Shoutout to this underrated Ninerose moment. It shows how in tune they are on their FIFTH adventure (EU included- according to TARDIS wiki). Because Rose does have abandonment trauma with the way Jimmy Stone treated her. And Nine is just so totally in tune with it, he gives her a TARDIS key THIS early. And without hesitation! He says it’s about time she had one!
According to my count snooping through the TARDIS wiki, it was often taking up to 49 adventures for the Doctor would give a pre Rose companion a key. The average was 23! The total average ended up being similar at 21.1. So, it’s just absolutely insane in the most beautiful way that Nine gives her this key the second Rose is anxious about him leaving.
The Doctor believes he’s not just about to die; but about to have his body possessed by the Gelth. Yet, he’s SO happy to be with Rose right now that he’s grinning like an idiot
I’m not sure how I’m in the minority on this. But I ship Ninerose and Tenrose with the same enthusiasm. Honestly that goes for any Doctorrose ship. My Ninerose content isn’t meant to suggest Ninerose was stronger than Tenrose. And neither is my Tenrose stuff meant to suggest any kind of superiority over Ninerose. I view them as exactly the same relationship. And as exactly the same person.
Now, this is not to say it’s not valid fanon. If you see romantic relationships outside of the canonically confirmed and established ones, by all means write about them and enjoy them. That said, it is simply getting ridiculous the amount of times people try use it to justify their distaste of those who have someone they ship with the Doctor exclusively. Based on the canonical romantic relationships the Doctor has had, they are actually quite monogamous in canon. Again, not to say that it’s wrong to enjoy and champion the non canonical stuff, just that the polyamory thing is not some kind of sacred Doctor Who law that can be lorded over others. More under the cut.
Let’s get into the Doctor’s canonical romances that lasted longer than five seconds and had confirmed undeniable reciprocity (at least on some level): Charley Pollard, Rose Tyler, Clara Oswald, River Song*, and Yasmin Khan. I put an asterisk behind River because the reciprocity of that is muddy, debatable, and out of sync, but I’ll include her.
I also am not counting any of the one episode potentially romantic relationships because there just isn’t enough evidence to say that they were requited or anything more than fleeting attraction if they were.
First there was Charley. This one I’ve seen lots of people actually consider as queer platonic but based on the fact there was a non practical kiss on the lips, and that it was absolutely the Doctor’s most intense relationship to at the time it happened, I’ll go ahead and include her. After Charley was gone the Eighth Doctor went through several companions, a time war, and a period of traveling alone after the Time War before meeting and falling in love with Rose Tyler. No, I won’t count Fitz because most of anything overtly romantic actually comes from Fitz and not the Doctor.
Enter Rose Tyler. I don’t feel like I need to justify why this was a hard canon romance. Christopher Eccleston right off the bat confirms this as a love story and David Tennant describes the Metacrisis Doctor as “getting to do all the shagging” the original Time Lord Tenth Doctor wanted to do. Plus a million other confirmations of this being a romance. It then takes the Doctor until Clara Oswald to form any kind of enduring romantic attachment. This was at least 400 years as described in Day of the Doctor. But based on Eleven’s time spend travelling alone without the Ponds could have been even longer. Point is, taking at minimum four centuries to form another enduring romantic attachment is not the sign of a polyamorous person.
Yes, River technically came before Clara. But even if you go by the “he loved River so much” interpretation, they were constantly meeting out of sync. The only time the Doctor is shown to be embracing of River in consistent meaningful way is right before he sends her off to die and after he lost all his memories of Clara. Again, not exactly the mark of a polyamorous person if you need to forget your last love to show consistently affectionate behavior towards someone else. I personally think there’s plenty of room to say this was not reciprocated at all. But, however forced the marriage was or however it happened via teselecta they were in some way “married” so I’ll count it. While noting that marriage has historically not always been about love and that Time Lord society doesn’t seem to be a society that would make its people think of it as a love situation.
Then there’s Clara. Twelve referred to Eleven has her boyfriend and Peter Capaldi said the relationship between Twelve and Clara was romantic too. And then it took a whole regeneration for the Doctor to start having feelings for Yaz.
Now, Yaz was the most quickly developed romance after the last one for sure. But even that took a while. Thirteen didn’t seem to start considering her someone she was attracted to early in their travels. It took time. The confirmation from Chibnall on how requited this was is mixed but the unrequited story comment was made about why there was no kiss. And now there’s a Big Finish kiss so I’m going to say it counts. I’m not sure if it was a functional kind of thing but the Thasmin shippers are pretty happy about it so I’m going to assume it was a genuine expression of romance. After Yaz, there was Rogue sometime later but as of right now that hasn’t really been shown to be an actual relationship yet and was another one off attraction. Until and unless it is further developed.
Again, perfectly fine if there’s more relationships than these that you consider to be romances. But it is fanon. And fanon cannot be lorded over other fans. If you’re newer to the fandom, just understand that and don’t let people bully you over it if you don’t personally like the polyamorous Doctor fanon. The canonical show doesn’t support the polyamorous Doctor idea. Fanon is fantastic. It’s just not something you can enforce in anyone else. Single shipping any ship at all, canon or not, is completely okay. You don’t need to feel bad for doing it because the Doctor is polyamorous. For some people they are. But in canon they’re really not.
Before I end this, a disclaimer that polyamory is completely valid! I don’t think it’s less valid or more valid than monogamy. Just that it’s not a canonical aspect of the Doctor. In canon they’re a serial monogamist.
This is ridiculous. I’m writing to a diary like I’m a human tweeny bop girl. Oh well. I guess I’ll get on with it.
True love, isn’t it such a lonely idea? I live so long. One person couldn’t be my one soulmate. My one true love. That’s for ridiculous fairytales.
Or so I thought.
Then one day I grabbed the hand of a pink and yellow human scared and alone in a shop. I didn’t want to travel with anyone ever again. But the touch of her hand to mine was like sunlight coursing through my veins. When she first told me she wouldn’t travel with me, my hearts shriveled up. Then I came back and tried again she said yes! I’ll tell you what, best thing that’s ever happened to me!
That same human looked into the heart of the TARDIS because she refused to abandon me and I willingly gave up a whole life to get it out of her. Something I know I’ll keep doing for her if I need to again.
When I changed, she was so scared at first. It was over. The warmth, the joy, the excitement, it was over. It had to be.
But, a miracle happened. She still wanted me. And today, she laid with me on my coat and looked at me like I was her everything. I’m not sure I’m quite that special to her, but maybe one day I’ll earn it. I have to earn it. I can still feel her lips on mine. I long to feel that again.
True love isn’t silly. It’s not ridiculous. And I do have one true love. One soulmate. Rose Tyler. My Rose Tyler. I don’t know how I’ll ever tell her that. Maybe I don’t need to. I hope I don’t need to. Last person I said I loved, well, she left. I don’t want Rose to leave. Even though it’ll mean watching her age. I never want her to leave. Never ever.
Anyway, that’s all for now, diary. How do you sign off in a diary? Goodbye? Nah. See ya later? Au Revoir? Nahhhh. Oh well. I’m done for now. Still awkward. Just keep my secrets for me, will you?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
(The part about the Doctor last saying those words to someone who left is actually canon. In the audios he told Charley Pollard he loved her. But she ended up leaving. Or rather, the eighth doctor lost his memories of her changing her mind and wanting to stay. So, all he remembers of her is the goodbye note).
