Ace is great, but did she ever stand over her mortally wounded enemies and shout, "Enjoy your death, as I have enjoyed killing you!" the way Leela did?

Leela's awesome.

I can't really argue for why I think Sarah Jane is the best. It's the tone of her voice and the shape of her jaw and the flash in her eyes. I guess I'm just in love with her.

Leela did have a joie de vivre missing in other companions. Or whatever the French for joy of mayhem is.

Sarah Jane's always been my favorite too, but Leela, Donna, and Romana 1 rate pretty on my awesome meter. And I am one of the few that really liked Tegan.

According to babel fish the French for mayhem is mutilation.

And I am one of the few that really liked Tegan.

I've only caught a few of the fifth Doctor's adventures on netflix, but I LOVE Tegan. I actually find that with classic Who, whether or not I enjoy a story depends not so much on which Doctor it is, but which companion it is (and how the writing treats that companion).

Yeah but nobody ever made shit explode the way ACE did! And she put up with less of the Doctor's shit than Leela. And Leela was a "woman warrior". Ace was a kick ass fighter and a woman. I don't know how to say it except that neither modified the other. She was not a woman warrior. She was not a warrior woman. And was a woman AND a warrior. And it is not that neither influenced the other. She was different kind of warrior than a man would have been. She was a different kind of woman that someone who did not know how to blow shit up would have been. But neither "woman" nor "warrior" were adjectives.

I admit Sarah Jane has an entirely different kind of awesome. But she was unusually skilled in violence.

Seska: OK, yes, Rory's bits were wonderful, indeed, and he absolutely grew on me as an actor. I can't believe he waited that long (and, eh, could be a failure to believe that 2000 years, seeing all that he seen, and not change at all). But the Doctor? As in, the main character? Didn't move me as much as the story did (I was afraid to lose the Doctor to forgetness. Not that specific Doctor, but the idea of a Doctor. And I think it's bad, not really caring about the main character.

But I love, love, love, love that from the memory of a girl everything was brought back to life. That our memories and the way we remember things have deep meanings. Hello, phenomenology! Though, I didn't like that from Amy's PoV, she could burst into tears of joy/grief at times without knowing why. It's such an abuse, without even going as far as "hysteric women" and all of that. Though (2), that could explain A LOT about Victorian women. I knew something gone very very wrong there!

Shir: "But I love, love, love, love that from the memory of a girl everything was brought back to life. That our memories and the way we remember things have deep meanings. Hello, phenomenology!" Ooh. I never thought of that. How exciting. You have to write a paper now.

"Though, I didn't like that from Amy's PoV, she could burst into tears of joy/grief at times without knowing why." There was precedent - she did the same over Rory without remembering what she was crying about, in a previous episode. Not an abuse. A perspective that says our emotions respond to things that our rational minds can't perceive, which I can get on board with. (But I also love your Freudian take on it. Heh.)

And I am one of the few that really liked Tegan.

Me, too! I loved that Tegan was one of the few of the Classic Who companions who constantly called the Doctor out on his bullshit when needed. Her exit was iconic for me because she was the first one I ever remember telling him that the violence and death that surrounds him was just too much for her, and she had to leave for her own sanity.