DW: Clara Oswin Oswald
So I've watched the Season 7 Premiere and the Christmas Special, and I have thinky thoughts about Souffle Girl... I don't know anything past the episodes, so the below is just thoughts from episodes aired to date, no spoilers...
At first, I wondered if Clara was River and/or River's child but I don't think so for a few reasons. 1) I think it would strain coincidence a bit too far (and yes, I know I'm talking about Who here) 2) they've bookended the Ponds storyline now (pauses to mourn the loss of Amy and Rory again. I wouldn't be surprised if the Doctor runs into them again. Hell Rose was back in another dimension and they wrote her back a few times.)
That said, I think she is actually related to the Doctor more than has been revealed--at least as something Time Lord esque. Unlike when the Doctor met Amy and kept getting drawn back to her because of her link to the crack in the wall, Clara seems to be looking for the Doctor, at least in the Snowman episode. Oswin certainly seemed to know more in the pilot when she told him to Run and remember, and she was as clever as the Doctor in hacking the Daleks, something even the Doctor couldn't do--but Oswin could because she was a Dalek. She was so clever the Daleks fully converted her. There was something special about her.
As for Clara, there's a few things she says in the Snowmen episode that make sense in one context, but can also be taken a completely different way (and I'm relying on
jpgr's awesome transcripts for assistance):
1. Why is she bringing tankards outside? She's keeping the Doctor's interest--and she seems almost as interested if not more interested in him than the Snowman. Calling him back and then chasing him down. Yes, this happens a lot with the Doctor and companions, but the Doctor is usually a bit more inviting about it. Eleven's actually being a rude cold stranger, but she's still intrigued and following him.
2. She counters Clara Who? with Doctor Who? during their early conversations. It's a tit for tat conversation, but it also delays the moment when the Doctor relates her to Oswin of the crashed ship.
3. When she leaves the bar:
CLARA:
Elsie is back this afternoon - I was only helping out. I've got my own work to get back to.
BOB:
What work? Why won't you ever tell us?
CLARA:
You'd never believe me!
Was this the governess work, or was this work with the Doctor? Paired with...
4. when she speaks to the father after she's back at the house, she says: Apologies for my brief absence - family illness is so unpredictable.
The storyline makes it seem like she's taken over for a sick Elsie, but...is that the family illness or is it the Doctor's "illness" at staying out of everything everywhere and literally living up in his cloud moping? Mind you this could be a "family" relationship, or this could be "time lord" relationship of some sort, but whether my speculation on the rest is right or wrong, I'm sure this statement has a double meaning.
(I'm wondering if the name Montague means something since it's obvious Clara was using it as a pseudonym since her grave gave Oswin Oswald.)
5. Putting the children to bed, Clara sounds like an awesome Mary Poppins governess with her stories, but maybe like Mary Poppins she only tells the truth--even if the truth is fantastic:
CLARA:
Huh! All my stories are true.
DIGBY:
Like how you were born behind the clock face of Big Ben?
CLARA:
Accounting for my acute sense of time.
FRANCESCA:
And you invented fish.
CLARA:
Because I dislike swimming alone.
(Okay, maybe not the fish part...but then again, this IS Dr. Who). I mean, the Doctor even gives her a Mary Poppins umbrella which she uses to get into the sky--okay it's to pull down the Doctor's ladder, but she did get it to retract with just a tap.
6. She grabs the Doctor's hand, much to his consternation: I do the hand grabbing, that's my job, that's always me!
7. She keeps changing the conversation with he pushes her. Like asking barmaid or governess, she points out they're running for their lives (valid) and pulls the woman's lib argument (also valid--but also a good distraction).
8. She cries when she's in the TARDIS, without knowing why. Subconsciously maybe she's connecting more than she realizes. Plus, the Doctor's given his key to her pretty quickly. The recent iterations of New Who don't do those too quickly.
Honestly, I think she's going to tie back to something seen before. It's Moffat's M.O. to pull some loose string from yesteryear and make it an arc. And with this being the 50th anniversary, it's a very strong vibe. So who could she be?
a) Maybe she's Jenny in some new iteration, or Jenny's daughter. Er, here I'm not meaning Victorian Jenny wife of Vastra, I'm meaning Jenny, the Doctor's Daughter (also the Doctor's Wife, since she's married to David Tennant (Ten) and daughter of Peter Davies (Five) which means the Doctor is the Doctor's Father-in-Law and yes, my mind is still blown by all this). We know Jenny had a delayed regeneration in the Doctor's Daughter, and when she did regenerate, it was as herself. So perhaps the cloning thing would cause the regeneration to be weird. Also, Jenny never saw the TARDIS, so Clara's interest and surprise would be genuine, as well as her shock at seeing Strax and Vastra. She doesn't know that much about him.
b) First Doctor to my surprise started his travels with his granddaughter. I'm not sure what happened to her, but that would be a very Who anniversary-like thing to do to bring her in--or her progeny. He was a grandfatherly type then in appearance, so Eleven's appearance would make him seem a boy to her.
Now if she's either of those--and knows it, that makes her flirting with him as he's going up the ladder a bit weird and maybe too Leia/Luke.
c) Maybe she's R...Roxannadanna or...okay, this is showing my Who Ignorance but I know there's a Time Lord (Lady) that hung out with the Fourth Doctor that had a long name that began with R--or somehow related to her.
And yes, except for the Jenny theory I know her constant similarities go against Who canon regenerations, but not always (Ten grew back again from his own hand, River was still regenerating in Let's Kill Hitler and stayed the same after being shot. The Master came back as his own self in Ten Era and he was destroyed in a funeral pyre!). Time Lords should know each other, but there's obviously something time related here that future Oswin and past Clara both know and relay the same words to present Doctor.
Phew, so if you read all that, thanks. "Anyway, that just happens to be how *I* feel about it. What do you think?"
Edited to close some parentheses and because I remembered a couple other odd moments.
At first, I wondered if Clara was River and/or River's child but I don't think so for a few reasons. 1) I think it would strain coincidence a bit too far (and yes, I know I'm talking about Who here) 2) they've bookended the Ponds storyline now (pauses to mourn the loss of Amy and Rory again. I wouldn't be surprised if the Doctor runs into them again. Hell Rose was back in another dimension and they wrote her back a few times.)
That said, I think she is actually related to the Doctor more than has been revealed--at least as something Time Lord esque. Unlike when the Doctor met Amy and kept getting drawn back to her because of her link to the crack in the wall, Clara seems to be looking for the Doctor, at least in the Snowman episode. Oswin certainly seemed to know more in the pilot when she told him to Run and remember, and she was as clever as the Doctor in hacking the Daleks, something even the Doctor couldn't do--but Oswin could because she was a Dalek. She was so clever the Daleks fully converted her. There was something special about her.
As for Clara, there's a few things she says in the Snowmen episode that make sense in one context, but can also be taken a completely different way (and I'm relying on
jpgr's awesome transcripts for assistance):
1. Why is she bringing tankards outside? She's keeping the Doctor's interest--and she seems almost as interested if not more interested in him than the Snowman. Calling him back and then chasing him down. Yes, this happens a lot with the Doctor and companions, but the Doctor is usually a bit more inviting about it. Eleven's actually being a rude cold stranger, but she's still intrigued and following him.
2. She counters Clara Who? with Doctor Who? during their early conversations. It's a tit for tat conversation, but it also delays the moment when the Doctor relates her to Oswin of the crashed ship.
3. When she leaves the bar:
CLARA:
Elsie is back this afternoon - I was only helping out. I've got my own work to get back to.
BOB:
What work? Why won't you ever tell us?
CLARA:
You'd never believe me!
Was this the governess work, or was this work with the Doctor? Paired with...
4. when she speaks to the father after she's back at the house, she says: Apologies for my brief absence - family illness is so unpredictable.
The storyline makes it seem like she's taken over for a sick Elsie, but...is that the family illness or is it the Doctor's "illness" at staying out of everything everywhere and literally living up in his cloud moping? Mind you this could be a "family" relationship, or this could be "time lord" relationship of some sort, but whether my speculation on the rest is right or wrong, I'm sure this statement has a double meaning.
(I'm wondering if the name Montague means something since it's obvious Clara was using it as a pseudonym since her grave gave Oswin Oswald.)
5. Putting the children to bed, Clara sounds like an awesome Mary Poppins governess with her stories, but maybe like Mary Poppins she only tells the truth--even if the truth is fantastic:
CLARA:
Huh! All my stories are true.
DIGBY:
Like how you were born behind the clock face of Big Ben?
CLARA:
Accounting for my acute sense of time.
FRANCESCA:
And you invented fish.
CLARA:
Because I dislike swimming alone.
(Okay, maybe not the fish part...but then again, this IS Dr. Who). I mean, the Doctor even gives her a Mary Poppins umbrella which she uses to get into the sky--okay it's to pull down the Doctor's ladder, but she did get it to retract with just a tap.
6. She grabs the Doctor's hand, much to his consternation: I do the hand grabbing, that's my job, that's always me!
7. She keeps changing the conversation with he pushes her. Like asking barmaid or governess, she points out they're running for their lives (valid) and pulls the woman's lib argument (also valid--but also a good distraction).
8. She cries when she's in the TARDIS, without knowing why. Subconsciously maybe she's connecting more than she realizes. Plus, the Doctor's given his key to her pretty quickly. The recent iterations of New Who don't do those too quickly.
Honestly, I think she's going to tie back to something seen before. It's Moffat's M.O. to pull some loose string from yesteryear and make it an arc. And with this being the 50th anniversary, it's a very strong vibe. So who could she be?
a) Maybe she's Jenny in some new iteration, or Jenny's daughter. Er, here I'm not meaning Victorian Jenny wife of Vastra, I'm meaning Jenny, the Doctor's Daughter (also the Doctor's Wife, since she's married to David Tennant (Ten) and daughter of Peter Davies (Five) which means the Doctor is the Doctor's Father-in-Law and yes, my mind is still blown by all this). We know Jenny had a delayed regeneration in the Doctor's Daughter, and when she did regenerate, it was as herself. So perhaps the cloning thing would cause the regeneration to be weird. Also, Jenny never saw the TARDIS, so Clara's interest and surprise would be genuine, as well as her shock at seeing Strax and Vastra. She doesn't know that much about him.
b) First Doctor to my surprise started his travels with his granddaughter. I'm not sure what happened to her, but that would be a very Who anniversary-like thing to do to bring her in--or her progeny. He was a grandfatherly type then in appearance, so Eleven's appearance would make him seem a boy to her.
Now if she's either of those--and knows it, that makes her flirting with him as he's going up the ladder a bit weird and maybe too Leia/Luke.
c) Maybe she's R...Roxannadanna or...okay, this is showing my Who Ignorance but I know there's a Time Lord (Lady) that hung out with the Fourth Doctor that had a long name that began with R--or somehow related to her.
And yes, except for the Jenny theory I know her constant similarities go against Who canon regenerations, but not always (Ten grew back again from his own hand, River was still regenerating in Let's Kill Hitler and stayed the same after being shot. The Master came back as his own self in Ten Era and he was destroyed in a funeral pyre!). Time Lords should know each other, but there's obviously something time related here that future Oswin and past Clara both know and relay the same words to present Doctor.
Phew, so if you read all that, thanks. "Anyway, that just happens to be how *I* feel about it. What do you think?"
Edited to close some parentheses and because I remembered a couple other odd moments.