Clara Oswald
Clara Oswald (The Snowmen) — to differentiate from Clara Oswald (The Bells of Saint John: A Prequel) and Clara Oswald (The Bells of Saint John). Discuss it here.
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Clara Oswin Oswaldfor other, similarly-named pages.
Clara Oswin Oswald (23 November 1866 - 24 December 1892; died aged 26) was a human barmaid and governess in 19th century London. The Eleventh Doctor stated that she was "the same woman" as Oswin Oswald, and Clara appeared to be a second version.
Biography
Clara Oswin Oswald was believed to have been born on 23 November, 1866 in Victorian England. She claimed that her birth occurred behind the face of Big Ben, and that the location accounted for her exceptional sense of time. By 1892, she was working as a barmaid at The Rose & Crown. She also maintained a secret life (with a different accent) as "Miss Montague", a governess looking after the upper class Latimer family.
She met the Eleventh Doctor outside the pub's rear exit, and they examined a Snowman which had appeared from nowhere. Clara then chased the Doctor down the street when he left. The Doctor locked her in his cab and ordered Strax to get a Memory worm to erase the last hour of her memory. After Strax kept forgetting to put on gauntlets, the Doctor got the Memory worm himself, but then a Snowman attacked them followed by several more. Together the Doctor and Clara caused the Snowmen to melt by imagining them doing so and then the Doctor told Strax to take Clara back to the pub. Clara followed the Doctor to a ladder that led to a spiral staircase which took her up to the cloud where the Doctor had parked the TARDIS. After knocking, Clara ran back down the spiral staircase when the Doctor came to investigate.
Clara returned to her job as a governess the next day and learned that Captain Latimer's daughter, Francesca had been dreaming about her previous governess who had drowned in Latimer's pond a year earlier. Francesca's brother Digby suggested she needed a doctor so Clara hurried to find the Doctor. While shouting up at his cloud, she caught the attention of Jenny Flint who took her to see Madam Vastra. Vastra and Jenny forced Clara to do the One Word Test where she would only be allowed to use one word to answer whatever question Vastra asked. With several well chosen words, Clara explained why she was interested in the Doctor and mentioned the word "Pond", the surname of one of the Doctor's former companions. Impressed, Vastra called the Doctor and told him what Clara had said. The Doctor decided to investigate while Clara went back to Latimer's house.
The Doctor arrived to investigate the pond that the former governess had drowned in and then rescued Clara and the children from the Ice Governess, who had been created from the frozen corpse of the drowned woman. He melted her with his Sonic Screwdriver but the Ice Governess recovered and chased them down the stairs where they met Captain Latimer. The Doctor claimed to be Clara's boyfriend and then Vastra, Jenny and Strax arrived. Jenny trapped the Ice Governess behind a force field and everyone hurried into Latimer's office. The Doctor quickly explained the situation and then told everyone to stay in the office and left. Clara followed and kissed him. The Doctor then confronted Doctor Walter Simeon at the front door who demanded that he give him the Ice Governess. The Doctor and Clara led the Ice Governess up to the roof and Clara used an umbrella to pull down the ladder that led to the TARDIS. They led the Ice Governess up the spiral staircase and the Doctor tried to trap her under the cloud. He then showed Clara the inside of the TARDIS and she commented "it's smaller on the outside" before asking if there was a kitchen explaining that she liked making souffles. The Doctor gave her the TARDIS key but then the Ice Governess attacked Clara from behind. She dropped the key and was pulled off the cloud, falling to her death in the Latimer's courtyard. (TV: The Snowmen)
The Doctor used the TARDIS to retrieve Clara's body and the shattered remains of the Ice Governess and took her into Latimer's office. Strax brought her back to life using an alien resurrection device but only for a short time. The Doctor asked Clara to become his companion and she agreed. After the Doctor and Vastra confronted Simeon in his institute and, with help from Clara's tears and the tears of the Latimer family, defeated Simeon and the Great Intelligence, Clara died with the Doctor by her side. Her last words were "Run, you clever boy... And remember."
These were the exact same words that Oswin Oswald had said in the Dalek Asylum shortly before her death. The Doctor believed that Clara was somehow "the same woman" he had met in the Dalek Asylum. After Clara's funeral he rushed off to investigate the mystery. (TV: The Snowmen, Asylum of the Daleks)
Personality
Clara was feisty and strong willed. She was fascinated by the Doctor and even kissed him passionately. She was also slightly flirtatious, teasing the Doctor while he was climbing a ladder since she had a good view of his bottom. She cheerfully tricked him into climbing the ladder first with the words "Eyes front, soldier" since he could easily see up her dress if she went first. 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 with "What's wrong with dangerous?" This showed that she also had a reckless streak. Clara was also a bit of a feminist and was briefly angry with the Doctor when he said the TARDIS was "no more a box than you are a governess" saying that he had spoken just like a man. Apparently the Doctor was not the first man to speak to her like that and she accused him of being the same as all the other men who called her "sweet, little Clara". She proudly claimed that she was not sweet and, although she was a small woman, she certainly wasn't little on the inside.
Clara had a great deal of faith in the Doctor, in contrast to Oswin, 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 was highly intelligent, just like Oswin, and was able to quickly guess the Doctor's plan to use an umbrella to pull down the ladder that led to the TARDIS. She was also the second person, after the Doctor, to guess that Walter Simeon needed the Ice Governess, although she wasn't sure why until the Doctor explained it to the rest of the group. She even managed to figure out the one word that would get the Doctor to come and save the world again, "Pond", which not only got the Doctor off his cloud but also explained that the Latimer's pond contained something dangerous. Clara was also very sharp and quick witted, being able to talk even more quickly than the Doctor and make witty remarks and retorts very easily. She was able to quickly make the Doctor smile with this talent only moments after they first met. The Doctor grew to like her very quickly, even giving her the TARDIS key, despite only knowing her for a couple of days. Unlike most women in Victorian times, Clara also wouldn't hesitate to take the lead when necessary.
Clara had the ability to change her accent easily and led a double life 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 means 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 and also the same age as Jenna-Louise Coleman, the actress who plays Clara. The other Victorian companion, Victoria Waterfield, also faced the Daleks and the Great Intelligence. The oldest Dalek model to appear in TV: Asylum of the Daleks was also from Victoria's origin story, TV: The Evil of the Daleks, and another of her stories, TV: The Web of Fear, was referenced in Clara's second (a reference to the 1967 London Underground).
- Like Lynda Moss, Astrid Peth, Rita, and the Doctor's daughter Jenny, Clara was invited to travel with the Doctor, but died before she was ever able to take her first trip.
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