Matt Smith's Departure Confirmed.

[Nick Ryder]

I think part of why people seem to like Clara is because they think the Doctor is in love with her...

Although honestly what straight male wouldn't want to get Clara into a snog box? Just re-watched Bells of St. John today and I think as her first 'real' appearance I think she had the best 'intro' episode of all the modern nuWho companions. I mean really, she's not introduced as a child or some lonely shop girl or a lonely spinster or even a blatant sex symbol - yet she ticks a lot of the boxes that made companions like Rose, Martha, Donna and Amy not only fun, but almost romantic foils. Its like she's got a little bit of all the modern companions wrapped into one petite package. The wide eyed awe of Martha, the sharp wit and quick tongue of Donna and Amy, the attractiveness of Rose and Amy and yet while she's not the brainy med student Martha was, she seems like a bright girl. Plus the way they shot that episode, the little touches, the music, the way the Doctor doted on her, they were clearly setting up a love interest for him. Sure we all know River and the Doctor at least end up together for a bit - but I think he does still miss having a human to care about. Even though he knows inevitably they all leave him or they die or whatever - kind of a 'better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all'.

I mean hell the Doctor kisses her forehead when he gets her soul back in her body before he carefully puts her to bed and starts fixing up things around her, the flowers, the jammy dodgers etc.

So really I do hope that it kinda works how 9/10's relationship with Rose went - was set up in one life but really progressed in the next. After all 10 did technically end up with Rose, granted sure it was the meta crisis version of him that was like half Donna Noble, but still... we can still say 10 and Rose ended up together.

So will 12 end up with Clara? I suppose the only real answer to that is how long the Beeb keeps Jenna on the show.

 

[chelly]

I don't see any romance with 11 and Clara, then again I don't really like Clara yet. I liked her in snowman and asluym of the daleks. I just don't get any sense of fun from her and she kind of comes off as a bit dull. Maybe I need to rewatch the episodes and I may change my mind. I also think part of it might be because she was scattered in time and space, so we didn't get her whole personality.

I don't think the Doctor should get with any of his companions. I never really bought the Rose/10 romance, it just came off as too immature to me. But I can see River and 11 being in love. I saw more of a connection between the two.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The Daleks had to tell me that he was in love with her.

Imagine if Clara fell for a 20 something alien called Dave Ross?

Okay now mark this... She's lived a million lives, full and complete lives to help the Doctor out for ten seconds at the most opportune moments.

Exactly how many wives, husbands and children did the shattered Clara's leave behind after them that this impossible girl will have to take responsibility for?

 

[chelly]

I wonder if she will have fragmented memories like Rory and Amy had. Because both said they remembered the life they had without parents (amy) and as the centurian (rory).

Like a familiar smell, alien or planet you know modern clara had no exposure to but she seems to have a memory of it.

 

[sttngfan1701d]

I don't see any romance with 11 and Clara

They're definitely hinting at it. Clara loves him (she said as much in the Name of the Doctor prequel clip) but it's not in the "pining after him" sense like with Martha. She also enjoys teasing him because she knows he's attracted to her.

For the Doctor's part, I think it's one of those situations where you love someone and haven't admitted it to yourself yet. He's attracted to her (the end scene of Nightmare in Silver when she leaves the TARDIS confirms this) and he cares about her, but they've been building on it subtly throughout all Clara's episodes that there is something between them. He is very affectionate toward her and has an obsession with her head and face, too. He loves "petting" her.

Will they go there like they did with Rose, though? I'm not sure. They've just done the whole River thing too. So I think it'll be more of what they've been doing going forward into season 8. More funny awkward moments, more of Clara teasing, more of Doctor looking flustered. It'll never be explicitly said between the two of them. Maybe just her saying it in private.

 

[Photoman15]

It could be because he (now) knew her his whole life.

 

[diankra]

So really I do hope that it kinda works how 9/10's relationship with Rose went.

I really hope it doesn't, as I liked the 2005 Rose, but by halfway through the 2006 run I found her lovesick teenager act so irritating that I would have voted any episode - even an inferior remake of Timeflight - best of the season if she'd died horribly. And repeatedly.

 

[Starkers]

So really I do hope that it kinda works how 9/10's relationship with Rose went.

I really hope it doesn't, as I liked the 2005 Rose, but by halfway through the 2006 run I found her lovesick teenager act so irritating that I would have voted any episode - even an inferior remake of Timeflight - best of the season if she'd died horribly. And repeatedly.

Quoted very much for truth, and frankly Tennant's giggling schoolgirl schtik whilst she was around wasn't much better!

 

[Nick Ryder]

Haha yeah that's kinda true. I think in a lot of ways Clara is a far superior companion/romantic interest compared to Rose. In a lot of ways though I think the Doctor tends to really 'bond' with the Companions - at least the last 3 Doctors - that seem to be there since his regeneration. Like how 10 was all about Rose. 11 was all about Amy and Rory - even though I think early on he would have preferred to simply have Amy and it probably really wasn't until much later on before the 'Ponds' went away that he finally started to appreciate Rory and didn't quite see him like 9 and 10 saw Mickey Smith as this stupid, annoying hanger on that the girl he really liked to hang out with was into.

Clara has no such hangers on - other than those 2 brat kids - and I think she's really the first of his modern companions not to have this whole family waiting for her. He can take her around time and space and not feel like he's pulling another young girl (and really when you're a millennia old there's no such thing as a cougar or too young - they're all too young. He could be dating Clara's mother and he'd still think she was a kid compared to him.) away from her family and friends and people that care about her.

Rose was the first that sorta broke through his 'loner' funk. Martha was kinda 'there' after he lost Rose and could meet him at least somehow intellectually. Probably one of his smartest companions he's had in a while that was still young, but hardly uneducated. Then you got Donna who I think just challenged him - who could call him on any bullshit and basically was the one companion that while he probably 'loved' in a friendly, platonic way, wasn't really 'in love' with her. Which was a good thing and hey it gave us the Meta crisis Doctor.

Then you got Amy who really in a lot of ways was the first Companion he had known since she was a child and he was still 'growing' into his 11th life. He regenerated alone but the first one he saw after leaving the TARDIS was Amy. I think in some ways he really had a sort of 'love' for her that while maybe not entirely romantic, she had that spark that Rose had for the adventure, the 'won't take no crap'-ness that Donna had and still had that wide eye'd wonder. Plus he felt like he owed her for waiting on him for so long.

But with Clara, he's got the sassy, smart, fun to hang with, wide eyed wonder girl, that has a sort of mutual attraction to him, and even takes great pleasure in teasing him. Plus no other boyfriend or family to slap him or get all pissy when she's gone for a year instead of a few hours...

Plus, who couldn't fall for Clara? Took me a couple episodes after the Christmas Special to really fall for that petite firecracker. And she gave us the famous "Is that a snog box?" line. Which is funny for a guy who has this 'box' - he really couldn't be having any less sex or any kind of romantic dealings in that box. Since it was pretty clear that Amy and Rory did it in there. And not just their wedding night. Plenty of places to do it out of the Doctor's sight.

Maybe 12 will amp up the affection and relationship with Clara. Be funny to see River going 'Oh, after wife number... what are you up to now? 3-20?"