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Doctor-lite or companion-lite is a classification given to stories in which the Doctor and/or his companions are deliberately de-emphasized in the narrative. Though most commonly associated with the production necessities of the BBC Wales version of the programme, there have been non-televised stories which have elected to tell Doctor-lite stories purely for dramatic purposes.
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 Whoniverse, but not released as a Doctor Who story, such as Torchwood, the Doctor Who Magazine back-up comics, or any of a number of Big Finish 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 traveling 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 and Turn Left, and the companion-lite, Midnight. All of these were deliberately written so as 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.
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. A famous prose example of a Doctor-lite story s the novel, Who Killed Kennedy. In comics, "The Lodger" is a good example of a companion-lite story.