WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Doctor Who New Year's Day holiday special, "Revolution of the Daleks," which aired Jan. 1 on BBC America.
In the New Year's Day special "Revolution of the Daleks," the Doctor spends nearly two decades locked up in space jail. Thankfully, her old friend Jack Harkness returns to break her out of prison and reunite her with her TARDIS. Together, they travel back to Earth to help Graham, Yaz and Ryan battle the Daleks. However, while the Doctor expected not to have missed a second of time with her fam, she found out that ten months had passed since her companions last saw her. During those ten months, they searched for signs of her, while trying to figure out what could have happened to the Time Lord.
This time apart leads to the departure of both Ryan and Graham at the end of the episode. But before that happens, Jack Harkness and Yaz share a heart to heart that foreshadows the end of a companion's journey -- and it also works as meta-commentary for the series as a whole.
Yaz is perhaps the companion that was the most affected by the Doctor's absence. Out of all three, she is the one who obsessively searched for the Doctor, and she was clearly the most shaken by her sudden disappearance. When she is finally reunited with the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz is furious, blaming the Doctor for leaving them in the dark for so long.
Later on in the episode, Yaz shares a bit of quiet time with Jack Harkness, another one of the Doctor's former companions, and he explains that the end of the adventures across time and space may not always be a choice. "Being with the Doctor, you don't get to choose when it stops," he tells Yaz. "Whether you leave her or... she leaves you."
"It felt cruel," Yaz answers, "to be shown something I couldn't have anymore. It felt like I'd rather not have known. I'd rather not have met her because having met her, and then being without her, that's worse. How do you deal with that?"
Jack then reminds Yaz that traveling with the Doctor is an absolute privilege. "How many people in the universe get to meet the Doctor, let alone travel with her?" he says. "We're the lucky ones, Yaz. Enjoy the journey while you're on it. Because the joy, it's worth the pain."
The conversation between Jack and Yaz may foreshadow the departure of Graham and Ryan later in the episode, but it also addresses the fanbase of Doctor Who -- both those who are still devoted to the series, and those who may have fallen off in recent years.
With the arrival of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor and new showrunner Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who embarked on a new chapter with 2018's Season 11. Since then, the series has delivered two seasons and two holiday specials starring Whittaker's Doctor and her companions Graham, Ryan and Yaz. Unfortunately, certain vocal fans have been complaining about the series' new direction for the past several years, clamoring for a return to the old formula and the return of classic monsters.
Yaz's pain, and her believing that it was cruel to have something she no longer could, seems to address these viewers specifically. Luckily, Jack Harkness is here to remind Yaz -- and anyone else who needs to listen -- that being with the Doctor is a special kind of honor, through all the ups and downs. Even if this might not be certain fans' favorite season, it's still worth it because, well, it's Doctor Who. And there's nothing else like it on television.
Being a fan of the sci-fi series, it truly is a privilege.
"Revolution of the Daleks" stars Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, Tosin Cole, John Barrowman, Chris Noth, Harriet Walter and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. The Doctor Who holiday special aired on BBC America on Friday, Jan. 1.