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Ncuti Gatwa and Jonathan Groff share passionate kiss and make 'Doctor Who' history

Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa Jonathan Groff passionate gay kiss
BBC One

"I hope we're seeing Rogue again," Groff said of his Doctor Who character.

Editor's note: This article contains spoilers for Doctor Who season 14, episode 6, "Rogue."

Two of our favorite actors teamed up to make Doctor Who gay history this past weekend.

Ncuti Gatwa is absolutely killing it as the latest Doctor, and after the most recent episode, he's fast becoming our all-time favorite Time Lord.

The latest episode, entitled "Rogue," saw the Doctor and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) time travel to 1813, where they meet a bounty hunter named Rogue (Out's current cover star Jonathan Groff), who is hunting a shapeshifting criminal. The episode featured a kiss between the Doctor and Rogue, marking the first time the Doctor has kissed someone of the same gender that he showed feelings for.

After an episode filled with flirting between the two, a same-sex dance at a Regency ball, and a bird-like alien called a Chuldur, the Doctor invites Rogue to travel with him.

Unfortunately, saving the world gets in the way. Rogue was using a sealing device, reconfigured by the Doctor, to send the Chulder to an alternate dimension and trap them. But when he found out that there were multiple of them, he had to make a desperate move to save the world from them.

In a desperate move, Rogue passionately kissed the Doctor, and stole the device that activates the seal at the same time. Sending himself along with the Chulder to an unknown alternate dimension, Rogue asks the Doctor to find him.

In a tragic twist of fate, the Doctor tells Ruby that it would be impossible to find him, as there are infinite alternate dimensions. He does, however, keep Rogue's ring and put it on as a memento of his love.

While this isn't the first same-sex kiss between a Doctor and another character, or the first same-sex kiss in the show, it is the first time the Doctor has kissed someone of the same gender that he has shown romantic and sexual attraction to.

Christopher Eccleston's Doctor kissed John Barrowman's pansexual Captain Jack Harkness in an episode in 2005, and Jodie Whittaker's Doctor was also romantically involved with her companion, Yaz (Mandip Gill), however, the two never acted on their feelings.

In one of the final episodes of Whittaker's run on the show, Yaz confessed feelings for the Doctor, saying, "I've never told anyone, not even myself."

Gatwa is the first out queer actor to play the Doctor and was announced as the first "gay Doctor" by co-star Neil Patrick Harris.

Will we see Rogue again? Groff certainly hopes so, and we fully agree!

"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," Groff said. "The ball is in his court, so to speak."

Doctor Who is streaming on Disney+.

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