Review by Chlo Hickson
I love the fact that this episode aired during pride month, though I was initially concerned about the Doctor and Rogue’s relationship ticking people off, but honestly if you have a problem with a same sex romance then that’s your problem. I remember how a gay kiss during the Moffat era literally caused no fuss but now there’s comments about “Russell’s agenda”, any uproar over ‘Rogue’ is a serious back step. It’s weird that it’s more controversial now than in 2005.
I will be honest before I start this review and say I didn’t like this episode so I haven’t been able to write aa well a balanced review as I always strive to, so certain parts may look like I’m completely bashing the episode but I have tried not to. With that out of the way let’s continue.
I’ll be honest and say I was never going to like the Doctor and Rogue’s romance just because I don’t like the Doctor falling in love. I don’t like the Doctor as a romantic figure, maybe romantic in the classical sense, but as a figure of romantic attraction I’ve only ever liked that with two characters and that was Rose Tyler – to be fair this was when I was a kid – and River Song who is his wife.
I will say I have respect to the writers for how far they went with it, especially given that they fake baited it in the scene with the Doctor and Rogue in the TARDIS. This scene felt like it was for fans to say they obviously aren’t going to do it and then they have them kiss later.
Also, I’m honestly confused how showing his different incarnations convinces Rogue that he’s innocent, maybe Rogue knows what a Time Lord is? Frankly I wasn’t getting that impression when watching that scene. Surely showing all your previous incarnations proves you’re a shape shifter?
Speaking of showing his others faces I need to talk about that scene. Before the show came back, after the TV movie, there was a web series called Scream of the Shalka and prior to the show coming back in 2005 Richard E Grant was actually the 9th Doctor. Something else I noticed they did is mixing the order up of the incarnations, so while Grant showed up there, we can only speculate where he goes in the timeline.
The question we have now is, is this just a fun reference or is it meant to indicate a possible return of the character? [Since Chlo penned the review, Russell T Davies has commented that it was just a fun reference. ED]
I am really glad that Rogue didn’t turn out to be a re-cast version of captain Jack, though you can definitely still make the comparisons, there are some differences between the performances so I am glad that he’s distinctive enough to be his own person.
At the end of the episode, he sacrifices himself to save Ruby but not without telling the Doctor to come find him but he’s going to another dimension. Are we really going to be casually doing dimension hopping now? Disregarding that for a minute, when Rogue’s last words are ‘come find me’, I do find it bizarre that the Doctor doesn’t, Ruby brings up the subject to him and he says there are infinite dimensions out there … but when has something like that stopped the Doctor? You need to give me more reasons than ‘there are too many dimensions’.
I don’t need the Doctor to find Rogue but it’s so weird to me that he doesn’t try. It’s really strange to me that this whole thing gets built up and is the main storyline of this episode but at the end he’s just kinda sad about the situation. Do something. Honestly.
I can go back to the Peter Capaldi episode ‘The Doctor Falls’ where the Masters tell the Doctor he can’t win and the Doctor just replies with ‘I know, and?’.
You do what you can, I mean do something!
I understand that he was putting on a brave face with Ruby as he does, but there’s no indication that outside of this moment that says he’s going to try and do anything. This was the second thing that sunk my ability to enjoy this episode, it might not have bothered me as much if I was invested in the Doctor being in love but I can only feel how I feel about the situation and sadly this is it.
The Chulders are just a fun kind of villain, apart from their design I’m pretty indifferent about them. The makeup is good and the transformations are creative.
Something that does bother me though is they say they are cosplaying but they are actually larping, there is definitely a difference between the two and what this family are doing is larping.
Another nitpick I have is that they have that fake out where Ruby is killed, could they have made it more obvious that she was really Ruby and not one of the Chulder? They previously established that it snows whenever she’s in danger or at least feeling some strong emotion so where was the snow?
I will say I like the battle mode in her earrings, I thought they were fun but this scene was cheating as they inserted a sneaky time jump by having the lightening and the scream happening immediately after one another but before we see the actual scene it’s at least a minute from when the creature got a hold of her and we see anything that resembles the lightening effect.
There’s also the scene where the Doctor remembers promising Carla that he’d keep Ruby safe, why did that scene appear in this episode and not ‘Boom’?
I think that’s all I have to say for this one. It was an alright episode, it was fun, but it botches its final moments for me. And although I don’t agree with the idea of the Doctor being in love, the Doctor and Rogue did have some nice scenes together.
🌟1/2