"Lucky Day"

A week on from the sequel to "Midnight", we have a more spiritual successor, and not just to one story. An everyday man has an encounter with the Doctor as a child and becomes obsessed with finding him, accumulating a group of like minded individuals in his quest to find the Doctor's companion. Despite this being the same premise as "Love & Monsters", the result is very different. Instead of the fundamentally decent Elton Pope, we have the decidedly more malign Conrad Clark and this twists "Love & Monsters" into a decidedly unpleasant shape. Instead of the guilt that Elton feels in his search for Rose, Conrad's manipulation of Ruby is utterly cruel. Instead of finding love and friendship in his search, Conrad finds enablers who match him in malevolence, though definitely not intelligence. "The Well" didn't have the social commentary on groupthink that "Midnight" had, but this is delivered in spades here. Anyone with a condenser microphone and a smartphone can make a podcast and Conrad has weaponised his own resentment. One of the infuriating things about post-lockdown is the lack of nuance in public debate. Admitting that you were wrong is almost unheard of. Changing your mind means that your followers turn against you. Whether or not you know you're wrong becomes irrelevant. Pete McTighe wrote some of the best stories of the Chibnall era and his return is very welcome.  

As with "Dot and Bubble" all of this hinges on a very unpleasant character being brought to life by a skilled performance. Jonah Hauer-King is totally believable as someone who could charm a person into believing that they were a normal lovestruck young man, whilst being a toxic narcissist. The smirk that Conrad gives after he imagines losing subscribers after admitting the truth is perfect. However, the other prominent character is one that we are very familiar with and we have the very welcome return of Millie Gibson as Ruby. Despite the fact that you can buy whiskeys at the supermarket that are older than her, her maturity and charisma is astonishing. There is very little for Belinda to do here, but we are in good hands. Kate returns (with a seemingly very good friend) as we are given a UNIT story where the greatest threat is social media. As with Lindy in "Dot and Bubble", we have some context. Conrad clearly had a troubled childhood (we are shown a child being hit, for the first time) and the fact that he supports his mother can be seen as commenting either on how nuanced familial relationships are, or how toxic relationships can become normalised. Or possibly both.

Peter Hoar returns with a slick production that makes it look like Ruby is the lead in an X-Files type programme, with nods to the brilliant "73 Yards" from the previous season. Like that story and "Love & Monsters", this is low on Time Lords. However Ncuti Gatwa burns in his few scenes. There are no tears here, just kindness and cold fury.

Doctor Who again shows that its days of commenting on current human behaviour are not over. It is wrenching to see some of the very true-to-life behaviour on display. Yet such is the skill of the production, it remains highly watchable.

NEXT: "The Story and the Engine"