Doctor Who: Clara and regeneration – Why did she have a problem with it?

Clara’s initial reaction to the Twelfth Doctor was, to say the least, very surprising. But did previous Doctor Who episodes actually help build towards it?

Recently, fellow site contributor Raphael had a look back at Peter Capaldi’s first episode Deep Breath. A lot of the episode’s strengths were highlighted, but there were also a few criticisms. One that leapt out was a key criticism of the episode at the time: namely, Clara’s reaction to regeneration.

While we’ve seen other companions react badly to it, such as Rose in The Christmas Invasion, most of them didn’t know it was coming. They had no preparation for it, so their initial dislike or shock about it made sense.

But with Clara, that wasn’t the case. We had seen her meet other Doctors. Not just with copies of her in The Name of the Doctor and other episodes, but even she herself directly met two other Doctors in The Day of the Doctor. So she was extremely familiar with regeneration, and on the surface, her reaction to Capaldi’s new Doctor – one that was mainly distrust and uncertainty – didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

While they became a wonderfully effective team later, it took Clara a while to get used to the Twelfth Doctor.

(Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

“Her” Doctor

However, upon deeper analysis, Clara’s reaction isn’t quite as out of the blue as it initially appears. When she meets both the War and the Tenth Doctors in Day, while she understood that they were both the same as “her” Doctor, she didn’t exactly treat them the same. And it’s not hard to see why. Each Doctor has a different personality, a slightly different outlook on things. She liked both of the Doctor’s previous incarnations, but not as much as the silly man in the bow tie that she was initially attached to.

This was especially highlighted when all three were prepared to use the Moment and destroy Gallifrey. Clara hated what they were all doing, but this was especially true of seeing Eleven prepared to do it. In her own words:

"You told me you wiped out your own people, I just…I never pictured you doing it."

She then goes on to give each of the Doctors labels: “the Warrior” for War, “the Hero” for Ten and of course, for Eleven, she just thinks of him as “the Doctor”. This shows that, even when she’s meeting other incarnations of her friend, at this point, she’s a lot more deeply attached to Eleven, her first Doctor.

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Reflecting fandom

And honestly, isn’t that what a lot of the fandom is like? I’m sure we all know people who refused to continue watching the show once their favorite Doctor left. (This was definitely true when David Tennant left. I still remember the huge number of groups condemning Matt Smith as the Doctor before they had even seen a full episode of him!)

For many of us, when we come into the show, we know that there have been other Doctors. We may even get a chance to watch them during the current era of our first Doctor. But that doesn’t mean that we’re as attached to those past Doctors as much as the one we know, at least initially.

So when we lose our first Doctor, it’s a huge moment. No matter how many Doctors we’ve seen by that point, losing the one who defined the Doctor for us still feels like a huge blow.

Essentially, that’s what Eleven was for Clara – the incarnation who defined the Doctor for her, at least initially. While her and Twelve arguably grew closer, he was a very different man from the beginning, and he took a long while for her to get used to. (Actually, let’s be honest – while he’s certainly my favorite New Series Doctor, I think he took a while for some viewers to get used to after how radically different Tennant and Smith were.)

So I think her reaction works. Not in spite of her knowledge of regeneration, but perhaps even because of it. More than that – it’s an interesting reflection of the fandom, without quite overdoing it. Deep Breath might not be my favorite “new Doctor” story, but it’s still a decent enough episode that gives us an interesting take on how a companion reacts to regeneration.

What do you think? Does Clara’s initial reaction to Twelve work on some level? Or should she have been more prepared for regeneration by that point? Let us know in the comments below.