The Impossible Girl: Who IS Clara Oswin Oswald?!?

[Nerys Myk]

Ar-Festivus wrote:

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Maybe Clara is similar to Jack and just comes back to life when killed.

The daughter of Boe?

And like Jack, she's an "impossible thing"

I hope she's good at digging.

[who.me]

just read that there are going to be several movie length episodes to celebrate the 50th. So i doubt very much you will find out who clara is in the 2nd part of series 7. But i personally believe that the big reveal will be in the episode when more than one doctor appears.

Also, most companions stay around for at least 3 series

mmmmmmlike the idea,she is the daughter of Jack

[Christopher]

who.me wrote:

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Also, most companions stay around for at least 3 series

Uhh, no; historically, the majority of companions have only stayed for 1-2 years. Only a few have stuck around longer -- Jamie for the Second Doctor, Jo for the Third, Sarah Jane for the Third & Fourth, K9 Mark II for the Fourth, Tegan for the Fourth (barely) & Fifth, Amy & Rory for the Tenth. (Romana, the character, was there for three seasons, but the actresses who played her were there for one and two seasons respectively. And Ace was a companion for two short seasons plus one serial, so that's barely above two for her.) True, some of the new-series companions have come back in later seasons, but that doesn't count as continuous tenure as companions.

In fact, the only companions who've stayed longer than three years were Sarah Jane, who was a companion for three and a third seasons, and K9 if you count Mark I and Mark II as the same character.

[Sindatur]

who.me wrote:

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just read that there are going to be several movie length episodes to celebrate the 50th.

Got a link for that? We all previously thought/hoped there would be multiple Specials, but, right now it seems like only the rest of S7, then one Special and then the Christmas Special

[JoeZhang]

Doubtful - how would they pay for it?

[Lonemagpie]

Sindatur wrote:

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Got a link for that? We all previously thought/hoped there would be multiple Specials, but, right now it seems like only the rest of S7, then one Special and then the Christmas Special

I was given to understand two specials- one pre-filmed this spring, and one live episode...

As for Clara, I reckon she's the Bat-Signal, a living meme created as a call (or lure) to a Doctor who's disappeared off the radar post-TWORS. not necessarily by villains.

[Sindatur]

Lonemagpie wrote:

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I was given to understand two specials- one pre-filmed this spring, and one live episode...

As for Clara, I reckon she's the Bat-Signal, a living meme created as a call (or lure) to a Doctor who's disappeared off the radar post-TWORS. not necessarily by villains.

Ooh, I hope this is true, I didn't dare hope for two Specials.

[Iamnotspock]

DalekJim wrote:

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I doubt Moffat would come near this place. Does he even like Trek?

He originally wanted The Doctor to bash it during The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.

Not bash exactly, as I understood it. After Rose had informed Jack that the Doctor's name was "Mr. Spock", the line that was originally to follow her "Don't you ever get tired of 'Doctor'? Doctor who?!" was, "I'd rather have 'Doctor Who' than Star Trek!" Moffat then decided it was a silly joke. That hardly seems to be bashing it, though.

On topic, I had a thought about the Doctor, that perhaps he's been gradually erasing his own memory to avoid answering the First Question. We know that Moffat likes to play around with memory (the Silence, the Daleks forgetting the Doctor, Clara/Oswin's dying "...remember", the gag with the memory worm), and its validity. We know that "on the fields of Trenzalore... where no living being can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question will be asked"; if the Doctor's name is significant in a Rumplestiltskin-esque way, and will cause untold problems when revealed, perhaps the only way the Doctor can avoid revealing it is if he himself doesn't know the answer.

I'm betting that the gag with Strax and the memory worm and the Doctor seeming not to fully remember the Great Intelligence were pieces of foreshadowing. Like Strax, the Doctor could be using a memory worm or some other technique to gradually erase his early memories and not even know he's doing it. Of course, he'd eventually have to rediscover his identity - cue big 50th special in which the Doctor relearns who he is by revisiting his own past.

Perhaps Clara could be the key to his memories somehow.

[Christopher]

Iamnotspock wrote:

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I'm betting that the gag with Strax and the memory worm and the Doctor seeming not to fully remember the Great Intelligence were pieces of foreshadowing. Like Strax, the Doctor could be using a memory worm or some other technique to gradually erase his early memories and not even know he's doing it.

I think that's reading too much into the Doctor's memory lapse about the GI. Remember, most viewers of the new series aren't familiar with the old series, and the new episodes have to be made to stand on their own. Having the Doctor remember the details of his previous encounters with the Great Intelligence and explain them to somebody would've been too much of a distraction from the current story, so it had to be kept an Easter egg, a passing reference that would mean something to the old-school fans but not distract or confuse the modern viewers.

In-universe, the Doctor is supposed to be over eleven hundred years old now, and was less than 450 when he encountered the Intelligence. How well do you remember things from nearly 2/3 of your lifetime ago? Even with a lifetime far shorter than the Doctor's?

[DWF]

Christopher wrote:

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I think that's reading too much into the Doctor's memory lapse about the GI. Remember, most viewers of the new series aren't familiar with the old series, and the new episodes have to be made to stand on their own. Having the Doctor remember the details of his previous encounters with the Great Intelligence and explain them to somebody would've been too much of a distraction from the current story, so it had to be kept an Easter egg, a passing reference that would mean something to the old-school fans but not distract or confuse the modern viewers.

In-universe, the Doctor is supposed to be over eleven hundred years old now, and was less than 450 when he encountered the Intelligence. How well do you remember things from nearly 2/3 of your lifetime ago? Even with a lifetime far shorter than the Doctor's?

Not that I totality diagree with you but the Doctor can remember events from his childhood. In the end he'll remember what he needs to remember if the plot calls for it.

[sidious618]

Christopher wrote:

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I think that's reading too much into the Doctor's memory lapse about the GI. Remember, most viewers of the new series aren't familiar with the old series, and the new episodes have to be made to stand on their own. Having the Doctor remember the details of his previous encounters with the Great Intelligence and explain them to somebody would've been too much of a distraction from the current story, so it had to be kept an Easter egg, a passing reference that would mean something to the old-school fans but not distract or confuse the modern viewers.

I don't think modern viewers would be at all confused as the Doctor has a habit of talking about things he's done that we haven't seen.

[Christopher]

^But it wasn't something they had time to go into in the story. It would've been a needless distraction. So they just reduced it to a throwaway "seems familiar" as a nod to the old-school fans. There's no reason to see it as some kind of important plot point about the Doctor suffering memory loss. It's just a matter of storytelling logistics.

[The Mirrorball Man]

Christopher wrote:

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^But it wasn't something they had time to go into in the story. It would've been a needless distraction. So they just reduced it to a throwaway "seems familiar" as a nod to the old-school fans. There's no reason to see it as some kind of important plot point about the Doctor suffering memory loss. It's just a matter of storytelling logistics.

Sure, but that doesn't mean it can't also be used for a different purpose, i.e. foreshadowing.

[Christopher]

^And what I'm saying is that I don't think that's how it was meant.

[The Mirrorball Man]

Christopher wrote:

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^And what I'm saying is that I don't think that's how it was meant.

I don't think that's how it was meant either, but the possibility exists, and stranger things have happened on the show.