‘Doctor Who’ writer says the Doctor’s queer romance will be handled ‘delicately’

Doctor Who fans were stunned when January’s New Year’s special finally addressed the attraction between Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor and her best friend Yaz (Mandip Gill). Ever since the two characters were introduced in 2018, Whovians have been obsessed with “Thasmin”, even if the show never tackled the romantic chemistry between the pair head-on. But, with just two episodes left to go of the Whittaker era, it sounds like their relationship is finally about to blossom.

The series returns to our screens this weekend for Easter special “Legend of the Sea Devils”. As well as being a swashbuckling pirate-themed episode featuring the return of the titular classic monsters, presumably the special will find some room to follow up on the last ep’s Doctor/Yaz subplot. In a chat with RadioTimes.com, writer Ella Road — who co-wrote the script with showrunner Chris Chibnall — teased that the matter will be addressed in a delicate way.

“I mean, I guess once those conversations had been opened up, they need to be continued,” Road said. “I think that we were all keen to make sure that we were handling all of that stuff delicately. Basically, there were conversations that needed to be had based on what was happening in the episode before. And so we continued to have them. But, yeah, that’s all I can say.”

In the New Year’s special, Yaz opened up to Dan (John Bishop) about her buried feelings for the Doctor, indicating that this is the first time she’s been attracted to a woman. In a separate conversation, Dan then pressed the Doctor for her feelings for Yaz. The Time Lord didn’t come clean, but her evasive behavior heavily suggested she’s dealing with an attraction of her own. By the sounds of it, the duo aren’t going to declare their love for each other in this episode, but it’ll be tackled in some way.

That means it might be up to this year’s third and final special to deliver on the “Thasmin” of it all before Whittaker regenerates into the mystery Fourteenth Doctor. Unfortunately, we maybe shouldn’t expect a happy ending, as Gill has warned that Yaz’s exit will leave fans in tears.

But let’s not think about that right now. Catch Doctor Who; “Legend of the Sea Devils” on BBC America this Sunday, April 17.