just wish she stayed as oswin or clara and all this nonsense would be over.

So far, she is a regular person.

It's what might have already happened or could be happening around her that's the mystery, right now at least.

So for the last 4 episodes at least, you've had a regular (sorry, despise the word 'normal' being used outside of maths or science...) person as a companion...

'She's just a normal girl'

She thinks she is normal. She doesn't know she has somehow been brought back from the dead twice and lived different lives in different time zones. If I was her I would not be happy to find out the doctor has been lying too her and keeping secrets.

No! Where's the fun in that?

This is 'nonsense'. There have been threads like this already why make another. If she's not the companion you hoped or expected then that's your fault.

She is normal though. The Doctor took her to the psychic with the hidden motive of checking that out. The psychic said she's normal.

If there's something special going on then it hasn't happened yet. Likely travelling with the doctor will mean something will happen to her which causes her to appear as 2 other people at 2 other times.

She is a normal companion.

Having a mystery doesn't lessen her as a character in the slightest.

Besides as people, don't we all have mysteries?

If she isn't normal now - hold off until Series 8, I guess

Huh? It might be their "problem", but their fault? That makes very little sense to me.

How? Why? If they have hopes and expectations an they aren't met it's their fault for having those hopes and expectations.

For example, I would love 8 to be in the 50th but I won't get my hopes up because I know I'm likely to be disappointed. If you watch something hoping for a certain thing and it doesn't happen it's got nothing to do with the writers/producers, it's their fault.

Sorry OP this isn't necessarily aimed at you, just people who want things that aren't forced to happen.

I must admit that after Amy and now with Clara, I do have a hankering for the days when the companion was just a companion, with nothing strange about them.

I wish Clara had a personality. I don't care if it's 'normal' or not. She's just so incredibly bland and insipid.

Yes she is very stage school type.

I do wish she was a normal companion though, the so called 'mystery' is annoying.

Nah, I quite like the mystery around her. I do wish Victorian Clara had been the one who would travel with The Doctor though.

Personally, I hope the next Companion isn't even a human at all.

We haven't had a single (onscreen) non-human Companion since Turlough left.

I want a male alien Companion to be introduced in either mid to late Series 8.

Then, when it comes time for Clara to leave, he can have some solo adventures with the Doctor before the next Companion comes along.

Same. I don't mind the mystery element, just I prefer to get to know the character a bit first if that was possible. For me it took a lot of series 5 to warm to Amy and with only a few episodes in this run I don't think the same is going to happen yet with Clara.

I don't mind her character, but I don't feel like I care enough about her yet for the whole whats going on with her to work as a plot yet. I find Moffat seems jumps in head first with characters. They are decent, but theres little time for adjustment.

Yes, I've said before that I find it odd how, with all of time and space at his feet, The Doctor almost invariably ends up travelling with humans from present-day Britain (and usually young females at that).

I can appreciate that this is supposed to make the companion easier for the audience to relate to, but why not have a second companion from a different time or even a different planet? It would mix things up a bit without neglecting the "audience surrogate".

Damn these new-fangled characters with their interesting attributes and character development and plot hooks! We will not rest until the Doctor acts sensible, the plots all conform to known scientific principles, and you can't tell the supporting characters apart from the people on your morning commute!

You can have interesting attributes and character development without the companion being at the centre of some mystery. Many companions have done so - Sarah Jane, Leela, Tegan, Ace, Rose, Martha, Donna to name but a few.

Yes, she's very stage school. Plus she can only utilise one expression i.e. that of goggle-eyed wonder. I don't know if it's because Coleman is a poor actress or whether she's just not right for the part. Either way, I'm sick of Clara's simpering already.

You can have Rose, but you're not having Donna or Ace. The foreshadowing of the DoctorDonna? An entire alternate reality forming around them? Their life with the Doctor being manipulated by Dalek Caan? The Wolves of Fenric?

Basically, the thing to remember is that Clara is, as far as anyone can tell, a normal girl. Each Clara we've met is a perfectly normal girl. So was Amy, for that matter.

It's not the companion that's strange, it's the circumstances surrounding them. And isn't that the case with every character in Who? Nobody gets to meet the Doctor without some very strange events being in progress.

I don't know. I think Jenna Louise Coleman is a brilliant actress but the last few episodes haven't really given her the chance to show off those skills, it feels like they're really holding back character development until the big reveal. I do love Clara though and I agree the Victorian Clara should have been the one to travel with the Doctor.

On one hand, it bothers me that her best character moments so far have been when the Doctor isn't present - arguing with the TARDIS, bonding with the little girl over being scared, admitting her fears to the Soviet professor.

On the other hand, the next episode is all about Clara being separated from the Doctor, so I'm hoping for more.

This, IMO.