Indeed about Verity. Was just listening to part of the commentary track for The Dalek Invasion of Earth yesterday, and loving how she got wrapped up and enthusiastic about these episodes which she hadn't seen for years. Such a pity she is not around to do any more of them. :-(

Given what I know of the Pertwee-era companions, I'm all too aware that there must be a drop-off in Girl Power during the Troughton period. I expect to find that it is fundamentally because they kept recruiting new girls to play what had originally been the role of Susan, and therefore involved being afraid and needing rescuing, but at some point stopped replacing Barbara. I do like what I've seen of Zoe in The Invasion, though.