Clara and the Capaldi Doctor...where next?
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar"
William Wordsworth
Slowly, little hints are beginning to sneak out of the BBC suggesting possible directions Series 8 could go. And this one is interesting.
Apart from the fact that there is a distinctly Mavericks look about the new titles, the fact that Clara stands at the gateway of the TARDIS, physically between the TARDIS and the Doctor, is quite a contrast to the publicity stills we've seen in the past. But then, Clara isn't just any old companion. She's the Impossible Girl, who arguably knows the Doctor better than he knows himself.
We haven't seen an incumbent companion deal with a regeneration since The Christmas Invasion in 2005. It shakes up the dynamic a little. For a while, the Doctor's the vulnerable one. Of course, if the companion hasn't seen regeneration happen before, that evens out. But Clara has, presumably, seen quite a few. So she's in quite a strong position here. It brings yet another powerful female archetype into the mix; she becomes, in a sense, the midwife as the Doctor is reborn.
The regeneration of Ten into Eleven was very focused on death and loss. I know there are spoilers for the Christmas episode out there; I've been trying to avoid them, and any speculations I come out with here are entirely my own. But this image does remind us that a regeneration is also a birth, a new beginning - filled with danger and vulnerability, but also great potential.
Another intriguing contrast here is between Clara/Impossible Girl/The Doctor and Rose/Bad Wolf/The Doctor. In Parting of the Ways, we had another case of a companion being given privileged, supernatural knowledge of the Doctor's timeline, but that knowledge was taken away, allegedly for her own protection, by the Doctor himself. At least, that was RTD's version of events. It's also worth reflecting that in Utopia, when the Doctor is telling Jack what Rose did for him, he described her sacrifice as "so very human." If we look at this in context, the Doctor seemed to be referring to Rose's impulsive choice to save him and to hell with the consequences. It recognises her choice and its validity, but also contextualises it within the limited awareness possessed by the human species and a need for his protection. She saved him - saved everything - but, like Donna, she must never know.
Moffat's use of The Moment in Day of the Doctor retcons this somewhat. It suggests, though it stops short of stating, that some of Rose's powers were retained and she was made into a universal anima figure, the voice of conscience. This accords Rose as a character a level of respect that people tend not to associate with Moffat. It also gives us a fascinating revised version of the Tenth Doctor/Rose relationship in Series Two, because it raises the possibility that at some level, possibly subconsciously, Rose knew what the Doctor had done to end the Time War. Or, at the very least, the Doctor was afraid that she knew. That gives us all kind of intriguing new readings of his evasive behaviour, his lack of eye contact with her even when they appear to be most in love (check out Fear Her, for example) and his attempt to sabotage, or at least deny, their deepening relationship by taking Mickey along for the ride and paying court to Reinette in The Girl In The Fireplace.
But I digress. Where is Moffat going to take the Clara/Capaldi Doctor relationship? It's anyone's guess, but we know from his work up to now that themes of memory and identity are intimately linked in his conception of character, almost to the point where our very existence consists of what people remember about us. That gets me wondering if perhaps as a result of this regeneration, which may turn out to be particularly significant and traumatic if recent comments on Doctor numbering are factored in, might result in the Doctor completely losing his memory. The Tenth Doctor said in The Christmas Invasion, "See, that's the thing. I don't know who I am." Half in jest, but it contained a truth. Are we defined by our actions, our reputation, or our reflection in the eyes of those who know us? Will it be Clara (the very name is significant) who has to lead the Doctor homeward, not only in relation to Gallifrey, but into a new identity?
I look forward to finding out. I expect you do too!