What on earth are ‘Doctor-lite’ Doctor Who episodes, and why on earth do we have them? ’73 Yards’ is the latest story from the Whoniverse to feature a conspicuously absent Time Lord…
Back in the day, Doctor Who episodes were shot on a week-by-week basis, sometimes for up to 40 weeks a year. Because of this, the production team had to give their cast members some much-needed holiday from time to time. As such, if you ever watch some 1960s Doctor Who episodes, you will spot episodes like ‘The Time Meddler’ episode two or ‘The Web of Fear’ episode three in which the Doctor doesn’t feature, save for a reprise from the previous week. The reason? The eponymous Time Lord was (probably) sunning himself on some beach, or at least recuperating somewhere in Costa Del London.
But in the modern age of Doctor Who episodes, things are a little bit different, and yet we still have ‘Doctor-lite’ Doctor Who episodes. These are usually driven by the companion, but not always. Sometimes the writers introduce a brand new character to carry the proceedings…
Love & Monsters
The 2006 episode ‘Love & Monsters’ is a classic example. The Doctor and Rose only feature in a few, brief moments; the majority of the story is carried by a new character called Elton, who is something of a parody of a Doctor Who fan and has made it his life’s mission to track down the eponymous Time Lord.
The result is something of an all-out comedy, and a controversial one; I refer, of course, to the infamous ‘paving slab’ scene, and the character of Victor Kennedy who some fans believe is meant to represent a certain well-known Doctor Who afficionado, although there is no way of proving this.
But for all its quirks and conversation points, ‘Love & Monsters’ was the very first of the Doctor-lite Doctor Who episodes, and the first episode to not prominently feature the Doctor since the 1960s. It’s not widely loved, but it has its advocates.
Blink
‘Blink’ was penned by Steven Moffat and proved to be one of the most popular Doctor-lite stories of all time – if not one of the most popular Doctor Who episodes of all time. Remarkably, the Tenth Doctor only has two proper scenes in this adventure, although he does get reems of dialogue by virtue of the fact that he appears on a DVD which the characters keep replaying.
Of course, what ‘Blink’ will always be remembered for is the introduction of the Weeping Angels – a baddie which would go on to rival the Daleks and the Cybermen in popularity, and continue to be used to this day. In short, ‘Blink’ ably proved that Doctor-lite Doctor Who episodes, if done well, could be extremely successful.
Turn Left
Speaking of successful, 2008’s ‘Turn Left’ was another of the Doctor-lite Doctor Who episodes which struck a chord with fans. In fact, for many people, it’s one of their favourite stories of Series Four. Written by Russell T Davies, the premise of ‘Turn Left’ is simple: the Doctor is dead, and all of his past victories have been turned into defeats. London has been wiped out by a crashing spaceship. The Sontarans have taken control of Earth’s atmosphere. The entire planet has been turned into a dystopian hell.
Simply put, ‘Turn Left’ is an incredibly powerful alternate reality story, ably driven by Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, and Billie Piper who makes a mysterious but welcome return as Rose. And as with ‘Blink,’ the success of this episode is all-the-more impressive given that David Tennant only features in two scenes: one at the beginning, and one at the end.
The Big Bang?
Despite the successes of ‘Blink’ and ‘Turn Left,’ the production team got clever with their future Doctor-lite Doctor Who episodes. They became heavily disguised and, remarkably tough to spot.
For a start, there weren’t strictly any Doctor-lite Doctor Who episodes between 2009 and 2023; they were either half episodes, or episodes in which the Doctor was confined to a single set, such as the TARDIS, meaning that his scenes could be filmed more quickly and could therefore save on valuable production time.
You will notice, therefore, that the Doctor is absent for large chunks of Doctor Who episodes such as ‘The Big Bang,’ ‘A Good Man Goes to War’ and ‘The Magician’s Apprentice.’ And then in Doctor Who episodes such as ‘The Girl Who Waited’ and ‘Flatline’ he spends the majority of the story inside the TARDIS, unable to leave.
But why was all this necessary? Why did we need to have Doctor-lite Doctor Who episodes when the series was no longer produced on a week-by-week basis, like it was in the 60s?
Well, Doctor Who production is still a continual process and (between 2009 and 2017, at least) it was necessary for the team to shoot multiple episodes simultaneously in order to reach their quota. And for all the cleverness of Doctor Who, it sadly wasn’t possible for them to clone David Tennant, Matt Smith or Peter Capaldi, so they either needed to have Doctor Who episodes in which they were entirely (or partly) absent, or confined to a single set so that their scenes could be shot in a single day, or close to it.
These days, of course, there are fewer Doctor Who episodes per season, so this is no longer a problem.
So why on earth was Ncuti Gatwa missing from ’73 Yards’…?
73 Yards
Thought the age of Doctor-lite Doctor Who episodes had passed? Think again! This Series 1 / Series 14 / Series Fnarg story put the companion Ruby Sunday centre stage for a creepy tale inspired by Welsh folklore, guest starring Siân Phillips and Aneurin Barnard. And, in-keeping with tradition, the Doctor only appeared in two scenes – or one scene twice, if we’re being technical.
There was a different reason this time, though. Ncuti Gatwa was busy filming the TV series Sex Education and wasn’t available for the start of production. So they started filming without him! This is (possibly) the only time in the series’ history that Doctor Who has entered production without its incumbent Time Lord; Millie Gibson (as Ruby) had to start her time on the show by carrying her own episode, solo. No mean feat!
So how do you feel about Doctor-lite Doctor Who episodes, overall? Do you love them or hate them? And which is your favourite of the Doctor-lite stories so far? Let me know in the comments below.
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