Clara Theory.
Meta café time!
Well, it isn't really mine, it was first suggested by lyricwrites. Personally I go back and forth. It fits (fits very, very nicely), but many things make 4, not just 2 + 2. However, I shall let you make up your own minds.
(Also approx. half of the thoughts supplied by Promethia, although that does not mean she believes in the theory. She has her own prediction post here.)
Note: Please do NOT post spoilers!
Basic theory: Clara is a TARDIS.
Now, it's obvious that Clara is (or is becoming) a 'thing' of some sort. Possibly an egg. But a sentient thing. Just like a TARDIS... And as there is more than a hint of Gallifrey about her, she could be - if not family - then kindred.
My thoughts are as follows (and have evolved, as this reflects. But I'm too tired to edit everything):
- Names are the consequences of things
Her name. She is bright, she is god's power, and she is god's friend (notice that modern!Clara chooses to call herself Oswin, naming herself his friend). If you wanted to give the TARDIS a name that encapsulated her, you couldn't do much better than Clara Oswin Oswald.
- Like a cat
TARDIS-related characteristics:
- Clara practically has a chameleon circuit, blending in perfectly wherever or whenever she is.
- She is very protective of those in her care.
- Victorian!Clara (unlike anyone else, ever), declared that "It's smaller on the outside", and had tears in her eyes when the Doctor gave her a TARDIS key. Which was a very distinct echo of Amy crying in The Pandorica Opens & The Big Bang - crying because of something that was currently hidden.
- Victorian!Clara claimed to have been born behind the clock face of Big Ben ("Accounting for my acute sense of time") and to have invented fish ("Because I dislike swimming alone"). Not entirely sure what the latter could mean in this context. (People = fish, am stuck from then on.)
- The DNA shaped staircase leading up to the TARDIS.
- The TARDIS dislikes current!Clara, and (like Clara) is slow to trust. The reasons for this specific antipathy I will not even try to speculate on (the TARDIS exists across time and space, what can she see?). More interestingly, the TARDIS mirrored Clara, taking on her form.
Please add to this list.
- and explode into space (<- This fic is now required reading. Beware, it is creepy as hell.) So, will the Doctor have two blue boxes in the future? I... don't think so. What was the first thing we learned about Clara? How did she define herself? "I am Oswin Oswald. I fought the Daleks. And I AM... human. Remember me." Discovering that she had become a Dalek at first freaked her out, and then made her *refuse* to be something she did not want to be. I can easily imagine this being foreshadowing for later, with Clara clinging to her humanity rather than become an multi-dimensional being in a box.
- Chicken or egg
Related to the above point, is there one, original, Clara, who has been copied & had/will have a TARDIS crammed into her somehow (chicken), or is she a TARDIS that has been poured into a carefully designed template (egg)? Only time will tell, although I lean towards both. (With Moffat, it's always best to assume both. Especially if the options are more or less mutually exclusive.)
- "You cannot be upstairs, it's a one-storey building"
We have already had a story about the TARDIS being extracted from her box, and put into a girl. (And I believe there is a novel/Big Finish story about a TARDIS girl?) Anyway - what if someone was trying to do the opposite? Of course a human can't contain a TARDIS without burning up, so whoever-is-pulling-strings parcelled it out into many Claras throughout time & space. This fits with the ideas about all of her having to come together in order to fulfill her purpose/all the Claras being one Clara. Plus - and this is where I tend to get very flaily and hope this theory is correct - the Silence was trying to build a TARDIS!
The Impossible Astronaut (1969):
The Lodger (2010):
This plot point was thrown in twice, yet never touched on again. (Once in S5, once in S6.) As we saw, the proto-TARDIS was not doing well, as in 2010 it was futilely looking for a pilot in the most inane way. It needed *intelligence*. Consciousness. The heart of the TARDIS, after all, is a living mind. (/An eleventh-dimensional matrix folded into a mechanical. Could there be eleven Claras? To go with the eleven Doctors?) Anyway, Clara could certainly be the consciousness/pilot designed to go with the box. And we have now seen Clara 'pilot' the TARDIS through sheer determination...
Now if we look at The Lodger, here's what is said about 'the pilot':
HOLOGRAM:
The ship has crashed. The crew are dead. A pilot is required.
DOCTOR:
You're the emergency crash program. A hologram. You've been luring people up here so you can try them out.
The DOCTOR uses the sonic screwdriver and the hologram changes to that of the little girl, a younger man, then back to the old man.
HOLOGRAM:
You will help me, you will help me, you will help me.
DOCTOR:
Hush! Human brains aren't strong enough, they just burn. You're stupid, aren’t you? You just keep trying.
HOLOGRAM:
17 people have been tried. 6,000,400,026 remain.
[...]
HOLOGRAM:
The correct pilot has now been found.
DOCTOR:
Yes, I was worried you'd say that.
[...]
AMY:
Could you fly the ship safely?
DOCTOR:
No, I'm way too much for this ship. My hand touches that panel, the planet doesn't blow up, the whole solar system does.
The correct pilot would seem to be someone between a simple human (burns up) and a Time Lord (makes the TARDIS blow up)... Could it be Clara?
In Hide, the Clara mirror was a lost space explorer (= astronaut = spaceship pilot). A granddaughter. Scared and lost.
- Puppet Master
Somewhere there is someone pulling strings. Someone clever enough to steal Amy ("...they were projecting a control signal right into the TARDIS. Wherever we were in time and space."/"Yes, they're very clever") and turn her baby into a human with a 'Timehead'. I figure Omega is a good fit. He's insane enough (as well as intent on revenge) and if you're blowing up the universe (Silence falling), you'd need a TARDIS in order to sit out the explosion/get somewhere else. Plus, Omega stole the [Fifth] Doctor's body and would have the knowhow to blow up the Doctor's TARDIS. Also the Clerics have Omega symbols on their outfits, etc. He'd make a suitably grand villain for the anniversary. However, for now we should probably just go with 'hooded figure', who- or whatever that is. (The alternative theory is that Clara is something created before destruction of Gallifrey. I'm not sure how this would fit with her being a TARDIS.) We have also have the Great Intelligence knocking about (which likes using people), but it just doesn't fit to the same degree. (We have Omega imagery right back to S5...)
- Family
In Moffat Who everything comes down to family, and Clara being a TARDIS would certainly fit there. ("I'm thinking that all of my sisters are dead" <- the TARDIS would get a sister!) Plus, kissing him wouldn't be icky, which is a plus. Also it'd explain why she calls him 'boy' which is otherwise just a little odd. Mind you, as everyone is usually ALL THE THINGS (like River), I am still clinging to my granddaughter theory, and it wouldn't surprise me if she turned out to be his granddaughter AND the 'pilot' for the Silence's TARDIS...
"I never take the TARDIS into battle"
And here we would have this season's 'time head' line. Not to mention that next week we'll get a journey into the TARDIS. Also... "If he is mad, then this is his madness." And the monks look at the picture of Clara. A mad man with a box... (Ooooh and it could all tie in with The Bad Wolf, which never meant anything except 'random words'. I would LOVE TO DISTRACTION if Rose's [lack of] Bad Wolf imagery came back to be important. Hungry like the Wolf...)
And finally...
After two seasons of people being put in boxes, I think THIS time, the answer will be something different. (It's at this point that I would go into Jekyll parallels, but quite frankly, I think I'll leave that for another time...)
And that's all folks! What do you think?
Well, it isn't really mine, it was first suggested by lyricwrites. Personally I go back and forth. It fits (fits very, very nicely), but many things make 4, not just 2 + 2. However, I shall let you make up your own minds.
(Also approx. half of the thoughts supplied by Promethia, although that does not mean she believes in the theory. She has her own prediction post here.)
Note: Please do NOT post spoilers!
Basic theory: Clara is a TARDIS.
Now, it's obvious that Clara is (or is becoming) a 'thing' of some sort. Possibly an egg. But a sentient thing. Just like a TARDIS... And as there is more than a hint of Gallifrey about her, she could be - if not family - then kindred.
My thoughts are as follows (and have evolved, as this reflects. But I'm too tired to edit everything):
- Names are the consequences of things
Her name. She is bright, she is god's power, and she is god's friend (notice that modern!Clara chooses to call herself Oswin, naming herself his friend). If you wanted to give the TARDIS a name that encapsulated her, you couldn't do much better than Clara Oswin Oswald.
- Like a cat
TARDIS-related characteristics:
- Clara practically has a chameleon circuit, blending in perfectly wherever or whenever she is.
- She is very protective of those in her care.
- Victorian!Clara (unlike anyone else, ever), declared that "It's smaller on the outside", and had tears in her eyes when the Doctor gave her a TARDIS key. Which was a very distinct echo of Amy crying in The Pandorica Opens & The Big Bang - crying because of something that was currently hidden.
- Victorian!Clara claimed to have been born behind the clock face of Big Ben ("Accounting for my acute sense of time") and to have invented fish ("Because I dislike swimming alone"). Not entirely sure what the latter could mean in this context. (People = fish, am stuck from then on.)
- The DNA shaped staircase leading up to the TARDIS.
- The TARDIS dislikes current!Clara, and (like Clara) is slow to trust. The reasons for this specific antipathy I will not even try to speculate on (the TARDIS exists across time and space, what can she see?). More interestingly, the TARDIS mirrored Clara, taking on her form.
Please add to this list.
- and explode into space (<- This fic is now required reading. Beware, it is creepy as hell.) So, will the Doctor have two blue boxes in the future? I... don't think so. What was the first thing we learned about Clara? How did she define herself? "I am Oswin Oswald. I fought the Daleks. And I AM... human. Remember me." Discovering that she had become a Dalek at first freaked her out, and then made her *refuse* to be something she did not want to be. I can easily imagine this being foreshadowing for later, with Clara clinging to her humanity rather than become an multi-dimensional being in a box.
- Chicken or egg
Related to the above point, is there one, original, Clara, who has been copied & had/will have a TARDIS crammed into her somehow (chicken), or is she a TARDIS that has been poured into a carefully designed template (egg)? Only time will tell, although I lean towards both. (With Moffat, it's always best to assume both. Especially if the options are more or less mutually exclusive.)
- "You cannot be upstairs, it's a one-storey building"
We have already had a story about the TARDIS being extracted from her box, and put into a girl. (And I believe there is a novel/Big Finish story about a TARDIS girl?) Anyway - what if someone was trying to do the opposite? Of course a human can't contain a TARDIS without burning up, so whoever-is-pulling-strings parcelled it out into many Claras throughout time & space. This fits with the ideas about all of her having to come together in order to fulfill her purpose/all the Claras being one Clara. Plus - and this is where I tend to get very flaily and hope this theory is correct - the Silence was trying to build a TARDIS!
The Impossible Astronaut (1969):
The Lodger (2010):
This plot point was thrown in twice, yet never touched on again. (Once in S5, once in S6.) As we saw, the proto-TARDIS was not doing well, as in 2010 it was futilely looking for a pilot in the most inane way. It needed *intelligence*. Consciousness. The heart of the TARDIS, after all, is a living mind. (/An eleventh-dimensional matrix folded into a mechanical. Could there be eleven Claras? To go with the eleven Doctors?) Anyway, Clara could certainly be the consciousness/pilot designed to go with the box. And we have now seen Clara 'pilot' the TARDIS through sheer determination...
Now if we look at The Lodger, here's what is said about 'the pilot':
HOLOGRAM:
The ship has crashed. The crew are dead. A pilot is required.
DOCTOR:
You're the emergency crash program. A hologram. You've been luring people up here so you can try them out.
The DOCTOR uses the sonic screwdriver and the hologram changes to that of the little girl, a younger man, then back to the old man.
HOLOGRAM:
You will help me, you will help me, you will help me.
DOCTOR:
Hush! Human brains aren't strong enough, they just burn. You're stupid, aren’t you? You just keep trying.
HOLOGRAM:
17 people have been tried. 6,000,400,026 remain.
[...]
HOLOGRAM:
The correct pilot has now been found.
DOCTOR:
Yes, I was worried you'd say that.
[...]
AMY:
Could you fly the ship safely?
DOCTOR:
No, I'm way too much for this ship. My hand touches that panel, the planet doesn't blow up, the whole solar system does.
The correct pilot would seem to be someone between a simple human (burns up) and a Time Lord (makes the TARDIS blow up)... Could it be Clara?
In Hide, the Clara mirror was a lost space explorer (= astronaut = spaceship pilot). A granddaughter. Scared and lost.
- Puppet Master
Somewhere there is someone pulling strings. Someone clever enough to steal Amy ("...they were projecting a control signal right into the TARDIS. Wherever we were in time and space."/"Yes, they're very clever") and turn her baby into a human with a 'Timehead'. I figure Omega is a good fit. He's insane enough (as well as intent on revenge) and if you're blowing up the universe (Silence falling), you'd need a TARDIS in order to sit out the explosion/get somewhere else. Plus, Omega stole the [Fifth] Doctor's body and would have the knowhow to blow up the Doctor's TARDIS. Also the Clerics have Omega symbols on their outfits, etc. He'd make a suitably grand villain for the anniversary. However, for now we should probably just go with 'hooded figure', who- or whatever that is. (The alternative theory is that Clara is something created before destruction of Gallifrey. I'm not sure how this would fit with her being a TARDIS.) We have also have the Great Intelligence knocking about (which likes using people), but it just doesn't fit to the same degree. (We have Omega imagery right back to S5...)
- Family
In Moffat Who everything comes down to family, and Clara being a TARDIS would certainly fit there. ("I'm thinking that all of my sisters are dead" <- the TARDIS would get a sister!) Plus, kissing him wouldn't be icky, which is a plus. Also it'd explain why she calls him 'boy' which is otherwise just a little odd. Mind you, as everyone is usually ALL THE THINGS (like River), I am still clinging to my granddaughter theory, and it wouldn't surprise me if she turned out to be his granddaughter AND the 'pilot' for the Silence's TARDIS...
"I never take the TARDIS into battle"
And here we would have this season's 'time head' line. Not to mention that next week we'll get a journey into the TARDIS. Also... "If he is mad, then this is his madness." And the monks look at the picture of Clara. A mad man with a box... (Ooooh and it could all tie in with The Bad Wolf, which never meant anything except 'random words'. I would LOVE TO DISTRACTION if Rose's [lack of] Bad Wolf imagery came back to be important. Hungry like the Wolf...)
And finally...
After two seasons of people being put in boxes, I think THIS time, the answer will be something different. (It's at this point that I would go into Jekyll parallels, but quite frankly, I think I'll leave that for another time...)
And that's all folks! What do you think?