Eeep, I can't tell you how much what you said comes across as "Rose just isn't good enough for the Doctor" and how that just makes me want to throw things. I'm sure that's not what you were going for, but that's really how I took it the first time I read through your comments.

I think we might be at the point where we're just going around in circles -- I think that the romance in Season One was well-done and not at all inexplicable and you think that it was rushed and badly-done and makes no sense. And if we reverse those things, we get to what we each think of Girl.

Still, yes, what they have in common -- they both enjoy the time-travel. She's actually thrilled and happy to be on this journey with him, which has not always been true of companions in the past. They make each other laugh, which is such an important thing in a relationship to me. I just don't see where 'they get along' is Something Inexplicable. They met, were amusing each other right off the bat ("It's not a price war."), and then just kept on finding things about each other that they liked. And the Doctor found Rose physically attractive as soon as Unquiet Dead, but I have no problem buying that -- Billie Piper's gorgeous. I do think that the Doctor is feeling romantically about Rose earlier than she feels the same back -- but he's also intensely more vulnerable and open than she is -- we see that in his reactions to Jabe, I thought.

Incidentally, what was the retcon in S2? I don't really see one.