Pictured: Clara and Clara. In the foreground: Clara. Not pictured: about a dozen more Claras. Also pictured - the TARDIS the troll.
"Hang on, I know what the problem is. Is this the first time he's brought a girl home? [TARDIS beeps] Are you laughing?"
— Clara and the TARDIS, the latter of whom is being a troll.
The One With… too many Claras and the TARDIS being a troll.
One of the three minisodes released with the Series 7 DVD, along with "The Inforarium" and "Rain Gods".
A dishevelled Clara walks onto the TARDIS console, demanding to know one specific thing:
Clara: Where is it?
[TARDIS beeps innocently]
Clara: Oh, it just happened, I went to the bathroom — thank you for the hologram leopard, by the way, an unexpected pleasure — and my bedroom was completely missing!
[TARDIS beeps innocently]
Clara: Oh, it just happened, I went to the bathroom — thank you for the hologram leopard, by the way, an unexpected pleasure — and my bedroom was completely missing!
She hazards a guess that this is the first time the Doctor's brought a girl home, to which the TARDIS answers by laughing first, and then showing Clara photos of many previous (though only female) companions. Clara is impressed by Amy's legs.
Clara: Dear God, that woman is made of legs. That's the most legs of any living human!
Clara tries to reason with the TARDIS, but she can't get through to her, so she gives up and departs to try and find her bedroom...
Clara: Do your worst. Can't wait to see your next trick!
... only to find herself, from tomorrow night. That challenge to "do your worst"? Yeah... the TARDIS did. As Clara watches, baffled, many, many more Claras appear, all clamouring to the TARDIS for her missing bedroom.
Clara: Oh dear God.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: If you ever find yourself in a sentient time machine like the TARDIS, don't say "do your worst" to it.
- Brick Joke: Back in "Meanwhile in the TARDIS", Amy had a similar reaction to the previous companions ("Is that a leather bikini?") Fast-forward a few centuries, and it's Amy's own picture that yields the funny reaction.
- Continuity Nod:
- When Clara asks if the TARDIS is upset because this is the first time the Doctor has brought a girl home, she's shown images of a number of past companions: Ace, Martha Jones, Nyssa, Peri Brown, Romana I and II, Rose Tyler, Sarah Jane Smith, and Amy Pond. Just like in the previous "Meanwhile in the TARDIS" short, the TARDIS only shows the women.
- The TARDIS still doesn't like Clara. But at least she's willing to have conversation about a person of mutual interest.
- Subtly, this mini-episode is a follow-up to the 2011 made-for-DVD "series" "Night and the Doctor", which touched on what happens in the TARDIS when the companions are asleep. In this case the mini-episode suggests what happens when the Doctor is either asleep or otherwise engaged. He appears to be quite engaged, as Clara appears to find herself time-looped over the course of multiple nights.
- Cargo Ship:Clara: This is the Doctor we're talking about, he's in a codependent relationship with a screwdriver.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Clara displays a little bit of this when she sees the slideshow of past companions, and expresses awe when she sees Amy Pond's legs.
- Minimalist Cast: Save for a couple of body doubles, this is a one-woman show for Jenna-Louise Coleman. A few years later, the episode "Heaven Sent" was promoted as the first-ever "one hander" for the series. In truth, this mini-episode was. And unlike "Heaven Sent" (which actually featured Coleman, a monster actor and an uncredited child actor), the only person on screen in this short besides said body doubles is Coleman.
- Screw Yourself: Two of the Claras say that they had to share a bed, then give each other a sultry look.
- Shout-Out: The leopard in the bathroom is a reference to the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when Arthur complains, "It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."
- Take a Third Option: Clara ponders whether the Doctor would deal with a woman or an enormous, complicated machine he could fix with a toolkit. After the TARDIS beeps, Clara concludes that he would choose both, using the same toolkit.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: How all those Claras can be at the same place.
- Too Dumb to Live: While she doesn't die... yet, Clara really should've thought twice about saying "do your worst" to a sentient time machine like the TARDIS.
- Troll: The TARDIS. Apparently she gets a bit bored when the Doctor is off doing... whatever he's doing at that moment... and enjoys trolling his companions.Clara: Thank you for the hologram leopard, an unexpected pleasure.
