Following years of speculation, the Doctor Who New Year special, titled Eve of the Daleks, saw Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill) finally admit the true nature of her romantic feelings for the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) after a nudge from her fellow companion Dan Lewis (John Bishop). But, as Yaz’s Queer awakening aired, fans were divided on the execution of the subplot.
Some argued that, after months of teasing fans with long-simmering chemistry between Yaz and the Doctor (remember that hologram scene in Flux), Yaz’s confession (which wasn’t reciprocated by the Doctor) was simply too little, too late – a tokenistic last-minute development designed to keep Queer fans happy without having to depict an actual romance between the pair, because we’re too close to the end of days for this Doctor now.
But just in the nick of time, Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall seems to have turned things around. In Whittaker’s latest instalment, and her penultimate Doctor Who episode, titled Legend of the Sea Devils, Chibnall delivered on ‘Thasmin’, *finally* canonising the fact that they’re totally Queer for each other.
As the Doctor, Yaz and Dan found themselves in 19th century China, teaming up with a fierce pirate queen to find the lost treasure of Flor de la Mar – and stop classic Who monsters the Sea Devils from using it to destroy the planet – the Doctor found time to reciprocate Yaz’s romantic feelings, telling her that “dates are not something I really do. I mean I used to. Have done. And if I was going to, believe me: it would be with you.”
Later, once the mythical creatures had been vanquished, Yaz finally got the beach holiday the Doctor had long been promising her and, in a striking parallel to the Tenth Doctor’s Doomsday beach scene with Rose, the Thirteenth Doctor addressed her romantic feelings for Yaz once more. She told her companion: “I can’t fix myself to anything, anywhere, or anyone. I’ve never been able to. That’s what my life is. Not because I don’t want to, because I might. But if I do fix myself to somebody. I know sooner or later it’ll hurt,” before adding: “Can we just live in the present of what we have, while we still have it?”
She then skimmed a stone across the sea, saying out loud: “I wish this could go on forever”, before the credits rolled.
We’re not crying, you’re cr… no, actually we are crying.
Since the New Year special Eve of the Daleks aired, it’s been reported that the romantic attraction between Yaz and the Doctor was in fact never planned – and that it sprang from fan theories, Chibnall’s experimental approach to storytelling and natural chemistry between the actors. Of course, it’s unfortunate that it wasn’t envisaged from the beginning, and that the pair’s romance didn’t blossom earlier on in their storyline arc, giving fans time to root for a full-blown Queer romance.
But fortunately, Yaz’s moments of doubt, strength and longing to find out who she is will resonate for many members of the Queer community, so the ‘Thasmin’ arc has arguably ended up working out in narrative terms.
Of course, Legend of the Sea Devils wasn’t all goods news for ‘Thasmin’ fans – despite the Doctor’s game-changing admission, she denied the possibility of any romance between the pair in the future.
But hasn’t the Doctor always revelled in impossible relationships? After Rose confessed her love for the Doctor in Doomsday – the final episode of season 2 of Doctor Who – the will-they-won’t they trope became a pretty key element of the modern series. David Tennant’s Doctor was treated as an object of longing by Martha Jones, Matt Smith’s Time Lord by Amy Pond, and Capaldi’s Doctor definitely seemed to have romantic feelings for Clara Oswald, though for once they weren’t reciprocated. As the Doctor reiterates to Yaz in Legend of the Sea Devils, every relationship she forms with a human is by nature transient: it’s just part and parcel of being immortal.
So what more could we have asked for between the Doctor and Yaz in Whittaker’s penultimate episode? LGBTQ+ audiences deserve to see Queer relationships on screen going beyond subtext and fan theory, and being validated and celebrated. By making the Doctor and Yaz’s feelings for each other explicit on screen, Doctor Who has achieved exactly that.
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