Doctor Who Episodic Coverage: “Lucky Day”

“Lucky Day” Is A Bunch Of Good Ideas Badly Done

I sadly disliked “Lucky Day” more than I expected. I get the vision. The idea is sound. Frankly, like a lot of episodes in this season so far, this is such a cool idea for a Doctor Who episode. But as time has gone on, I’ve been less and less fond of this one.

I’m almost sure I can isolate the reason, too. If I had to name one thing, it’s the twist in “Lucky Day” doesn’t have enough room to breathe once it happens. They have to go into such intense exposition to get the viewer up to speed that it doesn’t feel like I’m experiencing a story. I keep saying episodes should’ve been two-parters, but this one especially would’ve worked as one. Have the twist be a cliffhanger!

Putting This Much Into An Episode Causes Issues

What’s funny, though—with all this—is how my opinion of “Lucky Day” had already been bouncing back and forth by that point in the runtime. Before the twist, I had problems that occasionally were repaired. The romance seemed sappy until it actually was pretty cute. The premise of the story was weird until it started to make some sense. A lot of things Conrad did seemed very contrived, but then the twist saved it.

Honestly, for a glorious few minutes, I was utterly blown away by how good “Lucky Day” was. I love that the show managed to trick me. I love the social commentary. It hadn’t even occurred to me that people would obviously—they have a huge tower—be fully aware of U.N.I.T., and some would doubt them. The story was cracked wide open for all sorts of cool ideas.

“Lucky Day” Posits Some Intriguing Plot Scenarios

But, again, the way they use that new idea is just awkwardly handled. A villain who’s a fear-mongering, radicalized would-be murderer who uses social pressure to attack U.N.I.T. is fascinating. But not even showing any of the meetings that threaten to defund U.N.I.T. is just rushing things. Showing a quick series of social media posts is not effective enough. And, the most annoying: having him show up, with almost no help, at the exact same time the Shreek just so happens to be nearby.

The saving grace is that the standoff is great. Lots of interesting character moments there. Kate being willing to free a monster and potentially endanger everyone around Conrad is not something I expected. I could spend a long time thinking about what Ruby was feeling during all of that. And, of course, Conrad’s actor did an amazing job flipping through all the emotions required in a scene like this. I know they couldn’t show the gore, but I am curious about what exactly happened as the camera cut away. It’s honestly shocking Conrad only lost an arm.

One Of The Last Scenes In “Lucky Day” Is Riveting

But then “Lucky Day” goes on a little longer, and it gets yet messier. This episode already didn’t have the space to work with, so also having a scene where the TARDIS breaks its own spatial rules so the Doctor could chastise the villain for a moment felt unnecessary. I get it’s partially meant to set up some weird timeline shenanigans through the dialog, but we could’ve just had an even shorter stinger where Ms. Flood frees Conrad, much like how the monster got away in “The Well.”

So, despite having a lot of elements I like—horror, social commentary, effective twists—in an episode of Doctor Who, I think “Lucky Day” is my least favorite of the four we’ve gotten. Conrad and <Think_Tank> could be interesting recurring villains for later episodes, or seasons, though, and at least we get the implication that may just happen. So, at least that came out of all this.

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