The Mystery of Clara Oswald and “The Question”

What are you.. a trick, a trap?

As Doctor Who rapidly approaches the conclusion to Series 7, fan speculation has inevitably run rampant as to the nature and resolution to this seasons story arc, the mystery of Clara Oswald. As often the case some of the theories stray dangerously toward the realm of the absurd or just the unlikely so lets take a look at the facts, what we know and what will or will not happen by the end of The Name of the Doctor.

As we just mentioned, the final episode of the series will be entitled “The Name of the Doctor” which ties it directly to the “Silence will fall” arc that began two years ago.

“On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question will be asked, a question that must never, ever be answered. The first question, the oldest question in the Universe, that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight. Doctor Who?” – Dorium Maldovar in The Wedding of River Song

We can immediately establish that The Name of the Doctor will feature this event, the “question” being asked on the fields of Trenzalore, potentially bringing this long arc to a conclusion. The Doctor’s visit to Trenzalore also coincides with “The fall of the eleventh” and the Silence’s creed that, “Silence will fall when the question is asked.” What is meant by these two phrases is open to speculation, both possibly indicate the death of the Doctor (or in the second case, the end of the universe) and yet as we know Matt Smith will star in the 50th anniversary special and as least part of Series 8 so it wouldn’t appear to be the case of a regenertion if The Name of the Doctor does indeed tell of the events at Trenzalore. Equally the Silence were willing to kill the Doctor to stop the question being asked, due largely to the threat of universal destruction upon the answering of the question.

Producer Stephen Moffat has stated that Clara’s story would be revealed in this series by the end of the finale so logically we can suggest that she is tied to “The question” arc. Speculation of the involvement of Rose and the Tenth Doctor, the Time War, the Bad Wolf arc of Series 1 and so one should be taken in this context: Moffatt has refrained from referring to hardly anything that happened in the Russell T. Davies era of the show, the Time War was as far as i can remember mentioned for the first time in years in the Rings of Akhaten and Matt Smiths Doctor has never harked back to his previous self. Today’s audience in a media driven society, with hundreds of programs on demand and shorter attention spans will not welcome an arc that goes back 8 years to a time before a lot of the audience began watching, it would be foolish writing and not in-keeping with the style or ethos of the Smith/Moffatt era. It won’t happen and the mystery of Clara will be contained within the Matt Smith era.

Bringing us to the Great Intelligence. On two of the three occasions we have met Clara, the Great Intelligence has been involved and the Intelligence’s involvement with the Doctor is clearly far from over given the ending to The Bells of Saint John, it’s also unlikely an actor the caliber of Richard E. Grant would be used for only a cameo. Equally given the prophecy “Silence will fall” the involvement of the Silence is a possibility. In Clara’s book two years in her life were missing which is surely significant given there are two other Clara’s, one in the past and one in the future. The TARDIS not liking Clara is another intriguing recurring element to recent episodes, this has only happened once before, with Captain Jack Harkness, because he was “impossible” and an anomaly. The three Clara’s don’t seemingly share memories but do share personalities, Clara in the Snowmen is also seen very clearly to die, she in no way regenerates, the Doctor would also know if she was a Time Lady, she is indeed seemingly a perfectly ordinary human woman. Too ordinary and perfect? Almost as if she was made to be the Doctor’s companion.

Two final questions raise themselves, why did the TARDIS chose Clara as “the image of a person you esteem,” it seems a little arrogant of Clara to consider herself the person she esteems most and why, also in Hide, did Emma tell Clara not to trust the Doctor, saying that, “he has a sliver of ice in his heart,” Possibly innocuous throw away line, but is there ever such a thing in Doctor Who? Without a doubt we will learn a lot more in Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS and particularly The Crimson Horror when Clara will come face to face with Madam Vastra, Strax and Jenny who of course met the Victorian version of herself.