DOCTOR WHO, 15.4 – ‘Lucky Day’

It’s not often we catch up with a previous companion of The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), as the show is usually focused on making audiences fall in love with the latest dynamic in the TARDIS, rather than reminding us of what we had before. There have been episodes where old companions have made fun returns, but it’s usually after years or decades have passed and they’ve faded into nostalgic memory—even Rose Tyler’s return came after a few years. And when they do come back, it’s not often for a story that’s focused on them and what their lives have been like since returning to everyday life. The closest example that I can think of is how the show treated Classic Who companion Sarah Jane Smith when she came back for the revival’s “School Reunion”.

Peter McTighe’s “Lucky Day” is therefore a very interesting story, especially as we’ve only been travelling with new companion Belinda (Varada Sethu) for three episodes before getting reacquainted with last year’s Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). There remains some online debate about the circumstances behind the show switching Ruby for Belinda so soon, but presumably it was more amicable than it initially sounded if she agreed to come back for this story, and potentially more. I wouldn’t mind seeing Ruby and Bel journey together with The Doctor, frankly.

It’s been a year since Ruby and The Doctor parted ways, and she’s finally started to move on with her life after befriending a podcaster called Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King), who witnessed her vanishing with The Doctor in his TARDIS after they fought off a nasty dog-like alien called a Shreek. He also previously encountered The Doctor and Bel on New Year’s Eve 2007 when he was a little boy, so has spent his adult life trying to piece together the mysteries surrounding his experiences.

Conrad and Ruby grow closer through their conversations, not least because he’s a welcome outlet for her to talk openly about her incredible experiences with The Doctor, which have left her with some post-traumatic stress. It’s not really mentioned how seriously people take Conrad’s podcast, as it must sound insane if taken at face value to most ordinary people! Eventually, they start a relationship, with Conrad seemingly the perfect boyfriend and a healthy way for Ruby to start putting his TARDIS travels in the past and move forward with her own life.

So far, so good. “Lucky Day” turns out to be one of those episodes where The Doctor and his companion don’t have much screen time, which is usually a way to give the lead actors a break from the hectic schedule. It works surprisingly well here, with Millie Gibson holding the story together nicely, and we’re frankly more invested in her as a character than Belinda Chandra right now. I hope Belinda isn’t the Martha to her Rose, but there’s a feeling of that in the air. It’s also fun to see Ruby’s family again, which now includes her biological mother.

The twist in the tail worked for me, as I just wasn’t expecting anything deeper than Ruby protecting her sweet new boyfriend from the return of the Shreek, only this time without The Doctor’s expertise. It was amusing to find that the first flaw in Conrad’s character is that he’s effectively an anti-vaxxer, who didn’t take the medication provided to him by Ruby, via UNIT scientists, to ensure the Shreek don’t sniff him out to finish the job. But the real kick was the big reveal that Conrad isn’t a loveable geek who has a deep connection with Ruby, he’s actually the spokesman for a group called <THINK_TANK> who believe that UNIT are a dangerous organisation that uses tax payer money to promote ridiculous ideas about aliens and suchlike. It’s quite clever that Conrad’s coded as being an alt-right conspiracy theorist, but his position is actually that of ordinary people in the real world.

Of course, we side with Ruby over all this because we know The Doctor and everything he represents is true, and she’s also been dealt a heavy emotional blow to realise her perfect boyfriend was just stringing her along in order to entrap UNIT while they’re on a date — with some of his friends dressed as Shreek creatures, in order to have Ruby call for backup, so they can livestream Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) as her team turning up in a helicopter to save the day.

When you stop and think about it, perhaps it doesn’t all make logical sense. Conrad Clark saw The Doctor when he was a boy, then again many years later and he hadn’t aged a day. He also saw Ruby step inside the TARDIS as it dematerialised. There was fair evidence for the Shreek being real too, with the green goo on his face. Perhaps the episode is trying to communicate the idea that some people don’t even trust their own eyes, they just fixate on a particular idea and can’t be persuaded otherwise. In Conrad’s mind, UNIT seems to be a stand-in for the World Health Organisation (WHO, ironically), given his stance on not taking the prescribed medication that would protect him from the Shreek (i.e. COVID-19?), or just the general idea that government agencies “waste” money on things he doesn’t accept are true. Or at least wants to believe aren’t happening despite all the evidence, as anti-vaxxers saw the Coronavirus pandemic spread around the world killing millions, just as we all did, and yet still wouldn’t get their jabs or wear a mask to help their communities.

Once the reveal with Conrad is made, “Lucky Day” unfortunately has to rush through a lot of narrative given the time constraints it’s under. It’s not long before he’s become a Nigel Farage-style figure, painting UNIT as this “fake news” agency that’s hoodwinking the population, doxxing its members, and eventually live-streaming his infiltration of UNIT HQ in order to force them to admit to their lies. It was a little rushed, but understandably so. But the more potent emotional betrayal of Ruby was somewhat pushed aside, which was a shame considering the careful effort that went into building their romance in the first half.

Conrad Clark also became a bit of a punching bag to make a lot of points about how far-right media brainwashes people, and how toxic some modern men can be towards women, as The Doctor even had a scene with him at the end that felt like McTighe just wanted to make a lot of political statements about folk like Andrew Tate and Donald Trump. It might even have been ghostwritten by Russell T. Davies, who’s known to extensively rewrite things, as it suddenly had his more on-the-nose flavour.

But I didn’t mind it too much, as it’s kind of like Who’s version of comic-books where Superman would go after Nazis. It’s fun to see your fictional heroes tear down real-world baddies, critique awful ideologies, or lambast versions of the cultural ghouls we’re forced to contend with every day. I don’t know if your average Dalek-loving child watching the show will grasp the nuances here, but I suppose the basic story of a relationship going bad with added Ghostbusters-style Terror Dogs is enough to keep them engaged.

It also seems that Conrad is going to be a recurring villain, and perhaps one who ties into Series 15’s bigger picture. After he’s imprisoned, “governor” Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) arrives with the keys to his cell, and mention is made of Conrad not accepting The Doctor’s “reality”. The series finale is called “Reality War”, so I’m wondering if it’ll involve Conrad somehow getting the ability to change reality to what he prefers, perhaps by meddling with history, and in the process erasing Earth from existence. We shall see. But I love the idea of Doctor Who having a villain who’s just a man with an opposing ideology.

Overall, “Lucky Day” is the strongest episode of Series 15 so far, and one of the better stories in some time. This is mainly down to it having a relevant and unique take on what a Doctor Who episode can be, even if it’s slightly worrying that one of my favourites has significantly less Ncuti Gatwa than usual. And when The Doctor does appear here… I don’t know… I find Gatwa charming and likeable as the Time Lord, but his upbeat take on the character definitely lacks the darkness and depth you need to make stories tackling serious issues work. Peter Capaldi or even David Tennant would have aced this, but Gatwa can come across as a bit condescending and too knowingly perfect at times. He was also absent for most of “73 Yards” last series, another Ruby-focused story that turned very political! Notice a trend? It made sense to remove The Doctor from the plot of “Lucky Day”, only to give him one grandstanding moment near the end.

While not perfect, as Conrad’s motivations were a little hazy at times and the repercussions of his actions weren’t explored, “Lucky Day” was incredibly entertaining and had a lot to chew on. I just wish Doctor Who would come up with a way to explain why the population continually forgets all the alien invasions and life-changing events that keep happening to them, which is getting a bit silly now. Just give UNIT a Men in Black-style gizmo to wipe collective memories, please.

UK | 2025 | 43 MINUTES | 16:9 HD | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

writer: Peter McTighe.
director: Peter Hoar.
starring: Millie Gibson, Jonah Hauer-King, Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Jemma Redgrave, Ruth Madeley, Alexander Devrient, Aidan Cook, Nicholas Briggs (voice), Michelle Greenidge, Angela Wynter, Faye McKeever, Benjamin Chivers, Kirsty Hoiles, Gethin Alderman, Kareem Alexander, Madison Stock, Paddy Stafford, Blake Anderson, Aoife Gaston, Paul Jerricho, Michael Woodford, Tina Gray & Anita Dobson.