This as well. Why I'm clinging to my theory is that some part of me (naive as it is) hopes perhaps they finally DIDN'T write a female character that fancied the doc, and Moffat just kind of put two fingers up to all the people who criticise his female characters for lack of depth, he planted an "in joke" to fool people into thinking he meant she fancied him but actually its his story and no she didn't fancy him. Shes the girl who didn't go all googley eyed when he showed her the inside of his TARDIS and was invited to become a companion. Instead she teased him by saying "does this work?" and asked him to come back and ask again the next day.


Oh hold on, maybe she did fancy him and just played hard to get. Maybe Moffat took the easy route and wrote it like it is. Damn, its the fault of the Moonites I say.

I did think of adding a final line saying "of course Simm could always change his mind in the future." Give him the right material and he may well be interested.

My point was more that people are discussing Simm returning only for a regeneration scene because this is a commonly known piece of information as to what he wanted to do. If it turned out to be wrong, that wouldn't change the fact that most people are talking about it as a possibility because it is believed that is what he had said would be his only return.

The point in the quoted post was why people were assuming change and that it was due to the fact that the Doctor had regenerated, so people assume everything else will change because he has. I was only pointing out that people assume the Master would change (and specifically, that Simm would return for a regeneration scene) because it was quoted in the press that he would do that - not because Peter Capaldi had taken over the role of the Doctor.


I didn't mean it to sound like Clara was shallow. But if that were the reason she decided to run off with the Doctor, then if that changed, it will alter their relationship. Its one thing to have brief encounters with his "other selves," and quite another to travel with them permanently.

Just witness her reactions in "Time of the Doctor." Her initial reaction to the Doctor saying he was dying was that he'd just change and everything would be ok. But when it actually came to seeing 11 about to change, she cried and didn't want him to go. It didn't matter how much he said he would still be the same man, she wanted to hold on to her Doctor.

So, if handled correctly, I don't think it would be shallow. She might still care for him; but things would have changed and she might not feel the same as she did in the past.

We all kind of gloss over the idea of regeneration because we're so used to it as a plot device, but imagine what it would be like for most humans to deal with such a change. If you want to get sciency-wiency about it, we actually make a connection in our brains between the image of a person and our emotional connection to them. They are stored in different parts of the brain. A total change in image would break that link and would probably be very hard for a normal human being to process and deal with - no matter how much they understand it on an intellectual level.

I could imagine Clara just feeling that the "magic" is gone and that it is time to move on.


Yes, but that's stretching a bit. She might have been about to say "because I fancy cooking my Christmas turkey on the heart of the TARDIS."

It's not entirely likely, though, is it?

Speaking of Clara, from what I've seen on other websites, Moffat apparently is quoted as saying that Clara had the 11th Doctor "on a leash" in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine. Here's the alleged quote:

"[...] once she had the Doctor on a leash, as she did with the Matt Smith Doctor, she just seemed so totally in control and so sort of perfect and sweet that you really wanted to mess her around a bit and say, no let’s give her a situation that she can’t control. […] She’s got a Doctor who’s got a not very well concealed crush on her, and she’s got it well under control. […] Now we’re going to give her a Doctor who’s not like that at all, who’s a much older, fiercer, madder, less reliable Doctor who leads her a merry dance.”

Does anybody have the latest DWM issue and can confirm Moffat actually said that? Because that would be quite a thing for him to say, if true.

I've read multiple sources that say it's true, yeah.

I really hope Jenna stays. I haven't really liked a companion since Rose, and Donna but she didn't stay too long. Sometimes I feel like we rush companions in and out too quickly. In Classic they stayed longer, didn't they? Saying that, I really hope she doesn't leave of her own accord as well - it wouldn't make sense. She's having her adventures and a normal life, and seems to be juggling them quite well, so why would she leave?

I want Clara to stay, simply because she is the only companion that lights the fire in this old mans loins.
Not since Peri anyways.

Yes I am a perv

Entertains the young and old alike...

I hope she stays.

I feel like the impossible girl story arc in season 7 overshadowed her character a lot and she did come across as a little bland as a person because of it. It was as if her entire personality was just The Impossible Girl.

Now without that, hopefully she can just be a normal person. I thought she was fantastic in the last two specials and I hope it is that Clara that goes into season eight, and hopefully beyond.

But, it's all dependent on her chemistry with Twelve, I guess!

I think Clara will either depart in the Series 8 finale or Christmas 2014 and Series 9 will have a new, possibly older female companion along with Capaldi's Doctor.

I too liked rose, and I think it's because, besides the personality, the fact that she stayed through two different doctor's and (by the doctor's own admission) was able to make him better. I just loved how comfortable she got with him, like in the satan pit, the dcotor says "looks dangerous, maybe we should leave" then they both turn to each other and laugh, and in army of ghost's you see she has started to learn some of the tardis button's. She was allowed to become almost the doctor's equal more than any companion who came after her

Yeah, I agree. I think chemistry is important, and Rose and Ten had a great fun chemistry. It was even that way with Nine, but it was a different type of charisma. They just wanted to have fun. Just as soon as the same was being said for Eleven and Clara, Matt said he was leaving. Which is a shame, really. Let's hope Twelve can bring the same thing to the table!

Thanks for replying. I'm actually rather amazed that Moffat would say such a thing. Poor Doctor. Here I thought he was the hero and the main character and it turns out he's just a companion's pet.

I would say River was portrayed as the Doctor's equal and even his superior at times.

I think Clara could be in for a shock. She has seen his 11 previous lives, but this is different. He is a new man now not the one she knew and loved.She hasn't faced any consequeces from being "impossible girl". Think that might change too.Look at the effect 11 had on the Pond family.Amy and Rory's dream of a family was destroyed at Demons Run.They could only have a "normal" life together after being sent back to past New York.River became a disembodied data ghost trapped in a computor for all eternity.Does Clara really want to end up dead,undead or something even worse ?. What can 12 offer her apart from danger and death ?. It's not like they are going to get married or even sleep together.Clara might think she can have it all for now.Teaching career ,possible boyfreind(s) and travel with the doctor durring weekends or school holidays. Time might mean she has to make some hard choices.

I do think it's more the fact that she captured 11 as such - she intrigued him, she had him running around the universe trying to find her, she was well aware of his crush on her. She put him quite on the back foot (not always wittingly so) and they obviously fell into a very comfortable relationship together where they were both very at ease. Twelve will be a different prospect simply because she can't quite 'control' him so well as she doesn't know him. (Clara's control freak side was brought up at Christmas and makes some nice character sense if you tie it back in to losing her mother).


I'm not sure she ever will because Moffat is really bad for letting stuff like that drop. We had an indication in the 50th that she certainly remembers parts of all her other lives but unfortunately I don't think we'll get much of a look at how that affects her. He did the same to Amy when he never explored how she was affected by her kidnapping and losing her daughter.

I'd love them to look at Clara's Gallifreyan life in particular because there's a hint there she was a Time Lady and that potential is very interesting.

They could do an episode whereby they come across one of Clara's many echoes and they explore her feelings about the whole thing there (especially if this one also dies to save the Doctor).

Moffat basically confirmed that this won't be explored. He was quoted saying that in series eight, since the first episode is set in Victorian times, he added in some lines about Clara remembering the last time she was a Victorian governess/barmaid. Then he took the lines out because he thought no one cared. That was his exact words: "we don't care about that."

This is the one thing, other than the confusing story arcs, that annoys me about Moffat's writing.

not the same thing as obviously not a full time companion. a character who dip's in and out can be whatever they like but when a full time companion, who is there all the time fulfilling a role that was tradionally, scream and wait for the doctor, starts to become his equal, as with rose, that's when you respect and identify them more because you see their journey and you've watched all they've been through with the doctor to get to that point

Never say never!

I think I'll skip that episode!

Quite agree on your description of Clara's story It also makes sense that through her character and upcoming dialogues with Capaldi we will probably get to understand the whole change in doctors demeanor (a la Capaldi) much better. i.e. she becomes a different kind of "plot/arc" device to help alliterate the trickier side Capaldi is supposedly going to bring, the one who can't be 'controlled' like you say.

What that would do is make her like every other companion for the 40 years before Nu Who came along

Why did any of them go along with The Doctor it's nothing to do with been in love or want to sleep with him they do it for many reasons 1 for the adventure and 2 because he is The Doctor and while they may not be in love with him they do love him and he is worth the risk.

BIB: it got that way with Amy too. There were times when they looked at each other and grinned (AotD). Rory became comfortable with the Doctor too.

I think there will be some strain on the relationship between Clara and the new Doctor which will be resolved over time. Shortly after it's resolved, with the Doctor and Clara finally admitting they are friends, Jenna will leave the series. Probably Clara will sacrifice herself once more to save the Doctor in a tear jerking finale.

There's nothing to stop her popping up again now and again as different versions of Clara. Or did TNotD not really happen now?

EDIT - and hopefully the dialogue won't be like this:

http://borntosavethedoctor.tumblr.com/post/57412157767

that is the question isn't it. I think that's something which can never be resolved because whether you say yes it did, or no it didn't then either name or time have something in them which you have to ignore for the whole thing to make sense. did a thread on this a while back, stating that after the event's of time, the impossible girl could have never been, even if the doctor and clara still remember that version of events. the point is as far as I can see if someone went back in time now to have a look their whole meeting and his entire relationship with her would have been different and name could not have occured

That drives me nuts too because YES, of course we care about that! It's important to her character. This woman has lived potentially hundreds of different lives and that's so interesting to explore. Why wouldn't we want to know about that?

Moffat REALLY shows his ignorance of character when he says things like that.

There was nothing to suggest that that was the Doctor's grave after his 13 regenerations- it could have been after 26 or 39 etc. I know its clutching on straws a bit because the grave is on Trenzalore and Clara told the timelords to "change the future" but how was she to know that the Doctor getting more regenerations wasn't a foxed point in time or something?

I think I'm confusing myself here but that is the problem with Doctor Who!