Tegan thinks she's going back to Heathrow (does she ever make it back???)

Spoilers. ;)

I also love how Nyssa is this pretty fluffy gentle princess...but also bloody brilliant in a science way. None of this "you can only be pretty OR smart!" going on. That was nice for once

Yes, I agree. And she looks so fragile and sweet, and she is super sweet, but she is really tough too.

I ship Three with everyone, possibly because I'd climb the man like a tree myself,but I often feel like Doctor/companion het is a bit like reading other people's personal feelings about the Doctor, which seems a bit vicariously embarrassing. Or maybe it's just that I have to care about both the Doctor and the companion to want to ship them?

LOL. I totally get you there. He was a nice specimen of a man. Er, alien. :)

I think you are right there, the Doctor/companion feeling a bit embarassing. Perhaps because very little, if any, effort goes into making the companion into the character Rose/Martha/whoever, so you don't really recognize them.

But yes, I think you have to feel for all parties to enjoy them together.

Also, with companions, even if I adore them I can never truly believe that they are the Doctor's one true eternal love...it just doesn't work that way. If the Doctor has one true forever love, it's the TARDIS or maaaybe the Master

This! Happily ever after is a very hard habit to shake, I think. Which just doesn't work with the Doctor and the majority of his comapanions because humans have a tendency to die of old age. And regardless if you want to think that the Doctor doesn't sleep with his companions, or with a few select or all of them- when it comes to feelings he is certainly not monogamous. I don't feel any need at all to pair the Doctor off for life, though I could probably tolerate him being paired off with just about anyone, if it was just written in the right way.

River Song works so well for me just because she doesn't see the Doctor as her happily ever after, she doesn't even want to travel with him for more than brief periods, even if she loves him dearly. I don't think she is the slightest bothered of the ones before or after because she knows that any relationship with him never can go on for long.

Master/companion has the fun little frisson that you just know the Doctor would go completely spare. :D (Unless it's someone like River, where he'd want to join in.) So you get the push and pull of that aspect, whether it's darkfic/noncon or just the Master coming on all polite and seductive and trying to lure the companion away that way or whatever.

Indeed. I highly doubt that I would enjoy a story were the Master finds True Love with a companion- that seems utterly unlikely. But then I enjoy imagine that even if he go for the seductive route he would do it because it suits his particular purpose, not because he is in any way nice.

But that's the joy of this fandom, really, there are so many options! :D

Oh yes! And that we can all find a corner were our particular ideas about it fits!