Okay. Okay. Moffat fans, sit down.
Because you know what? You know how Clara gets sent back in time to spend her life rescuing the Doctor? You know how she even went back and picked out the TARDIS for him?
That doesn’t make her into a hero. That doesn’t make her some new, amazing person. It doesn’t make her fantastic or unique or powerful.
But you know what it does do?
It undermines every single second of every minute that has passed for the last 50 years. Because it wasn’t Jo, or Sarah Jane, or Susan, or Ace, or Ian, or Barbara, or Jamie, or even Roser, Donna, Jack, Wilf, or Martha that keep the Doctor safe. They don’t matter anymore. All the times they have saved the Doctor don’t matter anymore.
Because no matter what they do, no matter how much danger they or the Doctor are in, it’s not up to them to save him,. Their actions mean nothing. Because Clara was born to save the Doctor. And if the Doctor is safe, then they have her to thank. It’s not their bravery, or cunning, or strength that saves the day.
It’s just Clara.
It was Clara who distracted the Daleks so the Doctor and his friends could escape their cell. It was Clara who stopped the Nestene Consciousness from attacking Earth. It was Clara who stopped the Doctor from drowning with the Racnoss. It was Clara who walked the Earth in the Year That Never Was.
And that doesn’t make her a hero. It makes her a thief. A ghost. A shadow. A slave tied helplessly to the orders to save, protect, serve.
She’s not a hero. She doesn’t have a choice. She doesn’t know where she is, and she doesn’t know who she is.
All she knows is that she must save the Doctor.
And she dies, every single time.
She’s not a hero. She’s not an impossible girl.
She’s a mockery of every person he has ever met, good or bad.
Because she’s inevitable. The heroes stand back idly as she passes by, because they know, no matter what they do, they are worse than useless next to her, and the villains drop to their knees in despair, their plans unraveled at the seams by her mere presence.
We should have seen it coming when she wiped the Doctor from the Dalek’s memory.
Because she has erased every single threat against his life. Against his companion’s lives. Everything they have gone though has been without meaning, because their continuation was assured. They never faced any danger. Their tears and sorrow and despair were for naught.
Because she’s Clara Oswin Oswald.
She’s a human shield.
And nothing in the universe can harm him now.
Not while she’s around.
All of that is the exact opposite of what Clara did! What you’re describing here:
It undermines every single second of every minute that has passed for the last 50 years.
is what the Great Intelligence’s plan was. This is clearly said in the episode, more than once!
I can rewrite your every living moment. I can turn every one of you victories into defeats. Poison every friendship. Deliver pain to your every breath. [transcript of episode here]
All the wonderful things the companions have done, the Great Intelligence erased them, not Clara. Everything you’ve described in your post? Clara’s specific mission was to stop that happening! That’s why you see Jenny disappear, see Strax turn on Vastra – because everything the Doctor had ever touched was being rewritten. Clara jumps into the timestream, puts everything back, suddenly Jenny is still alive and Strax is friendly again.
Hell, this was even made absolutely explicit in a cut line:
“Dr Simeon, he said he was hacking the Doctor’s life. I’d be like the software patch – putting it all right again.” [Doctor Who Magazine: The Official Guide To The 2013 Series]
But even without that, well, just listening to the Great Intelligence’s dialogue should be enough to convince you: this really isn’t a problem with Clara. She hasn’t undermined a damn thing. Clara Oswald’s lovely and sweet and responsible and clever, and she did basically the exact same thing Rose did – take a terrible risk to save the Doctor and the world – and I’m postive any of the other companions would applaud her choice, had they ever gotten to know about it. Which they didn’t.
And heck, I’m not a Moffat fan, not really – he’s said too much ignorant stuff that really stung for me to be, I think. (As did Russell T “I Can Talk About My Fans Using Ableist Slurs And Think Bindis Make People Look Less Human, Ask Me How” Davies. Every era of Doctor Who has had its problematic and painful side.) But I am a Clara fan. And if you’re gonna start a post in a confrontational way, you should probably make sure that the female character you’re complaining about…didn’t do the exact opposite to what you’re complaining about.
