The Overexposure of Clara Oswald

Guest contributor Kyle Robert Shultz on the flip side of Clara’s prominence in the Whoniverse.

Series 9 of Doctor Who, perhaps even more so than the two series preceding it, was largely the story of Clara Oswald. Even episodes in which we saw little of her, like The Woman Who Lived, wound up tying into the arc of her departure from the TARDIS. And I have to confess, looking back on Clara’s final stories, that my feelings about her final exit – and even her whole tenure on the show – are very mixed.

I’m not a Clara-‘hater’. Those who have read my comments all year on this site (under the username EvilZygonRabbit) will know that I’m generally very positive about her. I was disappointed in her characterization at first, but she rapidly grew on me, and I feel that in some ways she became an even deeper character than the companions who preceded her. I’m also not a Moffat-basher; I’ve been a vocal supporter of even his more controversial scripts and story decisions. That said, however, I was disappointed in Hell Bent, both as a series finale and an exit story for Clara. My purpose in critiquing this companion arc is not to incite a heated Clara debate (heaven knows we’ve had enough of those). If anything, as a writer of fiction myself, I find both the strengths and weaknesses of Clara’s storyline to be instructive and worthy of civil discussion.

The Doctor and Clara

There were several brilliant and even groundbreaking elements to the Doctor’s relationship with Clara Oswald, particularly in the dynamic between her and the Twelfth Doctor. For one thing, they had a mature friendship which improved upon the Doctor/companion romances of previous years. (Moffat continued to insist even recently that the Doctor still has a “crush” on Clara, but I’d like to believe that passed away with Eleven’s regeneration.) Additionally, Clara established herself over time as the Doctor’s equal rather than his groupie, taking her own initiative and challenging him instead of simply tagging along and asking questions like a “stock” Who companion. She had a welcome resemblance to Ace in this respect; rising above her present-day-human status to become something more as a result of the Doctor’s influence. Finally, Twelve and Clara had a unique and delightful chemistry, playing off each other to perfection. Both their humorous banter and their more serious interactions were a delight to watch.

Unfortunately, there were some parts of this relationship that didn’t work so well. For one thing, if you look at it from beginning to end, it feels inconsistent. Eleven and Clara frankly weren’t together long enough to establish who they were to each other. There were brief inklings that Eleven was attracted to Clara, but no clear motive was given. I could understand him having a crush on Oswin or Victorian Clara, but his sudden devotion to the fairly “vanilla” modern-day Clara of Series 7 never quite made sense. Twelve’s relationship with Clara was greatly improved, but still problematic. His obsession with her as a friend sometimes felt as confusing as Eleven’s crush. Despite how much they cared for each other, it still felt a bit extreme for him to endure a hellish, 4.5-billlion year ordeal to bring her back from the dead instead of accepting the loss and moving on. He cared deeply for Amy as well, yet never went to such lengths to retrieve her (ostensibly due to an arbitrary plot point about time paradoxes that has never been explained to uniform satisfaction). To a certain degree, then, the Doctor’s extreme devotion to Clara feels like a disservice to past companions. And not only them, but future companions as well. Does the Doctor now have to be careful not to get too close to his next companion? Will the threat of the “Hybrid” be hanging over him for all eternity?

The Whoniverse and Clara

Clara is now a vital part of the Doctor Who universe, perhaps more so than any other companion. She was there to comfort and inspire the Doctor as a child. She saved the Doctor’s life by scattering herself throughout his timeline. She was largely responsible for the three Doctors deciding to save Gallifrey at the close of the Time War. She was also responsible for convincing the Time Lords to give the Doctor a new regeneration cycle. Finally, if we are to accept Ashildr’s interpretation of the Hybrid, she ended up becoming part of an ancient Gallifreyan legend that determined the destiny of the universe and was ultimately the factor that brought the Time Lords out of hiding. But why? Why did so much come to rest on Clara Oswald, and in so short a time?

The contributions of Rose Tyler, Donna Noble, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams – all “legendary” in one way or another – are abruptly left in the dust by Clara’s abrupt rise to prominence. I don’t mean to pit companions against each other, but I have to ask… did Clara really earn this status? The sheer volume of things she’s done feels like it ought to have been divided between several companions. Wouldn’t it have been enough for her to be the Impossible Girl and stop there? Instead, Clara’s inflated importance goes on to affect the quality of episodes like Hell Bent. Instead of focusing on the return of Gallifrey, a story arc which in context seems far more significant than Clara’s exit, it wound up centering around her again. This serves to further irritate those fans who already felt that Clara got too much emphasis. And this after she had been given a well-received exit story already.

Which brings me to my third point…

Death and Clara

Granted, Rory may have Clara beaten when it comes to actual deaths, but not when you count deaths, almost-deaths, and apparent departures all together. Especially when you include the deaths of Clara’s echoes. To recap, Oswin died, then Victorian Clara died, then Clara Prime almost died when she entered the Doctor’s timestream, then she left in Kill the Moon, then she left at the end of Death in Heaven, then she appeared to leave in a dream in Last Christmas. Now, despite the fact that we should have been completely de-sensitized to Clara dying and/or leaving by the time Face the Raven rolled around, it still came as a great shock and felt like a fitting if heartbreaking close for the character. Yet Moffat still had to bring her back one last time for Hell Bent, and she now has an apparently indefinite reprieve before she has to die for the last time.

This was a mistake for a number of reasons. For one, it was unfair to Clara as a character. Face the Raven was the perfect ending for her, and should have been allowed to stand. For another, it destroys the concept of permanent death in Doctor Who once and for all. We officially can never trust that a character is gone for good, now that we know there are extraction chambers out there that can snatch them away from it at the last nanosecond. This is a huge disservice to the show as a whole. Then there’s the issue of death in general. Face the Raven and Heaven Sent stood as a powerful, compelling story of moving on from loss before Hell Bent came long to contradict them (reading Anna Rinaldi’s beautiful analysis of FTR saddens me now). Everything Clara said in her “final” speech in Face the Raven, as well as what her “ghost” said in Heaven Sent, was then thrown out the window. After all the people he’s seen die, doesn’t it make more sense to assume that the Doctor has learned how to move on after heartbreak by now? Having him endanger the universe by petulantly insisting on Clara’s resurrection paints him as strangely immature, and is a step backwards in his characterization. The alternative would have been a welcome change from his bouts of depression after losing all the other NuWho companions (except Martha, poor girl).

Conclusion

Looking back, it’s a shame that Clara was not allowed from the beginning to prove herself as a companion on her own merits. After two stellar entries as different incarnations of the character, she spent her first (half-)series as little more than a plot macguffin. Her second series was better, but had a little too much “telling” instead of “showing” when it came to her characterization. Her final year was by far the best, but was eventually let down by her role in the series arc. In a way, she reminds me of River Song, who has always been at her best when she is simply a character in the story instead of the story actually being about her. I’ll reiterate that I’m very fond of Clara, and will miss her very much. But I hope that her successor in the TARDIS will be less of a rival to the Doctor and more of a companion.