Clara Oswald
Clara Oswin Oswald was a human who lived in various times and places, in separate lives that were somehow connected. The Eleventh Doctor stated that she was "the same woman" in each of her different appearances, although he didn't know how. (TV: The Snowmen) He called her "the only mystery worth solving." (TV: Hide) The Doctor was further intrigued after finding out that the Clara who served as his companion was born to real parents and had a full childhood, yet still existed in her other two lives. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
Biography
Oswin Oswald
In one of her lives, she went by Oswin Oswald. She once claimed that the first boy she ever fancied was called Rory, but quickly admitted that "actually, she was called Nina. I was going through a phase."
At some point, Oswin joined the starliner Alaska's 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. She later wiped 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 her 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 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)
Victorian Clara
In another life, Clara Oswin Oswald (23 November 1866 - 24 December 1892; died aged 26) appeared as a barmaid and governess in 19th century London.
Clara was 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 "acute 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 Madame 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 the Doctor's former companion, as well as a clue to the mystery. 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 "gentleman friend" 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. When the Doctor gave her the TARDIS key, 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 the 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)
Companion Clara
Childhood
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There was also a Clara who lived on Earth in the 20th and 21st centuries, who went by the name of Clara Oswald. When she first met him as a young child, the Eleventh Doctor was sad about not having yet found her, and did not realise her identity. She thought the idea of destiny was "rubbish."
As a child, she was always losing things: her "best pencil", her school bag, her gran and her mojo, which she got back. Whenever she would lose something, she'd go to a quiet place, close her eyes, then would find where she'd put it. She once advised the Doctor about finding his friend (not knowing that he was in fact looking for her).
This Clara's mother, Ellie Oswald, told her that she "shouldn't talk to strange men", but she spoke to the Doctor regardless. (WC: The Bells of Saint John: A Prequel) Her worst fear as a child was getting lost. During a family holiday to Blackpool, her nightmares came true, but her mother eventually found her. Ellie comforted her by saying that she would always find her, wherever she was.
She was left devastated on 5 March 2005 when her mother died. Her father, Dave Oswald, comforted Clara at her funeral, and the Doctor watched in silence. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
Becoming a nanny
At some point in her adult life, she and her friend visited a graveyard, where she walked by the tombstone of her 19th century self and ironically stated, "I don't believe in ghosts." (TV: The Snowmen)
Clara wanted to travel after university, but, before she left, she spent a week with family friends. During that week, their mother died, and she put off her travels to nanny for her children, Artie and Angie Maitland. Although she didn't have computer skills, she was very clever and enjoyed an old book called Summer Falls, where she preferred the eleventh chapter to the tenth. Despite her inadequacy with the Internet, she attempted to use it one morning at Angie's house and created a mnemonic device, "Run you clever boy and remember", to help her recall the Wi-Fi password, rycbar123, but had to contact tech support anyway.
Travels with the Doctor
A woman in a shop, obviously one who knew the Doctor, had given Clara the number to the phone on the front of the Doctor's TARDIS. Although the Eleventh Doctor tried to help her, Clara clicked on the Great Intelligence's Wi-Fi connection by accident. The Doctor arrived in time to stop Clara from being completely downloaded, but she accidentally came back with the tech package that Miss Kizlet gave her.
After taking a shortcut in the TARDIS to the following morning, Clara hacked the Great Intelligence's operatives, choosing "Oswin" as a username, and discovered their location in the Shard, before she was downloaded again, this time successfully. After being uploaded back to her body a second time, Clara confronted the Doctor about what happened to her and they discussed why her desire to travel and her nanny responsibilities. The Doctor asked her to travel with him, promising to bring her back without anyone ever knowing she was gone, but she surprised him by refusing to go and telling him to come back the following day, after seven, and ask again. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
When the Doctor returned for her, she was waiting eagerly and rushed to meet the TARDIS outside the moment the Doctor knocked on her door. When the Doctor asked where she wanted to go, she replied by saying "somewhere awesome", and he took her to her first alien planet: Akhaten.
There they explored the markets, and watched the Festival of Offerings. When Merry Galel, who she had comforted and convinced to sing the Long Song at the Festival, was taken by the Mummy, Clara and the Doctor saved her. In doing so, she had to give up her mother's ring, which had extreme sentimental value to her. Afterwards, she was forced to sacrifice something even more precious: the leaf that brought her parents together, the 'most important leaf in human history'. After saving everyone on the planet, they thanked her by returning her ring.
After her first trip, the Doctor dropped her back off at her house in London, which she remarked looked different. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
The Doctor later took her on another trip, but instead of landing in Las Vegas as planned, they landed on the Firebird, a Soviet submarine at the North Pole in 1983. While the Doctor brought the sinking submarine to safety, the TARDIS activated its Hostile Action Displacement System and it dematerialised.
They found the Ice Warrior Grand Marshall, Skaldak, had been brought on board. The Doctor attempted to convince the submarine's crew to be peaceful to him, but Lieutenant Stepashin stunned Skaldak with a cattle prod. The Doctor ordered the crew to imprison Skaldak, but Skaldak managed to escape his capture and threatened to launch the submarine's nuclear missiles. The Doctor and Clara managed to make him hesitate his decision, and Skaldak and the submarine were rescued by an Ice Warrior ship. Skaldak left and remotely disarmed the submarine. The Doctor then confessed to setting the HADS, and found that it had sent the TARDIS to the South Pole. (TV: Cold War)
The Doctor took Clara to Caliburn House which had been thought to have been haunted by the "Witch of the Well" for many years. Unknown to Clara, he took her there to speak to Emma Grayling and Alec Palmer and find out what Clara was. The Doctor took lots of photographs of the ghost throughout Earth's timeline. The Doctor used his photographs to explain that the "ghost" was in fact a Time Traveller from the future called Hila Tacorien, who was trapped in a pocket universe and being chased by the Crooked Man. The Doctor used a crystal from Metebelis III to make Emma open up the portal to the pocket universe. Whilst there he saved Hila but got trapped himself; Clara argued with the TARDIS Interface who would not let her in, Clara wanting to use the TARDIS to save the Doctor while the TARDIS was concerned for its own safety.
Later, after revealing that Hila was a distant relative of Alec and Emma, the Doctor realised that the creature in the pocket universe was trying to get to another creature in the house so he and Clara went to pick it up. (TV: Hide)
Personality
Oswin Oswald
Oswin possessed a flirtatious and energetic personality, and cheerfully flirted with both the Doctor and Rory. She once asked Rory to take his shirt off for no real reason, and teased the Doctor about his chin, nicknaming him "Chinboy."
Oswin once admitting to Rory that she'd once fancied a girl called Nina, although she added that she'd been going through a phase, and only told Rory this as she was flirting with him.
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 was extremely strong-willed, 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 and also the only known human who was strong enough to resist Dalek mental conditioning. In addition to being very strong-willed, Oswin 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 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 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; later she sacrificed herself to lower the shield so the parliament of the Daleks could destroy the asylum. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
Victorian Clara
This 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)
Companion Clara
Clara Oswald's 21st century incarnation was more reserved than she had been in her other two lives, and didn't reveal her true feelings as easily. Although she was noted for being quite clever, she had no computer skills at first, only becoming a computer genius after being uploaded into the Wi-Fi by a Spoonhead. Similar to Oswin, she was wary of the Doctor at first, and, just like Victorian Clara, she was good at looking after children. She followed Merry Galel, a small lost child, to help her find her way. This demonstrates her impulsive inclination to help children, also proved by her becoming a nanny. However, she lacked her Victorian incarnation's recklessness and thought things through more carefully as shown when she didn't instantly agree to join the Doctor on his adventures and told him to come back the next day. Although she was eager for adventure, Clara was cautious and was unsure what to make of the Doctor's bizarre personality. She even seemed to think he might be stalking her, which in a way he was since he followed her timeline in an attempt to understand how she could have three lives. (TV: The Bells of Saint John, The Rings of Akhaten)
Clara was still flirtatious but during her first adventure with the Doctor she seemed to react to situations rather than initiate them, unlike her other more proactive incarnations. She seemed touched that the Doctor was guarding her although she was unsure what the danger was. Clara appeared to have no memory of her other lives, and didn't recognise the Doctor when he turned up on her doorstep. However she later realised that the Doctor had been at her mother's funeral, having rewritten time by going after he met Clara. (TV: The Bells of Saint John, The Rings of Akhaten)
Clara had close relationships with her mother and father and kept the leaf that had started their relationship for many years after her mother's death, as a memento of their time together. The leaf was very precious to Clara, because, if not for it landing on her father's face many years earlier, he wouldn't have met her mother. Clara gave up both the leaf and her mother's ring in order to defeat the Old God, although she later got the ring back. This shows her selflessness and great strength of character as she was willing to give up two things that were extremely important to her in order to save others. She showed that she was more selfless than the Doctor, who was unwilling to give up his Sonic Screwdriver, even though he could have received another from the TARDIS. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
Although she was frightened of the Old God, Clara showed great bravery and loyalty by fighting her fear and going to help the Doctor defeat the sentient star. When the Doctor revealed that she reminded him of a long-dead friend (Victorian Clara), Clara told him that she would be happy to travel with him, but not if she were viewed as a ghost of her. She said that she was a separate, unique individual, and wanted to be treated as such. This shows that she was willing to stand up against the Doctor to defend her rights. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
Clara again showed her dislike of being seen as a "ghost" by the Doctor when the two traveled throughout the Earth's history, and the Doctor compared life in the TARDIS to being outside of time. She felt rather emotional about seeing the entire life cycle of Earth and wondered if her body was in the ground somewhere. She also disliked the TARDIS, calling her a "grumpy old cow", although the TARDIS started the hostility between them by refusing to open for her when she was trying to hide Merry Galel. Clara once confided to the Doctor that she felt the TARDIS was looking at her. However she did try to be civil to the TARDIS, unless she was frustrated or desperate like when the Doctor was trapped in a Pocket universe, and apologised when she shook water all over her. The TARDIS reciprocated the feelings, displaying for Clara an image of herself as the person she admired most. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten, Hide)
Clara was quite observant, being the first person to notice that the ghost in the haunted house was always in the same position and was able to easily recognise a romantic attraction between two people saying that Alec Palmer's feelings for Emma Grayling stuck out like "a big chin". She also stated that whiskey was "the eleventh most disgusting think ever invented". She never mentioned what her first ten least favourite things were. (TV: Hide)
Abilities
Oswin and 21st century Clara were notable for their brilliant hacking skills. Clara gained the ability from being uploaded by a Spoonhead. Oswin's hacking abilities were so great that she even managed to hack into the pathweb of the Daleks and erase every memory of the Doctor from every Dalek in the Universe, something that even the Time Lord himself was unable to do. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks, The Bells of Saint John)
All of Clara's incarnations were very good at looking after children. Her Victorian incarnation could change her accent easily and was able to play the part of both a barmaid and a governess. Victorian Clara's fake accent would only slip when she was shocked or frightened such as when the Ice Governess barged into the Latimer children's bedroom. (TV: The Snowmen)
Clara quickly mastered the ability to ride an unfamiliar alien vehicle, having previously only watched the Doctor riding it.(TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
Similarities
Each of the adult Oswalds shared a number of characteristics which convinced the Doctor that she was the same woman.
- She looked the same every time.
- All of the adult Oswalds were identical. Although the Doctor never saw Oswin Oswald's face, he was later able to recognise that her voice was identical to Clara Oswin Oswald's.
- Her name was similar in each life.
- In her run-ins with the Doctor, she went by 'Oswin Oswald', 'Clara Oswin Oswald', or simply 'Clara Oswald'.
- She was far cleverer than someone of her time should be.
- Each of the Oswalds was able to adapt to a situation far beyond normal human comprehension of the age. Oswin Oswald and Clara Oswald in particular were proficient hackers (although Clara was given this ability from Miss Kizlet).
- She always worked with children.
- Oswin served as "Junior Entertainment Manager', Victorian Clara was a governess, and Clara Oswald was a nanny.
- She had been in her current situation for one year, before the Doctor arrived.
- The Alaska's crash, and the deaths of both Latimer's previous governess and Mrs Maitland all occurred one year prior to her meeting the Doctor.
- She repeated the phrase "Run, you clever boy, and remember."
- For both Oswin and Victorian Clara, this was whispered immediately before death. For Clara Oswald, this served as a mnemonic device to remember her host family's Wi-Fi password, rycbar123.
- She enjoyed baking soufflés.
- Oswin and Victorian Clara both baked, preferring to make soufflés.
- She talked about big chins.
- Oswin said that the Doctor had a big chin, and Clara Oswald said that Alec Palmer's love for Emma Grayling stuck out like a big chin.
(TV: Asylum of the Daleks, The Snowmen, The Bells of Saint John, Hide)
Behind the scenes
- Clara shares the surname Oswald with Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who was said to have assassinated President John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963, the day before Doctor Who premièred with An Unearthly Child. Oswin's shipmate, who survived until he turned into a Dalek puppet, was similarly named Harvey.
- Victorian Clara's headstone in 1892 states that she was born on 23 November 1866 and died 24 December 1892, meaning she not only shared the same birth date 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 played Clara.
- Clara Oswald also has date-related links to Who. For one, if you calculate her age, she was born in 1989, the same year Classic Who was cancelled. Her mother later died on 5 March 2005, during the same month that Doctor Who returned. Also notable are the ages that she skipped in her signing of 101 Places to See: 16 (there were 16 years between the conclusion of the 'classic series' and the start of the revival) and 23 (season 23 only came back after an 18-month hiatus).
- 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, Victorian Clara was invited to travel with the Doctor, but died before she was ever able to take her first trip. Unlike the other four characters however, the Doctor gave her the TARDIS key. Furthermore, since Clara later travelled in the TARDIS, it can be said that she did end up becoming a full companion, only in a different life.
- Clara Oswald mentioned getting lost in Blackpool, where Jenna-Louise Coleman was born.
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