Doctor Who star Mandip Gill revealed that the show’s upcoming special would feature more queer interactions between Yaz and the Doctor.
Earlier this year, LGBTQ+ fans were sent into a frenzy during the series’ New Year special after Gill’s character confessed her feelings for the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker).
In the aforementioned episode, Yaz and Dan (John Bishop) get separated from the Doctor and stuck in a time loop.
While they were in the loop, the two opened up to one another – which resulted in Yaz confiding in Dan about her romantic feelings for the titular character.
Towards the end of the episode, Dan revealed to the Doctor that Yaz has romantic feelings for her.
After the revelation, the Doctor pretended not to understand, which prompted Dan to say: “I think you do, but for some reason you pretend to me, and to her, that you don’t.”
With the series’ upcoming Easter special – Doctor Who: Legends of the Sea Devils – on the way, fans have wondered if Yaz and the Doctor will officially become an item.
In a recent interview with Radio Times, Gill was asked if the two characters would address their feelings, to which she replied: “Yes.”
“That’s where I think the heart [of the special] is, the understanding, the emotion that [showrunner Chris Chibnall] is so good at writing,” she continued.
“So I won’t tell you which way it goes, but we obviously have to touch upon that again – it wouldn’t make sense not to.”
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Later in the interview, Gill revealed that she wasn’t surprised by the positive fan reaction toward a potential Yaz and Doctor romance.
“It was massive. But you know what, I’d seen a lot of stuff on social media. So I’d seen people’s reaction to that,” she explained.
“I’d seen people building that up way before it was on screen and whatnot. So it kind of… it came naturally. It wasn’t this thing that had been discovered on screen and then all of a sudden the fans saw it. It was part and parcel.”
She went on to say that, over time, she saw the numerous Yaz/Doctor fan art and fan fiction ahead of the popular queer moment in the New Year special.
“I’d seen fan art of that happening, I’d seen people talking about it, I’d seen people had rewritten like storylines and all that stuff,” she explained. “So we’re like, ‘Ok, you asked for it. And here it is.'”
“It was always exciting. Seeing it was exciting. Seeing it play out was exciting,” she added.
The upcoming special is set to be an emotional doozy for fans – due to it being Whittaker’s second to last appearance as the Doctor.
However, for the show’s fourteenth series, It’s A Sin creator Russell T Davies has signed on as the new showrunner.
An array of LGBTQ+ talents have also been rumoured to step into Whittaker’s legendary shoes –which includes Olly Alexander, Omari Douglas and T’Nia Miller.
Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils is set to air on BBC and BBC iPlayer on 17 April.
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