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Friday 22 March 2013

Doctor Who: Clara Oswald- The Story So Far

As part of a series of Countdown feature articles to the new season of Doctor Who, let's look back at Clara's wacky timeline...
A new season of Doctor Who, packing the same Eleventh Doctor we all know and love and a brand new companion to boot. Simple, right? Not quite- we live in the brave and bold universe of Steven Moffat, where nothing's every quite as straightforward as it would seem. Indeed, the story of new companion Clara Oswin Oswald is already well underway at the time of writing, seven days before the anniversary season kicks off. Let's journey back to Autumn 2012, when fans expecting a simple season premiere in the Fall Of The Ponds had a big surprise...

Venturing into the Asylum Of The Daleks, the Doctor could not possibly have guessed who was awaiting him on the surface. Technological whiz Oswin Oswald soon revealed to the Time Lord that she was trapped at the very heart of this lunatic institution for Skaro's defeated wrecks. The Junior Entertainment Manager on Starship Alaska, Oswin possessed a quick-wit about her which instantly drew the Doctor to her plight. For reasons at first unknown to him, the Doctor couldn't see Oswin in the flesh, only hearing her voice over the intercom. Once he had fixed the Ponds' marriage  avoided a barrage of new and classic Daleks and raced across the Asylum to free Oswin, though, the Time Lord learned the terrible truth!

Spending an entire year inside the madhouse of the galaxy's most terrifying alien menaces is enough to drive anyone insane, but for Oswin the situation is far worse indeed. The Doctor made the horrific realisation that Oswin had been converted to Dalek form due to her high intelligence, only for her to attempt to revert to human form by placing herself in a mindscape of her old spaceship where she could cook souffles and still talk with people outside of the Asylum. Oswin refused to believe this at first, but eventually she gave in, allowing the Doctor, Amy and Rory to escape the planet while she was seemingly destroyed in its explosion. Before her alleged demise, though, Ms Oswald had a few choice words for her lost friend: "Run, you clever boy- and remember."

And remember the Doctor did. Having lost the Ponds in a devestating battle against the Weeping Angels in New York, the Time Lord retreated into exile in Victorian London. However, it wasn't long enough before the sinister Doctor Simeon and his ally The Great Intelligence made the city an altogether more dangerous place to be with killer Snowmen on the loose. Plucky maid and nanny Clara Oswald found herself investigating this mystery, eventually hooking up with the Doctor to solve the case. This time around, Clara made it onto the TARDIS with the Time Lord, but before he could investigate her familiar appetite for souffles, his soon-to-be new companion was ripped from the TARDIS and thrown to her death through the clouds and into the mansion below. The Doctor raced down to the Earth below to attempt to save her, but instead wreaked his vengeance on Doctor Simeon and The Great Intelligence when Clara failed to survive. Both of his enemies were seemingly killed in their latest battle...

It all seemed to end in tragedy once again, as upon returning to the Victorian estate, the Doctor discovered she had seconds to live. Clara had one last nugget of wisdom, though, reminding the Doctor to "Run, you clever boy- and remember." Realizing the connection, and discovering the full name 'CLARA OSWIN OSWALD' on her gravestone, the Time Lord raced back to his TARDIS on a mission to discover the truth about the impossible girl who had died twice on his adventures. But what is Clara's secret? Does the Great Intelligence have a further role to play in her identity? Or even the Daleks? And could the revelation of who she truly is be the crux of the 50th Anniversary cliffhanger at the end of this season? The modern day version of the character said in The Snowmen that she "[doesn't] believe in ghosts", but Clara will have to start believing soon, as the ghosts of her past could hold the key to discovering who she truly is...

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