*Spoilers, including for "The Power of the Doctor."*
Of the Thirteenth Doctor’s companions, Yaz is ultimately the one who gets the most focus and opportunities to shine, although it takes her a while to get there—I always liked her, but she definitely levels up between seasons 12 and 13, which is reflected in most of her Big Damn Hero moments being from this past season. Here are my favorite moments from this dedicated, very loyal companion.
Connecting with Willa (Series 11, Episode 8 – “The Witchfinders”)
Willa’s grandmother, the village healer, has just been “tried” and executed as a witch, and Willa is reluctant to help Team TARDIS. Yaz recognizes herself in the ostracized girl, telling Willa about the year that another girl at Yaz’s school turned the whole class against her. “Every day I’d wake up feeling this… dread. Fear,” she remarks. But even though Yaz admits she couldn’t find a magic solution to make the other kids stop harassing her, she weathered through her “year from hell” and vowed to make the world better, explaining, “I told myself, when I got bigger I’d stand up to the Izzy Flints of this world.” In the moment, Willa is too frightened and grief-stricken to take Yaz’s words to heart, but by the end of the episode, they help give her the strength she needs to stand up to the witch-hunting landowner. Yasmin Khan with the assist!
Looking for Peggy (Series 13, Episode 4 – “Village of the Angels”)
When a little girl has gone missing, Yaz and Dan join the search for her. First, Yaz puts her police training/knowledge to good use, trying to organize the search in the best way possible and asking for personal information that might help Peggy feel safe if they find her. And after she and Dan get displaced in time by an Angel roaming through the village, Yaz takes in her new surroundings but stays focused on the task at hand. “First things first,” she reminds Dan. “We’re still looking for a missing girl.”
Searching for the Flux Event (Series 13, Episode 5 – “Survivors of the Flux”)
After getting marooned in 1901 with Dan and Professor Jericho, Yaz throws herself into following the Doctor’s last instruction: to search for the time and location of the final Flux event, recorded in the prophecies of ancient civilizations. Yaz is on fire throughout this episode, a picture of focus and competence compared to the comic mishaps of Dan and Jericho, but in particular, I’ll single out their raid of an Indigenous pyramid in Mexico. She’s the only of the three who can manage their rope pulley system for entering the pyramid, and she’s the one to find the artifact that bears the prophecies they need. And just for the cherry on top, despite the necessity of getting the artifact, she has serious misgivings about taking it at all. “Strictly speaking, it’s theft,” she tells Jericho. “If we take it, we have to bring it back once it’s decoded.” Ms. Khan is not about that colonizer lifestyle!
Flying the TARDIS (Series 13, Episode 9 – “The Power of the Doctor”)
Yaz takes charge throughout this special, getting things done under really extreme circumstances, and it starts here. The Daleks have taken the Doctor and transmatted away, and Yaz races back to the TARDIS, muttering, “I can do this,” to herself as she pulls out her old crib notes and sticks them all over the console to help her navigate. She also appeals directly to the TARDIS, relying on their shared devotion to the Doctor to get the time-space machine to help her out.
Tricking the Master (Series 13, Episode 9 – “The Power of the Doctor”)
The Master gets up to a lot of awful things here, chief of which is subjecting the Doctor to a forced regeneration and making her regenerate into him. With Yaz as his hostage/companion, she uses the Doctor’s hologram interface to throw him off, making it assume the form of the Fugitive Doctor/the Nth Doctor just to confuse him even more. His Cyber Masters surround the Nth Doctor and, at the Master’s command, try to shoot her, but their blasts pass harmlessly through the hologram and kill each other instead. With his goons temporarily out of commission, Yaz is able to force the Master back into the regeneration machine and reverse the process, with a little assistance from Vinder. Yaz will do anything for the Doctor, make no mistake.
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