Doctor-lite

Doctor-lite is a term originated by the BBC Wales production team to describe televised episodes which, in order to be able to film all commissioned episodes in time and on budget, didn't have an extensive appearance by the Doctor.

One of the earliest known uses of the term was in 2007, when Steven Moffat called Blink "the cheap, no CGI, Doctor-lite episode" of series 3 in Doctor Who Magazine #393. DWM staff writer David Darlington, who was conducting an interview with Moffat in that issue, picked up on this "behind-the-scenes" meaning of the word, and called Blink the "double-banking episode", which Moffat confirmed was "the one that doesn't have the Doctor in". DWM subsequently reprinted Moffat in DWMSE #17's exploration of the making of Blink. Thus, from a behind-the-scenes viewpoint, a "Doctor-lite" episode of Doctor Who is one that, for budgetary reasons, features less of the Doctor than is typical for an episode.

2008's Midnight brought an innovation. It was only companion-lite, since David Tennant was fully engaged in that story. During Steven Moffat's executive producership, the definition of the term "companion-lite" has become blurred, largely through the innovative use of the recurring characters like Craig Owens and Madame Vastra. While it's clear that The Lodger was filmed to allow Karen Gillan to work elsewhere during that production block, the fact that Craig returns in an equally prominent role in Closing Time makes him a de facto companion. Thus, there is room for fans to debate whether his two adventures are "companion-lite" or just, as it were, "companion-different".

Another meaning of the term — though it may just be an imprecise fan co-option of the BBC Wales production term — is simply any story where the role of the Doctor and/or recurring companion is significantly reduced. This is the sense that is applied to stories from any media, and indeed there are several examples of this sort of narratively Doctor-lite story going back as far as the old World Distributors annuals. Companion-lite stories have happened since at least the First Doctor comic stories in TV Comic, where John and Gillian sometimes disappeared for weeks.

Usage in Doctor Who

Doctor-lite episodes are not usually considered to be parts of serials of the 1963 version in which the Doctor or his companions do not appear. This often happened in the 1960s as a way to give an actor a week off. Nor are they stories in which are set in the DWU, but not released as a Doctor Who story, such as Torchwood, the Doctor Who Magazine backup comics, or any of a number of Big Finish Productions ranges. Rather, they are entire stories in which the Doctor makes only a brief or incidental appearance. Companion-lite stories are likewise not those in which the Doctor is travelling entirely without a companion. Rather, they are ones in which a companion is established as being an ongoing resident of the Doctor's TARDIS, but sidelined from the main action of a story.

The term came into vogue with the broadcast of Love & Monsters, the first intentionally Doctor-lite episode of the televised programme. Monsters was followed by Blink, Turn Left, and the companion-lite episode, Midnight. All of these were deliberately written to allow for double-banking, a process which enables two separate stories to be recorded simultaneously because of the reduced need for the main cast.

In other media

Though the term may have been a product of the BBC Wales version of the television programme, the concept certainly pre-dates the 2005 series. Three prose examples of Doctor-lite stories are the novels Who Killed Kennedy, Birthright and The Face of the Enemy. In comics, Happy Deathday is ultimately revealed to be a Doctor-lite story, in which the Eighth Doctor is never actually seen, but the entirety of the story is revealed to be something that happened on a video game Izzy was playing on the TARDIS' Time-Space Visualiser.

Companion-lite stories are comparatively rarer in other media, but there's at least one example that, however narrowly, predates the introduction of the concept to television. The comic strip The Lodger gave readers a Rose-lite, Mickey-heavy story at a time well before Mickey joined the TARDIS crew in TV: School Reunion. PROSE: The Banquo Legacy was a Doctor-lite, with supporting characters centred by their retelling of the narrative. Equally, the two short stories Amy's Escapade and Rory's Adventure in Doctor Who The Official Annual 2012 are Doctor-lite stories starring each companion, set simultaneously.

Historically, though, the earliest companion-lite stories can be found in World Distributors annuals and TV Comic. Annual short stories like Fungus and others featured a Doctor whose companion-less status — even though companions were present elsewhere in the annual — was never explained.

Any number of Polystyle's comic stories suddenly had a regular character drop out of site without explanation. But stories like The Duellists, where Jamie McCrimmon is suddenly absent after having been in the comic for dozens of weeks, is perhaps not the purest application of the term "companion-lite". This sort of turnover happens with regularity in comics. After all, one issue Destrii and Ace were in DWM comic stories, and the next they weren't.

However, there are examples that are less ambiguous.

• Several First and Second Doctor strips scantly feature John and Gillian. A good example is The Hunters of Zerox, in which they don't really show up until the very end. Even better is The Extortioner, where he just leaves them in the TARDIS altogether, like Nyssa in Kinda.
• Double Trouble was a Sarah-Jane Smith-less Fourth Doctor story in the middle of two stories that did feature her.