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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-emphasised 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.
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 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 Productions ranges. Rather, they are entire stories in which the Doctor makes only a brief or incidental appearance — or at least is implied to be in the TARDIS. 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 episodes; Midnight and The Lodger. 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. Both Series 1 and Series 5 of the revived series did not feature a Doctor-lite episode, as the previous Christmas did not show a special episode starring their respective Doctor's as the main Doctor.
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. Two prose examples of Doctor-lite stories are the novels, Who Killed Kennedy and The Face of the Enemy. In comics, the earliest Doctor-lite story is likely "K-9's Finest Hour", in which the Doctor is characterized as being asleep until the final frames of the narrative. "Happy Deathday", too, is ultimately revealed to be a Doctor-lite story, in which the Doctor is never actually seen, but the entirety of the story is revealed to be something that happened on a videogame 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 School Reunion. The Banquo Legacy was Doctor-lite with supporting characters centred by their retelling of the narrative.
Usage in spin-off shows
Torchwood followed this model in its episode Random Shoes (series 1), portraying the main cast only through those glimpses seen by Eugene Jones. It does not reattempt this formula in later series.
The Sarah Jane Adventures uses this model in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (series 1), The Mark of the Berserker (series 2), Mona Lisa's Revenge (series 3) and The Empty Planet (series 4).
Behind the scenes
Russell T Davies based Love & Monsters on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode The Zeppo.