Why Clara Shouldn’t Die – Part 1: The Exit Invasion
Guest contributors Sam White and Alex King state their reasoning.
So there’s this man. He has a time machine…
He calls himself the Doctor and up and down time and space he goes, zip zip zip. The entire universe is his canvas, and he paints as he goes along, trying to comprehend its endless possibilities. Then one day he meets a girl – short, bubbly, with big twinkling eyes and a weird pointy nose, who also seems to have a strange fascination for soufflés. Ordinary, you might think. She is, but she also isn’t (but only the Doctor knows why) – a hybrid, if you will (dramatic pause). Her name is Clara and she wants to travel the world and has an insatiable thrust to witness its wonders, just like him. And so in his quest to understand this ‘Impossible girl’, the Doctor asks her to come along. What happens next, as they say, is history.
But my question is this. What’s the point of history if you don’t learn from it?
Three years on, and Clara Oswald’s still as big an enigma as she was back when we first met her, which by no means is an easy feat to pull. In Clara Oswald, Steven Moffat gave us the most mysterious and beguiling companion of them all, a character whose stories will be revered decades from now, and will perhaps ripple in time to inspire grander and greater things. However, like all good things her story too is about to come to an end. The news that Jenna Coleman would be bidding farewell to Doctor Who and the TARDIS this year, though expected, was still quite heart-rending. It spread like wildfire across all Doctor Who online forums, sending waves of speculation thrashing across the entire fandom. What would tear the current and seemingly unbreakable TARDIS team asunder? How would Clara Oswald leave?
One of the most popular and widespread theories whirling around is death. Steven Moffat as a writer adores foreshadowing. If you’ve followed his arcs closely, more so this year, then you’ll realize just how much pleasure he takes in including foreshadowing elements in the stories. It’s part of what makes his stories much more layered and enjoyable on repeat viewings. Series 9 can in fact be placed at the top of the totem pole, heavy with angst, blatantly advertising the eventual and ominous departure of the Doctor’s closest friend, and in the process adding exorbitant weight to this theory. And on top that, the Abbey Road promotional pics featuring Clara, The Doctor and Daleks which also seem to support this theory.
Interestingly however, death doesn’t really fit the bill when it comes to being her final fate on the show. To quote Moffat himself –“Everybody knows that everybody dies, and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark, if he ever, for one moment, accepts it.” To exactly understand what this means, you’ll have to follows us on this journey where we look back at the past and present of our ‘Impossible Girl’, and decipher just why Clara Oswald needs to live. So let’s start by examining some of her previous supposed farewells.
Run you clever boy and remember me.
“It’s like my mum said. The soufflé isn’t the soufflé, the soufflé is the recipe.”
Two years have passed since The Name of the Doctor aired and effectively wrapped up Series 7’s Impossible Girl arc, and yet it’s still as fresh in my mind as if it was just yesterday. A lot of it is probably due to the scale at which the story was enacted. The idea of a single (and tiny) person having such a huge footprint on the Doctor’s timeline was baffling, bizarre and exciting. It still is. In a heroic act of self-sacrifice our soufflé girl jumps into the Doctor’s time-stream, fragmenting into a million pieces, living, dying and saving the Doctor again and again. Poetic beauty aside, it revealed just how much she cared, not only for the Doctor, but also for the lives of people the Doctor had influenced along the way, the civilizations he had saved, the planets he had rescued. It showed character, courage and even though her relationship with the Doctor was still quite recent at that point when compared to say, Amy and the Doctor, it showed potential for a friendship which could grow even stronger.
So what’s the point of all this? The point is that while it was not exactly a grand exit, it still felt like one and it still could have been. A lot of the fans are hoping for a similar framework for her exit in Series 9, only this time with the added consequence of Clara’s demise. While I agree that such a scenario would be extremely heart-breaking and self-referential, I don’t think it would really be able to portray the intricate complexities of how this unlikely friendship has evolved since The Name of the Doctor. I say this because such an event would only represent a constant, specifically the heroic and self-sacrificing nature that she has already shown to us in The Name of the Doctor. I say heroic, because it’s a very deep-rooted part of her character. Clara wants to feel important, be important and do amazing things. This is why she asks the Doctor to remember her. It’s a way of showing her value and significance. Perhaps, this heroic nature is also why she admires the Doctor so much and wants to be like him. Eventually we see this admiration and friendship grow stronger and deeper through the events of The Day of the Doctor and The Time of the Doctor. So much so, that the Doctor chooses to regenerate in her presence, showing just how much he trusts her.
I am going to be a bit forward here and ask you a very simple question? Clara sacrificing herself for the Doctor, isn’t it something most his past companions would do? Wouldn’t Rose and Donna do the same in a heartbeat, and more importantly didn’t they already do it? If you say yes, then here’s another question for you – What do you think would make her story stand apart from the rest then? Just that she’ll die while others survived. Death for the sake of making it different. Some of you may point towards the thematic beauty, point at how her story will come full circle. In which case, here’s another question for you – Do you think that Clara Oswald as a character is defined only by ‘Impossible Girl’ arc? If you answer the question by bringing the fabulous and unprecedented dynamic she has with Doctor to the foreground, then you’re on the same track as us.
The events that take place in Series 7 are just a part of what the character is, the beginnings of a much more complex and nuanced character so to say. Let’s move on and see how the character has evolved…
Hatred is too strong an emotion to waste on someone that you don’t like.
” Yeah, well, clear off! Go on. You can clear off. Get back in your lonely, your lonely bloody Tardis and you don’t come back. “
What happens when someone you’ve admired for a long time changes? What happens when the change is so dramatic that you feel betrayed? I am sure you all remember the above quoted scene from Kill the Moon. It was the turning point of Series 8 and Twelve and Clara’s relationship. A rough patch in this unlikely and fantastical friendship, a story that highlights the obstinate and egotistical nature of both our protagonists. Clara wanting to leave the TARDIS because she could no longer see her friend, because she felt insulted was an interesting way to test this friendship. After all they had gone through together in Series 7 and the first half of Series 8; it felt not only wrong but also odd for Clara to want to end their relationship in such a way. Nevertheless, it was incredibly necessary for both of them.
How? Well, because it didn’t end their relationship. In Mummy on the Orient Express, we surprisingly find the Doctor and Clara together again. Even after all the harsh words that were exchanged, it becomes clear that neither of them wants to part on bad terms. Mummy on the Orient Express addresses this issue in the most remarkable and applaudable way possible. It makes them confront each other and finally open up. Clara opens up and admits to the Doctor that she could never hate him but questions his ways, and the Doctor opens up about why he does what he does and in the end, both forgive each other. The most important aspect however was the divulgence of Clara’s fondness for both the Doctor and what he does. In short, her addiction. We’ve somewhat talked about just how much she admires the Doctor and her need to feel important. This episode reminded her just how attached to him and the travelling she really is and just how ordinary and boring her life would be if he wasn’t in it. Consequently, it becomes evident to her that she cannot leave and so she decides to continue travelling with him.
What the use of all this? You might ask again. Well firstly, this addiction is one of the reasons why I don’t want to see Clara leaving of her own accord in Series 9. It just doesn’t feel congruous in context of how her character has developed. Clara wants to live an exciting life like the Doctor, be a hero and not get bogged down by the mundane activities of everyday life. We’re at a very crucial time in her life right now. There are signs that emphasize the start of a drastic metamorphosis. The lies she tells to Danny, the seemingly enhanced ability to take control and a radical desire to become like the Doctor, the very person she couldn’t quite understand in the first half of Series 8. While she was on friendlier terms with the Doctor’s previous persona, Twelve appeals to her because in a way he’s closer to her character than Eleven ever was. The anger, the control freakishness, and the inherent kindness, it’s all there, but while there certainly are similarities there is something that she can never have. His experience. For now just note this point down and let me carry on…
Her struggle to control fails as both her worlds come crashing down in the Series 8 finale, and she has to make a difficult choice.
Oh, how was my life, you mean?
” Travelling with you made me feel really special. Thank you for that. Thank you for making me feel special. “
The final act of Death in Heaven is a testament to the friendship, the Doctor and Clara have. It shows the audience just how much the Doctor and Clara think like the other and most importantly just how much they care for each other. Both of them in act of sacrifice lie to the other so the other could have something seemingly better than their unconventional relationship. This just goes on to show the level of understanding one has of the other and the price they are ready to pay for each other’s happiness. The above quote also reveals a lot about how Clara sees the Doctor and it is perhaps the most fundamental difference between them. For Clara, travelling with the Doctor and his companionship are the things that make her special while the Doctor doesn’t need anything or anybody to feel special, because he is aware that he is not special, lucky maybe, but not special. He needs people to remind him of the beauty of life, and someone to share it with. This is evident from the quizzical look he gives her when she says those words to him. Clara has been shown to be an egomaniac, she has a very strong sense of self and travelling with the Doctor and going on adventures that are far and beyond the dreams of ordinary human beings fuels her ego and makes her see herself as somebody special.
In Last Christmas, we were also lucky enough to see how Clara would have lived her whole life without the Doctor and while it wasn’t anything like her life aboard the TARDIS, it was heavily influenced by the experiences she had had while travelling with the Doctor. Frankly, there is a greater sense of tragedy and depth that can be felt through such an exit than death. I say this because when you really consider the cost Clara had to pay, you’ll find that it is much larger than the instant relief of death, a lifetime of waiting and anticipation and never feeling special again. This is evident from the reluctance she shows to wake up when she remembers her life as a lonely old lady on a Christmas night. In the end her entire life was reduced to a mere shadow of the days she had once lived with her alien friend. Perhaps this why Moffat intended Last Christmas to be her final adventure and had Jenna not decided to stay then this is probably how her story would have ended – as a tragedy of age and separation.
But such an ending, while heart-breaking and poignant would have still felt incomplete especially because one particularly developing facet of Clara’s character would have been completely ignored, which is the developing arc of her becoming like the Doctor. This is the aspect that makes her stand apart from all other companions. What happens when you try to be the Doctor? How far can you walk with an ageless God? The Doctor is who he is because of the suffering and loss he has endured in his long and eventful life. Being the Doctor comes with a burden, and if one intends to be like the Doctor, they must be prepared to face the repercussions.
Throughout this article I’ve stressed on her relationship with the Doctor. It’s because in the context of the show there is no other way to best describe her. Yes, she is a school teacher and has a normal life but she’s also a character who has evolved significantly through her times with the Doctor, and apart from a few cases where her domestic life has been given a bit of a mention, I think the central focus has always been on her TARDIS life, so much so that it even jeopardized her relationship with Danny Pink. This is contrasting when compared to her predecessors, each of whom had some semblance of life to go back to after departing from the TARDIS. This is why her relationship with the Doctor is so important. It defines her as a character.
So what now? Well, so far through her almost-exits, we’ve established certain key character traits that Clara possesses, we’ve come to appreciate and fathom the complexity and intricacy of the relationship she has with the Doctor and we’ve developed one facet of why death might not be the most felicitous exit for her. But just like any Doctor Who two-parter, this is just the setup. This is just the first act of a bigger story. The full discourse has yet to unfold. And so standing true to tradition and continuing it, I’d like to end this half on a whopper which is sure to leave you baffled and questioning everything you think you know. I’d like to bring to your attention the following lines from The Name of the Doctor –
“River: Oh, there’s one more thing.
Doctor: Isn’t there always?
River: I was mentally linked with Clara. If she’s really dead, then how can I still be here?
Doctor: Okay, how?
River: Spoilers.”
Guess who is back for Christmas!
To be continued …
