A recently confirmed romantic connection between the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her companion Yaz (Mandip Gill) was not originally planned, it has been reported.
Following years of speculation, the latest Doctor Who New Year special Eve of the Daleks finally saw Yaz admit the true nature of her feelings for the Doctor, but fans were somewhat divided on the execution of this subplot.
Some argued that Yaz gay awakening wasn’t too little too late, while others felt that not enough groundwork had been laid toward this development, with the consequence being that it didn’t feel completely authentic.
According to a fan in attendance at Doctor Who convention Gallifrey One, which is held annually in Los Angeles, executive producer Matt Strevens shed light on why the twist might have felt sudden, revealing it was not part of the original plan for Whittaker’s era.
“I didn’t know what Thasmin was,” he reportedly said. “Jodie said after the first season, ‘oh there’s speculation out there’, but we hadn’t really thought about it.”
The attending fan reported that Strevens said that he “forgot about” the Thasmin craze after initially learning about it in the run-up to series 12, but helped incorporate it into the canon story during series 13’s COVID-induced restructure.
“[Thasmin] was something that [Chris Chibnall] wanted to bring in and sort of play with it,” he added. “Yaz is not sure about what these feelings she’s having are… yeah, there’s more to come.”
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