We’ve now had some distance from the end of Peter Capaldi’s debut Doctor Who season, and some distance remains before we see the Christmas special in all its festive glory.
This is, of course, time best spent speculating on what questions seem to have been left unanswered at the end of Season 8, and what lies ahead for our heroes.
For instance, what was the news Clara never got around to saying at the start of ‘Dark Water’? Could she be pregnant? All signs point to maybe.
Season 8 was interwoven with references and themes that may well all be pointing to a forthcoming reveal that Clara’s going to be sewing elastic waistbands into her trousers in a few months’ time, or they may well have all been red herrings, or pure coincidence.
But considering that children and family featured heavily in the year’s episodes – which saw both Clara and the Doctor flaunting their parenting skills in ‘Listen’ and ‘In the Forest of the Night’, the Doctor leaving the question of choice in the hands of women in ‘Kill the Moon’, and that cryptic “three months” post-it note in Clara’s flat, to name a few.
If she is three months pregnant, could this be why she chooses to settle down and leave the time-and-space adventuring life behind, if she does indeed stay home after Christmas? This theory would pretty neatly explain Orson Pink – as a descendant of Clara’s, great-grandchild of time travellers, who is the exact spitting image of Danny.
On the other hand, it wouldn’t be the first time two characters on Doctor Who have, through sheer coincidence, looked exactly alike. So that “three months” might well have meant something else. Maybe she’s been seeing Danny for three months, maybe she has three months to live. Maybe it’s a reminder that she goes through her stack of post-it notes every three months and shreds anything out of date. That’s a good rule to live by.
You may well be thinking that the Children In Need Christmas special teaser disproves the theory that Clara was expecting: her tummy shows no signs of increased capacity, and if her reaction on that rooftop is anything to go by, it’s clear that it’s been some time since she last saw the Doctor.
However, it’s also possible that it’s been so long since she last saw the Doctor, her need for maternity wear has long since ended, and there’s a mini Impossible Girl or Boy running about that we have yet to see. Regardless, the finale does still beg the question of whether Clara will return to teach at Coal Hill School following the loss of Danny and saying farewell to the Doctor, or whether she will feel compelled to move on.
But while a little munchkin may or may not have some bearing on what’s next for Clara, what of the Doctor?
Following his bitter disappointment in ‘Death in Heaven’, will he give up the search for Gallifrey, or will he resume his quest with renewed determination? Maybe that’s exactly what he’ll ask from Santa for Christmas.
We’ve had nearly a decade with a Doctor who, as far as he is aware, is more or less the only Time Lord about (apart from the occasional reappearance of the Master). One wonders, if Gallifrey does make a return as a presence in time and space – and as such, in the Doctor’s life – just how long it will take him to remember how much the stuffy old fusspots always used to get on his nerves.
One hopes, therefore, for a return as well of increasingly prickly relations and delightful antagonism (as well as occasional grudging cooperation) as soon as the Doctor remembers the myriad reasons why he left his home planet in the first place.
> Order Season 8 on DVD on Amazon.
> Order Season 8 on Blu-ray on Amazon.
What do you think the future holds for Clara and the Doctor? Let us know below…