Clara Oswals was a companion of the 11th and 12th Doctors in the series Doctor Who, played by actress Jenna Coleman.
In the series, she is introduced as three variant but similarly named people living at different points in time. The first two incarnations, Clara Oswin Oswald and Oswin Oswald die during the episodes in which they are introduced. The third variant is a nanny living in present-day London who becomes the Doctor’s companion, traveling with him while they try to uncover the mystery of her existence.
Her first appearance was in the season 7 premiere, “Asylum of the Daleks” in 2012. She is the only survivor of the ship Alaska, which crashed in the prison planet full of unstable Daleks. Throughout the episode, she assists the Doctor’s companions, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, and leads them to safety, even at the cost of her own life. It is this early on that we get hints at Clara’s sexuality, as she casually mentions to Rory while trying to help him escape a room full of Daleks while she hacks the main computer off-screen:
The first boy I ever fancied was called Rory… actually, her name was Nina.
Although this version of Clara dies at the end of the episode, the Doctor runs into her once more in the 2012 Christmas special “The Snowmen”. There, she is introduced as Clara, a Victorian governess and barmaid. After she is attacked by a minion of the Great Intelligence and dies, the Doctor visits her tombstone, and her full name is revealed as Clara Oswin Oswald — it is at that moment that he recognizes her voice and name as the same woman who helped him and his companions in the Dalek asylum. Here, he decides to seek out another variant of Clara as he is intrigued by the girl who has lived and died twice at different points in time.
In season 7, episode 6, “The Bells of Saint John”, Clara officially becomes the Doctor’s companion, to solve her existence in time, nicknaming her “The Impossible Girl”. In the episodes “Hide”, “The Rings of Akhaten”, and “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS”, the Doctor discovers all variants of Clara have no idea that they exist simultaneously, and in the episode “The Name of the Doctor”, we finally learn that she sacrifices herself by entering the Doctor’s timeline, thus creating various incarnations of herself throughout the Doctor’s lifetime, always saving him in the nick of time — the 11th Doctor eventually rescues her and in “The Day of the Doctor”, it is revealed that she went on to become a schoolteacher.
Although her essence was split through time and she lived in different eras simultaneously, it has been mentioned that she held relationships with both men and women — one of them being her fiancé Danny, Jane Austen, and Viking Ashildr (Maisie Wiliams).
During her time at Coal Hill School, she lectures a class on Jane Austen literature, and she reveals
nonchalantly: “Jane Austen. Amazing writer, a brilliant comic observer, and — strictly amongst ourselves — a phenomenal kisser.” revealing that while traveling with the Doctor, she and Jane had a relationship for a brief period. We further learn of their relationship when Clara mentions to another friend, Rigsy, that she and Jane banter quite often:
Rigsy: So this is your life then. Just bouncing around time saving people, right?
Clara: Sometimes, Jane Austen and I prank each other. Oh, she is the worst — I love her. Take that how you like.
Clara was officially confirmed bi in issue 591 of Doctor Who Magazine, with the creators stating:
Compared to her relationship with causality, Clara’s sexuality is quite straightforward. She’s bisexual. She likes girls and boys… Primary Clara first alluded to her attraction to women in one small throwaway line — but perhaps it’s not quite as inconsequential as it first appears… There’s something satisfyingly triumphant about Clara owning her identity in a setting where she couldn’t have done not long before. Nice one, impossible girl.
As Clara continues to go on adventures with the Doctor, she becomes deeply intertwined in the dangers of time travel and deals with the consequences of altering history and her timeline. However, her curiosity and thirst for adventure lead her to greater risks, one which ultimately leaves her outside the normal flow of time and space, floating in time and with no way to travel without a time machine.
Her decision creates a rift between her relationship with the Doctor, which leads her to recognize that she needs to follow her own path and part ways with one of her dearest friends. She willingly left the TARDIS, but her spirit lives on through time, a reminder for the Doctor of their enduring friendship.
