I'm reflecting that more companions left out of weariness and wanting to go home than for romantic reasons in the early years:

Romance: Susan
Had had enough + went home: Ian, Barbara
Romance: Vicki
Killed: Katarina, Sara
Romantic destiny à la Nyssa/Romana: Steven
Had enough: Dodo, Ben, Polly, Victoria
Sent home by Time Lords: Jamie, Zoe
Sent home by Barry Letts Had enough: Liz
Romance: Jo
Had enough: Harry
Kicked out: Sarah Jane
etc

So of the first 14 companions only two left for immediate romance, exactly the same number as those who died horribly.

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Had had enough + went home: Ian, Barbara

These two, though, had been actively wanting to get home from episode 2 of the series, though. Their ongoing desire to get home was a very good reason for the production team to make sure the Doctor didn't return to Earth in the 1960s. The first chance they got to go home, they took.

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As it happens, I'm watching The Romans right now, and they seem pretty comfortable: nine minutes into episode one, Ian says "I'd like to stay here as long as possible!" Cue affirmative nodding from rest of Tardis crew, and dismay when the Doctor suggests leaving.

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Yes, but after the year they had just had, their period in that villa was a real break for them It's no different from any of us saying we would rather not leave at the end of a very good holiday.

You also have to remember that by then they knew very well that the Doctor was not going to be able deliberately to get them back to 1963 in the Tardis. :)

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But none went back to their parents!

Except Victoria, in a kind of way. And she was a very different kind of companion from Rose.

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But part of the point, surely, is that Rose leaves by accident as the only way to save her from a fate literally worse than death. Neither she nor the Doctor want to be parted, and the family she goes back to is in a very real sense one she has never known.

A Rose that is working for Torchwood in a serious capacity is not a Rose who has gone backwards, but rather a Rose who is making the best of a bad situation.

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But part of the point, surely, is that Rose leaves by accident as the only way to save her from a fate literally worse than death. Neither she nor the Doctor want to be parted, and the family she goes back to is in a very real sense one she has never known.

I think there are two important ways I disagree with this.

First, although it's true that she leaves by accident, there are plenty of places she could have ended up. The writer's choice of place means something no matter how she got there.

Second, she didn't leave by accident the first time. The Doctor made the decision for her to send her into the other Universe with her family, and she chose to come back. She wants to grow up, he doesn't want to let her.

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Interesting and not wrong ;)

It supports the whole "adultescence" thing though doesn't it - prolonged adolescence and reluctance to break away from nuclear family...

If you look at Rose's backstory she's already left home and come back once, when she was about 15/16....

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It's weird, though. Because she isn't reluctant to break away but she ends up with them anyway. And coming back home because you decide to is different than ending up back home because your boyfriend decides you'd be better off with your mum.

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I'm busily devouring Christopher Booker's "The Seven Basic Plots" at the moment, and the arc seen from Rose's point of view is a Voyage and Return story where Rose both falls into and out of her dreamworld suddenly, and then returns to her previous (humdrum) existence. She has been somewhat affected by the events of the story, and the external trappings of the world are different; but I don't think you get a sense of her being profoundly altered or made complete by the experience.

Booker points out that this is a very common plot indeed in children's literature (Alice, Oz, Peter Rabbit etc), so I think it's a fairly sensible choice for a family show.

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Difference is that in Alice, Oz and Peter Rabbit the hero wants to get home. By the end of The End of the World Rose has made her peace with traveling. By Boom Town she's broken up with Mickey. For Alice, Dorothy and Peter, getting home is winning, for Rose it's not.

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But as they are in love (l.u.v.) she either has to be the permanent companion (nope), die, or be put so far away she can never return. As the Best Companion Ever she does not deserve to die, so...

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Agreed -- it was an excellent ending and I loved those two episodes more than any other this year except School Reunion. But as I said above there are plenty of far away places she could have gone.

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a Voyage and Return story

"I find in your Odysseus a figure common to the mythology of most self-conscious races. As I interpret it, Odysseus wanders as an individual aware of himself as such. This is the idea of separation, of separation from family and country. The process of individuation."

"But Odysseus returns to his home," Petersen looked out the port window, at the stars, endless stars, burning intently in the empty universe. "Finally he goes home."

"As must all creatures. The moment of separation is a temporary period, a brief journey of the soul. It begins, it ends. The wanderer returns to land and race..."

-- Beyond Lies the Wub, PKD, 1952.

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I'm not arguing with the power of the Voyage and Return story as a template, but (as I said above) the thing is Rose didn't want to return. And going home to your wife (like Odysseus) is a very different thing from going home to your mum and dad.

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Rose wanted to stay with the Doctor, and she didn't want to work in a shop. I don't see any evidence that she wanted to be far away from her family, I think it was a price she was willing to pay. It's not even spelt out that Rose is still in the same household with her mother, just that they're on friendly enough terms to gather round a roaring fire while she describes her dreams. Rose didn't have a family she needed to escape from, her mother let her go and do what she wanted and was still there for her. And the Doctor wasn't really her boyfriend, just the alien she was in love with.

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