Clara Oswald, in one form or another, has been gracing Doctor Who with her shining presence since the beginning of 2012’s run.

In that time, she’s also seemingly departed, for various reasons, enough times to nearly rival the many deaths of Rory Williams.

Clara is back again in Season 9, but with Steven Moffat giving ominous hints like “The Doctor and Clara are having absolutely the best time ever … what could possibly go wrong?” for the finale, could the Impossible Girl’s final hour be nearing?

> Buy Season 9 on DVD on Amazon.

> Buy Season 9 on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Let’s take a look back at some of her best almost-exits so far…

 

6) ‘Asylum of the Daleks’

I grant that this episode may not top my list of series premieres, but man, did it throw me for a loop when the actress slated to join the TARDIS team after Amy and Rory’s departure turned up in Season 7’s very first episode – and man, did it confuse the heck out of me when Oswin turned out to be a Dalek… and promptly died, in Jenna Coleman’s first episode.

I wonder if I was the only one who briefly entertained the hilarious possibilities in the Eleventh Doctor travelling through time and space with a spunky, baking enthusiast Dalek in tow?

 

5) ‘The Snowmen’

And here began the furious mass speculation as to why the heck Clara apparently isn’t dead and is for some reason working in Victorian London and is decidedly not at all a Dalek. Why indeed?

This adventure offered absolutely no explanation at all, instead allowing poor Clara to die once more, much to the head-scratching bewilderment of fans everywhere. It’s hard not to picture writer Steven Moffat giggling with at least some measure of mischievous glee at the myriad theories as to how Clara would manage to pop up in yet another guise in ‘The Bells of St. John’ a few months later.

 

4) ‘The Name of the Doctor’

“I don’t know where I am. I don’t know where I’m going, or where I’ve been. I was born to save the Doctor, but the Doctor is safe now. I’m the Impossible Girl, and my story is done.”

Wrapping up Season 7’s ‘Impossible Girl’ story arc, Clara jumps in to the Doctor’s timeline and sacrifices herself to save him from The Great Intelligence. But is her story really done? Of course not!

 

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