Season 14 of Doctor Who introduced a new host of heroes and villains to the 60-year-old Whoniverse. Perhaps the most memorable was Rogue — the brilliantly named, and to quote the Doctor, brooding, funny, and peculiar mystery man the Time Lord and companion Ruby ran into in Regency-era Britain.
Played by guest star Jonathan Groff, the bounty hunter who became an ally and more to the TARDIS crew was important enough to lend his name to the sixth episode of the season. Groff was an eye-catching piece of casting for the Bridgerton-inspired mystery penned by Kate Herron and Briony Redman, and his brief spell left quite an impression on the Doctor and Doctor Who fans. Perhaps the most pressing question he left behind is whether he’ll return sooner or later.
Who Is Rogue?
The Doctor and Ruby encountered Rogue when they gatecrashed a Regency Ball in Bath, England. The time-travelers soaked up the party atmosphere until the psychic earrings that allowed them to dance like Bridgerton pros picked up interference. The cause was Rogue, a bounty hunter who tracked down, captured, or terminated aliens. He and the Doctor soon had their sights set on each other.
Speculation that Rogue was related to Captain Jack Harkness was quickly dispelled. Rogue’s occupation didn’t seem like a perfect fit for the Doctor, but it was clear that the pair had chemistry from their first meeting on a balcony overlooking the ball. ‘Rogue’ is a rare example of the Doctor actively pursuing a relationship, and for the first time in the show’s history, with a same-sex partner. Unlike his slow-burn relationship with River Song, which crossed multiple incarnations (not necessarily in the correct order), it recalled the Tenth Doctor’s smitten meeting with Madame de Pompadour during the show’s second series. But in The Girl in the Fireplace, the Tenth Doctor was nowhere near as forward as the Fifteenth.
However, the course of true love in the Whoniverse seldom runs smoothly. While the Doctor was strangely excited by Rogue’s occupation, the bounty hunter was convinced the Doctor was behind mysterious deaths pruning the Ball’s guestlist. Aboard Rogue’s Asteroid Hopper and then the TARDIS, the pair got to know each other with fine-tuned teasing. As the Doctor impressed Rogue, convincing him he’s a Time Lord while he deduced the bounty hunter took his name from a Dungeons & Dragons class, they found much in common. Cutting through their nomadic life in the universe was their shared experience of loss.
The only thing getting in the way of the pair “arguing across the stars” were the real uninvited guests. The Chulder were a dangerous family of bird-like aliens who could shapeshift with a fizz of lightning and the death of their target. Even worse for humanity, the literal cosplaying saw them experiencing Bridgerton from the inside (literally) was only the start. They had their avian eyes fixed on moving up society to London and the British royal family.
Aliens playing cosplay is a great hook for an episode of Doctor Who, and it served up plenty of misdirection as Ruby, the Doctor, and Rogue avoided falling prey to the shapeshifters to save the planet. But it’s the Chulder that forced the Doctor and Rogue apart.
What Happened To Rogue In Doctor Who?
At the end of ‘Rogue,’ the bounty hunter sacrificed himself to save Ruby. The Doctor had adapted the hunter’s trap, a triform, so it wouldn’t kill but banish up to six Chulder to an alternate dimension. While the pair hatched their plan, they didn’t know that Ruby had pretended to be killed and cosplayed (in fact, she escaped after she turned her psychic earrings to battle mode) to take on the role of the bride in the season finale wedding the Chulder craved.
When it was revealed that it was the real Ruby trapped with the other Chulder, Rogue knew the Time Lord couldn’t sacrifice his companion to save the world. He swapped himself for her after exchanging a kiss with the Doctor. The last fans saw of Rogue was the bounty hunter plummeting to a random dimension. Despite Rogue’s last words being, “Find me,” the Doctor later suggested to Ruby, as he sent the bounty hunter’s cloaked ship into orbit around the moon, that finding Rogue was impossible as there are “as many dimensions as atoms in the universe.”
Even so, the episode ended with the Doctor wearing Rogue’s ring, which he’d been handed as the pair successfully drew out the Chulder with scandal. The ring’s distinctive design references the Rogue symbol from D&D and Asclepius’ snake: the sign of the Hippocratic Oath. Perhaps the Rogue and Doctor are truly destined to be together, or is something much deeper going on?
Will Rogue Appear Next Season?
Doctor Who’s 14th season left a few plot strands hanging. The two-part finale answered the mystery of the groaning TARDIS and the familiar face of Susan Triad that had followed the Doctor and Ruby through time and space when Sutekh was revealed as the year’s big villain. But fans suspect there’s more to discover about Ruby’s importance, the snow she generates during emotional distress, and how she ended up living so close to the mysterious, fourth-wall-breaking Mrs Flood.
The show’s shorter seasons and longer run up to 2023’s 60th-anniversary celebrations and the new era led by Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor suggest some puzzles will stretch for seasons. In 2022, showrunner Russell T. Davies confirmed to Doctor Who Magazine that he was already working on the Christmas special for 2024, although the script duties eventually fell to former showrunner Steven Moffat. A longer production schedule than previous years offers an unprecedented chance to anchor plot points through multiple seasons.
There’s every chance that the ending of ‘Rogue’ will be returned to, and quickly — there have been suggestions that Davies’ second stint running the show will last as long as his first (so up to five years), and filming on Series 15 is already well underway. So now, more than almost any other point in Doctor Who history, it’s possible that Rogue’s farewell was aired with his return already written.
Keen-eyed fans will know Millie Gibson will return to the show during the second season following her early departure in ‘Empire of Death.’ Rumors suggest she’ll return a few episodes into Series 15, joining a new companion played by Varada Sethu. It makes sense that, should Rogue return, it’s when the Doctor is alongside Ruby Sunday.
Ncuti Gatwa and Jonathan Groff shared brilliant chemistry, and fans are understandably eager to see where that goes. Meanwhile, the suggestion that a reunion could be on the cards came straight from Groff. Speaking to the BBC show Doctor Who: Unleashed, the Glee star shared that Han Solo had been an inspiration for his bounty hunter and teased his return:
I hope we’re seeing Rogue again. Rogue tells the Doctor at the end of the episode to find him, so It’s totally up to the Doctor. The ball is in his court, so to speak!
While Rogue’s return hasn’t been confirmed, it’s all adding up that fans should expect a trip to an alternate dimension soon. That said, given the bounty hunter’s curiously bird-shaped ship and his exile to a dimension alongside aliens capable of impersonating him, and this being Doctor Who, fans may have to prepare for a less-than-happy ending.