Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, bbc american, doctor who, Doctor Who: Flux, jodie whittaker, Mandip Gill

Doctor Who Star Mandip Gill Coyly Teases "Thasmin" Romance Shippers

Doctor Who Series 13 finally premieres on Halloween Sunday, October 31^st with a simulcast event between BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the US. Being both Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill's final season as The Doctor and Yaz, it raises hopes amongst 'shippers that we might see at least The 13^th Doctor and Yaz as a romantic couple, aka "Thasmin".

"Obviously I wouldn't say [if it was happening]," Gill told the latest issue of The Radio Times in series 13 exit interview. "But it could do. Because, you know, they have spent so much time together. That's what happens to people naturally."

Gill also remained coy, teasing that the duo's closeness doesn't necessarily mean they'd become involved romantically.

"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," she said. "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."

Her coy and shameless teasing (it's part of her job promoting the show, after all) concluded with: "I'd like to think where it heads people [will] have gone 'Yeah, that's what it's supposed to be,'" she said.

Doctor Who has always had a large LGBTAIQ+ following, since the fans often identified with the Doctors outsider status and otherness. Jodie Whittaker's 13^th Doctor is the most queer-coded Doctor of them all. Showrunner Chris Chibnall declared that she was non-binary, and she doesn't display any traditional feminine traits. She does not wear a dress or carry a handbag as sexists have assumed a female Doctor would. She adopts an androgynous, neutral dress sense and it's not an accident that she has a rainbow on her T-shirts. Yet the BBC and Chibnall never publicized or played up any notion of queerness in the 13^th Doctor. They downplayed whatever sexuality she might have, unlike the way the show played up the male sexuality of the 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th Doctors before her.

When Yaz's parents asked if Yaz and the Doctor were a couple in Series 11, The Doctor totally innocently asked, "I don't know. Are we?" as if she was up for anything. That set fans off with speculating about "Thasmin". They latched onto the extent Yaz was devoted to The Doctor while Graham (Bradley Walsh) and Ryan (Tosin Cole) were dealing with their own soap opera family issues. While Gill's remarks teased the fans and also warned them not to expect too much, we suspect they're going to be disappointed, possibly outright pissed off.

Doctor Who: Flux premieres on BBC America and BBC One on October 31^st.

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