Clara Oswald

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Character
Name: Clara Oswald
Occupation: Doctor's companion, English Teacher, Nanny
previously barmaid and a governess
Relationships: The Doctor
Fandom: Doctor Who
Other: Wikipedia page
Clara Oswald from Doctor Who by shintetsuya (2015)
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Clara Oswald (aka Clara Oswin Oswald after her various "splinters") is a companion of The Doctor in Doctor Who, travelling alongside both their Eleventh and Twelfth incarnations. She is portrayed by Jenna Coleman.

Clara is presented to the audience as three distinct, though similarly-named, people all portrayed by Coleman. In the Series 7 finale, it's established that the other versions of her are splinters, created by stepping into The Doctor's timeline, and splitting herself up into countless versions of herself.

When referring to her, especially in S7, fans will sometimes use her canon moniker, the Impossible Girl. Criticism of another companion of the Moffat era being a mystery is often counterargued with the idea that this moniker is there as a means of subversion, and that the insistence of fans calling s7!Clara as such years after that series ended misses the point of her arc.

Clara is a highly divisive character, with fans seemingly either loving or hating her. Much of this stems from her bossy, sometimes unlikable personality and behaviour, both in regards to people loving her and hating.

Character Background

Her birthday is on November 23rd, the same date as the Doctor Who anniversary.

Series 7

Clara Oswald is the Impossible Girl, The Doctor meeting her as three seperate people throughout time and space. Oswin Oswald was converted to a Dalek and dies saving the Doctor in the Dalek Asylum. In Victorian London, she is leading a double life, as Clara Oswin Oswald the barmaid and Miss Montague, the governess. She is killed, and her last words are - "Run, you clever boy, and remember".

Clara Oswald, the original, is given The Doctor's number by Missy in 2013, and the two travel together. They discover that her life is entwined with the Doctor's: leaping into his timeline to save his life, she is scattered across all his lives, intervening to save him – and dying as a result – in every one.

50th Special & Series 8

Clara becomes a teacher at Coal Hill School – the same school attended by the Doctor's granddaughter in 1963, where First Doctor companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright once taught, and where Ace once hit a Dalek with a baseball bat. She falls in love with Danny Pink, but he's killed in a road accident, later resurrected as a Cyberman. After dreaming about Danny in an incident with Santa Claus, Clara commits herself fully to her adventures with the Doctor.

Series 9

It's on one of these adventures that Clara's reckless actions results in her own death. The Doctor returns to Gallifrey to speak to Clara one last time. The Timelords extract her from the moment before her death, to seek her aid, but the Doctor plans to save her and refuses to return Clara to her timeline. The Doctor forgets Clara, and she ends up travelling through time and space with Ashildr in her own TARDIS.

Fandom

Clara's introduction as the Impossible Girl led to many fan theories. Her appearance and subsequent deaths in two different time periods, led to many theories that Clara was a Timelord. There were theories that she was a new regeneration of River Song, Susan Foreman or a future incarnation of the Doctor. There was also a theory that Clara could be the physical manifestation of the Tardis, existing across multiple time periods at once. Other fans suspected that Clara was a trap, designed to catch the Doctor. Ironically, some fans have pointed out that the narrative criticises The Doctor's treatment of Clara as a mystery, as it is confirmed in the finale, after having been pointed out several times during the series, that Clara is a perfectly ordinary human woman.

With the conclusion of her Impossible Girl arc, there was criticism that Clara, like many of Moffat's female characters lacked agency. As a counterargument, other fans have pointed out that it is fully Clara's decision to jump into his timestream.

In season 8, some fans complained that the show was more Clara Who than Doctor Who. The term Clara Who was used to highlight storylines or narrative choices, in which some fans believed Clara's contribution was overly significant. This is tied into complaints that Clara was a Mary Sue character. As a counterpoint to this, Clara's journey into encompassing the archetype of 'The Doctor' (see below) is often brought up as a reason as to why her contribution was as substantial as it was, and that it was an active part of her arc for her to question The Doctor's assumed importance over their companions.

Clara is often compared to the other companions of the Doctor, especially with Rose Tyler. [1] [2]

Clara Oswald is The Doctor

Shipping

Clara is commonly shipped with the Eleventh incarnation of the Doctor. This pairing is often called Whoufflé due to her character baking a soufflé in her first appearance in the Dalek Asylum. She is shipped with the Twelfth Doctor as well, particularly in Series 9, during which the actors and showrunner repeatedly described the two as being engaged in an "old fashioned romance". This has become the most common pairing for Clara on Ao3 and is known as Whouffaldi. The canon pairing of Clara and Danny Pink, known as Ospink or Pinkwald, is a rare pairing. She is also rarely shipped with the Tenth Doctor, following the 50th anniversary episode. Their pairing name is Allonswin.

In some fan circles she travels with Jenny, the Doctor's daughter; sometimes one or the other of them is the Doctor, and they are often in a romantic or sexual relationship. More rarely she is placed in a similar configuration with Rose. The Series 9 revelation that Clara might have had a bisexual relationship with author Jane Austen (hinted at in two episodes, with one having Clara describe Austen as "a phenomenal kisser") led to shipping of the two.

In crossovers she is sometimes shipped with Bucky Barnes, due to Coleman's role as his girlfriend Connie in Captain America: The First Avenger. Crossover fics pairing Clara with Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It also appear, as Peter Capaldi also portrayed that character.

Clara Splinters

Fanworks

Fanfiction

  • The Wedding Tree by antennapedia, For once an encounter with an advanced civilization was not going to end in war, catastrophe, disaster, or even a pell-mell run toward something or away from something. It was just a lovely thank-you ceremony for the two of them, that's all, followed by a lovely night high up in a tree house. With one bed. Wait. (12/Clara)
  • Heartlines] by frombluetored, An unknown threat sucks the Doctor and Clara into a parallel universe and leaves them stranded. While biding their time, they encounter the Clara of that universe and her achingly familiar husband. [12/Clara meets domestic!Clara/11].
  • Personal Assistance by TheScholarlyStrumpet (equipoise), Clara Oswald leaves behind teaching to enter the world of British politics. What better way to make a splash than by working for the infamous Malcolm Tucker?

Fanvids

Fanart

Meta

Example Art Gallery

  • Impossible Girl by HoneyJadeCrab (2012)

  • Cover art of The Hybrid, with the Twelfth Doctor, by unknown artist (2018)

Fannish Links

Livejournal Communities:

Dreamwidth Communities:

Resources and References

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