But on screen, for a long time, The Doctor was not a romantic figure. His one romantic interlude in the early days was in 1964, in the very first season, when William Hartnell’s Doctor had a gentle fling with a mature lady of the Aztec community the TARDIS crew had landed among. The Doctor had romanced Cameca initially to get information from her, but seems to have become genuinely fond of her. She for her part announced their engagement, which worried The Doctor and he had to let her down gently before he left the village. But it was a beautiful, if short-lived relationship involving a lot of hand-holding in moonlit gardens and although we didn’t see an on-screen kiss there is reason to believe they happened.

Mature Love

But after that little romance, The Doctor seems to have been far more circumspect in his relationships with the opposite sex. His female companions were surrogate granddaughters, filling the gap Susan left in his life, rather than girlfriends. The Third Doctor’s feelings as Jo left him to marry Cliff sum up what all of the girls meant to him over the years. Even Sarah Jane, who seemed very close to the Fourth Doctor, was never quite THAT close.

It was in the Fifth Doctor's incarnation, that he next found himself on the receiving end of genuine affection. And then, it was a parting kiss as Nyssa chose to remain on the Terminus ship and help cure the lazar victims aboard.

Goodbye Kiss

It was not until the Eighth Doctor, in his adventure in San Francisco, that anything remotely resembling a romantic kiss took place. In this Eighth incarnation The Doctor first kisses Grace out of enthusiasm as his memory, impaired by the regeneration, comes back to him.

Doctor and Grace - Once

She then tells him to do it again, and this is very much a passionate kiss of a man and a woman who might be on the verge of being lovers.

Doctor and Grace - Twice

The later kiss, at the end of the film, is between two people with acknowledged feelings, who know that it isn’t going to work out and they WILL be parting soon.

Doctor and Grace - Third and Last Time

But the idea that The Doctor COULD be a romantic hero was established. True, it seemed more of a convention of American film-making that the hero and heroine SHOULD kiss. But it opened up the possibility. It took the character a step away from the avuncular Seventh incarnation.

When the Ninth Doctor turned out to be a smouldering, sensual man, with all kinds of pent up emotions bursting to come out, it was easy to see the progression from the Eighth incarnation. This time, it seemed almost impossible that The Doctor and Rose wouldn’t kiss sooner or later. There was clearly a different dynamic between them. They WERE in love with each other, but unable to admit it. The Doctor was emotionally damaged by the Time War even if regeneration had healed the physical scars. Reaching out wasn’t easy. But even the Dalek in Van Statten’s bunker recognised what he could not acknowledge easily.

And nobody saw THIS coming. A kiss of a very different sort that would have caused waves of protest in the First Doctor’s era. Jack Harkness’s attraction to The Doctor had been hinted at and teased for several episodes, but now the chips were down. They faced an uncertain future – faced the real possibility of death. And Jack knew only one way to say goodbye to his first unrequited love.

Unrequited Love

As for The Doctor and Rose, the only chance he had of kissing her was in a desperate attempt to save her life which, ironically, cost his own life – or at least his Ninth life. But it was a kiss worth waiting for. Accompanied by swelling music and bathed in golden light, it was a screen kiss worthy of a big screen epic moment.

A Greater Love...

And so to the Tenth Doctor, and it seemed EVERYONE wanted to kiss him. Even his enemies.

First Lady Cassandra stole Rose’s body and took advantage.

"Yup, Still Got It!"

Then The Doctor met Madame de Pompadour and the attraction was clearly mutual. It was she, however, who made the first move, giving him a deeply sensual kiss that flipped Time Lord hearts and put his ongoing relationship with Rose on the back burner for a while. It was a love that was doomed to fail, but one that proved conclusively that he COULD love.

A Brief Encounter

The relationship with Rose, by comparison, was a slow-burning one. Again, it was clear that they cared for each other, but it was an unacknowledged love, and the closest they got to a kiss was this one, as The Doctor prepares to go down the mine shaft into the Impossible Planet, a journey into unknown danger. Who wasn’t thinking of the theme tune to Armageddon at this moment? Yes, she loves him. But the kiss is an interrupted one, separated by the space helmet.

"Come Back, Safe."

Meanwhile, Jackie gets in on the act. This moment from Army of Ghosts sees Jackie, who, remember, started out flirting with the Ninth Doctor only to be brushed off, then slapping and generally scorning him, acknowledging her affection for him as, perhaps, a future son in law, with a kiss.

"Ooohhh... Get Off!"

And the final tragedy was that The Doctor failed, in the last, either to kiss Rose as a lover, or to admit that he did love her. In the end, they are separated by far more than a visor. He can do no more than project an image of himself into the universe she is in to say goodbye. If the Ninth Doctor’s kiss ranks among the greatest screen kisses, this ranks as the greatest missed kiss of all time.

The Greatest Screen Kiss That Never Was

And so The Doctor is alone and missing Rose in very many ways. So what lies behind this kiss? Not what it seems. His purpose was merely to confuse the Judoon by leaving his non-Human DNA trace on Martha’s lips. Or so he says.

"This Means Nothing"

And then came Nurse Joan Redfern, who fell in love with The Doctor's alter ego, John Smith. A teasing picture of them happily married that floated around U-Tube for months turned out to be a vision of what might have been if John Smith didn't have to return to being The Doctor. Whether she kissed The Doctor or kissed John Smith is a moot point. This was the nearest thing to a real human relationship for The Doctor that had yet been seen on screen.

Human Nature

Human Love

Happy Ever After??