“Lucky Day” is the Doctor-lite episode of Series 15, showing Ruby Sunday’s life after her adventures with the Time Lord.
Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King) met the Doctor and Belinda when he was a child and has been obsessed ever since. As an adult, he launches a podcast about The Doctor and aliens, and he gains the attention of Ruby Sunday after posting a picture of her online, leading to the pair forming a relationship. However, Conrad is being hunted by an alien called The Shreek.
Some of Doctor Who’s best episodes have been Doctor-lite. “Blink” and “Turn Left” were fantastic, and even the lambasted episode “Love & Monsters” had an interesting idea because it showed the lives of people who had an encounter with The Doctor. The best episode of Series 14 was “73 Yards,” where Ruby was abandoned by everyone she knew because a malicious spirit haunted her.
“Lucky Day” had a lot of ideas. Some were recycled from previous episodes, but they were repacked effectively. Conrad’s story was similar to Elton Pope from “Love & Monsters” since they both encountered The Doctor when they were young, and it impacted their lives. Elton created a Doctor support group, whilst Conrad started a podcast. The use of podcasts and social media felt like an evolution from an idea showcased way back in “Rose”, where it showed how the internet made researching the Doctor easier.
Previous episodes have looked at companions’ lives after their adventures with the Doctor. The episode “School Days” showed The Doctor reuniting with Sarah Jane Smith, and she led the spin-off show The Sarah Jane Adventures. “Lucky Day” shows Ruby’s life immediately after her adventures with The Doctor, entering into a state of malaise since it’s a come down from travelling across time and space to living a normal life in 21st Century London. Meeting Conrad gave Ruby a new lease of life. Ruby still got to partake in monster hunting, and like other companions, she worked with UNIT. It gave audiences a broader look at the Doctor Who universe and acted as a taster to potential spin-off shows.
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart also played a major role in the episode. She was committed to her work, and even her love life was linked to her job. Kate wasn’t shackled by the Doctor, which meant she could be more ruthless and showed why she shouldn’t be messed with.
“Lucky Day” was split into two halves. The first was about Conrad and Ruby meeting and entering into a romance. At the halfway point, there was a twist, so from this point on, there will be SPOILERS!
It was revealed Conrad was not a Doctor enthusiast, he was actually a conspiracy theorist who wanted to expose UNIT for faking alien encounters. It was an unexpected revenge story since Conrad had a grudge against UNIT. He aimed to mobilize the public so they could bring down UNIT.
Fake news and conspiracy theories are topical issues. It’s easy to come across podcasts and websites that capitalize on conspiracies and hatred. Alex Jones made a lot of money peddling conspiracy theories and selling products to his followers. Conrad was a fake since he was lying and used the masses for his own agenda, which drew parallels to an event in January 2021. There will be some complaints that Doctor Who was soapboxing and being overly political, but people who knowingly spread fake news don’t deserve attention. The Doctor’s speech at the end of the episode did have weight to it and made its point better than some episodes during the Chris Chibnall era.
“Lucky Day” was a refreshing, more ground-level, character-driven look at the Whoiverse and tantalizes potential spin-offs involving UNIT.
