Lucky Day (Doctor Who)

"Lucky Day" is the fourth episode of the fifteenth series of the British science-fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was written by Pete McTighe, and was directed by Peter Hoar. The episode was released on BBC iPlayer, BBC One and Disney+ on 3 May 2025. It features the return of companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), who plays a leading role in the episode opposite Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King), with both the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), the series' main leads, only appearing briefly. The episode focuses on Ruby, who begins a relationship with Conrad as she attempts to find her place in the world after leaving the Doctor. When it is revealed that Conrad's true aim is to turn the public against UNIT, Ruby and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart have to deal with the repercussions of Conrad's actions.

The episode was devised by showrunner Russell T Davies, with Davies enlisting McTighe to write the episode. McTighe used the episode to explore Ruby and Kate's characters while also exploring the spread and effects of online hatred. The episode's monster, the Shreek, was based on McTighe's childhood fears of dog-like creatures in the dark, with the creature being portrayed via costume and an animatronic head. Filming took place in November 2023 and it was filmed back-to-back with the series premiere. The episode received positive reviews from critics, who highlighted Gibson's performance, the twist regarding Conrad's true motives and the episode's social commentary, but were more critical of underdeveloped plotlines and the execution of Conrad as an antagonist.

Plot

The Doctor and Belinda arrive on New Year's Day 2007 and meet 8-year-old Conrad. Over the next several years, Conrad investigates sightings of the Doctor and the TARDIS, seeing a younger Doctor with his then-companion Ruby in 2024, where Conrad is marked as prey by a creature called the Shreek. In 2025, after she stopped travelling with the Doctor, Ruby gives Conrad an interview on his podcast about her encounters with extraterrestrial life. They start dating after she gives him an antidote to act against him being tracked by the Shreek, which has been recently captured by UNIT.

During a weekend at Conrad's home village, Ruby tells Conrad she is suffering from PTSD following her experiences with the Doctor. Two Shreek appear in pursuit of Conrad, who admits he did not take the antidote. Ruby calls UNIT and their leader Kate to the village. The Shreek are revealed to be fake, part of a setup against UNIT orchestrated by Conrad, who believed UNIT to be a conspiracy and whose relationship with Ruby was a ploy. Media and social media coverage turn against UNIT, and Conrad and his followers continue to perpetuate disinformation claiming the non-existence of aliens and fraud by UNIT.

After Conrad publishes details of UNIT employees, Kate realises Conrad has an insider in UNIT who sneaks him into the building. Alerted to his presence, Kate allows Conrad to reach the command floor, where he livestreams his intrusion. In order to expose Conrad's lies, Kate releases the Shreek, which hunts Conrad. With the Shreek attacking him, Conrad admits on his livestream he has been lying about UNIT. Ruby stuns the Shreek, but when Conrad backtracks on that admission, the Shreek bites his arm. Public sentiment turns in UNIT's favour, although Colonel Ibrahim tells Kate that she went too far by releasing the Shreek. Ruby decides to get away to overcome her trauma, and Kate offers her support when she is ready to talk. Conrad is imprisoned and visited by the Doctor (who at this point has not yet met Belinda), who berates him for spreading lies and harming Ruby and his friends. The Doctor tells Conrad that he will die in prison and be forgotten by history, but after the Doctor leaves Conrad, Mrs Flood releases him.

Production

Development

''Doctor Who'' Showrunner Russell T Davies wished to include an episode discussing the spread of "toxic, online hatred", and contacted writer Pete McTighe to write the script. The two had their first conversation over FaceTime and a second meeting took place on Zoom as McTighe was abroad in Australia. Davies also sent McTighe viewing copies of the three 60th anniversary specials, the 2023 Christmas special, and the entirety of the fourteenth series, before any of those episodes had been publicly released, so that he could better understand Ruby's character development. Before penning "Lucky Day", McTighe had previously written episodes under former showrunner Chris Chibnall. When writing the episode, McTighe said that he wanted to take the opportunity to explore what happens to a companion after they leave the Doctor, feeling that it had infrequently been done in the show's past.

McTighe described the episode as a mix between action, romantic comedy, and gothic horror. He also compared one of the main settings to the village Devil's End from the 1971 serial ''The Dæmons'' and believed that it being a Ruby-centric story was similar to the 2024 episode "73 Yards". Conrad and his followers refer to themselves as "Think Tank"; McTighe revealed this to be a reference to a group with the same name in the 1974–1975 Fourth Doctor serial, ''Robot''. Ruby was referred to as having post-traumatic stress disorder following her time with the Doctor, which Davies wanted to portray in the episode. The episode was seen by a reviewer as a backdoor pilot for the upcoming ''Doctor Who'' spin-off series, ''The War Between the Land and the Sea''. This allowed McTighe to explore Kate's character further, with her willingness to go too far being something that McTighe stated would have further repercussions "beyond this episode, beyond this season, even beyond this show."

McTighe developed the Shreek from his childhood fears of dog-like creatures in darkness. The conceptual idea was based off of a terrifying "four-legged, creeping animal" that had a desire to hunt and could not be reasoned with. Prior to this, the Shreek were first mentioned in ''Caged'', a 2024 ''Doctor Who'' novel by Una McCormack. A number of Easter egg references to past episodes and popular culture were included in ''Lucky Day'' as well. "Lucky Day" is a "Doctor-lite" episode, a term within the programme to describe installments which feature the Doctor minimally. Davies stated this required them to find "inventive ways" to include the Doctor, one of which is a flashback to an unseen story set during the previous series. The Doctor's scene with Conrad at the end of the episode takes place before the Doctor meets Belinda, revealing how the Doctor had prior knowledge of her in "The Robot Revolution". The read-through for the episode took place at Wolf Studios Wales on 7 November 2023, with attendees noting a unique atmosphere due to unaware cast members' response to Conrad's reveal as a villain.

Casting

Millie Gibson returns as outgoing series regular and former companion Ruby Sunday. It was the first of three appearances that Gibson is set to make during the fifteenth series, as well as her first appearance since the 2024 Christmas special, "Joy to the World". In July 2024, at the ''Doctor Who'' San Diego Comic-Con panel, it was officially announced that Jonah Hauer-King had been cast in a role that would be involved in Ruby's character arc. Further details later revealed that Hauer-King would portray Conrad, a podcaster and Ruby's boyfriend. Following the episode's broadcast, Gibson revealed in an interview that Hauer-King's character would also appear later on in the series.

Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu also make brief appearances as the fifteenth incarnation of the Doctor and his companion, Belinda Chandra, respectively. Paul Jerricho, who plays Alfie in the episode, previously held the role of the Castellan in "The Five Doctors" (1983). Lachele Carl reprised her role as newsreader Trinity Wells. Alex Jones appears as herself, a Welsh presenter on ''The One Show'' interviewing Conrad. The remainder of the guest cast includes Jemma Redgrave, Ruth Madeley, Michelle Greenidge, Angela Wynter, Alexander Devrient, and Anita Dobson as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Shirley Bingham, Carla and Cherry Sunday, Colonel Christofer Ibrahim, and Mrs Flood respectively. Nicholas Briggs is also featured in a voice role as the Vlinx.

Production design

The primary Shreek costume was constructed using fibreglass molds and clay, with the final molds eventually being injected with silicon and painted. The Shreek uses an animatronic head. The Shreek costumes used by Conrad's friends were designed as imitative versions of the original, by looking similar to an extent, but intentionally fake. The design team at Millenium FX had a designer look at the primary Shreek costume once and then construct this derivative version from memory to reflect the costumes' in-universe construction. The team had to make the costumes look convincing while also looking like "rubber costumes", which proved a challenge. The Shreek performers were unable to see inside the mask of the Shreek costume, requiring outside direction for the actors to know where they needed to go.

The inclusion of mannequins in the scene where Conrad explores the abandoned department store featuring the Shreek was a result of McTighe wanting to include a callback to the first episode of ''Doctor Who''s revived era, "Rose" (2005), which featured living mannequins called Autons. Costume designer Pam Downe designed Ruby's outfits with dark blue and green colours, which Gibson felt were "more mature colours"; one of her outfits included a pinstripe suit and pants that Gibson said was reminiscent of one of David Tennant's previous outfits in the series.

Filming

"Lucky Day" was directed by Peter Hoar. The episode was placed in the second production block of the fifteenth series with the first episode, "The Robot Revolution", and followed recording of "Joy to the World" in the block immediately preceding. The two episodes in this block were filmed concurrently by utilising a back-to-back filming technique. Principal photography for the episode began on 14 November 2023. Gibson and Hauer-King were spotted filming scenes together a day later.

Location filming was done in Cardiff City Centre on 24 November. The production team made use of Howells department store for the aforementioned abandoned department store scene, which was similarly used as a filming location in "Rose". For the scenes set in the village, the town of Newton, Porthcawl, was used, with recording taking place from 27–29 November. Two-thirds of the budget allocated to the six-week filming block was used during those three days, three hours of which were spent shooting three takes with a helicopter.

Soundstage recording was done at Wolf Studios Wales. A former authorised firearms officer was present on set as a weapons master because real firearms with blank cartridges were utilised during filming. Hoar originally hoped to re-use the helipad set that was constructed for "The Giggle" (2023) for the scene where Conrad breaks into the UNIT Tower, but it had been torn down after production concluded on that episode and there were not enough funds to rebuild it. A Steadicam was ultimately used to film to make following Conrad easier. McTighe's initial script included extras of Conrad's followers enter the tower with him, however, the number of people for the scene had to be reduced for feasibility. Two Shreek performers were there, one specializing in movement and the other in action. The crew struggled with getting the Shreek's mouth to open wide enough to bite Conrad. A pre-broken window also had to be fabricated because stunt glass is not fabricated in sizes large enough for the window frame.

Broadcast and reception

Broadcast

"Lucky Day" was simultaneously released on BBC iPlayer at 8 a.m. British Summer Time (BST) in the United Kingdom and on Disney+ in the United States at 12 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on 3 May 2025. A BBC One broadcast of the episode followed at 7:10 p.m. BST. Disney also handled international distribution of the episode.

Ratings

In the United Kingdom, the episode recorded overnight broadcast ratings of 1.5 million, a decline on the previous episodes and setting a new record low after "Lux"'s 1.58 million. "Lucky Day" had been seen by a total of 2.80 million after seven days, once catch-up viewing on iPlayer was included.

Critical reception

Robert Anderson, writing for ''IGN'', praised the episode's writing, the performance of Gibson and the usage of Conrad as an antagonist, though stated that the episode at times could feel "hollow" and that Ruby's character arc was not as well executed as it could have been. Daniel Cooper, writing for ''Engadget'', similarly highlighted the twist about Conrad's identity, McTighe's writing and the episode's social commentary, but felt Conrad's backstory utilising "the trope that survivors of abuse perpetuate that cycle of abuse" was overused. Adi Tantimedh, writing for ''Bleeding Cool'', praised the episode, highlighting the twist involving Conrad and the episode's social commentary.

Stefan Mohammed, writing for ''Den of Geek'', found several of the episode's plot points underdeveloped, believing that Ruby's decision to leave UNIT was not justified by her relationship with family and Kate, and that Conrad embodying all aspects of the social issues being discussed made him feel overcomplicated with unclear motivations. Despite this, he found Gibson's performance compelling and highlighted the episode's usage of Kate. Vicky Jessop, writing for the '' London Standard'', penned a positive review for the episode but felt Conrad's execution as an antagonist was weak and that the consequences of his actions were not explored well enough. Isobel Lewis from ''The A.V. Club'' opined that the episode had consistency issues not present in the rest of the series; she also found the plot as being too similar to "73 Yards", to which she negatively compared "Lucky Day".

References

External links

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