john_amend_all

I just watched The Name of the Doctor. And had some thoughts relating to Clara.

Skipping over some trivial reactions (She's Claroth, third-last of the Jagaroth! And I was bang on the money with yesterday's drabble!) what I mainly wanted to say was this:

Since The Bells of St John, I've seen people online remarking that the Clara introduced therein (whom I'll call Clara Prime) doesn't appear to be very well-defined as a person: that beyond the mystery of who she is, we don't know anything else about her. Mysterium et praetera nihil, so to speak. Well, now we've got an answer to that mystery — she's exactly who she appears to be, a perfectly ordinary girl who met the Doctor by chance. The other Claras are imperfect copies spread through the Doctor's timeline, but Clara Prime is completely above-board. The same thing could equally well have happened to Rose or Donna or Ace or Lucie or Barbara, if they'd been in the right place at the right time.

And given all that, there's no reason why Clara Prime couldn't have had some characterisation beyond Generic Companion, Type 2. She doesn't seem to have any particular motive for stepping over the TARDIS threshold; she's not fulfilling a childhood dream, or trying to escape a mundane existence, or forced into the Doctor's company. If, after the manner of Miss Kizlet, I was looking at her emotional makeup on a tablet computer, all the sliders would be sitting quietly at 50%. I still don't know who she is or what she wants.

I'm inclined to blame at least some of this on the 45-minute format. Having seen various accounts of the elements that were cut from Nightmare in Silver for timing reasons, it's quite possible that there were quiet scenes that introduced us to the real Clara, and they were left on the cutting-room floor. It may not be a coincidence that one of my favourite NuWho stories, The Eleventh Hour, is 65 minutes long rather than 45. But even so, there are obvious counterexamples: Rose and The Rescue, both 45 minutes long, delineate Rose and Vicki better than this whole season has managed with Clara.

I think it's a pity, and if Clara stays on as companion, I think it could do with being addressed.