They didn't vanish. Clara is just no longer their nanny. There was a time skip of a few years from Clara's point of view between Name of the Doctor and Day of the Doctor. In that time, she got her teaching qualification, quit her job as a nanny (the Maitland kids may not have needed her any more anyway) and joined Coal Hill. Danny presumably joins the school a term later, since Time of the Doctor was set at Christmas, Deep Breath immediately follows it, and Into the Dalek is three weeks later.

Oh! John Simm was also very briefly in Spaced. If we're just playing connections.

I think Minky was making the point, which I completely agree with, that in series 7 that family and those kids were of vital importance to her life. She had explained how she'd put her whole life on hold to be there for them because the family were so important, and now they've 'vanished' in the sense of she's never even mentioned them since.

I really think that Moffat is trying to get us to forget all the mistakes he made with Clara in series 7 by barely mentioning anything of her time in that series at all.

Absolutely - and I'd add the point that the last we knew, Clara was living in that house and for some reason, all we've been shown of her current home is a tiny part of the hallway - the first time since 2005 that we haven't seen a companions house almost every week.

And seriously - is no-one REALLY going to say that it's a hell of a coincidence that she's teaching at THAT school One minute she's a nanny risking her life to save those kids and living in the same house with them, the next she's a fully qualified, experienced teacher working at the same school that the Doctor's granddaughter attended 50 years ago - where by an incredibly incredible coincidence, she meets a man who is apparently the ancestor of the world's first time-traveller.

It's Three years later.

Clara was implied to be 24 in The Bells of St John and said to be 27 in Deep Breath.


So the scene of the Doctor sitting in front of her bedroom mirror while Clara lay on the bed didn't happen?

Must have been a dream I had


We also saw what was presumably Clara's flat (though maybe not the same one) in Time of the Doctor.

This is fascinating - none of this Clara timeline stuff had clicked with me at all!

So there was a period of about three years (from Clara's perspective) that took place between the season 7 finale (The Name of the Doctor) and the 50th anniversary special (The Day of the Doctor).

Are we to suppose that Clara and the 11th Doctor had plenty of additional adventures during that period that we never saw?

I do agree that the writing is veering well away from all the 'impossible girl' stuff from season 7. Otherwise, I can't help but think that 'Into the Dalek' would have acknowledged the 'Oswin Oswald' version of Clara who become a Dalek, and that Danny Pink's ancestor in 'Listen' would have been called Oswin Pink rather than Orson Pink. But then season 8 seems to be veering well away from pretty much everything from seasons 5-7.

I sort of see it as Moffat basically saying 'look, forget all the mess up's and mangled arcs i've made in the past', this time I can do it right' and to be fair to him, so far he is proving that to be true

Yes, I agree 100%. And to be fair to Moffat (and I say this as someone who hasn't particularly enjoyed Doctor Who since he took over) I am really enjoying season 8!

Implied is tenuous at best - and three years is not that long if you're going from IT illiterate nanny to qualified, practising teacher in a state school - especially if she spent at least some of that time travelling with the Doctor.

And from a purely practical point of view - how did she afford a flat whilst presumably studying and unable to earn a living?

According to Tardis-wikia and the Radio Times, Clara was "born in 1989" - which makes her 25 by my reckoning - so are we now going through that whole "the present is actually the future" tripe we had with Amy and Rory or is the present in Doctor Who the same as OUR present.

And can you say exactly where the "aged 27" line came from - if it was stated directly in the show, was it honesty or like my father who always gave his age as "27" for a laugh (for various reasons - "age 27" is a "standard" - many people jokingly give that age and there's even the "27 Club" - list of rock stars who dies aged 27)

If the DW present is our present - i.e. her date with Danny took place in 2014 - and she's older than 24, the only answer would be that she "lost" three years by travelling with the Doctor - but she'd have to lie about that on Earth else things like her passport and driving licence would be invalidated. And if she spent all of those three years outside of her normal time - exactly when did she study, get that job, find that flat and misplace two children?

No, but they were in Spaced as specified in the OP.

That's a point. What happened with them?

You can go from being an IT illiterate nanny to a practising teacher in a state school in less than a few months if she were a trainee or a year if she's fully qualified. To be fair, she could even be trained on the job (GTP / school direct type thing) and have waltzed straight into teaching. We're assuming she already has a degree in English if she's teaching it, but who knows? I left uni at 22, worked in HMV til I was 25 and began teacher training within days of leaving that job. I was qualified and in post within 9 months (doing supply work before my full-time contract started in September). Also, when I trained, we received a bursary of £1000 per month, which would cover living expenses. It's not like students live on the streets, is it?

As for being IT illiterate, many of my colleagues aren't too hot with IT, but they don't exactly need to be!

Edit - as for her being 27, it was Strax who scanned her and deduced this. No reason for us to believe it to be false as she didn't correct it.
Last edited by amos_brearley : 20-09-2014 at 17:53

As to teaching she either already had a teaching degree and was planning to do a years travelling before getting a full time job (but then her friend died) or she had an English degree and did a PGCE (can you still do them?) between Name of the Doctor and Day of the Doctor.


And yes Clara's present (from Day of the Doctor onwards) has to be a few years ahead of our own. Kate Stewart met the 11th Doctor for the first time in Power of Three which given dialogue from multiple episodes had to be no earlier than 2016 yet she already knew the 11th Doctor in Day of the Doctor.