You might remember there was a bit of a hoo-ha around the launch of this series, with Peter Capaldi saying he’d been “absolutely adamant” that there would be no flirting aboard the Tardis. And then how the BBC issued a statement that there had never been any plans for any of that sort of thing, thank you very much.
Well, what complete nonsense that was. This dripped with so much sexual tension you could make a compelling case for the DVD getting a 12A certificate. It was the Doctor and Clara’s last hurrah, him tuxed up, her in a cocktail dress, both completely impervious to what was appropriate. Clara has decided she’s had enough, and god, are they dragging it out, all loaded moments and unsaid truths. Those forlorn stares and stolen glances are not those of a man with paternal intentions. This was Romancing the Stone. It was Moonlighting. It may have just been a nod to the genre, but nobody even try to deny it – this was hot.
So Clara’s Say Anything moment happens after she herself turns soldier, complicit in this Doctor’s apparently dangerous, manipulative ways, leading Maisie to her certain death. And seeing the hypocrisy of her attitude, coupled with a punch-the-air emotive speech in which he finally opens up, forces a change of heart. Maybe it was being confronted by the drab reality of life with the increasingly tedious (after a strong start, I can’t lie) Danny Pink, but Clara’s back on the Tardis team with renewed gusto and glee.
But then she has just lied to them both, so she is effectively having an affair.