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From: The Last Doctor <mike@xenocyte.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv
Subject: [Doctor Who] The Doctor Goes Rogue
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2024 08:35:37 -0000 (UTC)
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Spoilers, dear reader. Do not proceed until you have perused the latest
chapter in the Doctor Who canon. You have been warned.
“This is so Bridgerton”

Well. If that doesn’t tell you that RTD needs to let more writers into his
sandbox more often, nothing will. That was perfectly pitched, excellently
paced, beautifully written modern Who - comedic, horrific, romantic and
offbeat. It’s exactly what I was hoping for from the Gatwa era, and what I
hadn’t seen until now.

NOW, he’s the Doctor.

“Bad Guy”

There’s more than a hint of “greatest hits remix” about this story, though
- which is a slight pity. If this had felt wholly original it would be a
clear 10. It still knocks the rest of the series so far into a lower
league.

Captain Jack Harkness MK II - oops, sorry, I mean, hello, Rogue. Or is he
Madam Pompadour MK II - the Doctor’s ill-fated love interest caught between
costume drama history and science fiction?

Shape shifting blood lusting aliens - the Chuldur - or The Family of Blood
MK II?

“Can’t Get You Out of My Head”

As a sixty-something heterosexual brought up in the seventies, I have to
say that the short-lived romance between Rogue and the Doctor was -
beautifully and tastefully done. Great stuff. And I wouldn’t mind seeing
Jonathan Groff again. The on screen chemistry between him and Gatwa was
palpable.

“Poker Face”

Gotta get me some of that psychic jewellery. Much more discreet than Joe
90’s bottle-glass specs! Fun twist, just when I thought we might also be
revisiting “Face the Raven”.

Overall, 9/10 - but wait.

Who did we see in that scan? The 14 other numbered Doctors, War and the
Fugitive … and one more. Richard E Grant, the Shalka Doctor. So … is he
meant to be a second War Doctor? Are unbound Doctors leaking in from other
dimensions in the jigsaw puzzle the Toymaker has made of the Doctor’s
lives? Or if I rewatch Shalka, could there be a case for him coming before
Hartnell? Intriguing.

I would have really loved one more - but as David Warner is no longer with
us, and he was only ever on Big Finish audio, I guess I can live with it.
His Benny stories as the irascible, pragmatic “other Third Doctor” are
sublime.

(The rest of the unbound Doctors have been one-offs - two at a push - so
less prominent.)

And right there at the end of the titles - a memorial note for William
Russell. In loving memory. So pleased he got to come back, one last time, a
couple of years ago.

OK. You win, dammit, RTD. 10/10. First episode of the season worth a
rewatch, in my opinion.

-- 
“Most of the Universe is knackered, babes.”  - The Doctor