Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-1296654-20200630105828/@comment-6032121-20200701111936

Just regarding the Clara parenthesis: it is one thing that the authorial intent is that by the end of Series 9 the dynamic has well settled into a platonic one. But the Twelfth Doctor still has the "I'm not your boyfriend… (…) I never said it was your mistake" beat. If he allowed himself to think of himself as Clara's boyfriend, albeit to realise later that it was wrong-headed of him, then there might have been an argument that he must have considered himself "free" by that point. This is the argument that must be debunked — and it is debunked by the fact that The Husbands of River Song makes a comedic beat out of River and the Doctor calling each other out on other people they've romanced while separated.