Doctor Who confirms same-sex relationship between Yaz and The Doctor
Doctor Who just got a lot more sapphic thanks to the latest episode’s confirmation that The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and Yaz (Mandip Gill) have romantic feelings for one another.
The relationship between The Doctor and Yaz has always been a favourite in the Doctor Who fandom ever since Yaz and The Doctor first met in Jodie Whittaker’s first season as the enigmatic Time Lord. This was to be somewhat expected since this was the first time that The Doctor was portrayed by a female actor and the alien has had romantic feelings for his companions in the past (e.g Rose Tyler being a prominent example, as well as their wife, River Song). So why not ship The Doctor with a female companion, in spite of their female form, right?
However, the ship of Yaz and The Doctor (also known as Thasmin by the couple’s fans) has moved beyond fanon to canon territory thanks to the latest Doctor Who episode ‘Eve of the Daleks’.
In ‘Eve of the Daleks’, The Doctor, Yaz and LGBTQ+ ally of the year, Dan (John Bishop), are stuck in a time loop. The downside of that is that there’s a team of Executioner Daleks trailing behind them, wanting to exterminate them to smithereens for the Doctor’s actions while fighting The Flux. As you might expect, it’s a stressful time for the three of them and there’s an uncomfortable tension as The Doctor tries to figure out a way to survive.
It’s during a tense moment where Dan takes notice of the fact that Yaz has some pretty obvious romantic feelings for the Time Lord and points it out. While it’s not confirmed what those ‘feelings’ are, it’s obvious in the way Yaz responds about how she’s not told anyone about how she feels, including herself, that the romantic subtext that has followed The Doctor and Yaz’s relationship throughout the series has now been thrown out of the window.
It’s not been confirmed whether The Doctor feels the same way about her companion, but there’s no denying that they at least know of Yaz’s feelings thanks to Dan explicitly telling the Time Lord in ‘Eve of the Daleks’.
“She likes you,” Dan tells The Doctor to which she replies that she likes Yaz also.
“No, I mean she likes you.” Dan reiterates. Again, The Doctor pretends not to understand what her companion is talking about, but it’s made pretty clear later on in that same scene that the Time Lord knows exactly what Dan means.
Doctor Who has never shied away from LGBTQ+ representation, even before it broke boundaries to see the 9th Doctor kiss Jack Harkness back in 2005. There have been several queer characters as the modern series has developed, including Madame Vastra and Jenny, 12th Doctor companion Bill Potts and even The Doctor’s wife, River Song, still considering The Thirteenth Doctor her spouse after encountering her in the short story, The Guide to the Dark Times.
Even so, the confirmation that Yaz has feelings for The Doctor is a major victory for some fans who feel that the ‘coming out’ scene in the latest episode could really help LGBTQ+ fans of the sci-fi show.
Nonetheless, Thasmin shippers will have to wait for the final episode of Jodie Whittaker’s time as The Doctor to see if the relationship between Yaz and The Doctor will bear fruit or not. Fingers crossed!
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