Ellie Oswald
- You may be looking for the mother of the Victorian incarnation of Clara Oswald.
Elena Alison "Ellie" Oswald (née Ravenwood) was born on 11 September 1960 and died on 5 March 2005. Ellie was the mother of Clara Oswald and the wife of Dave Oswald. She frequently exclaimed, "Oh my stars!", a phrase that carried on to her daughter. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
Biography
She first met Dave in 1981, when she saved him from being hit by a car after a large leaf blew into his face. The leaf grew to be a symbol of their chance meeting and their ensuing life together. They later married. When Ellie was 26, she gave birth to her daughter, Clara, their only child, (TV: The Rings of Akhaten) who was born on 23 November 1986. (TV: Death in Heaven)
Ellie owned a book called 101 Places to See, which she gave to Clara when she was 9.
At least twice she encountered the Eleventh Doctor, both times while taking Clara to the park. The first time, from her perspective, the Doctor was hit by the ball while the Oswalds were playing football. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten) From the Doctor's perspective, he had previously seen her while he was talking with a young girl (unbeknownst to him, Clara) on the swings. When Clara ran to rejoin her mother, Ellie told her off for speaking to strangers. (WC: The Bells of Saint John: A Prequel)
Ellie died on 5 March 2005 at the age of 44. As Clara and Dave mourned her loss at her grave site, the Doctor, investigating the history of his mysterious new companion, quietly observed them. He did not interrupt their visit, staying hidden behind an old tree. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
Legacy
Clara later offered her mother's leaf to satiate Akhaten. She claimed the leaf represented "a whole future that never happened", talking of all the days Ellie never got to live. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
As an adult, Clara recalled and tried to emulate her mother's recipe for soufflé. She recounted her mother's saying: "The soufflé isn't the soufflé, the soufflé is the recipe." Clara remembered her mother as "a great woman". (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
It was supposed that Ellie, due to being deceased prior to the 2010s, was converted into a Cyberman when Missy created an army of Cybermen from the dead to prove to the Doctor they had similarities between them. (TV: Death in Heaven)
Behind the scenes
- While the circumstances of Ellie's death are never revealed, her death date of 5 March 2005 coincides with the events of Rose, when the Ninth Doctor and Rose faced the Nestene Consciousness. It is therefore possible that Ellie was killed in the Auton invasion. (The episode first aired on 26 March 2005, so this isn't a reference to the broadcast itself.)
