The revived series of Doctor Who has been running since 2005, with small breaks in between; it recently finished its 12th season. The earlier seasons of Doctor Who, had one or two Doctor-lite or companion-lite episode a season. These were episodes where there was little to no involvement from the Doctor or a companion in an episode. Whilst starting in season two, the formula hasn't been used since the 9th season. The main reason for these episodes was the production crew had to shoot 13 - 14 episodes within a certain time frame and needed to simultaneously film an episode while busy shooting another.
These are the best Doctor-lite and Companion-lite episodes as ranked by the user ratings on IMDb. They do not include the Christmas specials or the specials from David Tennant's run, as those are usually when the Doctor is in between companions.
Series 7 Episode 12 – The Crimson Horror (7.3)
The first 14 minutes of the episode features neither the Doctor nor Clara. Once the Doctor takes over the story, Clara’s role remains greatly reduced. The episode focuses on Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax investigating ‘the crimson horror, a cause of death leaving the victim with bright red skin. The investigation leads them to Sweetville, a utopian type community with sinister motivations.
Jenny frees the Doctor and it’s learned via flashback that he and Clara were frozen but the process failed on the Doctor. The Doctor learns that the owner of Sweetville, Mrs. Gillyflower, plans on poisoning the Earth, killing everyone except those she has preserved.
Series 6 Episode 12 – Closing Time (7.6)
Knowing he will soon be killed by the Astronaut, the Doctor visits Craig Owens (James Corden) as part of his farewell tour. Two hundred years have passed since the previous episode, where the Doctor left Amy and Rory behind.
The Doctor takes up a job as an employee of a department store that has had numerous staff go missing. The episode features the return of the Cybermen and the first time a Cybermat has been seen in the revived series. Amy and Rory make a minor appearance in the background of the department store when the Doctor begins his investigation.
Series 9 Episode 6 - The Woman Who Lived (7.5)
In this second half of a two part story arc following “The Girl Who Died”, Clara only makes an appearance at the end of this episode. The Doctor reencounters Ashildr, who is now living as an immortal, 800 years and counting but unable to retain all her memories.
Ashildr, now calling herself Me, has been working with an alien Leandro so that she can travel the galaxy. However, when Me kills a man about to hanged, it opens up a portal where Leandro later reveals he intends to bring his people to Earth and invade it.
Series 5 Episode 11 – The Lodger (8.2)
The Doctor becomes stranded in Colchester when the TARDIS dematerializes with Amy still in it. The Doctor tracks the location of the disturbance that caused the TARDIS to dematerialize, which happens to be a house. He takes up residency in the spare room, which the owner Craig Owens, had put up for rent.
For the next few days the Doctor attempts to act normal as he investigates the disturbance coming from the second floor. Craig dislikes the Doctor at first but the two grow closer and the Doctor reveals why he is actually in the house. They soon find out the building never actually had a second floor but it is in fact an alien spacecraft using a perception filter.
Series 6 Episode 10 – The Girl Who Waited (8.5)
This episode was produced in a way that audiences would not realize is Doctor-lite. It required very little shooting time from the Doctor as he spends all of his scenes inside the TARDIS.
On the planet Apalapucia, Amy gets separated from the Doctor and Rory in a quarantine facility. The facility contains a virus that kills beings with two hearts like the Doctor, therefore he sends Rory in his place to find Amy. When Rory finds the right time stream that Amy entered, he finds she has spent the last 36 years in the facility. The Doctor devises a plan that will save the younger Amy from ever being trapped but at the same time, wipe out the older Amy from existence.
Series 8 Episode 9 – Flatline (8.5)
Another episode which forces the Doctor to stay inside the TARDIS, leaving it up to the companion to save the day. In Bristol, several disappearances and energy being drained from the TARDIS leads to the crew investigating the cause. However, the unseen forces shrink the TARDIS, trapping the Doctor inside.
Clara, armed with the sonic screwdriver, psychic paper, shrunken TARDIS and an earpiece to communicate with the Doctor, ventures out to solve the mystery. They soon learn that extra-terrestrial beings called the Boneless are flatting people into two dimensions.
Series 4 Episode 11 – Turn Left (8.9)
This was the first Doctor-lite episode to feature the companion as the main character. In an alien marketplace, the Tenth Doctor and Donna become separated which leads Donna to a fortune teller. The fortune teller offers Donna a free reading, during which she convinces Donna to think back to the event that put her on the path to meeting the Doctor.
The fortune teller convinces Donna to turn right and see what would of happened if she pursued a different direction, as she does, a large creature crawls onto her back. This leads to her past being changed, the Doctor dying and humanity falling apart. As things continue to get worse, Donna is visited by the Doctors former companion, Rose Tyler.
Series 4 Episode 10 – Midnight (9.1)
In this companion-lite story, Donna stays at the resort on the planet Midnight whilst the Doctor takes a shuttle tour to view a sapphire waterfall. Whilst on the tour, the shuttle breaks down and the passengers begin hearing something knocking about outside. Soon enough, the cockpit is ripped from the shuttle, leaving the passengers stranded.
One of the passengers, Sky, begins to act possessed and repeats only what the Doctor says. The Doctor believes it to be the creatures from outside, attempting to communicate through Sky. Things escalate when the passengers plan to throw Sky out of the shuttle to certain death.
Series 9 Episode 11 – Heaven Sent (9.6)
Having just suffered the loss of his companion Clara, the Doctor finds himself teleported into an empty castle, surrounded by the ocean. A cloaked figure slowly pursues the Doctor throughout the castle which freezes when he mentions he is afraid of dying.
The Doctor discovers that the castle is in fact some sort of torture chamber, attempting to gain information from him. He later learns that all the skulls in the ocean below are his, and he has been dying over and over again, resetting the teleporter with his own body, generating a copy of himself.
Series 3 Episode 10 - Blink (9.8)
It’s no surprise that “Blink” happens to be the highest rated Doctor-lite episodes and one of the highest rated Doctor Who episodes in general. The episode follows photographer Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan) who found a message about the Weeping Angels underneath her wallpaper.
She learns that the Weeping Angels are an alien race that turn to stone when people look at them. They feast on the years a person should have lived by sending them back in time. The Doctor and Martha were victims of the Weeping Angels and require Sally’s help to return from 1969.