The Problem With The Answer

           Doctor Who is a series that is fueled by mystery. Even the name of the show is a question, and for 54 years we’ve been glad to not know the answer because it would never satisfy. That’s the problem with answers in Doctor Who: they’re just not satisfying. Perhaps two of the most dissatisfying answers in New Who (and the focus of this post) are River Song and Clara Oswin Oswald, which is disappointing because they both started off as such incredible mysteries.

Let’s start with the mystery of River Song. In “The Silence of the Library” this strange woman walked on to the set, looked at the Doctor with a knowing smile, and said her signature line, “Hello sweetie.”

           We had no idea who she was, but we were absolutely enthralled.  Then she starts talking about journals and all the adventures she and the Doctor have been on expecting him to know some of them, but he just gives the same blank stare we’re giving. For the first time, possibly in the series, the Doctor knows as little as we do, and that feels great. To us and to the Doctor, River is this fascinating mystery. He asks her what’s in the journal, but she refuses to tell and utters her (other) famous line, “Spoilers.” Tenant’s sonic isn’t good enough, so River pulls out the one her Doctor gave to her. When the Doctor seems cautious about trusting River she leans in close and whispers HIS NAME.

And then she dies, and it was beautiful. She left without us or the Doctor knowing anything more about her. Honestly, I think it should have stayed that way. I love River Song, but that’s all I ever wanted to see of her. However, Steven Moffat had different plans and River became a regular during Matt Smith’s era. The problem is that while River starred in some amazing episodes, every episode she appeared in made her feel less mysterious to us. And this culminated in “A Good Man Goes to War,” when we finally learned River’s origins.

           There was never going to be a good origin story for River because we as viewers didn’t want an answer to that question, nor did we feel we needed one. We loved the mystery of River, so by answering her it felt like Moffat was ripping a beautiful character away from us.

Now, I’m going to abruptly shift gears to Clara. Sweet, sweet Clara, how divisive you were. Introduced in season 7, Clara Oswin Oswald is a companion that everyone either hated or loved (disclosure: I loved her). I think the biggest problem with Clara is that she had such a strong start, but the season 7 finale felt like she just fizzled out. Clara first appeared in “Asylum of the Daleks” as Oswin Oswald, a survivor who had crash-landed on the titular Asylum of the Daleks.

            It was a great episode, due in large part to this fascinating character. She was witty and fun, and a useful character. Useful to the point that she not only saves the Doctor, but erases him from Dalek history. We knew from press releases that Jenna Coleman was going to be the next companion, and so it was shocking to see her die in her very first episode. It seemed that Moffat had taken a golden opportunity to leave the viewers truly unsure of what would happen next in the series.

So we put Clara to the back of our minds and enjoyed the first half of season 7, until Amy and Rory left, and we all cried a little (admit it, that was a tearjerker). Then in the Christmas Special, after the Doctor has spent an unspecified (but presumably long) period, he bumps in to this young girl on the streets of Victorian England. Her name: Clara Oswin Oswlad.

            She and the Doctor go on an adventure together, some shenanigans ensue… and Clara dies. Again. And same as before she whispers the line, “Run you clever boy and remember.” And boy did he remember.

            So we’re left to stew over this for another couple months before season 7 picks up again. Who is this girl? Why does she keep popping up? What is her relation to the Doctor? Finally, we get “The Bells of Saint John,” where we’re introduced to modern day Clara. She finally doesn’t die and takes off with the Doctor on the                                                                                        TARDIS.

            For the rest of season 7 they have some fun adventures, all the while thinking about what’s waiting at Trenzalore. In the season 7 finale, they visit Trenzalore. Here we get an answer to the mystery of Clara Oswin Oswald, but that answer just felt… weird. Just like River, we had gotten an origin story that just didn’t feel right. However, Clara is a bit different; because she was so proximal to the Doctor and was going to be a regular in the show, she was a question that needed answering. Unfortunately, this answer made us uncomfortable, and I think I know why. We didn’t like Clara’s answer because it also touched the biggest mystery in the show.

            The Doctor is probably the most mysterious character in television, and we like it that way. The fans of Doctor Who have made it clear that they despise anyone who would mess with his origins. So the answer to Clara’s question wasn’t bad, but it was the fact that she was given so much influence over the Doctor’s timeline that made it uncomfortable. I think the easiest solution to this Clara problem would have been to answer her in a way that wasn’t so integral to the Doctor’s own timeline.

            Fortunately, Clara started to pick up again with Capaldi’s Doctor, as she was an interesting philosophical opposition to Capaldi’s darker Doctor. Anyway, these are just my thought on two major characters in New Who and what went wrong with them. I don’t think either of these characters were bad, just that they each had a major flaw in terms of writing. Let me know what you think about their story lines and ways they could have possibly been improved.