LTDW - The Companions: Clara, Miscellany

Today's Doctor Who blog brings us to the latest companion, Clara Oswald, played by the ridiculously attractive and talented Jenna Coleman. Since Clara's entry is short (I really ought to have tagged this on to last night's entry), I thought I'd discuss a bit of random stuff related to the show before we close the blog out tomorrow with a look at the five (yes, five) modern Doctors.

Clara

Right out of the gate, Clara Oswald (or Oswin Oswald, as she's originally named) is one of the most fascinating Doctor Who characters to date. Getting into the character's history is a bit tricky, because on a very technical level, Clara has been a part of the Doctor's life since his original incarnation, when she nudged him the direction of the TARDIS he should "borrow." Through the Doctor's various lives, she's helped push him in the right direction, saved his life innumerable times, and becomes "the only mystery worth solving," as Matt Smith's character puts it. And yet, she's completely human, neither Time Lord nor anyone of particular note save that she's vitally important to the Doctor's life.

Fantastic, right? It gets better.

We're first introduced to Clara in the first episode of the seventh season, in the terrific episode Asylum of the Daleks. She's locked in the heart of an asylum for insane Daleks, seemingly driven a bit pleasantly mad by isolation after having crashed into the planet some time before. Her interactions, both with the Doctor and with the fourth wall, are delightful. She's a firecracker of a character, reminscent of River Song in her sauciness, but with a youth and fire all her own. It's far and away the best single character introduction of the entire show, and that's including the Doctors, as it's sharply written, funny, and intriguing.

And that comes to define Coleman's Clara - she fires out lines as well as any of the Doctors, has a terrific seventh season story arc, and she chews up every scene she's in. It's a bit early on yet to tell where she'll fall in terms of the companions, but I'm guessing if the writing keeps up, she'll be even more popular than Rose Tyler. Fingers crossed.

I'm not sure how far into Coleman's story arc I really want to delve, as revealing much more of what makes her tick would give away massive, massive spoilers for the big Doctor Who fiftieth special, which should be watched by just about everyone who's even remotely interested in Doctor Who. I think I'm going to leave you a list of Clara's best episodes and call it. If you'd like to talk more specifics about her plotlines, I'm happy to, but let's do so in a PM or with great big spoilery tags.

For Clara's best episodes, well, watch all that she's in. But for the very best, definitely check out the 50th Doctor Who special Day of the Doctor, Asylum of the Daleks, The Rings of Akhaten, Journey to the Center of the TARDIS, and The Name of the Doctor. I'm a bit hesitant to add The Time of the Doctor, because other than the last few minutes of Matt Smith's sendoff episode, it's really not a standout episode. But I'd watch it regardless if you're interested in the furthering of Clara's companionship with the Doctor, as it contains some key moments as well as the introduction of Capaldi as the next Doctor.

Miscellany

- Probably the weakest aspect of Doctor Who in general lies in its hokey villains. Most classic enemies like the Daleks and Cybermen look like the cheap, cheesy versions they started out as in the original series. That said, some of the classic and modern Doctor Who enemies work really well with the show's mixture of drama and the absurd.

My particular favorites include the Weeping Angels, who are stone only so long as you look at them, and can move supernaturally fast when you aren't. Whether or not they actually kill depends on the episode you're watching - in several episodes, they send their "kills" back through time, feeding on the temporal energy instead of the actual victim, who is left very much alive, just displaced. In another episode (the pretty great Time of Angels), they actually do kill, usually by snapping the neck of the victim, and can adopt the victim's voice. You kinda have to take the sudden changes in the show's mythos as par for the course.

I'm also fond of season six's the Silence, even if they look absurd. These are aliens who've lived on Earth and guided us from the shadows. They can only be remember when they're seen, and when someone turns away, the Silence is forgotten about. They come into play in a bit of fascinating throwaway lore in a later episode of Doctor Who, as it turns out they're clerics of sorts. Neat.

As for individual Who enemies, I'm not sure they get much better than David Simm's The Master, who has several episodes in Tennant's run. He's a maniacal genius of a Time Lord who hears a never-ending beat of drums in his mind. The drums have driven him viciously mad, though he's of calm enough mind to enact several plots to assume control over Earth. His story arc is powerful, and as mentioned in Martha Jones's chapter of this blog, he manages to be the centerpiece of one of the show's few sociopolitical episodes. David Simm is a terrific actor, giving a grandiose, Shakespearean performance dotted with some quiet, more subtle moments. The character is fantastically written, too.

- For some reason, I'm not usually overly fond of the show's historical episodes. Partly it's the inconsistent anachronisms, partly it's because of the Doctor being the influence behind history's greatest minds, and partly it's because most of them make caricatures out of deeply complex people. I get that I'm a bit uptight about all this, but truthfully, I'm just not fond of them, save for a very, very few like the episode featuring Vincent Van Gogh.

-I wish John Barrowman was a part of the modern seasons again, but I can appreciate the need to reboot itself every few seasons. It's smart to introduce whole new casts of characters and develop new fan favorites. Similarly, I love the direction of the show since Steven Moffat took over as executive producer. It's become less stupid, the characters are much more evenly written, and while it lacks the superb highs of the Tennant era, there are far, far fewer lows. If you found yourself kind of tuning out during Eccleston or Tennant's runs, try giving the show a real shot from season five onward.

-I want all the TARDIS gear I've found on Amazon. I hope to God I don't get drunk one of these nights and wind up buying all that shit.

Hmmm. I feel like I'm leaving out some big chunks here, stuff I meant to talk about but didn't. I might revisit the miscellany part tomorrow, but we'll see. I doubt I missed anything of importance. Tomorrow, we talk the Doctors, and wrap things up with some predictions about Matt Capaldi's run and where I think the show is headed. See ya!