Doctor Who Season 10: 6 Big Questions We're Asking After 'The Pilot'

5. Will The Doctor Remember Clara?

Doctor Who Series 10 Regeneration
BBC

Impossible girl, Clara Oswald, was one of the more divisive of Doctor Who companions, with many finding her character too extraordinary. But those looking forward to seeing a Clara free Twelfth Doctor might just have cause for concern. She may have been wiped from his memory in series nine finale Hell Bent, but she was still in his thoughts, if only in the form of a tune he couldn’t get out of his head.

Murray Gold’s melodic Clara’s Theme makes a surprise but fitting return in The Pilot when Bill Potts challenges the Doctor to consider what it would feel like to have somebody wipe his memories. The pain of not remembering Clara is still a raw one for the Doctor and leads to Bill’s reprieve.

Eagle eyed viewers will have noticed that her theme song is not the only Clara reference in the series opener. The Doctor’s study is decked out like a museum of artefacts from his past adventures, from sonic screwdrivers to the photographs of River Song and Susan. But ominously, hidden among them is a statue of a raven, calling to mind Clara’s fate in Face the Raven.

With this being the final leg in the Twelfth Doctor’s journey, is he set to regenerate with those memories restored, perhaps even with a Jenna Coleman cameo? Way back in June last year, Capaldi let slip that Clara might not have successfully wiped his mind, then stopping mid-sentence to avoid giving away a spoiler for series ten.

Contributor
Contributor

Paul Driscoll is a freelance writer and author across a range of subjects from Cult TV to religion and social policy. He is a passionate Doctor Who fan and January 2017 will see the publication of his first extended study of the series (based on Toby Whithouse's series six episode, The God Complex) in the critically acclaimed Black Archive range by Obverse Books. He is a regular writer for the fan site Doctor Who Worldwide and has contributed several essays to Watching Books' You and Who range. Recently he has branched out into fiction writing, with two short stories in the charity Doctor Who anthology Seasons of War (Chinbeard Books). Paul's work will also feature in the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme collection (A Clockwork Iris, Obverse Books) and Chinbeard Books' collection of drabbles, A Time Lord for Change.