Doctor Who/Ho Yay

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


"Doctor, are you going to kiss me?" -- "Yes, Craig. Yes I am. Would you like that? Bit out of practice but I've had some wonderful feedback."
"You'd have to explain gay to him first. Then straight! Then why you were still talking when there's ALL THESE SPACESHIPS!! Then [he'd] be very cross it was ever in doubt, add a gay marriage setting to his screwdriver and accidentally marry a Krynoid. Again."
—Head writer Steven Moffat, when asked what the Doctor would think of gay marriage

"Doctor, look at the size of this Ho Yay page!" "Yes, Jamie, it is a big one."

(For the interested, you can read a blow-by-blow account (pun unintended) of every suspicious moment from almost the entire series and spinoffs (though the DW section stops with The Waters of Mars) here. )

The Master

Master: Doctor.
Doctor: Master.
Master: I like it when you use my name.

  • And this one:

Master: [shaking his head as his eyes fill with tears] Don't know what I'd be without that noise.
Doctor: I wonder what I'd be without you.
Master: [first speechless, then, tearfully] Yeah.

  • Their whole phone conversation in "The Sound of Drums" is, in between explaining how the Master survived the Time War, basically the Doctor trying to persuade the Master to have a long term relationship with him and the Master trying to get the Doctor to have phone sex with him. It hovers between text and subtext. Especially the (in)famous Say My Name bit above, where the Master's reaction to hearing his name is closing his eyes and literally sighing with pleasure.
  • And it becomes practically canonical when the Doctor's past self asks him:

Fifth Doctor: Does [the Master] still have that rubbish beard?

Tenth Doctor: No, no beard this time. Well, a wife.

  • Not that this is anything new. Roger Delgado's Master in particular was especially, er, flirty, Jon Pertwee's Doctor wavering between amusement and flirting right back, while Anthony Ainley's Master was one limp wrist away from full blown Camp Gay. Not to mention that he practically breathes Freud Was Right (I mean for fjord's sake, his name is the Master).
  • RTD called them 'practically soul mates' in a Radio Times interview. The fangirl squeeing shattered glass.
  • The End of Time gives us the chase through the scrapyard, complete with piercing stares and heavy panting, the Master zapping the Doctor with his new electricity powers and the Doctor writhing in pain. And when the Master actually hits the Doctor with his Emperor Palpatine powers, he stops attacking and runs over to make sure he's okay. And then he reminisces about the two of them playing in fields on Gallifrey as children. Before becoming rather insistent that the Doctor must understand him, taking it so far as to initiate a mindmeld. This does not even take into consideration all the Fetish Fuel they dumped on the Master.
  • Part two didn't let up. Everything from the scene with them going back and forth verbally with the Doctor Bound and Gagged, to the scene at the end where the Master 'dies', seemingly at least partly to save the Doctor's life. "Get out of the way" might well be the slashers' new catchphrase by the sound of things.
  • Did anyone else notice the annoyance and bitterness in the Master's voice when talking about the Doctor and Donna: "He loves playing with Earth girls!"
  • From the 1996 TV movie comes the Master's monologue about the need to Grand Theft Me the Doctor for more regenerations. "This body will soon decay. I NEED THE DOCTOR'S BODY!"
  • An android version of the Master lives with the Doctor on the TARDIS in Scream of the Shalka.
    • Paul Cornell later attended a Doctor/Master slash panel (as an audience member) and was asked about the relationship, and replied "I wouldn't be here if I didn't see it" and that in Shalka, the Doctor and the Master were "doing it".
    • Their answering machine message is very hard to find an interpretation of that isn't "the Doctor was recording while the Master was doing R-rated things to him."

Jack Harkness

Captain Jack Harkness exhibits rampant omnisexuality and a proclivity for flirting with anything that can say hi. He also kissed the Doctor before any of the other new companions did. In fact, his spinoff show, Torchwood, is based entirely upon the premise that bisexual alien hunters are hot. Kinda strange that the Master just kept killing him over and over for a year (he also calls him "handsome" and keeps him chained up in the basement though), but then again, maybe the Master gets off on it—he's tried to kill the Doctor often enough.

  • As for the Doctor, he's occasionally flirted right back at him.

Rose: Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance.
The Doctor: I'm sure he would, Rose, I'm absolutely certain. But who with?

  • The Doctor's also continually curtailing Jack's attempts to flirt with everyone they meet (male, female, or indeterminate) -- allegedly because otherwise they'd never get anything done. It often sounds more like someone's just jealous...
  • The beginning of "Boom Town":

(Rose and Mickey are hugging.)
Jack: Aw, sweet, look at these two. How come I never get any of that?
The Doctor: Buy me a drink first.
Jack: Such hard work.
The Doctor: But worth it! (grins)

  • "The Parting of the Ways", where he kisses both Rose and the Doctor (here at about 2:46) on the lips before he goes off to his Heroic Sacrifice... *sniff*
  • During their conversation in "Utopia", the room full of deadly radiation was probably the only thing that kept one of them from jumping the other during that scene.
  • Jack makes little secret of the fact that he absolutely bloody adores the Doctor to the point of keeping his severed hand in a jar in Torchwood for two years, and reacting very emotionally when the container is threatened (and then shattered).

Jack: PUT IT DOWN! That's worthless to anyone but me!

    • And at the end of the first series season finale of Torchwood, when the hand (which is apparently functioning as Jack's Doctor-detector) starts glowing and we hear the sound of the TARDIS engines, Jack bolts so fast after the Doctor that Gwen, who was standing right next to him, doesn't even see him go.
    • After Jack Came Back Wrong, he spent the first few weeks getting extremely drunk, searching for the Doctor and yelling "I'M GOING TO KISS HIM, AND THEN I'M GOING TO KILL HIM."
  • It finally reached a frenzy when David Tennant kissed John Barrowman at Comic-con. Listen to the video, the fandom (and Barrowman) nearly implodes!
  • Jack finally, properly, gets a sex scene in season 4 episode 3 of Torchwood. It's utterly magnificent and bordering on softcore porn. From the moment he grabs Brad's face and pushes him to his knees, to the quite sudden role reversal and Jack getting pounded hard—it's everything the fans had been wanting to see for years. And since he's not invincible that day (long story), he insists on using condoms.
  • Also, Ten's very final parting gift to Jack: playing wingman to hook him up with Alonso.

Eleventh Doctor

  • The very first episode of Eleven's tenure has him borrowing a hunky guy's laptop, and later in the episode he refers to him as "Amy's friend... the good-looking one". It helps that Jeff seems perfectly happy to let the Doctor get all in his personal space. Are we sure it's a girlfriend Jeff needs?
  • Eleven also kept running an appreciative eye over Bill Nighy as a museum curator in an episode because he likes his bow ties.
  • Eleven and Vincent van Gogh. They become physically close right off the bat, with the Doctor doing a lot of clapping his hand on Vincent's shoulder and such. Then Vincent gets hyped up on coffee and ends up screaming "Capture my mystery!" at the Doctor, then awkwardly stroking his shirt. There are lingering glances, the Doctor comforting Vincent in the depths of his depression, long hugs, and Amy, the Doctor, and Vincent lying on the grass together stargazing, during which scene Vincent takes both their hands, and holds the Doctor's to his chest. The Doctor even goes against pretty much ALL the rules of time travel and takes Vincent to see how popular and revered his work is in the future, just to add more good moments to a life that inevitably ends in suicide.
  • Eleven and Rory have a bit of this going on from the moment they meet, mainly due to Eleven's complete disregard for personal space and their Foe Yay filled rivalry caused by Amy.
    • There is a cut scene from "The Hungry Earth" where Eleven gets distracted wondering where Rory is, before stating almost dreamily that "I like him. A lot." It's adorable and most definitely should have been left in.
    • And then in "Cold Blood" Rory dies to save Eleven. Which is followed by Eleven telling Amy to remember "funny, gorgeous Rory".
    • Can't forget the bit in "Amy's Choice" where the Dream Lord has just sent the three of them off to sleep in one world, and they wake up on a park bench... and the Doctor's head has fallen onto Rory's shoulder into a Headbutt of Love. They both kind of freak, and the adorkableness reaches near-fatal levels.
    • Speaking of Eleven's personal space issues, Rory is definitely the most frequent recipient of Doc's hello face-touches.
    • During a scene in "Day of the Moon" when they've all faked their deaths to get into Area 51 and are taken into the Doctor's prison via bodybags, it's Rory who the Doctor goes for straight away and you can see him kissing his forehead to one side of the screen.
    • In "A Good Man Goes To War", when Amy and Rory are finally reunited with Melody, they start crying and making out just as the Doctor walks in. He is hastily trying to excuse himself when Rory points his sword at him and demands he come back.
  • "The Lodger" is pretty much a mass of Ho Yay directed at Craig. Eleven strokes him constantly, displays a complete disregard for his personal space and grabbed him at at least one point (although that was for the purposes of telepathy). The Ho Yay of this episode peaked with Eleven stroking Craig's face when he was poisoned and incapacitated, and tenderly saying "You're important". Not to mention Eleven's lack of hesitation in approaching both Craig and Sophie while wearing only a towel.
  • Absolutely off the charts in "Closing Time"; the Doctor plus Craig plus a baby adds up to make the episode one long, unbroken Mistaken for Gay sequence, and that's not counting the bit where the Doctor attempts to distract Craig from the approaching Cybermen by declaring his passionate love for him and attempting to kiss him to prove it. Craig's only objection, by the way, is that he is already in a relationship.
  • In general, disregard for (or maybe just lack of awareness of) personal space and social taboos on nudity seem to be shaping up to be a major feature of the Eleventh Doctor.
  • "I danced with everyone at their wedding. The women were all brilliant. The men... were a bit shy."

Fitz Kreiner

Where to begin with Fitz Kreiner and the Eighth Doctor from the Eighth Doctor Adventures... Over the course of their fifty-something books together, they become Not-So-Heterosexual Life Partners. EDAs can be divided up into "Fitz and the Doctor are rather gay for each other" books and "Fitz and the Doctor are really gay for each other" books. A few examples:

  • The Doctor happily kisses Fitz on the mouth and "delicately" on the hand, and after spending much of a book looking up and down for him, the Doctor learns Fitz is alive through a video link and kisses the screen in happiness.
    • In the same book, Fitz has managed to both sprain and get a shotgun wound in one of his legs. When the group has to make a fast getaway, the Doctor carries Fitz bridal style to safety. The author thought it was important for everyone to know how "almost romantic" it was.
  • Fitz outright admits, via internal monologue, to wanting to "get laid by" the Doctor. When someone uses mind control to make Fitz love her in another book, Fitz breaks out of it by saying, "I've been engineered to love you, Carmodi. With the Doctor - it's the real thing." At one point, the prospect that they may not be able to use the TARDIS comes up and Fitz wonders if they'll end up settling down together in "that house [the Doctor] had in Kent and grow roses."
  • While the Doctor is alone on Earth for 100 years, he's obsessed with a song he can only half-remember. "Do you know, I've had a tune going round and round in my head for more than a hundred years. I don’t have the slightest idea what it is. I want to know." It's revealed to the reader at the very end of the book this song is Fitz's, one he wrote for the Doctor. So the Doctor forgot everything about himself, the Time Lords, Gallifrey, but he remembered a song Fitz wrote for him.
  • In yet another book, there is the infamous naked bum-rubbing dream, causing Fitz to spend the rest of the story trying not to stare at the Doctor's arse. The plot involves a Freaky Friday Flip. The Doctor, who is The Stoic when it comes to expressing sadness or fear, actually cries when he realizes how terrifying Fitz's life is because of him.
  • When the Doctor manages to lose Fitz, he does some very shady things to get him back, including talking the clone-of-a-clone-of-a-clone of Fitz, a kid named Kode, into suicide so he can basically reprogram Fitz into Kode's body. The fact that he lies about it to his other companion implies the Doctor knows how sketchy it was.
  • The Doctor, generally Oblivious to Love, actually flirts with Fitz ("I'll show you my tattoo if you're lucky."). Fitz also seems to be the only companion whose physical appearance the Doctor notices and he occasionally compliments Fitz's looks.
  • After spending an entire book having a massive Heroic BSOD, Fitz pulls himself out of it by explicitly making his new purpose in life looking after the amnesiac Doctor.
  • Fitz is said to "dote on the Doctor", makes him three meals a day with little notes when he's locked up in his room mourning, and is the target of serious worry from the Doctor sometimes when they are apart.
    • There is much more, to the point no fan would be surprised if one of the EDAs ended with, "And then the Doctor and Fitz went back to the TARDIS and shagged." To see more examples, check here and here.
  • And last but not least, their first meeting is rife with meaning. Fitz is working in a plant shop, lamenting how his life is being wasted away, when the Doctor shows up and tries to purchase a very symbolic flower.

"I'd like to buy this begonia."
"This begonia? But it's nearly dead."
"I know. I intend to rescue it."

Others

  • Writers Paul Cornell, Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat all merrily ship the Doctor with guys, and have all explicitly stated that the innuendo is very much on purpose. Current show-runner Steven Moffat is of the opinion that the Doctor has been flirty with his male and female companions since ever, and that the Doctor, in fact, can't be bothered with silly human concepts of "gay" and "straight". He's also the guy who invented Captain Jack Harkness, and has casually stated that River Song was probably involved with her entire archaeology crew.
  • Leela, Romana, and Ace all seemed to get interestingly chummy with the female guest stars.
    • And then Leela and Romana became co-stars in the Gallifrey audio series. They spend an entire story visiting a spa planet to unwind together and talk about their relationship.
    • In The Robots of Death, Toos seems unusually attached to Leela, to the point that she requested Leela check on her arm again even after a robot offered to take her to Sickbay.
    • Oh wow Ace. She gets suspiciously chummy with a female guest cast member in almost every story. We really have to give special mentions to Ghost Light (in which she dresses up in Victorian male evening dress for no apparent reason, and then has two separate Cat Fights), and Survival, in which the Les Yay between her and the Cheetah Person Karra is so shameless that when the author complained that her intended lesbian innuendo had been censored most viewers wondered what the hell could have been cut out that could possibly have been shown before the Watershed.
    • Mel and Ace in Dragonfire.
  • There's a memorable moment between Shakespeare and the Tenth Doctor in "The Shakespeare Code", resulting in the line, "Fifty-seven academics just punched the air."
  • Light, the angelic Sealed Evil in a Can Big Bad of the 7th Doctor episode "Ghost Light", is about as Camp Gay as possible.
  • The interaction between the Second Doctor and his companion Jamie.
    • If by "interaction", you mean getting all up in each other's personal space, then YES.
    • They hug constantly, they flirt, they banter like an old married couple, and of all the companion/Doctor relationships, they seem most like a dynamic duo rather than "the extraordinary Doctor and his amazed companion along for the ride". We may as well add that Jamie was the first Old Who companion to be name-dropped in the revived show: Ten used his name as an alias in "Tooth and Claw".
    • Not just constant hugging, but constant touching—they epitomize No Sense of Personal Space. Jamie is a master of the Security Cling and, while he'll grab onto his co-companions or random one-off characters who happen to be nearby, clings to the Doctor with truly ridiculous frequency.
    • There's also that moment when the Doctor fondles Jamie's sporran, and a scene which only survives in telesnaps but which depicts Jamie on the Doctor's shoulders—and the Doctor rather definitely looking up.
    • In the serial The Evil of the Daleks, when the Doctor has to manipulate Jamie as part of a plot and Jamie finds out, he tells the Doctor "We're finished!" and refuses to touch him. It doesn't last long.
  • Turlough. He clearly has a crush on the Doctor. There's also this line, from the commentary on Turlough's first episode, on the subject of why the Doctor trusts him so easily:

Peter Davison: Clearly I'm missing Adric so much... I clearly want a companion I can put my arm around, rather than one I cannot touch, as with the girls.

  • Wilf almost has a mancrush on the Doctor.
  • Malcolm? Hero-worship is understandable, but running up to the Doctor, hugging him very tightly, and saying "I love you!" over and over is a bit different.
  • For an example that doesn't include the Doctor, there's the increasingly Ho Yay interactions between Max Stael and Adam Colby in Image of the Fendahl, which escalates to Adam being tied to a column with three buttons of his shirt unbuttoned and Max stroking his face with a pistol. Scott Fredericks has stated he deliberately played Max as bisexual.
  • Mr. Finch from "School Reunion" softly asking the Doctor to rule the universe at his side to a background of piano music comes to mind.
  • In "Rise of the Cybermen"/"Age of Steel" there was Rickey/Alternate Mickey and his boyfriend Jake. The actual expository scene was cut for one reason or another, making their canon relationship into simply oodles of hoyay.
  • In "The Vampires of Venice" we get lots of Les Yay from Signora Calvierri, who is basically a dominatrix-y older woman surrounded by sexy younger women who she regularly drinks blood from. (At one point this included Amy.)
  • Adric was briefly mentioned before, but not in his own entry, which he certainly has enough Ho Yay factor with both Four AND Five to qualify for. Lots of longing glances, and thoroughly unneccesary compliments of the Doctor, such as one bit where he says something along the lines of "Oh, Doctor, your handwriting is just lovely," in this really quite suggestive way.
  • In the 2011 Comic Relief Red Nose Day mini episode "Time": Amy Pond and Amy Pond.

Amy: Mmm... I'd give you a driving licence.
Amy: I'll bet you would.
The Doctor: Oh, this is how it all ends. Pond, flirting with herself. True love at last. [remembers that Amy's husband is also present] Oh, sorry Rory.
Rory: [nearly catatonic] ...absolutely no problem at all...

  • In "The Impossible Astronaut", the Doctor casually mentions that two of the founding fathers had a thing for him.
  • Madame Vastra and her chambermaid Jenny from "A Good Man Goes To War" do not qualify simply because it's definitely not subtext.
  • In "The Invasion", Isobel is quite clear that she only wants to photograph Zoe, not Jamie. And then she gets Zoe to wear a miniskirt, and photographs her from floor level.
  • There is a definite, if subtle, romantic undertone to Rumford and Fay's relationship in "The Stones of Blood". Mary Tamm herself said "We were all so innocent back then" when the Les Yay was pointed out to her.
  • Jean and Phyllis in "The Curse of Fenric".
  • A Yuri Fan will be able to wonder why Ping-Cho in "Marco Polo" was so anxious for Susan to say "goodbye" to her, even if there might be nothing to the pairing.
  • In "Daleks in Manhattan", Martha seems way too excited to watch Tallulah's dance number.
  • "The Happiness Patrol" is loaded with Ho Yay to the point that there's a serious argument that the whole thing is a deliberate queer rights allegory. In particular Ace getting her usual homoerotic overtones with a young female guest character (the repentant Patrol member Susan Q, who talks to her about being closetedly sad), the dysfunctional relationship between Gilbert M and the Kandyman, which really is like a married couple turned sour, and of course Gilbert M and Joseph C running away together at the end.
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