Speculating on Clara

Guest contributor Aaron Weiner shares his theory on Clara.

There are many theories as to who Clara Oswin Oswald is. Is she a Time Lord? Does the Doctor save her from the Asylum at the last minute? Is she the same person splintered through time? Are they merely close relatives with the name passed down? I intend in this article to not only present a new theory on top of all of the other ones, but create theories as to where some of the episodes in Series 7 Part 2 are going (based on what we know at the time of writing).

I first want to start off with the similarities between Asylum of the Daleks and The Snowmen. Not only did she die in both episodes and say the line “Run you clever boy and remember”, but she also exhibited psychic/telepathic abilities in both. According to Steven Moffat, in order to create her voice over the intercom in Asylum of the Daleks she psychically sent her mind out to be recorded (or something along those lines).

In The Snowmen she is one of the only people in the episode that was able to create titular monsters or melt them. Why couldn’t the Doctor then? He was in the same area as her, meaning that he too was stuck in the telepathic web. He should have been able to. This obviously expresses a specific ability contained within Clara’s mind that is unique. This leads me to believe that she is in reality not human.

My theory is that she could be an entity that does not exist in physical form, and therefore takes up the form of a specific human, Clara. This entity could, since it does not exist physically, exist in other dimensions, and even in time, allowing for the same person to be living at different points in time without time travel.

Now to support this claim, I am going to investigate the different facts that we know about Series 7 Part 2. The first episode, The Bells of St John, is about something living in the Wi-fi. It is also said to be able “to project an image from your subconscious”. This is extremely interesting because now within three episodes, there are three different types of psychic/telepathic abilities, helping to prove my theory.

The next episode in the run is rumoured to be titled The Rings of Akhaten. Many people believe that this is a reference to Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, it most likely is, but in much less of a way than people think. For those who don’t know (I didn’t know either until I did some researching on Wikipedia and other sources around the internet), Akhenaten was not named Akhenaten to begin with. He changed his name in order to help show his devotion towards the religion that he founded called Atenism.

Akhenaten means ‘effective spirit of Aten’, or ‘living spirit of Aten’. Akhaten can mean two different things. According to ancient Egyptian culture, the Akh is a deceased person who cares and protects the living, if the living help to maintain the deceased. The interesting thing is, how could the deceased help the living? I believe this to be a hint as to who Clara could be, and how she exists.

The next episode is rumoured to be titled The Cold War, and is, according to Mark Gatiss, supposed to have the word ‘Vienna’ in it. I looked around on the internet and the only thing that I could find that mentioned Vienna and submarines was when the Berlin Wall was created. This is what I believe this episode is about, people escaping through a submarine to get around the Berlin Wall, which happened to start building in 1961, which is awfully close to 1963.

Following that we have Neil Cross’ ghost story, which, as we learned in The Unquiet Dead, can be creatures without bodies, looking to gain physical form again, which coincides with my previous argument as to who Clara is.

The final set of episodes, I personally do not have any idea about, but I believe them to be more like regular episodes, and very interesting. I cannot wait to find out though.

Feel free to discuss your own theories on Clara in the comments…