Jodie Whittaker’s unexpected (and delightful) Doctor Who return actually tried to fix a major plotline from her time as the Thirteenth Doctor. The first female Doctor, Jodie Whittaker sadly never got to appear in a proper multi-Doctor story; she had the misfortune of starring in the role during COVID, which made production so much more difficult. That made an unexpected cameo in Doctor Who season 15’s finale, “The Reality War,” all the more delightful – especially as she got to act with Ncuti Gatwa ahead of his regeneration.
Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor used regeneration energy to rewrite reality itself, a high-risk act that could easily have gone catastrophically wrong. His impending actions caused a flux in the timestream, leading to Whittaker emerging in the present TARDIS; the dynamic between Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa was absolutely fantastic, and it was wonderful to see Whittaker reprise the role. Even more surprisingly, though, a single line of dialogue tried to wrap up an arc from Whittaker’s own era.
Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor Ended With A Love Story
The end of the Thirteenth Doctor era revealed that Mandip Gill’s Yaz was actually in love with the Doctor. “I thought that Chris’s writing of the relationship development between Yaz and the Doctor was really beautiful and peppered throughout the seasons, so it didn’t come out of nowhere,” Whittaker insisted. Unfortunately, not everybody agreed with Whittaker’s assessment; it really doesn’t seem well-seeded in earlier seasons.
Related
Doctor Who’s Jodie Whittaker Reflects On Yaz & Thirteen’s Relationship Reveal 2 Years Later: “Didn’t Come Out Of Nowhere”
Jodie Whittaker looks back on the relationship between the Thirteenth Doctor and Yasmin Khan within the latter half of her Doctor Who tenure.
Matters really build to a head in “Legend of the Sea Devils,” in which the Doctor and Yaz had a very awkward conversation – one in which the Doctor avoided exploring her own feelings at all. According to the Doctor, she could never settle down with a human; she couldn’t handle the fact Yaz would grow old and she would not. That particular Doctor Who companion romance didn’t really end well, because the show just played to a fairly stale trope.
Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor Return Resolves Her Romance Story With Yaz
At last, though, the romance plot has been resolved. The conversation between the Fifteenth Doctor and the Thirteenth is a striking one, with Gatwa’s incarnation prompting a shocked reaction from Whittaker’s when he tells her he loves her. As the Thirteenth Doctor observes, this isn’t something she tends to say; but that, Gatwa’s Doctor tells her, is why he exists. He is the Doctor who has healed a bit more since the Time War, and who is emotionally secure enough to speak the truth.
The Thirteenth Doctor pauses for a moment to reflect, concluding that she really wishes she could say that. Speaking only to her future self, she admits the truth; that she loves Yaz, and wishes she had the emotional strength to say it. “She knows,” the Fifteenth Doctor tells her, but he also notes that she will never be able to say those fateful words to her companion. It’s a powerful moment, a confession of truth but one that is heavy with destiny.
Jodie Whittaker’s Cameo May Explain Why The Thirteenth Doctor & Yaz Never Got Together
The resolution of the relationship between the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz never really felt satisfactory. Part of the problem lies in the fact the build-up only existed in the eye of the beholder; it’s there if you look at the stories from a certain angle and squint a little bit, but is generally absent. Matters were made worse by the Doctor’s actions during Doctor Who: Flux, a season-long story that often saw her lash out verbally at Yaz in an almost abusive manner.
This cameo hints at a deeper reason for the Fifteenth Doctor’s struggle. She knows she has feelings for Yaz too, but she’s just too socially awkward to know how to express them. Worse still, she’s also been told the outcome by her future self; she knows she’ll never tell Yaz the truth, and that the relationship will never progress. It’s easy to envision a scenario where the Thirteenth Doctor’s foreknowledge essentially became a trap for her, a sort of prison in time that locked her in. The whole thing makes a little more sense after Whittaker’s Doctor Who cameo.
Doctor Who
5/10
- Release Date
-
December 25, 2023
- Directors
-
Douglas Camfield, David Maloney, Christopher Barry, Michael E. Briant, Barry Letts, Michael Ferguson, Richard Martin, Peter Moffatt, Pennant Roberts, Lennie Mayne, Chris Clough, Ron Jones, Paddy Russell, Paul Bernard, Michael Hayes, Timothy Combe, Morris Barry, Gerald Blake, Graeme Harper, Waris Hussein, Rodney Bennett, Mervyn Pinfield, Hugh David, John Gorrie
