Oswin Oswald

Oswin Oswald, former Junior Entertainment Manager on the Starship ALASKA, current companion to the tenth regeneration of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. And if that doesn't tell you enough, you're in a bit of trouble. Oswin had previously fooled herself into believing she was shipwrecked on the Asylum planet of the Daleks, when in reality, she'd been converted into a Dalek herself. Thanks to a rift in time and space, Oswin was taken into AM's reality and transformed to her proper form after the Asylum planet exploded.

Oswin is currently traveling with the Tenth Doctor as his companion, leaving her past as far behind her as she can.

Canon History
Not too much is known about Oswin Oswald’s background before the crash of the Starship Alaska. One can infer that she lived with mother, seeing as she was mentioned before. No mention of a father, but we’ll assume she lived with him as well. As a child and young adult, she had ambitions for space travel, wanting to see the universe some way or another. We can also infer that Oswin learned to hack into computers at some point in her life, and was an extremely bright child and teenager.

Her opportunity to see the universe came in form of the Starship Alaska. They needed a Junior Entertainment Manager and Oswin needed a lift to the stars. It might have only been a cruise ship, but she was willing to take anything by that point. And so, she was signed on. Unfortunately, they weren’t out for more than a day when the Alaska crashed into a nearby planet. Said planet turned out to be the Dalek asylum, where the most advanced warrior race in the universe kept their insane.

Most of the crew was killed on impact, but somehow, Oswin survived unharmed. Climbing a ladder out of the ship, she wandered the corridors of the asylum, trying to find a way out. On the planet, the Daleks had installed a nanocloud, small microbes in that would convert any organic matter, living or dead, into a Dalek puppet. However, Oswin wasn’t so lucky. Because of her genius mind, the Daleks performed a full conversion, transforming her from a human into a Dalek, and stuck her in the very heart of the Asylum.

Unable to face the reality of what happened, Oswin retreated into her mind, dreaming up a world where she was perfectly human and trapped in the wreckage of the Alaska and awaiting rescue. She stayed that way for a year, unaware of what she had become and sending out signals.

During this year, Oswin fancied that the Daleks were attempting to gain entry to her room. It's theorized that this was the conversion attempting to take over. However, even in her dream world and totally unaware that there even was a conversion going on, Oswin was strong enough to keep herself human on a subconscious level. This was achieved by baking souffles, of all things, in her little world, even if she wasn't good at it. Just this simple activity kept her human. On the inside, that is.

Oswin remained this way until her signal was finally picked up by the Dalek ship, more specifically, by the Time Lord known as the Doctor. The Daleks were sending him down to the asylum to shut off the force-field from within, but Oswin wasn’t aware of this plan until they spoke again, when he’d arrived at his destination. From there, Oswin helped to guide the Doctor, and his friends, Rory and Amy, all while gleefully flirting with both Rory and the Doctor. Opening doors and guiding them through passageways, Oswin finally guided first Rory and then Amy and the Doctor to a teleport pad within the asylum’s chambers.

Once there, the Doctor told Oswin that he would come for her while Rory stayed with Amy, who was in the process of being converted into a Dalek puppet by the nanocloud. She guided him further, to Intensive Care, where Daleks who were survivors of the Time War were kept. Upon noticing the Doctor’s presence, these Daleks suddenly came out of their catatonic states and began to go after him, finally cornering him against a door that Oswin was attempting to open. However, instead of getting it open, Oswin simply erased all information having to do with the Doctor from the Pathweb, the network connecting the Daleks together.

Oswin opened the door once the Daleks had retreated and the Doctor entered, only to find her true fate. Her world was rattled to the core as it was revealed to her that she had been a Dalek all along, and at that moment, her mind weakened enough to let the Dalek nature seep though. She very nearly exterminated the Doctor, but her human side regained control just in time to stop herself.

Coming to a realization that she’d probably be better off giving herself to save the Doctor and his friends, Oswin told him to run to the teleport pad and took down the shields surrounding the asylum. Amy, Rory and the Doctor escaped, and the last we see of Oswin is her asking the Doctor to remember her.

AM History
But, that's hardly the end of her story.

As the asylum exploded, a rift in time and space opened from the force and energy of the explosion. Oswin's Dalek body, now dead and forced from its casing, fell through. So, by all standards, Oswin should have arrived in AM's reality as a Dalek without a casing.

However, her mental willpower to remain human to avoid exterminating the Doctor and save him and his friends was powerful enough to resonate even in death. The rift behaved quite like a group of nanogenes, restoring a form to match the mind it had sensed. Because of this, Oswin arrived in AM's reality as a human.

Board Canon
Oswin's rift opened in the middle of a graveyard somewhere in England (it was never really specified where exactly, and she never bothered to find out). Said graveyard was full of Weeping Angels, which were using the grave as diguises in order to catch people wandering around at night. She might have been in for a little more time travel, if she hadn't spotted the TARDIS nearby. Unfortunately, said TARDIS didn't belong to the Doctor she was looking for, but it did belong to his Tenth regeneration. After he pulled her into the TARDIS in order to keep her away from the Weeping Angels, the Doctor offered Oswin the chance to come along with him once she'd explained that she knew his future self.

The Doctor took an acute interest in Storybrooke, mostly due to the fact that the curse hanging over it had been broken. Therefore, Oswin ended up spending quite a bit of time there, forming first a tentative and then a full friendship with Regina Mills, the former mayor. During their travels, Oswin and the Doctor also encounterd Em Brenek, lost in New York City and offered to take her along in the TARDIS until they could find a way to bring her home. Unfortunatley, at present, the TARDIS is having a hard time locking onto a signal, due to Em's demonic possession. Regardless of that, Oswin allowed her to stay and formed quite a bond with the younger girl.

However, Oswin's bonds didn't always have a good outcome. Unaware of Cora Mills' arrival in Storybrooke, she allowed herself to be lured to Regina's backyard and once there, had a spell cast on her that bought nightmares to life. The outcome was her own transformation into a Dalek, which was quickly remedied with Regina's help. Unforutnatley, with Cora now targeting both Oswin and Regina, and by extension Em and the Doctor, Oswin was forced to leave Storybrooke for a time.

But, Storybrooke apparently didn't want her to leave. Due to unknown forces, Oswin became a target for the spell that Regina and Mr. Gold used to bring the residents of Storybrooke back to the Enchanted Forest. She, among with a few others, arrived here and were trapped for a long time before finally being released back into the world that they knew.

Oswin arrived from the Enchanted Forest in Cardiff, where she used her single sheet of psychic paper in order to attempt to break into a building where a supercomputer was housed. Said computer would be powerful enough to hail the TARDIS and hopefully get her in contact with the Doctor. However, the man that she attempted to use the paper on was quite familiar with it. Luckily and once recognized from Oswin's knowledge of past companions, Captain Jack Harkness offered aid in the form of letting her stay in the Torchwood base, provided that she help him in locating his missing team. Oswin accepted and spent a month working with Jack until finally meeting back up with the Doctor.

At present, Oswin is doing what she's always done before their seperation, traveling the universe as the Doctor's companion.