This week I put out a call for topic ideas, and one friend suggested I talk about a Companion I’d like to see return, either in the main show or in their own spin-off. “Brilliant!” I said. Interesting, I thought. How will I decide? What criteria should I use?

Going about it systematically, I should look at whose stories might be considered unfinished, or could be easily picked up again. Maybe Dodo Chaplet, Liz Shaw, Harry Sullivan, Tegan Jovanka, Grace Holloway, or even Peri Brown, whose fate is ambiguous. The actors’ deaths or unwillingness to engage in the community eliminates several of those, but leaves some interesting options.

Maybe I should think in terms of who might be off doing their own Doctor-esque work these days, like Sarah Jane Smith did (or does—she’s not “officially” dead (yet) in the Whoniverse!). I can envision several Companions doing their own thing, especially recent ones: Martha Jones, Rose Tyler (alt universe spin-off could work…), Ace, Nyssa (very much not Earth-based, though, which would be tricky), Jo Grant, or Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright (who, according to alt media, eventually married each other).

Then there are the possibilities provided by those left behind, on Gallifrey or elsewhere. What would stories that saw the return of Leela, Romana II, or Jenny entail? Each of these scenarios offers intriguing prospects, and everyone has their own opinions about what would work best. For me, though, there was really never any question who I’d pick; it had to be Ace.

Why Ace? Well, for a start, she’s my all-time favorite Companion. (Yes, subject to change, YMMV, and all that stuff.) She had a tough, independent streak, with a vulnerable emotional underbelly that makes her very relatable. I also always felt she was more of an equal (or possibly protégé) than any previous Companion save Romana (a fellow Time Lord), and her relationship with Seven (also high on my all-time fave list for pairings) foreshadowed the more partner-like ones of the modern era.

Then there are the perpetual rumors of the Cartmel Masterplan. In the planned-but-never-commissioned Season 27, we would reputedly have learned that the Doctor had been grooming Ace to become a Time Lord (having deemed her take-no-prisoners personality to be just what the stuffy old Time Lords needed to shake them up). Her story, then, could very well be a wonderfully complex one. Surely, if she ever did make it to Gallifrey, she would have known (or learned) of the Doctor’s other friend Leela, who had also made a life for herself on his homeworld. Could the two of them have found a way to escape the Time War together, divorcing themselves from the corrupt society they had once adopted? If she ever became a Time Lord, was Ace’s physiology ever changed, and could she change it back (remembering the old fob watch trick)?

Just like any fan who spends a little too much time thinking about such things, I could come up with plenty of ideas for ways to rope my favorite character(s) back into the televised canon of the show. Now if only the current or future showrunner were as eager to make it happen as I.