ANALYTICAL: COMPANION RETROSPECTIVE: CLARA OSWALD - PART 1

A short while ago, I started a Progressive Doctors series (which I will get back to, I swear - I just get so distracted, sometimes!) in which I analyzed certain incarnations of the Doctor that went through heavy character growth throughout their era. Even as I was writing it, I thought to myself: "I should do the same thing with the companions". The problem with this idea, though, is that only certain incarnations make it into the Progressive Doctors series. Whereas I would need to write up almost all the companions. Just about every one of them goes through some significant character growth while they travel with the Doctor. That's part of what makes us attach to the companion - we get to watch them develop. 

So Companion Retrospectives will be a bit more of a love-fest. I will examine certain companions that I feel really stand out from the show's long history and just take a closer look at the traits that endeared them to me so much. Basically, we'll review the qualities that I think made them shine so beautifully. 

We begin with the most recent of companions. 



PART ONE: CLARA AND ELEVEN

THE IMPOSSIBLE GIRL: THE PROS AND CONS

It seems almost redundant to claim that Clara is a most unusual companion. Not only are all companions unique in their own way - but the Doctor has traveled with a plethora of highly distinctive characters throughout the years.  This is the same man who has befriended a savage descended from astronauts, an immortal intergalactic con-man and a rebel Alzarian math genius. In Doctor Who, unusual companions are a dime a dozen!

But Clara really does "take the cake" when it comes to odd companions. Her Impossible Girl story arch makes her different from any other companion before her. Other companions have known two incarnations of the Doctor because they have been around when a regeneration happens. Some have come back for anniversary specials and stories in the New Series that implied non-existent romances and have gotten to know multiple Doctors. But, because of events that took place in the very temporally-paradoxical Name of the Doctor, Clara got to know the Doctor throughout all of his lives. In some ways, she is the Ultimate Companion. Which more-than-justifies the lengths the Doctor goes to when he tries to save her in Hell Bent. No one knows him as well as Clara. And he would hate to lose that sort of connection in his life. And this is what makes the whole dynamic that these two develop in the later seasons as enjoyable to watch as it is. There is a very special, unique bond between the Doctor and this companion - and we love that.

But what about before we knew who The Impossible Girl truly was? When she was a woman the Doctor was just obsessively chasing down to find out the truth about her? It was certainly a fascinating story that we all wanted to get to the bottom of. And we were provided with an intensely-satisfactory resolution to the mystery that allowed us a glimpse into one of the most pivotal moments in the Doctor's life and some super-cool previous incarnation cameo appearances.

But the mystery of The Impossible Girl also worked at the expense of Clara's character, in general. Attention that the writers should have devoted to the character's development, more times than others, was spent on just building up intrigue about who she really was. In some ways, we must congratulate Jenna Louise Coleman for finding certain traits and latching on to them as hard she could. Had she not done that - when questions regarding The Impossible Girl were finally answered - she could've ended up being a pretty damned flat and boring individual. Instead, she became a fully-fledged three dimensional character that we grew more deeply in love with because her "gimmick" had now been kicked out of the way and we could get to know her properly.


STARTING POINT

A specific section will be devoted to the "schisms" of Clara later in the essay. This way, our starting point can be with the proper Clara Oswald. The Clara we meet at the beginning of The Bells of St. John - not the Clara or Oswyn that we meet in The Snowmen or Dalek Asylum. But we must still acknowledge that these stories did happen before since they influence the Doctor's motivations for choosing Clara as a companion.

Which means, of course, that Clara has the most unusual of introductions. Never before has the Doctor been actively searching for a specific person to become his latest companion. In some ways, he is being almost unfair to Clara. Other companions were offered all of Time and Space because he liked who they were and wanted to spend time with them. But Clara is invited aboard because he wants to study her and unravel her mystery. Perhaps, on some level, she senses this and this is why she always chooses to keep one foot in her normal life and one in the TARDIS. There are probably more obvious reasons for this choice, though. We'll come to that in a bit.

Again, because the Impossible Girl storyline gets in the way of things, Clara's character traits aren't quite as easy to pick up on. This, however, is not entirely bad writing. Too often, when a new companion is introduced, their various quirks are almost shoved down our throat. We know the Doctor will choose them to travel with him because their personalities seem so much larger than anyone else's in the story. At least, with Clara, her traits are more subtly presented.


WHAT MAKES UP CLARA OSWALD?

Clara admits to her most prominent attribute in Time of the Doctor when she is stuck in the truth field on Trenzalore. A "bossy control freak" she calls herself - which, vaguely, brings to mind a moment when another favorite companion of mine refers to herself as a "mouth on legs". Unlike Tegan, however, Clara does not seem obvious in this character flaw. We see only hints of it in the Bells of St. John. She is a tad bossy with the kids she takes care of. And the fact that she does choose to keep "one foot in the world and one in the TARDIS" shows a desire to maintain control, too  (yes, Rory and Amy do something similar but only after they've been travelling with the Doctor for a while - Clara does right in her first story).

Perhaps the main reason why we don't see much of the bossy control freak is because the Eleventh Doctor is well-accustomed to being bossed around by the female companion. We're all, sort of, used to seeing Amy and River Song telling Eleven what to do. So when Clara comes along and slides quite comfortably into the same role, it doesn't seem to jar so much. It's only after the Doctor regenerates and has an equally-domineering personality that we really see the true Clara coming out.

A trait that we do see more clearly is Clara's skills with children. Her desire to take care of Artie and Angie after they lose their mother even though she was about to travel the world shows the tremendous care she has for kids. The fact that she's, actually, pretty good at handling them is also clearly on display in her first story. Things will get a bit rocky at the end of The Crimson Horror and we will become seriously skeptical about her duty of care for the kids in Nightmare In Silver but those were pretty exceptional circumstances. Overall, Clara feels a strong bond for children and works well with them. This will eventually lead to the career choice she makes by Day of the Doctor.

We are also given a glimpse of her third strongest character attribute in Bells of St. John. Clara encourages Artie to read because she is well-read, herself. In general, Clara Oswald favors intellectualism over a lot of other things. Her impassioned speech to Madame Vastra in Deep Breath about the only poster she ever kept on her wall best re-enforces this idea. But we see just a hint of this in her opening tale. No doubt, this will also influence her choice to become a teacher too.


THE USUAL JOURNEY WITH AN UNUSUAL SECOND STORY

Once established as the new companion, Clara tends to go the usual route that a New Series companion takes in her early travels. Very quickly, we see certain stock plot devices presenting themselves' that seem to happen with all new female companions. In Rings of Akhaten, she ends up saving the day after the Doctor's plans have failed. Amy does something similar in The Beast Below and Rose does the same thing in her very first story. There's also the whole "companion undertaking a dangerous mission on her own to impress the Doctor" moment in Cold War that we saw Martha do in Evolution of the Daleks (she figures out why the Doctor gives her his psychic paper and almost gets killed on the Empire State Building) and Amy attempts in Vampires of Venice (posing as a potential student for Signora Calvierri's academy). The Doctor even intentionally makes a trip to better investigate something strange about Clara in Hide. He did the same for Amy in Rebel Flesh/The Almost People. Like the Impossible Girl storyline, having Clara go through the stereotypical "becoming a fully-fledged companion" process gets in the way of being able to see her character shine through. She comes perilously close to becoming the first generic companion of New Who.

Fortunately, Clara is put through a very unusual process in Rings of Akhaten that allows us to see her in a slightly different light than a lot of other companions. In his quest to see who she really is, the Doctor travels into Clara's past and we get to witness some of her childhood. This is not unusual in and of itself. We catch a similar glimpse of Rose as a kid in the First Series with Father's Day. We learn quite a bit about young Amy, too. What's impressive about the childhood revelations in Rings of Akhaten is that Clara is forced very early on in her travels with the Doctor to let go of some very heavy pain in her past. The death of her mother continues to deeply haunt her until she is forced to give away her wedding ring to save the life of a girl. This is the beginning of her journey to be at peace with her loss. This journey reaches its ultimate fruition as she feeds the leaf she's kept pressed in her book to Grandfather and destroys him with it. Here, at last, she's able to come to terms with losing her mother. Never has a companion been put through such a heavy transformation so early on in her travels (well, Nyssa, went through some pretty heavy stuff in her first few stories). This definitely gets us to attach to Clara in a stronger way and helps to offset some of the damage being done to her character.

Rings of Akhaten also helps to cement the idea that Clara is good with kids. She does a great job of comforting Merry Galel throughout her entire ordeal. We also see the beginning of the whole "TARDIS hating Clara" arc that will continue to develop in stories like Hide and Journey to the Center of the TARDIS.


THINGS GET A BIT GENERIC TIL WE REACH NIGHTMARE IN SILVER

From Cold War to Crimson Horror, we really don't get to see much of Clara's character being brought to the forefront. She's more about story arcs than she is about personality development. Her ability to die and resurrect is the subject of significant discussion in stories like Journey to the Center of the TARDIS and, most particularly, The Crimson Horror. Journey and Hide also continue to re-enforce the idea that the TARDIS doesn't like her. But, the bossy control freak who's very smart and good with kids doesn't really get seen much in this run of stories. It's all about continuing to hint at the Impossible Girl Mystery.

We do get one nice bit of foreshadowing when Clara finds the book on The History of the Time Wars. She seems to learn some significant secrets about the Doctor's past. Even learns his name. But then that all gets tucked away in the back of her head to be accessed again, later. She'll go through a similar process in the future.

Oddly enough, the less popular stories of the second half of Series 7 seem to be the ones that do the best of showing off Clara as a person rather than just an enigma that needs to be solved. Clara's bossiness is clearly on display all over the place in Nightmare In Silver. In some ways, it can't be helped that she becomes more domineering. Artie and Angie have her over a barrel and she's doing her best to try to maintain some kind of degree of authority over them. So she really tries to rule them with an iron fist the whole time that they're on Hedgewick's World.

We also see her assuming the false title the Doctor gives her with all-too-much comfort. She starts bossing around the penance brigade without so much as batting an eyelash. Another sign that being in charge is something she might actually relish.

But the biggest indicator of just how much Clara can throw her weight around happens when the Doctor must reveal to her that Artie and Angie have fallen under the influence of the Cybermen. Any companion would have shown the fury that she blasts the Time Lord with when confronted with this. But she also orders the Doctor to fix things in a way we've seldom seen any companion do. She really is the boss and he is the bowing and scraping servant. Again, she seems far too at ease with being in a commanding position. She is definitely someone used to getting her way.


CLARA REVEALED, AT LAST!

And then, finally, we reach Name of the Doctor and the mystery of Clara is unveiled. As I've already mentioned, I find it to be a very satisfactory resolution to the whole arc. What's more enjoyable, however, is that the whole thing is now out of the way and we can really start to see Clara for who she really is.  

In much the same way as Rings of Akhaten gets Clara to win our heart, the revelation of who The Impossible Girl is also moves us deeply. Clara makes a huge sacrifice to ensure the Doctor has the life he's meant to have. Thanks to the things we've already seen her do in Rings of Akhaten, we don't find this act to be something that is beyond her. Which is, perhaps, another of Clara's most prominent traits - she is willing to give of herself in ways that most people wouldn't.

Day of the Doctor quickly shows a change in dynamic between Eleven and Clara. Her memories of the Doctor's past seem to work in a similar way to Rory's 2 000 years of waiting for Amy. It's something that is shut off most of the time. But, ultimately, she still knows the Doctor better than anyone. Which is why she affects him so deeply during that climactic scene where he's about to unleash the Moment. When she tells him to "be the Doctor" - no one knows better than her what that entails. We see, now, why the whole Impossible Girl storyline had to be created. The Doctor needed someone like Clara to be present during the most important decision of his lives. A lesser companion might not have had that same level of impact.

Even minor throwaway dialogue like: "I can tell by that sad look in your eyes" continues to insinuate the deepness of the bond that exists between them. Clara really does know the Doctor inside and out. This will change their relationship forever.

Which is why her reluctance to accept his new incarnation at the end of Time of the Doctor doesn't almost make sense. She should know that each new face is still the same man. But she also knows that the man she's been travelling with will change radically. Each incarnation takes its personality in its own direction. And Clara would know this better than anyone. She has seen that each new face has its own special set of character nuances. So she understands that she is losing the man she has become so attached to. So her dislike of the new Doctor isn't totally ludicrous. It has an internal logic, of sorts.

And as we move on to Part Two of this essay, we'll examine how she adapts to this new man....


SPECIAL FOOTNOTE:
THE SCHISMS OF CLARA

The central crux of the whole Impossible Girl story arc was that the Doctor was meeting various "Clara-like" beings who were dying and returning again later in his timestream without remembering what had gone on in their last life. Trying to figure out how this was happening was what eventually led the Doctor (quite literally) to Clara Oswald's doorstep. I have a silly fan theory about these different schisms of Clara Oswald.

In my essay, I discuss the four most prominent character traits of Clara Oswald:

1. Bossy control freak
2. Good with kids
3. Intellectual
4. Sacrificing

I would suggest that schisms of Clara work similarly to the incarnations of the Doctor. Different traits become more strongly emphasized in different bodies.


OSWYN OSWALD (Asylum of the Daleks):

She is obviously Clara's sense of intellectualism turned up to its highest notch. She is not just smart - she is more than happy to show off just how smart she is. Of course, some of this is due to Dalek enhancements. But the Daleks don't, generally, perform an alteration like this unless they see that the human is unusually intelligent. Had she not been so clever, they would've just allowed the nano-technology to do the same thing to her as it did to the rest of the crew of the ship she was on.


CLARA OSWYN OSWALD (The Snowmen)

The most obvious trait that has been "punched up" in this schism is her ability with children. She is a beloved nanny who shows the utmost care for the kids she looks after. We also see a certain level of bossiness out of her in the way she talks to her employer out-of-turn, sometimes. Or the way she persistently pursues the Doctor at the beginning of the story because he doesn't want to talk to her anymore but she doesn't feel the conversation is over, yet.


Of course, both schisms show that final trait of self-sacrifice quite clearly. Both die as they attempt to perform a greater good. Also interesting to note that the Clara schisms lead double-lives just like the true Clara Oswald does. True Clara Oswald travels with the Doctor but still takes care of Artie and Angie  (and, in later seasons, will work as a teacher at Coal Hill School), Snowmen Clara Oswald is a nanny and a barmaid. Oswyn Oswald, of course, was living a double-life without knowing it. But she was still a marooned entertainment director for The Alaska and a Dalek at the same time!


So, in many ways, those scant character traits that aren't that well-explored during her adventures with Doctor Eleven are, at least, shown off more prominently in her schisms. In many ways, it's a bit of foreshadowing that gets us to know the Clara we're going to meet in The Bells of St. John a little bit better....



Stay Tuned for Part Two where we explore Clara's journeys with Doctor Twelve.... 



What are these Progressive Doctor Essays of which I speak in the intro? Check out these links: 

http://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2016/02/analytical-progressive-doctors-part-1.html

http://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2016/04/progressive-doctors-2-first-doctor-part.html