Why Clara Sucks

It's not secret that Doctor Who has been mediocre in the past few years, and while this is connected to multiple reasons, rehashed storytelling, predictable plots, uncreative creatures, unoriginal themes, it's all just been one big blob of boring. But I think one of the biggest issues would be Clara, Clara is the worst companion we've had since New Who (2005-) began, why? Because she is bland, she is the blandest companion we've had since the show came back. Rose, while I personally think was a bad character (Especially to begin with) she was still memorable, Martha while some consider bland, I would still say had a unique perspective on the show and was a good parallel from Rose as well as having a lot of good episodes in her season. Donna was just straight up fucking awesome, whitty, sassy, aggressive, funny, she was awesome. River, also awesome, able to match and counter the Doctor's child like optimism with her own pessimistic and saucy attitude. Amy while also beginning horribly soon became the most unique character in the bunch thanks to her demanding demeanour yet with a lot of respect and dedication to her loved ones. They all had clear personality traits while Clara is...nice...that's it...she has about a well of a defined personality as Kelly from Saved By The Bell.

Everything that Clara is or does isn't part of her personality, it's part of the companion's personality, the certain roles and positions that the companion has to fill, they need to ask the questions, they need to be the Doctor's friend and they need to be able to keep him grounded. These are all things that Clara does...but without bringing anything new to the table. Everything about her is just a role to fill that every other companion could easily fill, she has no new perspectives, to defined relationships and no clear goals, she's just there. The companion originated to be the eyes of the audience, the problem is, we eventually got to a point where we didn't need a companion to become the eyes, we had become close enough to the Doctor himself and so familiar with this world that we already knew who he was and what he does. So around the Donna-era the companion was no longer the outsider looking it, they were the second part of a double act, the one to counter The Doctor's remarks and ideologies and to give him a brand new perspective, Donna challenged The Doctor's position as a leader of the human race, River proved to him that he's not alone in the universe and Amy gave him that sense of family that he needed. Clara doesn't do that, she doesn't conflict with him, she just goes along with everything he says and does without question, this is a complete step backwards on what the companions are supposed to be. She's not a companion, she's an assistant.

And even more so, she doesn't fulfil the role right, the companion is supposed to keep The Doctor grounded, yet there's nothing keeping her grounded. All of the other companions have someone to keep them humble or a home, like a family or a goal. Clara isn't given that for a very long time, in fact we don't actually meet her family properly until the end of her second year on the show, and even then we're given almost no time to get to know them either, and by this point it's made pretty clear that she doesn't have a strong enough connection with them to visit on a regular basis. Everyone else had something, Rose had her mum and boyfriend, Martha had her family and her job, Donna had her mum & grandad, Amy had Rory and the dream to start a family, these were all established within their first official appearances as the companions, yet Clara didn't have that.

Clara is nothing more than a blank slate that fills the role of the companion without adding anything new to it or memorable. And the show has been trying so hard to make her important, even dubbing her "The Impossible Girl" by trying to make a point that her and the Doctor were destined to meet no,Donna already did this; stop trying to make Impossible Girl happen, it's not going to happen.

-Danny