An Unsettling Doctor Who Season 2 Episode Echoes One Of The Show's Most Controversial Hours

The latest "Doctor Who" episode features precious little of the Doctor, nor does it feature much of his current companion Belinda. Instead, it's an Earth-bound story following former companion Ruby (Millie Gibson) as she gets into a relationship with a seemingly nice young man named Conrad (Jonah Hauer-King).

Conrad makes an odd first impression: his first scene shows him as a kid who rudely snatches a coin from the Doctor's hand despite the Doctor having happily offered it to him. But when we catch up to Conrad as an adult he seems to have mostly matured. He's started a wholesome podcast about the Doctor, and when he meets up with Ruby for the first time he acts like a nervous fanboy. 

For the first half of this episode, it seems like the episode's writer, Pete McTighe, is aiming for the same spark as another famous Doctor-lite episode: "Love & Monsters." Although that episode is (rightfully!) bashed by fans for its terrible final act, it's easy to forget that its first two thirds were delightful. It was fun seeing a bunch of normal humans united by their sense of wonder towards the Doctor. It was nice to give the Doctor a break for a week, to offer fans a glimpse of what Earth looks like when he's not around. Although "Love & Monsters" was a bust, the "Doctor Who" writers smartly realized that the Doctor-lite aspect of it wasn't to blame. They gave us classics like "Blink" and "Turn Left" shortly after.

But instead of trying to capture the spirit of "Blink" or "Turn Left," this latest episode focuses on giving "Love & Monsters" a dark reboot. Like "L&M," "Lucky Day" shows how big an impact the Doctor can have on a random human. A forgettable adventure for the Doctor can unwittingly change the entire course of a random passerby's life, for better or worse.

In Conrad's case, at first it seems like he'd been changed for the better. Introduced as having an abusive mother, it seems like Conrad has clung to his sense of wonder towards the Doctor as a kind of emotional life raft. No matter how tough his home life might've been, his hopes of learning more about the Doctor could always get him through the day. Of course, the difference between "Love & Monsters" and "Lucky Day" becomes very apparent in the second half of this episode. Whereas "Love & Monsters" stayed optimistic (even when it shouldn't have), "Lucky Day" gets delightfully meanspirited.

In the episode's big twist, we find out that Conrad is not someone who kept his belief in the Doctor despite his abusive mother's dismissal of it. Instead, he basically became his mother, finding power in calling other people liars for believing what he once did. Conrad's entire relationship with Ruby turns out to be a ploy for him to expose her and UNIT for "lying" about aliens to the public. It's an insanely cruel trick from Conrad; he gained Ruby's trust and pretended to love her for weeks, all while we could see from Ruby's perspective how much this new relationship meant to her. Conrad doesn't just reveal to Ruby that he's been lying this whole time. He reveals that he's hated her from the start, and has been secretly sneering at everything she's confided in him. It's reminiscent of "73 Yards" from last season, where Ruby is thrown through an absurd amount of emotional turmoil with no Doctor around to help her.

Making Conrad's actions even worse is how dishonest they are, not just towards Ruby but towards his followers. His plan to "expose" Ruby and UNIT's corruption doesn't actually prove anything, but he and his conspiracy friends sure act like it does. Social media algorithms and right-wing news outlets are happy to go along with his unearned victory lap, and Conrad uses this media boost to further ruin Ruby's life and undermine UNIT's work. 

This is the point of the story where the Doctor's absence really shines. With no TARDIS to run off to, Ruby has to put up with Conrad's abuse in real time. And with no Doctor to fix the problem, we get to see Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) deal with Conrad on her own. Her decision to set an alien after Conrad is cold, vindictive, and undeniably cool as hell. I've never been impressed by Kate — I feel the show always builds her up to be a badass but then the plot forces her to be useless — but she's amazing here. "Lucky Day" gives us a version of Kate that's actually interesting, something the episode couldn't have done if the Doctor was around. 

Overall, "Love & Monsters" was a fun story about how the internet can help unite well-meaning strangers with common niche interests. "Lucky Day" is about how the internet can encourage people's worst instincts, and can allow bad-faith people to spread misinformation and hatred at a rate previously unimaginable. It's a telling reflection of how our collective understanding of the internet has soured over time. Most of us no longer believe the internet is making us smarter or kinder overall, and "Doctor Who" no longer believes this either. Maybe the Doctor himself still believes it, but he's not here. 

The decision to focus an entire episode on Ruby, someone who's no longer the current companion, is pretty unprecedented. The closest parallel to Ruby in the original Russell T. Davies era was Martha, who popped in here and there throughout Donna Noble's season 4. But during those episodes, Donna and the Doctor were still the main focus. Martha's inclusion was a fun bonus, but little more.

What makes "Lucky Day" extra strange is that it comes in a season that's only eight episodes long, not the 13 episodes the older seasons enjoyed. For fans hoping to get as much of new companion Belinda as possible in our limited time with her, this detour might be a little frustrating. On the bright side, "Lucky Day" seems to be apologizing for how rushed Ruby and the Doctor's dynamic was last season; fans complained about the jarring time jumps between their adventures, but this episode goes back and gives us a glimpse of their lives between episodes. "Doctor Who" is making up for lost time with Ruby and the Doctor, but it's doing so at the expense of the Doctor and Belinda. 

Of course, there's a chance this all leads to an exciting season 3. Perhaps this Ruby-centric episode is laying the groundwork for a season 2 finale where Ruby returns to the TARDIS. Hopefully Belinda will develop her own taste for adventure and choose to stick around too — this could lead to a very fun season where it's the Doctor, Ruby and Belinda all partying through time and space together. Most of my favorite eras of the show feature more than one companion in the TARDIS, so if "Doctor Who" could pull this off with Ruby and Belinda, I'd definitely be on board. 

Sadly the future of "Doctor Who" isn't clear right now. It hasn't been renewed for a new season yet, and there are rumors of the show going through another hiatus. It's a shame, because letting Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor enjoy a third season with both of his companions would be a perfect way for his era to go out. We didn't get enough time with Ruby in her first season and now we're not getting enough time with Belinda. A final season with both of them in the TARDIS would be huge.