Lucky Day (Doctor Who)

316 – "Lucky Day"
Doctor Who episode
Promotional title-card
Cast
Doctor Ncuti Gatwa – Fifteenth Doctor
Companions Varada Sethu – Belinda Chandra Millie Gibson – Ruby Sunday
Others Benjamin Chivers – Young Conrad Kirsty Hoiles – Moira Clark Jonah Hauer-King – Conrad Clark Gethin Alderman – The Shreek Kareem Alexander – Jordan Lang Michelle Greenidge – Carla Sunday Angela Wynter – Cherry Sunday Faye McKeever – Louise Miller Madison Stock – Elsa Paddy Stafford – Sparky Blake Anderson – Jack Aoife Gaston – Michelle Paul Jerricho – Alfie Michael Woodford – Derek Jemma Redgrave – Kate Lethbridge-Stewart Alexander Devrient – Colonel Christofer Ibrahim Tina Gray – Audrey Ruth Madeley – Shirley Bingham Lachele Carl – Trinity Wells Reeta Chakrabarti – Herself Joel Dommett – Himself Alex Jones – Herself Calypso Cragg – Influencer 2 James Craven – Influencer 3 Selorm Adonu – Influencer 1 Aidan Cook – The Vlinx Nicholas Briggs – Voice of the Vlinx Anita Dobson – Mrs Flood
Production
Directed by	Peter Hoar
Written by	Pete McTighe
Script editor	David Cheung
Produced by	Vicki Delow
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner Jane Tranter Joel Collins Phil Collinson
Music by	Murray Gold
Series	Series 15
Running time	46 minutes
First broadcast	3 May 2025
Chronology
← Preceded by "The Well" Followed by → "The Story & the Engine"
List of episodes (2005–present)

"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 wants to "expose" UNIT for their goals being "fake", 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. He used the episode to explore Ruby and Kate's characters while also exploring the "the spread of online hatred" and its effects. The episode's monster, the Shreek, was based off of 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 identity, and the episode's social commentary, but were more critical of underdeveloped plotlines in the episode, as well as the execution of Conrad as an antagonist.

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

At a weekend away at Conrad's home village, Ruby fears she is in danger and 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 orchestrated by Conrad, whose relationship with Ruby was a ploy, against UNIT. A scandal breaks and Conrad and his followers continue to perpetuate disinformation about the non-existence of aliens, discrediting UNIT.

After Conrad publishes details of UNIT employees, Kate realises he has an insider in UNIT. The insider sneaks Conrad 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, although it manages to injure Conrad's arm. Public sentiment turns in UNIT's favour, though 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 the Doctor berates him for harming Ruby and his friends. Conrad asks the Doctor if he has yet met Belinda, who the Doctor has not, since that's his future. The Doctor tells Conrad that he will die in prison and be forgotten by history. However, after the Doctor leaves Conrad, Mrs Flood releases him.

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.^[1] McTighe had previously written episodes under former showrunner Chris Chibnall.^[2] When writing the episode, he 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 past. McTighe described the episode as a mix between action, romantic comedy, and gothic horror. He also compared one of the main settings to Devil's End from the 1971 serial The Dæmons and the fact that it was a Ruby-centric story to the 2024 episode "73 Yards".^[3]

Ruby was referred to as having post-traumatic stress disorder following her time with the Doctor, which Davies wanted to portray in the episode.^[4][5] The episode also 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."^[1] McTighe developed the Shreek off the idea of a "four-legged, creeping animal", leaning into his childhood fears about dog-like creatures in the dark. He made its motivations simple, with a desire to hunt, to make a monster that could not be reasoned with and terrifying.^[1] Prior to this, the Shreek were first mentioned in Caged, a 2024 Doctor Who novel by Una McCormack. McTighe also included a number of Easter egg references to past episodes and popular culture.^[6] "Lucky Day" is a "Doctor-lite" episode,^[7] which Davies stated required them to find "inventive ways" to include the Doctor, one of which is a flashback to a story set in the previous series.^[8] The read-through took place at Wolf Studios Wales on 7 November 2023.^[1]

The episode starred Millie Gibson (left) and Jonah Hauer-King (right) as Ruby Sunday and Conrad Clark.

Millie Gibson returns as outgoing series regular and former companion Ruby Sunday.^[9][10] It is the first of two 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".^[11][12] 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.^[13] Further details later revealed that Hauer-King would portray Conrad, a podcaster and Ruby's boyfriend.^[14]

Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu also make brief appearances as the fifteenth incarnation of the Doctor and his companion, Belinda Chandra, respectively.^[15] Paul Jerricho who plays Alfie previously held the role of the Castellan in "The Five Doctors" (1983).^[16] Lachele Carl reprised her role as newsreader Trinity Wells.^[17] Alex Jones appears as herself, a Welsh presenter on The One Show interviewing Conrad.^[5] The remainder of the guest cast includes Jemma Redgrave, Ruth Madeley, Michelle Greenidge, Angela Wynter, Alexander Devrient, and Anita Dobson, as well as Nicholas Briggs in a voice role.^[18]

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 in the episode by Conrad's friends were designed as derivative versions of the primary Shreek costume. The design team at Millenium FX had a designer look at the primary Shreek costume once and then construct the 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 are unable to see inside the mask, requiring outside direction for the actors to know where they need to go.^[5]

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.^[5] Costume designer Pame Downe designed Ruby's outfits with dark blue and green colors, which Gibson felt were "more mature colors". 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.^[19]

Filming occurred in the Welsh village of Newton, Porthcawl (pictured).

"Lucky Day" is directed by Peter Hoar.^[20] 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.^[21][22][23] The two episodes in this block were filmed concurrently by utilizing a back-to-back filming technique.^[5] Principal photography for the episode began on 14 November 2023.^[21][23] Gibson and Hauer-King were spotted filming scenes together two days later.^[24]

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.^[5]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
The A.V. Club	B-[25]
Bleeding Cool	10/10[26]
Evening Standard	[27]
GamesRadar+	[28]
IGN	7/10[29]
Radio Times	[30]
Vulture	[31]

"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.^[32] A BBC One broadcast of the episode followed at 7:10 p.m. BST.^[33] Disney also handled international distribution of the episode.^[34]

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.^[35]

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.^[29] 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 utilizing "the trope that survivors of abuse perpetuate that cycle of abuse" was overused.^[36] Adi Tantimedh, writing for Bleeding Cool, praised the episode, highlighting the twist involving Conrad and the episode's social commentary.^[26]

Stefan Mohammed, writing for Den of Geek, found several of the episode's plot points underdeveloped, stating that Ruby's character arc was undermined by her strong home life 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.^[37] Vicky Jessop, writing for the London Standard, positively highlighted the episode, though felt Conrad's execution as an antagonist was weak, and that the consequences of his actions were not explored well enough.^[27] Isobel Lewis, writing for The A.V. Club, stated the episode had consistency issues not present in the rest of the series; she also found it to retread similar ground to previous series episode "73 Yards", to which she negatively compared "Lucky Day".^[25]