Questions.
Why did Missy choose well, or claim to do so, whilst she watches "Doctor Clara" towards the end of Flatline? It seems clear that Clara has been, and will remain, a companion like no other. After all, so far we've only seen Missy interact with those who've died after direct contact with the Doctor and Clara - who has herself died repeatedly over his entire timeline. Clara's the ultimate sacrificial lamb turned lion.
On Trenzalore, during the Time of the Doctor, why did the Time Lords take Clara's testimony regarding the veracity of the Doctor's name? Surely, she was passionate, sincere and right - but why did they listen to her? (Listening to Clara was also essential to the plot of Moffat's most recent solo script, Listen.)
What did River Song mean during The Name of the Doctor (also penned by Moffat) with her final "Spoilers" about Clara and their mental link? In this episode, thanks to Clara, the 11th Doctor was finally allowed to release his love for River. Why?
Lastly, who was CAL? Again created by Steven Moffat to introduce the world of River Song, there are still questions that are unanswered from these episodes.
I love the character of Clara and most of my articles have centered around the "Impossible Girl" and Jenna Coleman's portrayal of her. But, what, if like my most recent rambling on the Doctor/Clara story arc emerging from clues in series eight, it goes all the way back to the Library?
Deliberately going in reverse order, the first evidence observed by many Whovians was that the new companion Jenna (then Jenna-Louise Coleman), looked and dressed like CAL.
CAL, or Charlotte Abigail Luxe, is the young girl from Silence/Forrest all the way back in series four with David Tennant's 10th Doctor. "Aren't I a clever girl," CAL declares to River Song when the Doctor saves his wife to the "largest computer in the universe." Clever.... a word that's popped up so often even the Doctor uses it against the architect in the most recent episode, Time Heist, to reveal that he, himself, is the mastermind. Emma Grayling in Hide calls Clara, "a very clever girl" and even when being uploaded in The Bells of St Johns the conspirators say Clara is, "very clever" if without computer skills. Then, of course, there's "Run you clever boy, and remember".
We know Moffat is clever.... and probably this clever. And CAL, as a name, is awfully close to Clara, isn't it?
In the Library, Steven Moffat introduces at least one main character, River Song. At the end of the two part episode, viewers last see River putting CAL and two other children to bed. Then in series seven, always in flashback, we see a young Clara being comforted by her mother the way River did with CAL. Could she even be River's daughter? (I don't think with 11, as he was too attracted to Clara and instinctively would not be...think Marty McFly with his mom, Lorraine Bates McFly in Back to the Future). Could Melody/River have recreated the circumstance that made Clara into a Time Lord/Lady?
Possible, but if not CAL..... we know that the Doctor's own daughter, Jenny, survived to fly off at the end of her episode. When we first met Oswin in Asylum of the Daleks, she was marooned in a place that "looks real." Viewers noted that she is sitting in Jenny's chair.
Could it be that the image Oswin creates is actually her home and therefore part of the "dream she created because what happened to her was so horrific"? Is this episode giving the clue that she is Jenny's daughter? Could Jenny make the perfect soufflé? Soufflés are all about the eggs... and a recipe that is fragile and bigger on the inside when cooked.
Could Clara be Jenny or River's child? The last thought I'll offer about this possibility is when on Akhaten, the Doctor tells Clara "we should come here more often" and when questioned if he'd been there before, Smith's vital 11 offers that he brought his "Granddaughter" there in the past. We have to admit that Clara, as at least part Time Lord, is a possibility.
And what if having his head turned by her beauty, the 11th Doctor had no idea who she really was? What if he couldn't fathom it because of Clara's visage - not unlike Vastra was castigated for doing during the series eight premiere? Maybe as he regenerated into the older 12, he was reminded of Pompeii, where as Caecilius Peter Capaldi had to learn to be a better man. Maybe the Doctor instinctively picked that face to clarify the situation? This could explain the reason he is "telling himself something" with his face, as Capaldi mentions in his premiere. It would also show why Smith's Doctor was confused in thinking "he was her boyfriend" and Capaldi had to fix it.
Any one of these scenarios would explain, in an non-romantic way, why Clara is so important to the Doctor.
Could she be a Time Lord?
The premise does sound like a Moffat move to me, and one I am both eager to know and dreading having to wait to discover.
My prediction?
The penultimate moment sees Danny Pink, the soldier, being sacrificed by a full-realized Time Lord Clara at the end of Series Eight. Right or wrong, I think that's where we are going.
Risk adverse, Stacy would never even enter the TARDIS, but admires those who do. Happily watching and writing from the distance of Indiana, USA. She enjoys writing and discussing her observations and critiques.
