stormaggedon

-Steven Moffat, explaining why the TARDIS doesn’t like Clara

The most frustrating thing about Moffat is that he can sometimes say the most profound, insightful things about Doctor Who, and then turn around and say something that makes it look like he’s never watched the show before. Clara is not the first companion to question the “Police Box magic” and the previous companions did not stumble around in blind awe of the TARDIS.

Rose, in her very first episode, started questioning how the TARDIS worked and why it was disguised as a Police Box. The Doctor dismissed her questions because he was still in his “Humans are Stupid Apes” phase, but she was questioning it nonetheless.

Donna was confused and terrified when she first went in the TARDIS because she thought she’d been kidnapped, but when the Doctor invited her aboard the TARDIS a second time she dismissed his attempts to give her the inspiring “The TARDIS is bigger on the inside” speech. She never remained in awe of the TARDIS and in one episode was shown actively learning how to pilot it.

Martha, the first time she travelled in the TARDIS, asked the Doctor how the TARDIS worked and how it was able to travel through time. She also insulted the Doctor’s ability to pilot the TARDIS.

Amy was skeptical of the TARDIS the first time she saw it when she was seven, and even when she finally got to go inside the TARDIS she was actively questioning the magic Police Box she’d long since stopped believing in.

Rory was not perplexed or impressed by the TARDIS at all and had already guessed that it was able to be bigger on the inside than the outside because the inside existed in a different dimension. 

For goodness sake, Leela questioned the Fourth Doctor about how the TARDIS could be bigger on the inside than the outside, making him explain how the TARDIS was dimensionally transcendental in 1977!

Furthermore, the TARDIS never said she didn’t like the Doctor bringing home companions in “The Doctor’s Wife.” Her exact quote is: “I exist across all space and time and you [the Doctor] talk and run around and bring home strays!” “Strays” is not implied to be negative in this quote; in fact, just a few moments later the TARDIS refers to Rory as “the pretty one.” 

Clara is not particularly special or unique in this regard, no matter how hard Moffat tries to convince us she is. She’s not the first to refuse to travel with the Doctor until she’s ready, or to set her own terms for traveling with him. She’s not the first to question the Doctor for the way he tries to convince people to join him as his companion. And she’s not the first to question the TARDIS. You want to have a plot where the TARDIS doesn’t particularly like a companion? Fine, but don’t shit on all the companions that came before Clara to try to build her up as the only one smart enough and skeptical enough to question the “Police Box magic.”