Doctor Who‘s Disinformation Episode Needed a Bit More Bite

Lots of thing can be terrifying onDoctor Who . monster , of course , are terrifying . Standing the face of the unknown in a Brobdingnagian , undiscovered existence is also pretty terrific . Our imposing heropushed to non-white impulses , a terror in a more intellectual way . But sometimes , the most terrific thing of all can just be a cat who really , really , reallysucks .

That Guy Who Sucks is Conrad Clark ( encounter by Jonah Hauer - King , who does a brilliant problem saturate Conrad with the most absolutely rancid vibes even before you get to his mid - episode “ twist ” ) . At first , “ Lucky Day ” introduces us to Conrad like manyDoctor Whosupporting characters before him : we get a abbreviated whimsical face-off in 2007 where he experience the Doctor , Belinda , and the TARDIS , sparking a lifelong fixation with the extraterrestrial being and the strange that eventually leads to him crossing path with Ruby after he also witnesses her and the Doctor encounter a hunting watch - marauder alien called the Shreek .

What first begins as an ill at ease podcast interview becomes a slightly - less - awkward date , which then becomes several , and suddenly Ruby ’s post - Doctor life is looking nice and brilliant . She ’s got a new human , a well-chosen family , and a cushy job at thechild - labour - and - x - fellow - factorythat is UNIT .

Doctor Who Recap Lucky Day Conrad

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thing first take a dark good turn when Ruby and Conrad go on a countryside pickup together , only to discover that the Shreek have ostensibly returned . Conrad has had a scrap of a eldritch vibe to him at this point in the sequence , but mostly in a “ slightly teasing but otherwise harmless ” elbow room , until he let out to Ruby that he randomly decided to not take the anti - Shreek antidote she ’d given him to protect him . And then , the vibration makes the aforesaid rancid turn when Ruby calls UNIT in to protect Conrad and his ally from the Shreek … and it flex out the whole thing is a humbug . There are no new Shreek , it ’s Connor ’s friends ( in astonishingly good prosthetics for random weirdos ! ) , and it ferment out they ’re all part of a confederacy hypothesis group called Think Tank that is assay to uncover UNIT as peddling disinformation and simply say that aliens are real to control the universe .

This is where “ Lucky Day ” gets simultaneously very interesting , and very unsafe if you begin thinking about it for more than five minute . Again , it can not be stated enough what a good line Hauer - King does of making Conrad feelincrediblyhateful once the masquerade falls off , even if it is slenderly eldritch that on the spur of the moment we getDoctor Who‘s secondtoxic swain storylineof the season . Plus the prospect ofDoctor Whofinding its own way into a timely conversation about ripe - annexe radicalization and misinformation hunting expedition — generalise through the reality that , 20 age into its modern run , we ’ve just had to kind of have a all-encompassing public awareness that monster and aliens are a reality of the humankind — is brilliant , and the precise variety of thing the show can and should do at its very best .

thing get even well ironically as thing get unsound and worse for Ruby : Connor and Think Tank ’s political campaign keeps ramping up , UNIT come increasingly under flaming from a suddenly doubting populace , and even really on the verge of implosion , it seems , with doubled - agents leak entropy and Conrad ’s goons doxxing every employee to the wider public , putting a huge amount of pressure on Kate . That pressure reaches its sexual climax when Connor shit a one - man infiltration of UNIT ’s latest HQ , holding Ruby , Kate , and the command team surety ( including returning facial expression like Ruth Madeley ’s analyst Shirley and Alexander Devrient ’s big Chief of Security Colonel Ibrahim , who seems to now be in a relationship with Kate ? Good for her ! ) in an attempt to expose them once and for all .

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But then Conrad makes a terrible error : on the verge of victory for his crusade , he disses the Brigadier , as if we were n’t already expected to hate him enough , and Kate crack . We love it ’s speculative , but also , as we ’ve say already , Connor is an quantifiably tremendous person , so there ’s adequate joy and terror in take in Kate crossbreed the line and set the real Shreek out to not just scare Connor into compliance , but , until everyone else tread in to convert her otherwise , essentially attempt to execute him for what he ’s done .

Doctor Wholoves giving us a villain to detest , but rarely does it allow its paladin to actually detest them in play , so watching Kate willingly go as far as she does is a boldness the show rarely allows itself . And even when the situation is diffused — in bitchiness of herself , Ruby saves Connor from the Shreek , and even though it does chomp on him a little , he gets take to infirmary and then immediately to prison house , his live - stream stunt this clock time re - shifty public opinion back in UNIT ’s favor — it ’s clear there ’s conk out to be consequences going forward for Kate and UNIT alike . These event will no doubt demonstrate if not by the destruction of this time of year ( we do it we ’re back with whole at some point in the next four episodes ) , then presumptively by the approaching UNIT - focus - spinoffWar Between Land and Sea .

It ’s here that thing initiate getting a morsel more complicated . While “ Lucky Day ” is full - throated in its presentation of Conrad and Think Tank as not just faulty , but downright nefarious , its alternative once they ’re spoil leans much more in the line of merchandise of vindicating UNIT . Of course , welikeUNIT , we’reDoctor Whofans . We recognize they aid our hero save the twenty-four hour period all the sentence . But UNIT , specially in the current era ’s vision of the organization , is likewise not a flawless entity . In the name of safeguard the world , we ’ve witness them enacting far - achieve surveillance and monitoring of the world ; we ’ve escort them delay and arrest journalists to get across up procedure . I joked earlier , but Katehasrecruited multiple children onto staff ! child who now apparently got doxxed by this creep ! As cathartic as it is to watch Kate go postal on Conrad , this is still the head of a authorities - indorse organisation seek to extrajudicially hit someone while they ’re livestreaming to hundreds of thousands of citizenry . A guy who isincredibly dislikable , sure , but still !

Doctor Who Recap Lucky Day Doctor Conrad Belinda

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It ’s all well and good that Ibrahim tells Kate there will be consequences for her actions down the line , but in the moment , “ Lucky Day ” only offer corporate trust and remission of UNIT as an alternative to Conrad ’s misguided conspiracy — and even if thereareconsequences later , will they outlive the next time unit of measurement helps the Doctor carry through the solar day ? It ’s good thatDoctor Whois willing to play with the mess of moral compromises that it does here , specially in the name of using it to comment on existent - world emergence . But take those complicated idea and file them down into an either - or scenario that falls apart once you think about it beyond the second of the instalment , and pluck that decision to play with something more nuanced and darkly tone up of its effectiveness in the here and now , punting the resolution down the line to either be handwaved or absolved at a later engagement .

“ Lucky Day ” even manages to speed - run a condense variation of this compromised sight in its very shutting moment . Rotting in slammer as he recovers from his bite wound , Conrad finds himself on the spur of the moment whisk off into the TARDIS console way for an sheer dressing down from the Doctor . Again , in the moment , this isbrilliant . It’sDoctor Whotrading in any and all refinement or layer of comment to essentially have Ncuti Gatwa bend to television camera and rage in adequate parts against the show ’s detractors and the disinformation industrial composite at bombastic . And even well , it gives Gatwa ’s Time Lord a chance to have a real factor of dark to him : he ’s not here , as Conrad mocks , to try and free him , he ’s here to tell him he sucks , he hate him , and even that the Doctor knows on the nose what the rest of his low-down liveliness is going to entail , including his ill-timed death , alone , imprisoned , and blank out . The Doctor saves citizenry , that ’s what they do , but sometimes there are people who ca n’t be bring through from themselves .

If this was where “ Lucky Day ” really ended , then its interracial handling of the whole UNIT thing might be more excusable — exchanging a want of sharpness there to give its titular Cuban sandwich a scrumptiously compromised character beat . Except , it does n’t . The Doctor dumps Conrad back in the prison where he will , obviously , finally meet his remainder … only for Mrs. Flood , now a handily placed prison governor , to follow to the doorway of his mobile phone and permit him escape , knowingly put forward her eyebrow at the audience . We ca n’t even be allowed the cognition that this guy wire , the hombre the almostentire episodehas been dedicated scream about how wicked he is , catch to sustain for what he did !

Doctor Who Recap Lucky Day Conrad Ruby Date

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Again , perchance it ’ll come up up at some point again whenever the Mrs. Flood stuff pays off ( maybe she ’s recruiting the Asshole Avengers for the finale ? ) , but in the moment , it robsthisparticular floor of taking a position on the complicated scenario it wants to play with . Doctor Whocan , and should , use its voice to remark on very real issues our world face , even if it is extrapolated through the electron lens of its surrealistic world of adventures in fourth dimension and space . But if it ’s going to , it should be full - throated when it does , or else of standing on the edge of saying something andthen backing down .

Doctor Whocan be brave in the face of fictional monsters , it should be fearless in the face of real ones , too .

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Doctor Who Recap Lucky Day Ruby Kate Unit