Doctor Who Flux suggests Yaz and the Doctor are queer and in love

Doctor Who: Flux episode 6 spoilers follow.

Whether it made you cry tears of joy or frustration, one thing we can all agree on is that Doctor Who has made a huge impact with Flux, one that will be felt long after season thirteen is but a distant memory.

Part of that is down of course to Chris Chibnall's experimental approach to storytelling, which also dives deeper than ever into the Doctor's forgotten past. But what's going to stay with us most is one particular scene near the end that left us with tears of sadness, yes, but also of affirmation, and dare we say it, even queer joy.

doctor who cast mandip gill as yaz, jodie whittaker as the doctor, john bishop as dan

James Pardon//BBC

When the Weeping Angels fluxed with time a few episodes earlier, Yaz and Dan were separated from the Doctor for what ended up being two whole years. As we saw in episode five, Yaz in particular was deeply troubled by this, and not just because she was stranded in the past.

Yearning to be reunited with the Doctor, Yaz played a hologram message of her over and over again, like a lover re-reading old letters or texts to try and hold on to what was lost. While Yaz doesn't declare her love for the Doctor outright here, her face says it all, and Whovians online were quick to pick up on this too.

After all, hints of Yaz's queer feelings for the Doctor have been threaded throughout the show ever since Mandip Gill first joined all the way back in season 12. At first, it was just the occasional line or knowing glance, but in the New Year's Special, 'Revolution of the Daleks', the romantic subtext became far more apparent.

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While Ryan and Graham essentially gave up on the Doctor after being left behind for ten whole months, Yaz refused to accept the idea that she was gone, even choosing to sleep inside the TARDIS. And when the Doctor did then return, Yaz was mad at her for abandoning them, and specifically, for abandoning her.

In this final episode of Doctor Who: Flux, that scene is echoed again when the Doctor and Yaz are finally reunited after two long years apart. There's no time to delve into all of the many feelings involved at this point. Too many lives are at stake.

However, there is one brief moment where they both share that they miss each other, and it's a credit to both Mandip and Jodie that you can tangibly feel what's left unsaid between them both with nothing more than a brief pause that hangs in the air.

doctor who flux jodie whittaker episode 5

BBC

Historically, LGBTQ+ people have learned from a young age to read between the lines when it comes to queer love on screen, whether that meaning is intentional or not. Because in the absence of actual representation, how else are we ever supposed to see ourselves represented in the stories that we love?

On Doctor Who, much of Yaz's love for the Doctor remains unsaid, but one last scene between the pair in this final Flux episode nudges that subtext further than ever out into the open.

Once the universe has been saved and everything has calmed down a bit, the Doctor makes time to apologise to Yaz. Not for them being separated, or anything like that. No, the Doctor apologises for not letting Yaz in, for pushing her away when it was obvious that something secret had been troubling her all this time.

"Yaz, I'm sorry. I didn't let you in to what I was doing... what I was looking for. I shouldn't have shut you out."

"No, you shouldn't have," says Yaz in a wonderfully defiant moment which reminds us exactly why she became such a fan favourite in the first place.

"I was looking for information about me, a life I never knew," the Doctor replies before adding, "I want to tell you everything".

With tears in their eyes, the pair take a moment to process the emotional weight of all this before Yaz nods with a smile and says, "I'd like that". Then, nothing is said at all until Dan calls out from the other room and suddenly breaks the intimacy of what they've just shared. The Doctor is physically startled by this intrusion into their space, but Yaz quickly recovers and shows the Scouser to his new room in the TARDIS. Cue the credits.

yasmin khan, mandip gill, doctor who, season 13

BBC

All of the coding is there to suggest that this relationship is anything but platonic. The only thing that's missing is a verbal confirmation or a physical declaration of love. Now, some will argue that this is key, that you can't assume anything romantic without this. But let's be honest: if this exact scene played out with Yaz and one of the Doctor's male incarnations – or the current Doctor and a male companion – everyone watching back home would instantly assume it to be a romantic connection.

And it's not like Doctor Who shies away from LGBTQ+ representation completely. Pearl Mackie, a bisexual actress, notably became the Doctor's first queer companion in 2017. And of course, John Barrowman's "omnisexual" Jack Harkness has been integral to the franchise ever since Doctor Who first came back under the watch of It's A Sin creator Russell T Davies back in 2005.

That being said, there hasn't been as much notable LGBTQ+ representation on the show since Chris Chibnall took over, aside from a smart inversion of the 'Bury Your Gays' trope in season twelve's Praxeus. But is that all about to change? Will one of the upcoming specials finally confirm Yaz's love for the Doctor, and will this perhaps even be reciprocated before Jodie Whittaker bows out completely?

When asked about this potential romance, one that fans have been shipping for a very long time, Mandip Gill said (via The Radio Times): "Obviously I wouldn't say [if it was happening]. But it could do. Because, you know, they have spent so much time together. That's what happens to people naturally."

However, Mandip was also quick to point out that none of this means her character is definitely going to end up with the Doctor, at least not in a romantic way:

"At the same time, it could also head down the route of like it being platonic, because two people are allowed to travel together and not have that relationship. People have asked about it, people have wanted it. Me and Jodes have a lovely relationship as people, as actors, and our characters have a really, really nice relationship. And I think it's been written very naturally."

Zoe McConnell//BBC

To be fair, it would have been impossible for Mandip to give any kind of definitive answer without spoiling what lies ahead. But she does say that fans will probably be happy with how this all plays out. "I'd like to think where it heads people [will go] 'Yeah, that's what it's supposed to be.'"

Now, "what it's supposed to be" will depend a lot on how you feel about LGBTQ+ representation in general. If you've read this far, you're probably not one of those ignorant, misguided souls who feel that queerness has no place in family-friendly fare like this. So we're not going to waste our time explaining that children can be queer too, or that depriving us of queer love stories is deeply othering and damaging, regardless of how old you might be.

But what remains to be seen is whether Yaz and the Doctor will ever confirm their love onscreen, or whether it will just continue as some wibbly-wobbly subtext for fans to debate and argue over.

Positive LGBTQ+ representation holds the power to improve and even save lives on an unimaginable scale. Just imagine then how powerful, how world-changing it would be, for fans of all ages to finally see a queer relationship take centre stage on Doctor Who.

And isn't that the point of this show anyway? The Doctor has always stood up for those who have been oppressed or unfairly persecuted. Now that she herself has been othered as the Timeless Child, no longer the Time Lord that she thought she was, it's about time that the Doctor's gender fluidity, her intrinsic queerness, was brought to the fore in an actual romance onscreen.

Because yes, the Doctor is "timeless", but that doesn't mean Doctor Who itself can't be more timely and better reflect the world we live in today.

Doctor Who: Flux (aka series 13) airs weekly every Sunday night on BBC One in the UK. In the US, the show airs on BBC America, with series 1-12 available on HBO Max.

For more information on Doctor Who: Time Fracture, head this way – tickets are also available via retailers including LOVEtheatre, London Theatre Direct, Fever and Ticketmaster.

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David Opie

After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.

In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.

David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.

Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.

As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.