Doctor Who Season 11: 10 Huge Questions After 'Demons Of The Punjab'
7. Did The Doctor Really Marry Einstein?
The Doctor has always been a name dropper, but 13 does seem to have gone into overdrive when it comes to referencing unscreened adventures and encounters. There were several in this episode, including the death-eyed turtle army and a previous meeting with Lord Mountbatten, but most intriguingly of all was her casual line that she had officiated over Albert Einstein’s frowned upon marriage.
It should be no surprise to hear her mention the scientist, after all, this Doctor clearly loves her chemistry and physics, but unless we know about the first of his two marriages, the precise reference comes across as bizarre to say the least.
Much to his mother’s intense disapproval Einstein married a Serbian Mileva Maric. Despite his Jewish Nationality and Maric’s Eastern Orthodox background, the objection was not on religious grounds. This at least makes sense of the Doctor’s non-denominational reference. Einstein’s family was proudly secular. What seems to have troubled his family more was that Mileva did not fit the stereotype of a good stay-at-home wife. She was a keen scientist like Albert and wanted to become a physics teacher. It also didn’t help that she was older than him. Einstein defended Mileva as “a creature who is my equal and who is as strong and independent as I am.” It was an ideal he sadly did not live up to.