Doctor - lite " Doctor - lite " is a term originated by the BBC Wales " Doctor Who " production team to describe televised episodes which , in order to be able to film all commissioned episodes in time and on budget , don ' t have an extensive appearance by the Doctor . Inversely , " companion - lite " describes an episode that , for similar reasons , has a reduced appearance by the regular companion ( s ) . Etymology . 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 meant " the one that doesn ' t have the Doctor in " . " DWM " subsequently reprinted Moffat in " DWMSE " # 17 ' s exploration of the making of " Blink " . Later , while he was in production of series 5 , Moffat gave an interview to " Non - Sports Update " in which he said that Doctor - lite episodes are " purely a scheduling issue " , arising out of a need to film fourteen episodes in the time necessary to film thirteen , meaning that there ' s " one without the Doctor " filmed simultaneously with another episode that does feature the Doctor . So to the production team , it ' s not " just " a story that doesn ' t feature the Doctor much . It ' s a story that doesn ' t feature the Doctor because there ' s no other way that principal photography could be concluded in the time allotted . This basis had already led to the creation of the episode " Love & Monsters " in series 2 . The next was 2008 ' s " Turn Left " , starring Donna Noble as main character of the episode . That was counter - balanced by the previous " Midnight " , which brought an innovation : it was " only " companion - lite , since David Tennant was fully engaged in that story . Series 4 ' s introduction of the companion - lite story was followed in the next two series by the two Craig Owens adventures , " The Lodger " and " Closing Time " . Though these stories absolutely featured less of the regular companions for production reasons , the fact that they starred a recurring character offered a further refinement of the concept . It allowed fans to view the episodes as " companion - different " rather than companion - lite . Indeed fan use of the term is important to document , if only to contrast with the original BBC Wales meaning . To many fans , a Doctor - or companion - lite story is simply any adventure where the role of the Doctor and / or recurring companion is significantly reduced . Thus , fans will often make a retrospective judgement about an old serial , calling the likes of " Mission to the Unknown " " Doctor - lite " — even when there is no evidence at all of a behind - the - scenes " need " for a Doctor - lite story . This purely narrative assessment is also used with non - televised stories , and indeed there are several examples of this sort of " audience perception " Doctor - lite story going back as far as the old World Distributors annuals . In this sense , companion - lite stories have happened since at least the First Doctor comic stories in " TV Comic " , where John and Gillian sometimes disappeared for weeks . Non - televised stories . Though the " term " may have been a product of the BBC Wales version of the television programme , the " concept " of a story featuring less of the Doctor 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 . 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 . There are fewer examples of companion - lite stories in other media , within the TV series " Midnight " narrowly predates the concept . The comic story " The Lodger " gave readers a Rose - lite , Mickey - heavy story at a time well before Mickey joined the TARDIS crew in TV : " School Reunion " . 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 sight 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 . Fan co - option . There is little doubt that since the term was first used in the 2000s , fans have sought to use the term to describe stories that had narratives with " less of the Doctor " . Among the many stories claimed to be " Doctor - lite " by fans — without any reference to production realities — are " The Tenth Planet " , " The Crimson Horror " , " The Veiled Leopard " , part one of " Spearhead from Space " and " The Massacre of St Bartholomew ' s Eve " . Usage on this wiki . Because the term has demonstrable flexibility within fandom , it ' s important to have a clear sense of what the term does " not " mean to this wiki , editorially .