We've just had two 'Doctor-Lite' episodes of Doctor Who this season, and that's a lot for a season in the streaming-era format. With only eight episodes, that's a whole 25% of the season where the Doctor hardly appeared in the story. The BBC has certainly noticed since they released a compilation video of 'Doctor-Lite' episodes on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel.
' 'Doctor-Lite' episodes were characters either of the companion or a guest character, and a way to tell a story with a different theme. With this new season one, Ncuti Gatwa wasn't available because he was contractually obligated to film his seasons for the final season of Sex Education for Netflix. '73 Yards' was the first episode shot with only Millie Gibson carrying it before Gatwa shot his framing scenes in one day, months later.