It is a truth universally acknowledged, that this series has seen Clara Oswald become more and more like the Doctor. She’s unstoppable, unpredictable. “Clara is no longer the apprentice; she’s sort of become the Doctor – she’s made her way right to the top of the hill and this finale is the fallout from that,” says Steven. “I couldn’t imagine Clara going back to an ordinary life, could you? I could have imagined Amy sort of thinking, ‘Well, that was brilliant fun, but now I’m going to live my other life, with Rory, and that’s fine.’ Even Rose, I can imagine it, I can imagine Clara living without the Doctor, but without all that adventure and excitement… I don’t think she’d cope. She’d be obliged to become ordinary; towards the end, she’s not even good at simulating that.”

Ultimately, Clara is — as the First Doctor once described himself — a citizen of the universe. She’s not of this Earth.

“I think she’s lost a sense of home,” agrees Steven. “It’s become increasingly difficult to write her into a school environment. We barely do it this year. As soon as you do, you think, ‘She’s bored. She’s just waiting for the sound of the TARDIS,’ which wasn’t the case last year. Like the Doctor, she’s looking for the next place. The next adventure. ‘I’m going to fill myself up with all of it. Home is a waste of time. I’ve only got so long to live.’ That’s what the Doctor does, too. It doesn’t matter how nice or pleasant you make a particular place, the Doctor doesn’t want to be there for very long. That’s hardwired into him. As I said a couple of issues back, he’s been desperate to return to Gallifrey, for all these years, but what do you think he’d do if he got there? He’d run away. We already know that he can’t stand the place. Well, the Doctor and Clara have that in common n0w. Home is a concept they don’t really honour. ‘I love home so long as I don’t actually have to be there.’ They’re best friends, but they can’t stop running.”