"That's the way to do it"

Long time, no blog. And whilst I do intend to update more this year this is not a New Year's resolution kind of thing; the only reason I'm writing this today is that last night as I struggled to get to sleep over the sound of patrons of the pub over the road ringing in their new year by arguing and fighting in the street I got to thinking about Doctor Who.

Specifically my mind was turning over the mystery that is Clara Oswin Oswald and whilst I lay there listening to John's friends telling him it wasn't worth it for the first, but doubtfully not the last, time in 2013 I made a connection about Clara. In an effort not to forget my little revelation I wrote a note for myself on a scrap of paper which I left on my desk as a reminder... "That's the way to do it".

So here's what was was going through my head in the early hours, the episode is littered with examples of the Great Intelligence mimicking the people around it; in fact the episode opens with this when we see Walter Simeon as a child first encountering the Great Intelligence in 1842; the snowman Simeon builds throws his own words back at him in an approximation of conversation, a point which is clarified later when the Doctor confronts Simeon.

The Great Intelligence mimicking what it hears is hammered home later in the episode when the Ice Governess throws back the Doctor's Mr Punch routine and he explains to clara that it is "mirroring, random mirroring"; and it was that which suddenly got me to thinking that either Clara (The Snowmen) or Oswin (Asylum of the Daleks), or possibly both, could be creations of the Great Intelligence. After all one character when creating a false reality to cover the fact she is in fact a Dalek creates a spaceship with a rather homely kitchen where she can cook soufflés and her final words are "run, you clever boy... and remember"; the other when entering the TARDIS doesn't know why but she asks if there is a kitchen as she likes cooking soufflés and her dying words are repeated from Oswin word for word.

Oswin seems the most obvious to be a creation of the Great Intelligence as it seems as if the version of reality she has created for herself is a way of living in denial that she is a Dalek. Could the Great Intelligence have taken over a Dalek and used a human persona not realising it was so strong a persona it would override the Dalek side of things? Another key thing to remember here is the Dalek asylum planet was covered in snow which at the time didn't raise any questions but now seems very likely to be a clue to the Great Intelligence's involvement.

I can't rule out Clara being a creation of the Great Intelligence either though as she acknowledges herself that she doesn't know why she says certain things (she even flat out says "I don't know why I said that") and her dying words (a repeat of Oswin's) seem incongruous to the rest of the deathbed conversation.

After sleeping on it and writing this blog I'm inclined to think both versions of the character we've seen so far are the Great Intelligence experimenting somehow and that the real Clara is the modern day version seen briefly at the end of The Snowmen and who I suspect will be the version to become the real new companion.

The only thing that seems out of place is The Snowmen version of Clara being far in advance of what the Great Intelligence was capable of in 1892 (it would take it another few decades before it could take over robotic Yetis after all) but as always Moffat is tricky though, and I love him all the more for it!