In some ways this is the dark flip-side of "Love & Monsters". That episode, you may recall, involved an ordinary man whose life got caught up with the Doctor's, and who found friends and happiness because of it. This time around, we're introduced to Conrad Clark, a young boy who first encounters the Doctor in 2007 and then spends a great deal of time trying to find him and to find more information about him. But unlike Elton, Conrad doesn't want to meet the Doctor to learn about him or to tell him the impact he had on him; instead, Conrad appears to be jealous of the Doctor and wants to drag him and his friends through the mud.
That seems to be the overarching theme, at least, but "Lucky Day" lulls the viewer into a false sense of security. It starts as we follow Conrad from that first meeting to him spying on the Doctor and Ruby while they take care of something called the Shreek (in an adventure set right after "The Devil's Chord", it seems) in an abandoned store. It initially seems like Conrad is genuinely interested in the Doctor and his life, and so he invites Ruby onto his podcast, "Lucky Day with Conrad Clark", to talk a bit about the Doctor and about UNIT. (This is actually the one place where things don't quite make sense. Has Conrad been faking this persona to everyone in the world? It doesn't seem like it's a brand-new podcast, given how many followers he has when the twist happens, so that's the best explanation for why Ruby (and the people at UNIT we see listening along) didn't sense anything amiss with Conrad. Which seems like a lot of work and a pretty involved con to pull, but Conrad does seem driven and bitter enough for this to be plausible, just about.) Ruby seems very charmed by this attractive, earnest man, and Conrad seems sweet and charming through the first half of the episode, getting closer to Ruby and eventually entering into a relationship with her. So far so good, and it seems like the episode is going to turn into a standard Doctor Who story by the halfway point, with the seeming return of the Shreek to hunt Conrad (see, he got tagged with their spoor when he saw the Doctor and Ruby) and the Doctor not being around this time to help.
It also serves as an interesting look into the PTSD a companion may experience after leaving the Doctor. We've gotten hints of this before, with Sarah Jane's confrontation of the Doctor back in "School Reunion", or the conversations between Tegan and Ace and their respective holographic Doctors in "The Power of the Doctor", but this is the first time that an episode seems to really tackle this head-on. "Do you think, maybe, with everything you've been through..." Kate Stewart asks Ruby. "That I'm paranoid?" Ruby finishes. "That you're on alert all the time," Kate replies. "Trust me, I know what that's like." And then later, when she's talking to Conrad, Ruby confesses that "I think I'm in shock. Like... PTSD? Because what happened last year was just not normal. I mean, I fought gods. Like, actual gods. And I was eaten by a double bass and kidnapped by goblins. I dangled on a rope ladder above London. And I watched the world turn to dust. And it's just like... every day is, like, fight or flight, and I'm just waiting for something to go wrong." This feels like it's going to be a character study of a companion post-Doctor, and not just how they readjust to ordinary life but also but how travelling with the Doctor may lead to unprocessed traumas.
So it's consequently quite a surprise when the episode performs its rug-pull: Conrad reveals that all the monsters and strange power surges that have been following him and Ruby aren't because of the Shreek, but because he and his friends have been staging an alien attack, in order to draw out UNIT and "expose" them to the public. Jonah Hauer-King does a really good job with this heel turn as Conrad. He's just as believable as an angry, conniving activist as he was as a caring boyfriend, and rather than feel like there's tonal whiplash happening you really hate what Conrad has done to Ruby -- so full credit to Hauer-King for pulling this off. Because yes, Conrad reveals that he's part of an organization called Think Tank (which is the same name as the group of scientists run by fascists in the Tom Baker story Robot -- and don't think that writer and Who fan Pete McTighe (officially credited as a writer again for the first time since 2020's "Praxeus") didn't know that), which argues that there's no such thing as aliens or monsters and that it's all a front for Kate Stewart's secret agenda. So we get lots of moments that feel rather familiar in this day and age, with Conrad and company loudly proclaiming how UNIT is trying to keep people afraid (interesting to see how Trinity Wells apparently went right-wing after leaving AMNN, and that her appearance in "The Giggle" wasn't as far off her normal programming as it may have seemed). It seems Conrad has a grudge against UNIT (Kate turned him down eight years earlier, deeming him untrustworthy), but he's used his charisma to loudly proclaim conspiracies and get people to turn against UNIT along with him. Again, this feels rather familiar these days. McTighe and the rest of the production team are making the point that some will prey on other people's fears to turn it to their own advantage: indeed, at the end of this episode, the Doctor shows up and utters a speech that feels like McTighe talking directly to the audience:
You see, I am fighting a battle on behalf of everyday people, who just want to get through their day, and feel safe, and warm, and fed. And then along comes this... noise. All day long, this relentless noise. Cowards like you, weaponising lies, taking people's insecurity and fear and making it currency. You are exhausting. You stamp on the truth, choke our bandwidth and shred our patience. Because the only strategy you have is to wear us down.The other interesting thing about this moment at the end is how angry the Doctor is. We've seen flashes of anger from the 15th Doctor before (perhaps most notably in "Joy to the World", although there it was to break the hold of the briefcase on Joy), but here the Doctor really lays into Conrad. Gatwa does a great job of playing this, making it still seem like part of his Doctor, even as he's being cruel to Conrad: "You die in a prison cell, boiling in anger and poison until your heart packs in at age 49, alone and unloved. Forgotten. The world carries on, the world gets better. You aren't even a footnote, just ashes on the wind." The 15th Doctor, it seems, is a Doctor who feels every emotion strongly, not just sadness and joy.
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| The Shreek prepares to feast on Conrad. ("Lucky Day") ©BBC |
"Lucky Day", then, is a very well-crafted episode, with an examination of the darker side of humanity and chance encounters with the Doctor. I hesitate to say I like it, just because of how uncomfortable it is to watch, to see Ruby gaslit so completely and to see Conrad trying to drag UNIT down to his own level, in the mud. But it's certainly another strong episode, and I can easily admire the care that's gone into it. If things keep up, series 15 will be one to remember and treasure indeed.
(Oh, and shout out to the YouTube channel Bramble & Stars, who've done some truly wonderful covers of the incidental music for series 15. You should definitely have a listen!)