Let’s use this space to pull together the strings, bits and pieces of what we know about Clara.
Okay, I’ll start. We know we’ve seen Clara, or a version of Clara, three separate times. The first time was in a Dalek in the episode Asylum of the Daleks. She was a crew member of the Starship Alaska that crash landed on Asylum, a prison planet for Daleks that have gone insane. She has been fully integrated into a Dalek Cyborg but her intellect is preserved. Once confronted by The Doctor of the truth she nearly completes her transformation but instead keeps her promise to The Doctor by disabling the planet’s force field. She has an unknown and innate ability for computer hacking. She is presumed killed when the Dalek’s destroy the Planet Asylum. She is known to The Doctor during the episode as “Souffle Girl.”
The next time we meet Clara was the Doctor Who Christmas special The Snowmen. She is a governess living a double life as a barmaid. Even though The Doctor originally saves her she falls to her death after accepting an invitation to travel with The Doctor by being pulled down from the cloud by the ice governess.
We see Clara again with The Bells Of St Johns, but I’m unwilling at this point to say that this is a different Clara than The Starship Alaska version. She was partially uploaded into the main server and gained extensive computer hacking knowledge. The Doctor downloads her before the upload is complete. Later, Calra is uploaded into the server completely and is freed by The Doctor when all consciencenesses are downloaded, emptying the server. Clara was given The TARDIS’s phone number by an unknown woman.
She has died twice. So far we’ve seen at least two different versions of Clara (At this point I cannot rule out The Starship Alaska version is not the same as the modern day version) and possibly up to three versions.
She has no memory of her past, likes, dislikes, hobbies or anything else besides the story of her parents in modern day England.
The Great Intelligence has been involved in at least two versions of Clara (The Modern Day version with The Bells Of St Johns and The Snowmen).
She retells the phrase “Run You Clever Boy and Remember” as each version of Clara.
Okay, so that’s a good start for now. What did I miss folks?
~Shooter Out
Shooter is drawing (from?) a lot of the same conclusions/theories I have, specifically the “long game” strategy of the Great Intelligence. I’ve been putting my grand conspiracy theory out there along on the Nerdy Dirty and Gallifrey Public Radio podcasts (ahem! plug! cough!), but I will repeat here enough to say that the idea of sleeper agent is not new to my mind, even despite the recent similar utilization of River Song to that effect (Impossible Astronaut).
If you had been studying your nemesis for over a millennia (as the GI may have been doing), and were patient enough to learn his truest weaknesses, wouldn’t you consider engineering a companion that somehow immediately endeared his/herself to our Time Lord, and could go through ‘iterations’ of that engineered weapon, unti the right one was developed?
(Zoinks. I need to get back to work…)
However, if you were The Great Intelligence and you were to iterate and engineer the perfect sleeper agent/companion for The Doctor why the heck would you trip his warning wire by supplying the SAME name/body 2-3 different times? Bad super-villaining if you ask me.
And no, Keir, I did not draw from your same conclusions. I have not had the opportunity to listen to your podcasts until a few weeks ago.
I had the same initial reaction Shooter, presenting the Doctor with the same person multiple times would definitely put him in a defensive mode. But…think about it, what draws the Doctor in? What peaks his curiosity? : A mystery. Presenting her multiple times is the perfect way of getting his attention.
The only thing we haven’t documented are the other things Clara carries with her. A book of 101 Destinations. Her Mother’s ring. Anything else?
(oh, and Shooter, I think Keir simply misphrased his statement, I don’t he meant that you drew from his conclusions, I think he meant you both have drawn the same conclusions, but I won’t speak for him, simply sharing an observation.)
Correct. They paralleled. I’m writing these things with 10 other shiny distractions, and get flummoxed. (I’m just a simple caveman.) You know me, I always credit where credit is due. Or doo-doo.
Gentlemen, I’m feeling the love! I’m also glad that both Keir and I are coming to a similar conclusion somewhat independently.
Solai, the attention grabbing aspect has intrigued me as well. But I guess I’ve been both a spook and a spy too long. I tend to always think if you are going to defeat and/or attack someone the element of surprise is the supreme advantage. Its doesn’t, however, make for the incredibly good advances in TV storyline that we’ve come to love these past few years. I might need just a little bit more convincing but I’m leaning your way heavily right now.
Solai, you brought up a good point with the 101 Destinations book - which was her mother’s too I believe. Wasn’t there one or two more pages filled out? And if they were filled out where they from Clara’s mother or from Clara herself? Also, we have yet to find out what happened to her dad, right? Or am I just not remembering that portion right now.
~Shooter Out
I am totally drawn in by the Clara Mystery but I rather wish they’d put some more meat on the bones of her character. She’s done a lot being the object rather than the subject of events in the past 4 episodes.
I have NO idea what she is. Unlike Keir, I have very shallow knowledge of Old Who, so I might be missing clues. The tie-in to the Great Intelligence feels important. Clara’s multiple places in this universe is a nice perpendicular to the two Tens–the Time Lord and the nearly-real replacement for Rose. There’s a part of me that fears Clara is nothing but a test set by some very clever enemy of the Doctor.
I unfortunately agree with Starbuccaneer here. I’m interested in the mystery, and as a character, she seems perfectly perky and sassy and all the usual things, but I have no attachment to her whatsoever. I feel like I only care about what happens to her from the mystery standpoint, which is fine at the beginning, but not after a good number of episodes now. It’s not like she doesn’t have a personality, but in some ways it feels like she doesn’t because there’s nothing backing up/to explain that personality. We don’t know why she’s the way she is, and so it comes across as somewhat generic, or if her personality (beyond being a curious and adventurous person enough to ‘hook’ a Doctor’s invite to the TARDIS, which is sort of the basic standard for all companions) even matters at all, because her existence is a mystery in itself.
As for the mystery itself, I’m pretty stumped as to how the 3( or 2, or more) Claras work. I almost feel like Clara being some machination of some enemy of the Doctor seems too obvious (especially coming off from whole River Song saga), so I rather think if Clara’s set up as a mystery intended to get the Doctor’s interest, it’s either by someone somewhat benevolent, or in a sort of more depressing turn, by the Doctor himself.
Well we know she has a connection somewhere in all this. That said, she herself is apparently unaware of it. Also the Doctor is trying desperately not to clue her into what he knows. With it being the Doctor that’s not some much a surprise there.
At this point we should have a better idea as to where this is all leading to. I don’t think Moffat wants this whole story arc to linger into the next series.
Now who is pulling all the pieces of Clara is an open subject. Considering we have had the Great Intelligence in 2 episodes makes for a good candidate. We know that at Trenzalor all will be revealed. Good chance our fav intentional forgetful beings aka The Silence will be back in that one. For all we know we could have the White Guardian back putting Clara in there to help the Doctor.
In the end we should know by the end of the month.
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I’m curious if folks here have any ideas about her relationship with the Tardis. Maybe my memory is short, but isn’t she one of the only companions that it hasn’t been OK with almost from the start?
And to try to keep it with the “what is she”, why it is that the one time she talks to it, the Tardis shows her a mirror image of herself, when, from a story point of view it could have been Amy, Rose, or any number of generic people that it’s seen across time.
Yeah. My interpretation of that thus far is that the TARDIS is suspicious of Clara because she suspects her to be from a malevolent source, but I really hope that’s not the case because it’s too similar to the River Song arc.
And yeah, no idea why the TARDIS would make herself look like Clara for Clara. Maybe the whole Clara has 2/3 (or more) copies is going to be a big theme as to what she is?
The general thinking regarding why the T.A.R.D.I.S. would show Clara to Clara was that it was a catty move. “I’ll show you the thing you most admire” Boom.
One thing I just realized is that the Claras are not aware of each other and don’t pass knowledge on between them. Victorian Clara gains no benefit from modern Clara, but they do share tendancies (caregiver for example).
I have a couple of other thoughts when it comes to the TARDIS showing Clara.
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What Solai said.
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Because Clara has not shown any personal history or personal interest the TARDIS did not have anyone to choose from that Clara would have either trusted or admired. So the TARDIS reverted to showing Clara to herself.
Also, I just realized that Clara was my first dog’s name (Que the Indiana Jones reference).
~Shooter Out
New theory for your consideration: Clara is the daughter of the Doctor and Rose from the alternate universe. I throw this out because it would be a way to tie the season finale to the 50th anniversary episode. You would have the 11th try to get Clara back to her family. Clara would be a Gallifrean human with the anatomy of a human and the regenerations of a time lord. Since she is Rose’s daughter, she forgets who she is after each regeneration but keeps the same appearance. As she ages, her knowledge increase to that of her father.
Now I know that the 10th in the alternate universe was not able to regenerate, but let’s say that trait was dormant and passed on to his daughter.
Discuss.
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Clara knows The Doctor calls her “The Impossible Girl” but refused to press him on it when he returned her and the kids home after Nightmare In Silver.
We also know that Clara does not want to rule 1,000 Galaxies when she turned down Emperor Ludence Nimrod Kendrick Cord Longstaff XLI’s proposal in Nightmare In Silver.
I am amusing myself by re-reading this thread with fresh eyes. Main takeaway: Stemo is a bastard who lies and plays with us.