*Yaz/Thirteen-related spoilers.*
While I generally prefer my Doctor-companion relationships platonic (Ten and Donna forever!), I’m not altogether opposed to the show occasionally taking a more romantic route. At least, I’m okay with how the show has done it so far—I don’t think I could handle the Doctor ever really doing more than kissing. At any rate, though their relationship is certainly more understated than Rose and Ten’s, I think Yaz/Thirteen are a nice addition to this very small club.
In series 11, Yaz doesn’t get too much of a chance to distinguish herself in the Ryan-Yaz-Graham companion cluster. We see her make good contributions, but the Doctor herself relates to the companions more as a group than as individuals. We get lovely moments here and there, though. Within seconds of meeting each other, the Doctor proclaims that they’re friends, and she later has a delightfully perplexed reaction when Yaz’s mom asks if they’re seeing each other: “I don’t think so. Are we?” By the end of the season, any time the group splits up, Yaz wants to stay by the Doctor’s side.
That’s their pattern going forward. The shift happens softly, without fanfare, but you realize that Yaz is in this for more than the adventure of life on the TARDIS and helping people throughout time and space. Those things mean the world to her, yes. But then there’s the Doctor herself, and it takes a while for Yaz to even realize just how important the Doctor is to her.
As a result (along with the mere fact that same-sex pairings are rarely given the same space and attention that opposite-sex pairings are,) the deeper connection between the Doctor and Yaz begins to come through in subtle moments, largely unspoken. The way the Doctor swoops in to rescue Yaz when she’s taken by the Skithra. The way Yaz walks without hesitation through a portal to the unknown, knowing only that the Doctor is on the other side.
A further shift comes after series 12, when the companions have been returned to Earth and the Doctor is separated from them. It’s ten months before she’s able to get back, and in that time, Yaz never gives up trying to figure out how to pilot the spare TARDIS and find her. Yet, when the Doctor returns, she’s not elated. She’s angry, upset that the Doctor is happily waltzing back in after making them worry about her for so long.
But that’s the thing about love. Your emotions, your reactions, don’t always make sense, especially not to yourself. In short, Yaz has big feelings that she can’t quite sort through, and it’s so overwhelming to see the Doctor again that she lashes out, afraid of ever losing her again.
It seems evident what the show is suggesting, here and throughout series 13, but the unspoken isn’t made explicit until Thirteen’s final batch of specials. That’s when Dan, recognizing Yaz’s feelings for the Doctor, first talks to her about it and then gives the Doctor a nudge to help her see it too.
We don’t get as far as a kiss between these two. There’s no “Yasmin Khan—” moment a la “Doomsday.” The Doctor shuts it down before anything happens, making it clear that she has feelings for Yaz too but that they can’t go there. And yeah, it feels like a copout. Especially after a show like Our Flag Means Death, which doesn’t pull its romantic punches, it feels regressive. But I do know that, in the end, when the Doctor realizes she’s going to regenerate and only has enough time for one last trip, there’s nowhere in the universe she’d rather be than getting ice cream with Yaz.
No comments:
Post a Comment