Compare Victoria and Clara?

[fannishliss]

Thinking about the Great Intelligence featuring in both this recent Christmas special, The Snowmen, and in the Second Doctor Adventure, the Abominable Snowmen, it made me wonder why Clara and Victoria look so much alike?  Is this just a superficial resemblance

Comments

[louisedennis]

I can't say they seem particularly similar as characters. Even allowing for changing expectations about women's behaviour, Clara is far more confident and pushy than Victoria ever was.

[fannishliss]

Yes, apparently Victoria was noted for her screaminess, while Clara seems very strong.

[donna_c_punk]

The few stories I've seen with Victoria, she had some real courage and strength, too. And I thought Mel was the Scream Queen for DW?

[dbskyler]

Seconded. They're completely different characters.

[chaoticm]

[viomisehunt]

I can't think of two different personalities, but are you suggesting Victoria and Clara are family, or maybe Clara worked for Victoria's family? Thing is, I'm not certain Clara is really from that century. She might have transported there by angels, planted there to protect her--we don't know enough, and I'm certain Moffat is going to muddy the waters before leaving plausible hints.

[fannishliss]

I'm not suggesting anything; I've never even seen any eps with Victoria. I just notice that they look just alike and are both in eps with the Great Intelligence. Also, that Victoria has to do with time travel, which, apparently is something that is affecting Clara as well. It's bugging me is all. :)

[fannishliss]

Well, he often succeeds at tying together timey wimey snarls.... so it would play to his strengths for Clara to be some sort of recurrence of previous storylines......

I don't really know how I feel about Clara essentially BEING A STORYLINE, but it's interesting on a meta level.

In fic I often ponder how the Doctor remembers things. There's a quote from Two about how he basically only "remembers" when he chooses to.... and then I think with his Time Lord Brain he must be able to remember quite well. -- But at the same time, for dramatic tension, his power of recall is inadequate to the demands he makes of himself. You can picture the Doctor in various guises pounding his head and saying "think think think!" Maybe my headcanon about the magnificent power of his brain goes too far. :P Still -- The way Clara keeps saying "remember me" is so poignant... it almost breaks the fourth wall for me, like, she's this fictional character and the only way she can ever really matter is if we Remember Her.

*cue Purcell's Dido*

[acciochocolate]

Looking at the wiki list of serials for the Third Doctor, and monsters/villains/aliens that were introduced during his era, we have Autons, Silurians, the Master (and more abt the Time Lords), the Sontarans, amongst others, all of which have been re-used in both the Classic era and in the New era. I'm not sure that the one-offs would evoke whatever theme Moffat is going with, though. Possessed astronaunts (oh, wait, let's don't forget River Song in that suit!), giant spiders, dinosaurs in the present day (Jurassic Park, anyone?) -- probably these won't fit inot the theme. Peladon is probably mined out. Omega was already dealt with "Arc of Infinity" and we had the concept of parallel Earth with Pete's World. Other ideas were one-offs (see Axos, the Deamons, the MIni-scope, etc.) and were dealt with in the course of their serial.

I would bet on Autons, I guess.

[fannishliss]

Autons would definitely work... it would be so easy for the Doctor to meet up with Plastic!ClaraOswinOswald.

[acciochocolate]

That's a perfect idea!

Now what about the rest of the Classic era Doctors? I'm off to that wiki serial list (I look at it so often that it is in my personal faves toolbar).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_serials