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Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Doctor Who, Review, TV | Tagged: doctor who
Doctor Who S02E04: Lucky Day Will Upset Everyone (As Davies Planned)
Doctor Who S02E04: "Lucky Day" may look like RTD playing his "greatest hits," but that's merely a front for when the big swings start.
Russell T. Davies is still not pulling any punches in Doctor Who. This week's episode, "Lucky Day," deals with Ruby's life back on Earth after she left the TARDIS, but also follows Conrad (Jason Hauer-King), who met the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) when he was a kid in 2007 and has been obsessed ever since. When he comes across The Doctor and Ruby chasing a creature in London during the year Ruby was with the Doctor, his life changes again. He invites her on his podcast to talk about her travels with The Doctor and her work with UNIT, and their relationship blossoms into romance, but is life with a former companion really going to be all rainbows and ice cream?
"Lucky Day" lulls you into thinking this is another typical Davies episode of Doctor Who – Ruby misses traveling with The Doctor and finds herself at odds trying to live life on Earth without him. Her romance with Conrad has all the signs of a typical, awkward, but sweet British romcom. This feels like a callback to Davie's past Doctor-lite episodes like "Love and Monsters" and his recurring theme of normal people obsessed with following rumours about The Doctor, like a reflection of fandom, but he already directly celebrated the fans in "Lux". Then the mask comes off, and the story takes a turn. The other Russell T. Davies reveals himself, the one who has observed the spread of conspiracy theories and the erosion of truth, the haters on the internet.
This is the Davies with the burning political anger at the hate-filled splintering of the world. He planned this – lulling viewers into a false sense of comfort and security with the first three episodes of the season with his familiar tropes and greatest hits before blowing it all up with the introduction of the most despicable villain in the series' history. Davies is in full command of pacing what he wants viewers to feel before the other shoe drops. He wants you upset and angry, and he's making a meta point that the comfy escapism of even Doctor Who can't stand up to the too-real horror of kindness and honesty being twisted and weaponised into looking like a lie by the gleefully malicious who just want to destroy people and things.
Doctor Who: Lucky Day is the darkest, most overtly political episode of the season so far that packs a significant punch, an examination of fake news weaponised via social media. Davies reminds us he hasn't gone soft as the episode burns with political anger and hatred for bigots, liars, and haters who just want to destroy for their own ego. It's as sharp as Davies' previous overtly political series, Years and Years and Torchwood: Children of Earth, with no real sense of relief even at the end, because the barrier between the escapist world of Doctor Who and ours has been kicked down. This season is stronger, darker, and even more focused than last season as Davies starts to make big swings. You really should watch this episode without spoilers.
Doctor Who is streaming on Disney+ outside the UK.
Doctor Who Season 2 Episode 4: "Lucky Day"
10/10
BBC and Disney+'s Doctor Who S02E04: "Lucky Day" turns out to be the darkest, most overtly political episode of the season so far that packs a major punch, an examination of fake news weaponised via social media. It's as sharp as Russell T. Davies' previous overtly political series "Days and Days" and "Torchwood: Children of Earth" with no real sense of relief even at the end.
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