Gushing About Shows You Like (Sugar Wiki)/Live-Action TV/Doctor Who

General Gushing

 * Doctor Who is one of the greatest things to ever air on television. It can be funny, sad, mysterious, nerve-wracking, heartwarming, and sometimes all of that in the same time. No wonder it gets its own page.
 * Steven Moffat is one of the best things to ever happen to it.
 * Russell T. Davies needs love too. He brought back the show and introduced a whole new generation to wonderful sci-fi.
 * Davies was the best thing that could've happened to Doctor Who at this time. Thank you for well-written characters (both male and female!), the good kind of crack, the happy, the sad, the multitudes of awesome, and bringing Doctor Who to a huge audience.
 * Likewise, Christopher Eccleston was indispensable to reviving the Doctor and causing a whole new generation of fans to fall in love with. It's a shame he's so often overshadowed by David Tennant, who, by the way, is also awesome.
 * It's funny, witty, heartwarming, tear-wringing, and brilliant every step of the way. Even the episodes that aren't so amazing always have something in them to make up for it, whether it be a wonderful side character, a well-acted scene, a beautiful message, or a memorable story.
 * Hey, don't forget Classic Doctor Who. Sure the stories dragged and the special effects sucked, but it was all fun, cheese, and mind games, and was a hell of a lot more charming than most of the non-Star Trek sci-fi drivel that was being pumped out in the '70s and '80s.
 * Absolutely nothing in the universe compares to the sheer awesomeness of Tom Baker as the Doctor. Sorry William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith; you were and are all fantastic in the role. But thirty-odd years after he debuted, Tom still owns that part. It's not a matter of 'best actor to play the Doctor' or 'favourite Doctor' or what have you - he simply is the Doctor.
 * The sheer versatility of Tom's work as the show moved from borderline horror stories (Seasons 12-14) to Lighter and Softer (15-17) to near-philosophical (18) is amazing, if only because he never comes across as out of place. No matter what came his way, this Doctor triumphed by just being his sweet self - strange, alien, beautiful.
 * (And he has awesome companions.)
 * The Classic Series, which has genuinely three-dimensional, likable characters. Throughout its 26 year history, it stands out as being unique, meaningful, suspenseful, chilling, hilarious, nightmarish, heartrending, all in one gigantic package of awesomeness. The effect of having a large and varied number of writers is also felt, with the Doctor's adventures being fresh and memorable every time. One of the biggest aspects that did it is the personality of Troughton's Second Doctor of being arrogant before his enemies but genuinely caring and likable when talking to those he trusts had a big impact on him. The writing in the Tom Baker years also managed to retain a considerable part of this aspect.
 * "Love & Monsters" and "Fear Her" are great episodes. Sylvester McCoy's first season is better than people give it credit for and his latter two are fantastic. All complaints about "Last of the Time Lords" are Insane Troll Logic. Oh, and The Keys of Marinus is a great episode.
 * The Chase is the greatest serial ever!
 * Spitfires. In Space.
 * You do not mention Doctor Who without mentioning the Eighth Doctor's adventures in the audios and books. Zagreus, especially. And you do not mention Doctor Who without grinning at the Tenth Doctor's CMoA in his first episode: Driving away the Sycorax after shortly recovering from regeneration trauma! Lordy, you also do not mention Doctor Who without thinking of Human Nature/Family of Blood. The show is jam-packed with Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * Smith makes the role fun and magical, Amy and Rory are great companions and Moffat and co's storys have covered all the bases that make the Doctor great. And now going back to not only the first 2 seasons of the revival but Davison's fifth doctor, Doctor Who is even more fantastic and its message of being yourself and standing out really speaks to you.
 * MATT SMITH. MADE. OF. WIN.
 * No love for McCoy? The Mysterious chess master who tricked Davros into destroying Skaro himself, strolled calmly away from an exploding circus and talked two enemies into committing suicide during his tenure. Oh, and Ace, one of the most awesome companions of the classic era.
 * I would like to point out that, as a newcomer to the Doctor Who series as a whole only a few short months ago, Christopher Eccleston was by far my favorite Doctor... until I saw Sylvester Mc Coy in "The Curse of Fenric". Despite having seen several Tom Baker specials, familiarizing myself with all three new Doctors, and only having watched the aforementioned Seven special, just under two hours long, Ace and Seven have become my two absolute favorite Doctor-and-Companion team, and this just solidified it. I. Effing. Love. The Seventh Doctor.
 * Every incarnation of the Doctor! They are all just so awesome in their own original ways!
 * Matt Smith is awesome embodied, and a nice change from the Wangsty, if still very dramatic and well-done, Tenth Doctor.
 * Matt's like bow ties and fezzes. Cool.
 * I just feel the need to say that my long-overdue discovery of Doctor Who is what finally convinced me to embrace my eccentric side that was previously hard to express and a slight source of shame. Turned out that I have several Doctor-ish qualities myself! It's a well-written, action-packed, hilarious, just plain fun show, the best I've ever seen...and it goes on record as being the first thing to make me legitimately Squee. Before this show, I never squeed.

The Greats
In 45 years, the show has had many, many greats. The ones below are generally considered the best of the best.
 * The Dalek Invasion of Earth - William Hartnell, 1964. TARDIS crew arrive in the 22nd century to see that not only have the Daleks survived their apparent extinction on Skaro, but they have conquered the human race and established themselves as a terrifying force to be reckoned with. The ending contains one of the most heartfelt moments of the entire series, as the Doctor says goodbye to his granddaughter Susan who departs to marry a freedom fighter from 22nd century Earth.
 * The Tomb of the Cybermen - Patrick Troughton, 1967. The Doctor, Jamie, and new companion Victoria land on the planet Telos, where an archaeological expedition from Earth is hunting down the last remains of the Cyberman civilization -- and two of the explorers are hoping to find more than knowledge. The earliest surviving Second Doctor story, and highly influential -- on the rest of the Troughton era, on the series' later depictions of the Cybermen, and, curiously enough, on the Eleventh Doctor.
 * Spearhead From Space - Jon Pertwee, 1970. Jon Pertwee's introductory story also gives us the Autons, villains based on the concept of plastic come to life with the iconic image of shop dummies smashing through their windows and attacking passers-by. See also the following season's opener Terror of the Autons, which brings them back and introduces the Master, the evil Time Lord who will cause trouble for the Doctor for years and years to come.
 * Both written by Robert Holmes.
 * And, in true enigmatic Doctor fashion, introduces Nine to Rose in a future encounter.
 * The Three Doctors - Jon Pertwee, 1972-1973. The first and greatest of the multi-Doctor stories sees the Third Doctor reluctantly teaming up with his first two incarnations against Omega, one of the three founders of Time Lord society. Whilst the tenth anniversary special is a vital part of 'Doctor Who'' canon for elaborating on the Time Lords since their last appearance, its greatest strength is the chemistry between the Second and Third Doctors, who bicker constantly whilst trying to save the universe.
 * Genesis of the Daleks - Tom Baker, 1975. Quite a padded serial in places (six-parters can be like that), but the character of Davros is introduced here to great effect in a good story about Nazism and scientific progress. The scenes with the Doctor debating Davros about the moral implications of engineering a race bent on genocide, and then later agonising over touching two pieces of wire together to commit genocide himself are still the series' finest moments.
 * A conundrum later revisited to heady effect in "The Parting of the Ways" - Christopher Eccleston, 2005, with the Dalek Emperor legitimately calling for the Doctor to destroy him, and by extension all other known remaining Daleks...via means inescapably fatal for any form of life, Dalek or otherwise...just so he can have the potential satisfaction of watching the Doctor commit mass murder.
 * Pyramids of Mars - Tom Baker, 1975. Lovely story set in a Egypt-obsessed Genteel Interbellum Setting, with the Doctor matching wits with an ancient Egyptian God. From Mars. With robot mummies. A lot better than it sounds - tight, tense chase scenes, gorgeous period details and a cracking script.
 * By Robert Holmes...he was the Steven Moffat of the Sixties and Seventies.
 * The Deadly Assassin - Tom Baker, 1977. A fantastic political thriller set on Gallifrey. Whilst this story was reviled when it came out, it is now considered a classic for a variety of reasons; it was the first story that took an extended look into Time Lord society and culture, brought back The Master for the first time since his previous actor's death, and introduced the Time Lords' co-founder Rassilon. Written by Robert Holmes.
 * The Talons of Weng-Chiang - Tom Baker, 1977. The Doctor and his slightly feral companion Leela land in Victorian London and are promptly swept up in a supernatural murder mystery right out of a Hammer-horror flick, featuring giant rats, Chinese mysticism, and a bloodthirsty ventriloquist's dummy. Another terrifying six-parter by Robert Holmes, praised by Russell T. Davies, declared the best story in the show's history by a fansite poll in 2003.
 * City of Death - Tom Baker, 1979. A four-parter co-written by Douglas Adams and later informing parts of the plot to his novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. The story is brilliantly paced, there's a natural chemistry between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward (who fell in love during the shoot), and brilliant comedy, including a cameo by John Cleese and Eleanor Bron. Consistently ranked in the top ten by fans.
 * The Caves of Androzani - Peter Davison, 1984. A bolt from the blue in that it is a cracking story in a lean period for the show, Caves has a tight story, two epic cliffhangers, a wonderfully human villain in Sharaz Jek and a Heroic Sacrifice for the Doctor very much in keeping with Davison's quiet-but-noble portrayal.
 * Also written by Robert Holmes and directed by Graeme Harper, declared the best story in the show's history by a fansite poll in 2007.
 * Remembrance of the Daleks - Sylvester McCoy, 1988. The opener to the show's 25th season sees the Doctor and Ace travel back to 1963 and land in the middle of a Dalek civil war. Features the ORIGINAL Crowning Moment of Awesome (Ace smashing up a Dalek with a technologically enhanced baseball bat), and is also remembered for introducing the Seventh Doctor's penchant for Xanatos Gambits and being one of the first hints at the Cartmel Masterplan.
 * The Curse of Fenric - Sylvester McCoy, 1989. McCoy's earlier stories had been deemed "too silly" and blamed for falling ratings, but Fenric showed the Seventh Doctor Growing the Beard. There had been hints before this that he was really The Chessmaster, but this intriguing and well-executed story discovers new depths in both Doctor and companion. It's also damn scary when you're eleven...
 * "Dalek" - Christopher Eccleston, 2005. Not only does the story amply demonstrate that showrunner Russell T. Davies could breath new life into old concepts and update the show for the new millenium, it also shows writer Robert Shearman's talent for complex characters, making the Dalek in question highly sympathetic and showing the Doctor at his most vengeful. Plus, the special effects are amazing and Eccleston delivers a breathtaking performance.
 * "The Empty Child" / "The Doctor Dances" - Christopher Eccleston, 2005. The first really scary episodes of the new series. An ostensibly empty spaceship crashes into Blitz-era London and unleashes a plague of gasmark zombies. Meanwhile, the Doctor faces off with a member of Time Agency, played by John Barrowman. Equal measures witty, scary and atmospheric, these were the first episodes written by Steven Moffat.
 * "The Girl in the Fireplace" - David Tennant, 2006. All the classic elements of Who - a spaceship, time travel, clockwork robots - but with a genuinely touching love story at its heart that was new to the series. Steven Moffat again.
 * "Human Nature" / "The Family of Blood" - David Tennant, 2007. The Doctor literally becomes human and loses his memories to throw off pursuit. Very good on several levels, but most remembered for two scenes: The moment "John Smith" realizes that for the Doctor to return, he must "die", and the Doctor's vicious (but chillingly still in character) Karmic Revenge on the beings that put him in that situation. (See also its source material, the popular Virgin New Adventures novel Human Nature, which was about the Seventh Doctor - its author, Paul Cornell, adapted it for TV.)
 * "Blink" - David Tennant, 2007. What a coincidence, another episode by Steven Moffat. This uses a different narrative technique as it is told from the point of view of a civilian who receives a message from a mysterious stranger called the Doctor, and must work with him from decades apart to create a Stable Time Loop. It also introduced what are commonly considered the most terrifying Who monsters yet - the Weeping Angels.
 * "Midnight" - David Tennant, 2008. A Bottle Episode where the Doctor is trapped in a bus with a group of tourists and an invisible, unnamed monster who turns all of the passengers against each other and utterly psychologically breaks the Doctor. Considered to be as scary as "Blink" at the very least, and one of Russell T. Davies' best scripts.
 * "The Time of Angels" / "Flesh and Stone" - Matt Smith, 2010. The action-packed Aliens to Blink's Alien, this episode takes the already-creepy Weeping Angels and makes them just that much scarier by getting a whole cavern full of them and explaining that not only can't you blink, you can't open your eyes either. Reintroduces River Song, and implies a much longer game for Steven Moffat's tenure as showrunner.
 * "Vincent and the Doctor" - Matt Smith, 2010. This episode is lovable for three reasons. First off, so the Doctor takes Amy to an art museum to cheer her (or maybe himself) up. Just seeing that each Freudian Slip (including a subconscious one by Amy) shows they still remember Rory warms my heart. Seeing something strange tips them off to go talk to Vincent van Gogh, which leads to point number two. The way it appeals to an art buff. Spotting all of Vincent's best work in his house is fun. The sky morphing into Starry Night is an impressive effect. Hearing Vincent talking about color and art might have caused a lot of artists to jump up and say "I get that! I totally see where he's coming from!" Last but not least, seeing the Doctor and Amy give new meaning in Vincent's life by showing him the exibit and hearing the museum tour guide gush about him.  Had they seen this episode, a lot of people who felt depressed or maybe even suicidal may have found inspiration in this episode.
 * "The Lodger" - Matt Smith, 2010. A Lighter and Softer Perspective Flip that centers around Craig as he navigates his friendship with a woman he fancies, while the Doctor investigates a mysterious anomaly in the flat above, that may or may not be related to.
 * "The Doctor's Wife" - Matt Smith, 2011. A fan favorite for two reasons: being written by Neil Gaiman, and giving A Day in the Limelight to She proves herself to be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl and even bigger Cloudcuckoolander than the Doctor himself and finally gets the opportunity to voice her love and loyalty for him, which she does in the sweetest of ways.

Characters, Villains, and Monsters
"Doctor: Oh, right, are you staying, then?
 * The Doctor himself. How many times has he saved the world, and sometimes the universe, by now? The man is a legend. Read the Doctor Who section of Awesome Moments if you need convincing. Or consider this fact: he has saved the entire universe, everything that is, was, will or could be. He has done this more than once.
 * Not to mention the fact that the Doctor has been played by eleven actors, each one giving him a distinct character, and each of them being completely awesome in their own unique way.
 * Captain Jack Harkness. Extreme Omnisexual, but unlike most characters he's actually successful due to being the biggest Stupid Sexy Flanders this side of Snake.
 * The Master. Who else could be such an Obviously Evil Card-Carrying Villain, a Magnificent Bastard of cosmic proportions and a prime example of Evil Is Sexy all at the same time?
 * Especially John Simm's version. Large Ham has never been so delicious.
 * Ace. Best companion ever, bar none. Wailed on a Dalek with a baseball bat and went toe to toe with other nasties armed with nothing more than a bad attitude and a backpack full of home made explosives. Also had a slightly sweet student/mentor relationship with the Doctor.
 * While we're on the subject of Daleks, them and Davros. Read Nightmare Fuel: Doctor Who for convincing.
 * Sarah Jane Smith. She was voted as best companion ever several times. She wasn't a Screaming Woman, and she managed to get her own spin-off decades after she appeared on the show.
 * And of course Barbara Wright, who had more awesome in her first few episodes than some companions had their whole career.
 * DoctorDonna, Memetic Badass for hire!
 * Donna doesn't need to be turned into the Doctor to be awesome, either: she's basically awesome in every appearance. She's the one who pays attention enough to work the part of the plot which the climax hinges on in "The Doctor's Daughter", as well as doing something similar in "The Sontaran Stratagem". Oh, and in her re-introduction episode, "Partners in Crime", she manages to infiltrate the same building the Doctor does on her own, but infinitely better. No sonic screwdriver, no psychic paper: just her wits and innate awesome. Win. No wonder she turned from The Scrappy in "The Runaway Bride" into a fan favourite on that episode alone.
 * Plus, she gets more character development than practically anyone besides the Doctor himself.
 * Romana is fucking awesome. Both of her. The consummate companion: a survivor, tougher than she looks, tougher than she herself once thought...spars verbally with the Doctor and physically with their enemies, truly committed to the cause of justice in the multiverse, intensely moral, a snappy dresser, has great Character Development, a massive dose of Deadpan Snarker, a hint of Covert Pervert, loads of Shipping, even a nice spot of Never Found the Body!
 * Turlough stole the Brigadier's car, tried to kill the Doctor after making a Deal with the Devil, double-crossed just about everybody at some point before finally deciding to do a Heel Face Turn...and this is only in his first three serials.
 * Speaking of Turlough, the fandom seems to have the most epic love/hate relationship with the Fifth Doctor's entire set of companions, so I'm going to give the rest of them some love:
 * Adric: Really not nearly as bad as a lot of people make him out to be. Yes he has a great number of flaws and suffers from inconsistent writing, but real people are flawed. Plus, he does have a number of good traits. He cares about his friends, he endures an entire serial strung up in a hole in the wall and Mind Probed by the Master (note that the next companion to get a similar treatment from the Doctor's best enemy made it through because he was immortal), he actually flies the TARDIS once, has a nice little budding-apprentice rapport with the Fourth Doctor after Romana leaves and, perhaps most importantly, he's willing to sacrifice his own life to try and save Earth.
 * Nyssa: Very intelligent, practical, good-natured, (and Peter Davison's personal favorite). She's the one who keeps the most level head when all hell is breaking loose and when the situation calls for it, she can kick serious ass. Like that one time she, oh I dunno, threatened to shoot the Time Lord President.
 * Tegan: When you've got a TARDIS full of alien geniuses, it's good to have someone human aboard to identify with. And, let's be realistic here: if you accidentally wandered into a police box that was not only bigger on the inside but labyrinthine and magically went to other planets and had an unreliable driver who wasn't sure if he could ever get you back home again, you would probably be pretty freaked out too. In a way, she was almost like the Donna Noble of her era. She was loud and feisty, she spoke her mind, she took crap from no one (especially the Doctor), but she gradually warmed to her surroundings and her situation and when the Doctor came into her life a second time, she gladly hopped along for the ride.
 * Martha. Fuckin. Jones. Full stop! Smart, check. Funny, check. Badass, triple check! And she's inspired more PSL than anybody else on this list. Hell, even Shakespeare thought she was hot stuff!
 * She's practical, keeps her calm, has a bottomless well of patience and yet knows when to put her foot down (and calls the Doctor on his BS when she tells her brother to hide in "The Sound of Drums"), runs in heels and vaults desks in skirts, saves the world twice, knows when to walk away, and then went on to REMAIN awesome in series 4. A lot of people seem to dislike Martha because she was 'personality-less', but it wasn't that at all. She was a woman who may not have taken over a room when she walked into it, true, but she got shit done awesomely. Oh, and she talks like this to the man she's head over heels, puppy-dog eyed for and hasn't known for long at all, and who is showing her the universe:

Martha: Until you talk to me properly, yes. 'The last of your kind' ... what did he mean by that?

Doctor: It really doesn't matter -

Martha: You don't talk! You never say!"

""One word in the wrong place could blow an entire causal nexus.""
 * Martha was mature, responsible, and independently capable. She thought before acting, generally considered the welfare of others besides herself and the Doctor, and chose to be where she was needed (with her family and UNIT) over where she might have wanted to be (exploring the universe with the guy she was head-over-heels for.) I'm not trying to dis Rose here, she was a nice girl, but until her return in series 4, that was all I ever really saw in her. I was first introduced to Doctor Who with the new series, so for me Martha was the first companion I actually admired.
 * Brigadier Sir Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Badass Normal extraordinaire who has traveled with more Doctors than anyone else put together. Still kicking ass and taking names in his seventies. Alien scum? Get the hell off his world, if you know what's good for you.
 * Rose Tyler still damn awesome, Hype Backlash be damned. She was a perfect match for the ninth Doctor in particular and showed new audiences exactly why the Doctor needed a companion, and why they didn't have to be the stereotypical screamer.
 * She put Nine back together and then got godlike when he was in real trouble, she had the time of her life with Ten, got cut off from him altogether and then? She decided to get Totally. Fricking. Awesome. On her own, no help available.


 * He was only in one episode, but Pete Tyler really made an impression. He was smart enough to see through Rose's (admittedly paper-thin) lies, didn't spend the whole episode agonizing over the fact that his daughter had time-traveled, realized what needed to be done, and did it with a smile on his face.
 * Wilfred Mott. Coolest of Cool Old Guys. One minute, he's shooting down homing missiles, Star Wars style, the next he's breaking your heart. Bernard Cribbins is the fucking man.
 * Amy Pond. She's so different than the previous 2005-era companions. Where they were the everygirls, she's, well, a bit mad. And Karen just makes her so likeable even when she's so wonderfully flawed. Brilliant.
 * The previous three main New Series companions are TV Tropes Made of Win Archive in their own rights, but Amy isn't just a companion. She's as much a part of Eleven as the TARDIS, the sonic, and the angry horde of Daleks. Amy Pond is why Eleven is who he is, and vice versa.
 * No love for Jamie McCrimmon? He was spectacular!
 * Yes. Yes, yes, yes -- brave and sweet and funny and fantastically, unswervingly loyal.
 * Iron Woobie Rory Williams! This guy is the best companion so far. Rory is basically TV Tropes Made of Win Archive. This is one Papa Wolf you do NOT mess with.
 * Again, only in one episode-but Commander Adelaide Brooke. Showed in every moment she was on screen her concern for her crew-tough, tough lady with a dreamer's heart. When the Doctor's PTSD, she did what she had to do to correct the timeline.
 * Sergeant Benton. Unflappable, cheerful, unfailingly loyal, and into ballroom dancing. The first person to see the inside of the TARDIS and just accept it for what it was, because "nothing about you surprises me anymore."
 * One of Doctor Who's spinoffs, Faction Paradox, has a few. Most are perfect Magnificent Bastards, but that doesn't make them any less awesome. Cousins Eliza and Justine for one. How many people, aliens or deities are there willing to take on what essentially amounts to a psychotic TARDIS (or a living timeline) with all of the Master's deviousness and evil, confront her for control of Gallifrey and win?
 * No discussion of Faction Paradox is complete without the Crazy Awesome hammery of Godfather Morlock.
 * River Song? She is magnificently fascinating and badass.
 * Not only that, but she's such a Woobie!
 * Same universe as the above, but different show: Ianto Jones of Torchwood. Bonus mention to Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper and Toshiko Sato, as well.
 * On that note, Miracle Day was fantastic! Excellent actors and great writing.
 * Doctor Who has a multi-universe of amazing characters, not least of which is the enigmatic, often Adorkable, sometimes Insufferable Genius of a time-travelling, face-changing, universe-saving and running-a-lot Madman with a Box of a main character himself.
 * Rory "The Last Centurion" Williams has basically just two settings Adorkable and Badass and he's brilliantly awesome in both. An amazing Ensemble Darkhorse whose Character Development was so well done (by both actor and writers) that he believably went from being a Butt Monkey boyfriend that most Shipper fans wanted out of the way, to becoming the True Heart of the current TARDIS team while simultaneously taking so MANY Levels in Badass that he now has his own Memetic Badass meme to rival Chuck Norris's. Nurse-Boy done good!

The Greats

 * Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines, 1966-1969; guest appearances in 1983 and 1985): Jamie is in many ways an exception to several of the rules listed above. He's male, originates from well before the twentieth century (being a Scottish piper at the Battle of Culloden in 1745), and yet not only did he appear in the most episodes, (117 in total), but to this day remains a popular, well-loved companion. Proof that playing with the formula can pay off.
 * Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen, 1973-1976; guest appearances in 1983, 2006 and 2008): The fact that Sarah Jane Smith has reappeared in the show more than any previous companion and has had two spin-offs built around her (K 9 And Company in 1981, which failed to make it past the pilot stage, and The Sarah Jane Adventures in 2007, which was a bit more successful) should suggest something. She's usually considered the archetypal companion; a human journalist from twentieth and twenty-first century London, she embodies a lot of the traits listed above. You could do worse for role models. (Lis Sladen sadly passed away from cancer in April 2011. The entire fandom, old and new, grieved her hard - but as Russell T. Davies said, "Sarah Jane will go on forever.")
 * Romana (Mary Tamm, 1978-1979; Lalla Ward, 1979-1981): Romana is, if not the first, then at least among the first of the companions who was also arguably the Doctor's equal. A fellow Time Lord, she was demonstrated to be his rival and possibly even superior in the intelligence stakes (if still rather naive and sheltered, thus enabling her to perform a lot of the traditional roles of the companion). This enabled her to generate a chemistry with the Doctor unlike that seen with previous companions, based on a more even keel; Romana was quite capable of snarking at the Doctor and upstaging him if necessary. With Romana, we also see the beginnings of UST between the Doctor and companion (helped by the fact that Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, the second Romana, were off-camera involved in a relationship). As she was played by two actresses, both contributed in making the character a memorable success.
 * Ace (Sophie Aldred, 1987-1989); As mentioned above, Ace single-handedly inspired the entire Crowning Moment of Awesome list; not bad. She's a key influence for the modern-style companion, precisely because she's a complete break from the 'screamer' cliche; she's a tough, savvy, snarky kid. However, she's also one of the few companions in the classic series who was given any real sort of character depth and Character Development beyond a fairly shallow backstory; the 1989 series is essentially all about the Doctor helping Ace resolve her childhood issues as much as it is about fighting monsters, which was quite novel for the series at the time.
 * Rose Tyler (Billie Piper, 2005-2006; 2008): Rose was the first companion for the new series, and in many ways combines the best of both the 'Sarah Jane Smith' style companion and the 'Ace' style companion. She's something of an everygirl, with an interesting backstory giving her plenty of room for character development, who's spunky and intelligent. She's also probably the first companion to have overt romantic tension with the Doctor.
 * Donna Noble (Catherine Tate, 2006; 2008; 2009): Originally appearing in the 2006 Christmas special and returning as the companion of Series 4, Donna was the first female companion in the new series who didn't fall in love with the Doctor. She started off as The Scrappy, but her Character Development made her popular. Through out the season, she constantly called the Doctor out when he was being hypocritical. In contrast to The Doctor's ability to see the big picture, Donna was good at noticing the details that the Doctor often overlooked or thought insignificant.
 * Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill, 2010-present) Rory is the first long-term male companion in the new series, and is quickly turning into a fan-favorite. Starting out as just a bumbling everyman, Rory turned into an extremely loyal, plain BAD-ASS character, who even manages to surpass the Doctor in terms of awesome moments on occasion. In some ways, he is almost a male Ace, albeit with a more sweet disposition.
 * River Song (Alex Kingston, 2008; 2010-present) Her first appearance in the two-parter episode Silence In The Library/Forest of the Dead painted her as not only a possible love interest for the Doctor, but as someone he would come to trust enough by his side to tell her his name. Her appearances in Series Five and Six only prove this more and more. She was a weapon to kill the Doctor and "did". But she's also saved his life. Also she's the daughter of the above badass, is albe to make a Dalek cry for it's mommy and shot a Silent dead from behind without even looking at it... meaning she didn't know it was behind her or that it existed. And... She's the Doctor's Wife.

TV Tropes Hearts Doctor Who

 * Moment of Awesome/DoctorWho
 * Heartwarming Moments/DoctorWho
 * Funny Moments/DoctorWho
 * Doctor Who
 * Doctor Who, because even the saddest moments can be the best.