Doctor Who has been around for almost 60 years now, and although it focuses on a 2000-year-old Time Lord with two hearts, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on their friends throughout the years. If anything, this focus on the companions has been intensified in the modern series.
Clara Oswald joined the Doctor in the TARDIS way back in Season 7 as the Impossible Girl. Once that mystery was solved, she continued traveling with the Twelfth Doctor and is currently the longest-serving companion of the new series. However, even the Doctor’s best friends are prone to making mistakes.
Arguing With The TARDIS
If you secretly fancy someone, the worst thing you can do is fall out with their beloved time machine. For whatever reason, throughout Season 7, Clara and the TARDIS struggled to get along. Perhaps the latter knew about the Impossible Girl mystery and attempted to shake Clara off, much like she did Captain Jack Harkness in “Utopia.”
Whatever the reason, the TARDIS disliked Clara. She refused to open her doors to the Doctor’s companion on several occasions and the two even had a proper spat in the specially filmed mini-episode “Clara And The TARDIS”.
Becoming Reckless
It has been incorporated into the show on numerous occasions that if you travel with the Doctor for too long, you start to become more and more like them. Rose Tyler, Amy Pond and Clara Oswald all started displaying this near the end of their time on the show. However, Clara took it to the next level.
After Danny Pink died, Clara started to rely on the Doctor’s friendship more and more and began to get reckless. She enjoyed dangerous situations a little too much and showed a worrying disregard for her own life. This came to a head when she tried to outfox Death and died, devastating the Doctor.
Gambling With Lunn’s Life
In Clara’s last season as a series regular on Doctor Who, she became a lot more confident and started emulating certain traits of the Doctor. One such less than favorable characteristic was her willingness to put other people in the line of fire for arguably unjustifiable reasons.
In “Before The Flood”, Clara and a few other guest stars were being menaced by ghosts, who took away Clara’s method of communication with the Doctor. To get it back, she sent out Lunn because she had a theory that the ghosts didn’t need him dead. Although Clara was right, she had no way of knowing for sure.
Trying To Exterminate The Doctor
The reason why this entry isn’t higher up on the list is that this wasn’t technically Clara’s fault. Also, she wasn’t the real Clara. This was a splinter version of Clara called Oswin, as a result of her jumping into the Doctor’s timeline. However, Oswin’s final fate was shocking and ultimately heartbreaking.
The Doctor, Amy, and Rory Williams embarked on a mission to rescue Oswin from the Dalek Asylum. However, when the Doctor finally reached Oswin’s lair, he discovered that she was, in fact, a Dalek. Traumatized by this revelation, Oswin began to give into her Dalek conditioning before regaining control.
Putting Angie And Artie In Danger
Back in Clara’s first season, she was working as a live in nanny for a family friend. Her charged were a young girl and boy called Angie and Artie, and no one was really sure what the point of them was exactly. Nevertheless, the children eventually discovered Clara’s travels in time and begged her to take them too.
They all arrived on Hedgewick’s World, an old broken down theme park. So, nice and safe and not at all creepy then. Unfortunately, the Cybermen were amassing an army below the surface and kidnapped Angie and Artie, placing their lives in mortal peril. Not particularly responsible on Clara’s part.
Becoming The Doctor
As a whole, Clara improved greatly as a character in Season 8, and the dynamic between her and the Twelfth Doctor initially was an interesting take on the Doctor/companion relationship. This Doctor was averse to public displays of affection and Clara was less wide-eyed and gradually became more cynical.
In the season’s ninth episode, Clara was forced to save the day on her own as the Doctor was stuck in the TARDIS. She took on the mantle of the Doctor and was forced to see the universe from his perspective. This included lying to scared and innocent people, and knowing that she couldn’t save them all.
Wiping The Doctor’s Memories
This probably would have been a lot worse, if it hadn’t been for the Doctor trying to wipe Clara’s memories first. By this point, the duo had been traveling with each other for a very long time, to the point that there was nothing they wouldn’t do for each other. This included destroying the universe.
Clara had died, and the Time Lords had a role in her demise. So the Doctor went back to Gallifrey to snatch her the second before her death. However, he had to return her or the whole universe would collapse. The only way he would let go was if either he or Clara forgot the other. Sadly, the Doctor drew the short straw.
Hurting Danny Pink
Being in a committed relationship while simultaneously whizzing around in time and space with a mad man in a box was always going to pose a problem. However, being the ultimate control freak, Clara thought that she could have it all. Unfortunately, she couldn’t have one without hurting the other.
While the Doctor’s attitude certainly didn’t help, Clara could have handled things better. She went behind Danny’s back to learn about his childhood (accidentally, admittedly) but when Danny was turned into a Cyberman, Clara unknowingly taunted him by stating that the Doctor was the only man she trusted.
Refusing To Accept The Twelfth Doctor
Clara never handled change well. When her best friend (and secret crush) suddenly regenerated into an old man, Clara was completely taken aback. It wasn’t just the Doctor’s appearance that was different, though; his entire attitude had changed and he was grumpier than ever.
She refused to believe that that man was the Doctor, and wondered if he could change back. Madame Vastra was personally offended by Clara’s rejection of the Doctor, noting that her own physical appearance had caused her to wear a veil, in judgement of other people’s prejudice, temporarily including Clara.
Breaking The Doctor’s Trust
This was probably Clara’s darkest and most desperate moment. At the end of Season 8, she had finally realized that she was madly in love with Danny Pink and wanted to tell him everything. Tragically, just before Clara was about to tell him, Danny was run down and killed.
Broken, Clara needed to bring Danny back and so she called her very best friend. When the Doctor arrived, she drugged him and then threatened him, threatening to destroy all of his TARDIS keys unless he saved Danny. The Doctor refused and so Clara, having nothing left to lose, made good on her promise.
