Yahoo News Doctor Who's Chris Chibnall on why Thasmin never kissed
The will-they-won't-they storyline kept fans hanging on until the end.
Doctor Who fans might have been disappointed that the Thirteenth Doctor and Yasmin never shared a kiss, but now writer Chris Chibnall has explained he didn't allow them a moment of romance to maximise the heartbreak.
Chibnall, who bowed out as showrunner for the BBC sci-fi series along with Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor, said that it was always supposed to be an unrequited love story between her and her companion Yasmin, played by Mandip Gill.
Fans of the show had loved seeing Yasmin's growing feelings for the Doctor, labelling the pair "Thasmin", but many were disappointed not to see them finally share a kiss in Whittaker's last episode before her character regenerated.
In a chat with podcast WHO Corner to Corner, Chibnall said of the kiss that never happened: "We discussed it. I think it's an unrequited love story. I don't know whether that's the right decision, but it is an unrequited love story."
He added of not including it: "I felt it was more heartbreaking. It wasn't like there wasn't any sense of 'they're not allowed to kiss' or 'they're not going to kiss'. Dramatically and emotionally, it felt slightly more wrenching if they didn't.
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"And also, I think if they kiss, you don't get the final scene on top of the TARDIS, because that scene was always sort of the kiss really."
Offering Thasmin fans some hope, Chibnall shared that just because the kiss wasn't seen on screen, that didn't necessarily mean it never happened for the characters.
He said: "It's a really delicate kind of pressure because it could have happened. And who said didn't happen? But it wasn't any sort of conscious decision not to have it for anything other than 'is it going to break your heart if they never quite get there?'."
Whittaker's final series as the Doctor contained a surprise for fans when she unexpectedly regenerated back into David Tennant's Tenth Doctor.
He will return as the Fourteenth Doctor along with his former co-star Catherine Tate as companion Donna Noble.
The Fifteenth Doctor will be played by Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa, who had previously been announced as the next Doctor, and his companion Ruby Sunday will be played by ex-Coronation Street actor Millie Gibson.
Former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies is set to return to the series having previously been the show's writer from 2005 to 2010.
