Favorite Characters: Yasmin Khan (Doctor Who)

*A few Yaz-related spoilers.*

While most Doctors have multiple companions over their time on the show, there’s often one who’s the first to come to mind with a particular Doctor. When I picture Two, he’s with Jamie, Seven with Ace, Eleven with Amy, and so on. And for Thirteen, that companion is definitely Yaz.

When we meet Yaz, she’s a young police officer. Still eager and green, she’s sent out on trifling calls she can’t really sink her teeth into, and while she still puts her all into them, she wants more and is anxious to prove herself. In light of that, it makes sense that she really takes to traveling in the TARDIS.

Some of Yaz’s training comes in handy as a companion. She has a calm but business-like attitude in upsetting situations—she can help keep someone from panicking, and she’s usually ready to roll up her sleeves and do whatever needs to be done. She knows how to put some authority in her voice when she needs to, and she has good people instincts, knowing the right questions to ask to get the information she’s looking for.

While informed by her police training, a lot of Yaz’s early qualities are pretty in line with the usual companion stuff: smart, brave, curious, compassionate, etc. She’s definitely all those things, and they serve her well. But as she continues to travel on the TARDIS, she also levels up in some pretty major ways—and in fact, it’s kickstarted by a period when she’s not traveling with the Doctor. After they’re separated at the end of series 12, Yaz becomes obsessed with figuring out how to operate the spare TARDIS the Doctor used to get her, Graham, and Ryan home safely. Her growing feelings for the Doctor are such that she pours all her energy into trying to get back to her. And when the Doctor finally returns and they resume traveling, sans Ryan and Graham, Yaz learns all manner of techie skills. She’s very capable of holding her own, and the next time she and the Doctor are separated, Yaz, despite her worries, buckles down and gets to work.

I appreciate that, even as Yaz falls for the Doctor, that’s never really portrayed as “diminishing” her. Instead, she continues to be up front when the Doctor does things that aren’t cool, like blowing Yaz off when she’s trying to get her to open up, and she asks for space for herself. In the end, Yaz is a character who withstands the heartbreak of watching her family’s past knowing she can’t change it, steps through a portal to go after the Doctor without a second thought, conducts her own Doctory investigation in the past, and pilots the TARDIS more than once. She’s pretty impressive, and now that she’s earthbound again, I hope she keeps finding ways to make the most of all her potential.