didn’t understand the hype over this, based seemingly on the regency theming above all else but oh my gosh I absolutely loved this. The Doctor and Rogue’s relationship was such a strong core and I really, really hope he’s back in series 15.
Shalka Doctor in the lineup was interesting. I was anticipating the Morbius Doctors but I’ll take this pleasant surprise. I wonder how fans and doubtlessly expanded media is going to push that square peg into the circle hole of continuity. He feels kinda right alongside War and Fugitive as a trio of non-numbered incarnations.
As a fellow aroace and aroace doctor truther I feel you. The modern series’ insistence on putting the Doctor into romances to “make them more human/relatable” (ugh) has forever grated me even as a young child who knew nothing about amatonormativity. I’m glad people had fun with this ep but I just couldn’t enjoy it, especially since the writers seemed to prioritise the romance over everything else, making Rogue rather one dimensional and purely existing to romance the Doctor and even then they made the Doctor OOC to force it anyway (yeah yeah ik each incarnation is different and 15 is a lot more flirty than previous ones but the doctor has very consistently Disliked bounty hunters so having 15 say Rogue being one was sexy?? Yeah nah)
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