Clara Oswald
Clara Oswin Oswald was a human who seemingly had three lives. One was as Oswin Oswald, who served as a Junior Entertainment Manager onboard the starliner Alaska when it crashed into the Dalek Asylum. Another, as Clara Oswin Oswald was a barmaid and governess in 19th century London, in seemingly another life. The final one lived in what seems to be the early 21st century. She was seen walking in a graveyard, looking at her 19th century counterpart's grave.
Biography
As Oswin Oswald
Oswin Oswald joined the Alaska crew as Junior Entertainment Manager to see the universe.
When the Alaska crashed on the Dalek Asylum, Oswin escaped down a shaft into the lower levels of the Asylum, where she was found and captured by the Dalek inmates. Unlike the other crew members of the Alaska, who were partially converted by the nanocloud into Dalek puppets, Oswin was fully converted due to her exceptionally high intelligence, something they valued over exterminating her. Due to the horror of what had happened to her, Oswin created a dream world for her human mind to dwell in to forget the truth. Under this life, Oswin assumed that she was surviving on soufflés in the Alaska. She also hacked into the Asylum's fully-automated systems, heavily damaging it and reducing it to a ruin.
A year later, Oswin aided the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams in finding safe passage through the Dalek Asylum; wiping the memory of the Doctor from the Daleks' Pathweb at one point to save him from the Daleks in Intensive Care. The Doctor attempted to rescue her, until he found her and discovered she was a Dalek. The Doctor explained this to Oswin, who first nearly gave in to the Dalek conditioning by attempting to exterminate the Doctor, then broke down over what she had become.
Oswin lowered the Asylum's defences so the Parliament of the Daleks could destroy the planet and asked the Doctor to remember her as the human she once was. She said "Run, you clever boy... And remember." She presumably died when the Daleks destroyed the Asylum. When Amy, Rory and the Doctor escaped back to the Parliament, they found out that Oswin had erased the Doctor from the memories of all the Daleks in the Parliament as well as the Dalek inmates in the Asylum. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
As Clara Oswald
In what was literally another lifetime, Clara Oswin Oswald was working as a barmaid at The Rose & Crown pub in Victorian England and also posing as the governess "Alice Montague". She met the Doctor originally when he was passing by, and she mentioned that a snowman just appeared out of nowhere. The Doctor simply agreed with her and walked away, as at this point he did not interfere with the timeline of the universe.
Clara then followed him and worked on tracking him down. She found his TARDIS on a cloud in the sky, with a ladder to reach up to it. Later, she and the Doctor escaped the snowmen and climbed back towards the TARDIS. She then said that the TARDIS was "Smaller on the outside" and asked the Doctor if there was a kitchen. She then said that she didn't know why she said that "I guess, I just like making soufflés". The Doctor then watched as, to his shock, an iced figure with the "template" of ice and human taken from a deceased governess frozen in a pond, dragged Clara off the cloud, to the ground. She died, but was brought back to life temporarily by Strax' technology. The tears of the family Clara looked after caused rain, instead of snow, which potentially saved the world from decimation. She later died. Her last words were "Run, you clever boy... And remember." These were the exact same words that she had said in the Dalek Asylum shortly before her first death.
As an un-named woman
A woman who looked identical to both Oswin and Clara also appeared in a graveyard in early-21st century clothing, seemingly a third lifetime, walking past the gravestone of Clara Oswin Oswald from 1892. (TV: The Snowmen)
Personality
When the Doctor first encountered Clara, who was at the time using her middle name Oswin, she possessed a flirtatious and feisty personality, and cheerfully flirted with both the Doctor and Rory. She once asked Rory to take his shirt off for no real reason showing that she considered him to be attractive and teased the Doctor about his chin, nicknaming him "Chinboy". Oswin also implied that she was bisexual, admitting to Rory that she'd once fancied a girl called Nina, although she added that she'd been going through a phase.
Following her conversion, Oswin was unable to accept the horror of what she had become, and managed to convince herself that she was still human. Oswin had a strong-willed nature, and even after her conversion, rejected mental conditioning in favour of retaining her humanity. Notably, she was the only Dalek for whom the Eleventh Doctor displayed any compassion or pity.
Oswin was shown to be selfless, allowing the Doctor to complete his mission of destroying the planet and insisting that he leave her behind and escape with Amy and Rory. She was also extremely intelligent, but unfortunately it was because of her intelligence that she was turned into a Dalek. She had incredible hacking skills and possessed a knowledge of Daleks and their technology that exceeded even the Doctor's, because she had been converted into a Dalek herself. Oswin was very confident, perhaps slightly overconfident, and was fully aware of her exceptional intelligence, calling herself a genius several times.
Oswin was a talented actress, being able to pretend convincingly that she was at ease with her situation with cheeky and flirty remarks and was able to change the sound of her voice easily. She also used her flirting to keep Rory cheerful and seemed to provide him with some comfort since he actually asked her to keep flirting with him as reassurance. Despite her relaxed and cheerful demeanour, Oswin did show signs of worry about her situation and admitted that she was anxious to leave. She was also shown to be wary of strangers since she asked the Doctor to come and fetch her, not entirely trusting him not to leave without her; ironically she later actually told him to leave without her after discovering that she was a Dalek. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
In her second life, Clara was still feisty and strong willed but less overconfident than she was in the Asylum and didn't brag about her considerable intellect. She was facinated by the Doctor and even kissed him passionately. Clara was very curious and determined to find out all she could about the mysterious Time Lord; notably she asked the First Question twice in the same night and when the Doctor noted that it was a dangerous question Clara responded "what's wrong with dangerous?" This showed that she also had a reckless streak.
Clara had a great deal of faith in the Doctor, in contrast to her past incarnation who was slightly wary of him, and when even the Doctor's friends, Vastra, Jenny and Strax, had given up thinking that he would ever regain his adventurous spirit, Clara was able to snap him out of his misery. The Doctor realised he had found a new companion and when Clara died he was briefly devastated but later elated when he realised that there was another version of her somewhere in the Universe.
Clara still had the ability to change her voice easily and led a double life during her second incarnation acting as both a barmaid and a governess. Captain Latimer's children adored her and they felt more comfortable talking to her about their problems than their own father, showing that Clara had a very maternal side of her personality. The whole family was devastated when she died. Their tears, and the single tear that Clara shed on her deathbed, were ultimately the thing that defeated the Great Intelligence. (TV: The Snowmen)
Behind the scenes
- Clara's headstone in 1892 states that she was born on 23 November 1866 and that she died in 24 December 1892, meaning she not only shares the same birthday (though not the year) as Doctor Who itself but that she was also 26-years-old when she died — the same age as Doctor Who was when it was cancelled in 1989. The Evil of the Daleks, which introduced the other Victorian companion, Victoria Waterfield, who also faced the Daleks and the Great Intelligence, took place in 1966, one hundred years after Clara was born. The oldest Dalek model to appear in her first story was also from Victoria's origin story and another of her stories (TV: The Web of Fear) was referenced in her second (a reference to the 1967 London Underground).
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