sonya khan

Very possibly a new top ten Doctor Who episode there

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Alright it just finished, hardly any time to process it, but my initial thoughts are thank you, writers! Yes, “let’s have an episode about the importance of discussing mental health (and call it Can You Hear Me)” seems anvil-icious but it was important, you know? As a mentally fragile person I WANT people to discuss it! So there ya go. Other things I loved:

  • Claire-Hope Ashitey! I always wanted her to appear on Who, ever since seeing Children of Men.
  • Sonya, Yaz’s sister, I really like her and she got some character development along with Yaz here.
  • The whole scene between Yaz and the police officer was beautiful, although I do hope we’ll revisit that period of Yaz’s life at some point, I don’t think it was ever mentioned until now?
  • I thought Grace might make an appearance this episode and she did, hooray
  • A first for modern-day Doctor Who, an animated sequence!

One tiny little thing which always bugged me about Doctor Who

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…is that so few of the companions have siblings!

Okay, a few of the more recent ones do. Yaz has Sonya:

(I find Sonya and her current status as the not-favourite granddaughter interesting, I really hope she’ll be back in some capacity.)

And Martha had Tish and Leo, although even then Leo just kinda disappeared halfway through the series:

I’m not really all that good with Classic Who but Turlough had a brother called Malkon, although I gather he only ever appeared in one story:

And although we never see them in the flesh we learn at one point that Rose gained a brother called Tony, and River a brother called Anthony (the similarity in those names, I always wondered if it was coincidence or tribute or what). Also the Brig, uh, seems to have a brother who may be canonical or may not be. (Welcome to Doctor Who.)

Is it that weird that the Doctor only seems to travel with only-children? I suppose it makes sense that she would gravitate towards them. Lots of the Doctor’s companions (take Amy or Bill for example) don’t just have no silbings, but no-one at all. Plus I suppose back in the older Who days there was never any need for much companion backstory at all.

However! Me personally, I’m dying for more sibling stories. Doctor Who does so few of them and I want more! There’s so many dynamics there that writers could explore. I’d quite like to see Sonya travelling with the Doctor and Yaz for a bit, for example, and get a proper exploration of the relationship between the Khan sisters. My fingers are crossed, anyway.