Each of the Doctor’s past several companions resembles a story book character.

If you’re a fan of Doctor Who, chances are that you’ve heard about this theory.  And for the most part, I agree with it.  It really does make a lot of sense.  Every one of the Doctor’s last four companions has had some resemblance or allusion to a storybook character:  Rose as Red Riding Hood, Martha as Dorothy, Donna as Alice and Amy Pond (and Rory) as two of the children from Peter Pan.

This week’s Christmas episode introduced a new companion for the Doctor:  Oswin Oswald.

The second-prettiest cast member of the last episode.

We met Oswin in Series 7, Episode 1:  Prison of the Daleks, where she played a doomed space explorer.  Her name was never given, but she was doomed to live in the prison of her mind while trapped in a Dalek’s body.  The Doctor couldn’t save her.

In the Christmas episode this past week, the Doctor met her again in 19th century England as the governess to a wealthy family’s children.  Oswin had a curiosity and adventurous spirit to match the Doctor’s own, but again, tragedy.  She didn’t survive the episode, but the Doctor knew that two Oswin Oswalds in one timestream was one too many.  She was something new and strange. He knew that he would find her again, alive and well.  The Christmas episode ended with a cut-away to a modern (21st century) incarnation of Oswin, walking past the grave of her former, doomed self while the Doctor searched for her.

Who is she?  What is she, exactly?  We’ll find out.  But I’m sure I know what literary figure she represents, in the context of the “storybook” theory.

By the end of the episode, the Doctor was obsessed with finding her:  a woman identical to one he knew centuries ago (and in this instance, centuries hence, as well).  He’s a lonely, reclusive immortal who discovers (or will discover) a face from his past in the present.

It’s very similar to the plot of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  And Oswin Oswald, the next of the Doctor’s companions, is Mina Harker.