Mindy Newell: The Soufflé Is The Recipe
The strength of the Doctor Who reboot has been in its emphasis on relationships.
The name of this season’s finale was The Name of the Doctor, but everything we’ve ever really needed to know about him has been expressed through all those relationships.
The relationship between the Doctor and all of the millions and billions of lives that he has saved through all his 11 incarnations.
The relationship between the Doctor and his companions.
The relationship between the Doctor and River Song.
And the relationship between the Doctor and the girl who lived and died and lived again and died again.
The Impossible Girl.
The girl born to save the Doctor.
Clara Oswald.
We first met Clara in this year’s season premiere, Asylum of the Daleks, only her name was Oswin Oswald. Oswin is the only surviving member of the crew of the starship Alaska, which crashed onto the prison planet of the Daleks. When the Doctor attempts to rescue her, he discovers that she has become a Dalek; in order to survive, Oswin created a fantasy life—which includes trying to make the perfect soufflé. She saved the Doctor (and Amy and Rory) by erasing the memory of the Doctor from the memory banks of the Daleks, telling him to “Run, you clever boy. And remember,” but sacrifices her own life to do so.
We met Clara again in Victorian London in The Snowmen, 2012’s Christmas Special, but now she is a governess and barmaid. Clara dies after again saving the Doctor, and when he sees her tombstone, he is mystified and stunned – for it reads Clara Oswin Oswald. The Doctor realizes that this Clara and the Oswin from the Dalek Asylum are one and the same person. He becomes determined to find her again, sure that she is alive somewhere in time. And in the epilogue, we see a contemporary version of the same woman walking through a cemetery, and past the Victorian Clara’s grave. Her name is Clara Oswald.
For Clara Oswald is the “impossible girl.” Last night, the opening sequence showed Clara interacting with William Hartnell as he was about to steal a Tardis, telling him that he was taking the wrong one, that. We saw her calling after Jon Pertwee, chasing Tom Baker, yelling after Sylvester McCoy, trying to help Peter Davison and Colin Baker (shades of Zelig, Forest Gump, and Tibbles and Tribulations!) She tells us that she was born to save the Doctor, saying, “He always looks different, but I always know it’s him.”
The Doctor told Clara there is one place a time traveler must never go—to his grave. For the Doctor that is the planet Tenzalore. But it is on Tenzalore where Clara realizes her destiny—to become the “impossible girl,” and save the Doctor, and by saving the Doctor, saving millions. The regenerative energy will break her into a million pieces, confetti strips made of Clara, echoes of the original, but, she says, “it’s like my mother always said, the soufflé isn’t the soufflé, the soufflé is the recipe.”
She jumps in, and she is lost in time.
She calls out for the Doctor.
Again and again.
And then she hears the Doctor’s voice.
He sends her something to hold on to, something which will lead her to him.
It is the leaf that blew into her father’s face…
…which led him to Clara’s mother…
…which led to Clara’s birth…
…which led her to the Doctor…
…all of them…
…until the eleventh Doctor found Clara…
…again…
…and again…
…and again…
THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil
FRIDAY: Martha Thomases
There was an un-used plot in the first new season in which it would be revealed that Rose was in fact part of a breeding experiment of The Doctor’s to create a perfect traveling companion. I’m glad it was never used, cause it would certainly have been an example of The Doctor Going Too Far.
But when I saw the wild chain of events that resulted in Clara’s birth, I feared that Moffat might be going for it in a weird way. I’m not 100% convinced he’s not, but I’m confident it’ll be a more “making sure things go right” as opposed to “making things go the way I want” kind of way.