Why the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz remained “an unrequited love story”
By Dan Selcke
Doctor Who is between Doctors at the moment. The Thirteenth Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker, somehow regenerated into David Tennant, who played the Tenth. He’s now playing the Fourteenth, who will feature in a series of specials coming later this year. And Ncuti Gatwa is waiting in the wings to play the Fifteenth Doctor sometime next year. It’s wild out here.
The Thirteenth Doctor traveled with a few companions, but not got so close to her as Yasmin Khan, aka Yaz, played by Mandip Gill. Late in the series, Yaz realized that she had developed feelings for the Doctor, as companions are wont to do, but the Thirteenth Doctor regenerated before the pair could connsumate anything.
That’s not unusual; the Doctor has never had a full-on romance with a companion, although the show does love to drop teases or use workarounds. Former showrunner Chris Chibnall explained on the WHO Corner to Corner podcast why the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz never shared a kiss.
Why the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz never kissed on Doctor Who
“We discussed it. I think it’s an unrequited love story. I don’t know whether that’s the right decision, but it is an unrequited love story,” Chibnall said. “I felt it was more heartbreaking. It wasn’t like there wasn’t any sense of ‘they’re not allowed to kiss’ or ‘they’re not going to kiss’. Dramatically [and] emotionally, it felt slightly more wrenching if they didn’t. And also, I think if they kiss, you don’t get the final scene on top of the TARDIS, because that scene was always sort of the kiss really.”
“It’s a really delicate kind of pressure because it could have happened,” Chibnall continued. “And who said didn’t happen? But it wasn’t any sort of conscious decision to not to have it for anything other than ‘is it going to break your heart if they never quite get there?'”
And the quest for a romance for the Doctor continues. We’ll see if the Fifteenth or Sixteenth have any luck in the coming months.
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h/t Radio Times