A strange little idea for a NuWho Arc.

[Newspaper Taxi]

Let's say the BBC is really pressed for cash for a new season of Doctor Who. What if they took the concept of a Doctor-lite episode and made a Doctor-lite season?

I imagine that in the first episode of the season we would be introduced to the new companion. We'd see a bit of their life and hopefully it wouldn't be dull. But that night the companion returns home and finds the Tardis inside their bedroom with the key on a table. They enter the TARDIS and either a flat video projection or a hologram of the Doctor appears and tells them that he needs their help. Due to the random nature of the universe the companion is the only one he can safely contact. The Doctor is stressed and haggard and says that he's in the middle of a dangerous mission and that he needs the companion to do some things to help him.

He explains that the Tardis is a time machine and that he a series of missions that he needs the companion to go and do. The Doctor is in far too dangerous of a situation to talk to the companion directly, so most of the communications are in the form of pre-recorded messages.Each episode would have the Doctor explaining the next mission -- cryptically, in case the transmissions are recieved -- and the companion has to find out what to do.

One of the first missions involves the companion traveling to a place the Doctor has been to before. Everyone there recognizes the TARDIS and briefly think the companion is the Doctor. After explaining that the Doctor is busy, but sent him, they explain what they need their help with. At the end the companion gets a message that says that this mission was actually just to establish the Doctor's credibility, so that they can develop trust even when seperated.

The Doctor could probably do 11 episodes worth of dialogue infront of a green screen in a short amount of time. The 12th episode would have the companion to the Doctor's aid and end on a cliffhanger with the Doctor appearing. The 13th episode would be the only full episode to feature the Doctor. The Doctor will explain what his convoluted plan was, and then they'll go off and do some cinematic and hyperbolic nonesense to save the day. Perhaps there will be an explosion.

I thought it was an interesting idea because it was a way of making the Doctor more distant from the companion and the viewer -- albeit in a literal way.

 

[Ithekro]

Wouldn't that make the show called "Doctor Where?"

 

[Starkers]

To be honest it sounds like the idea for a computer game, or even one of those interactive VHS things you used to get. I doubt Capaldi earns so much that cutting his time would save more money than just trimming the effects budget, plus I imagine that contractually he'd be paid the same whether he's in an episode or not, I doubt he's paid by the hour. Doctor lite works on a single episode basis because we know he'll be back next week.

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

A pretty hearty LOL @ Doctor Where.

And yeah, actually that would be a decent set up for a computer game.

 

[Green Lantern]

As a firm hater of doctor-lite episodes, naturally I'd hate this. A decent idea for one episode as the plot does sound decent, it's just a full season without the main character would be too much to bear.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Agreed that it could work for an episode or two but not a whole season.

What might work better along the same lines is alternating where half the episodes feature the companion on this cryptic quest while the other half feature the Doctor without the companion.