The Fifteenth Doctor's Timeline In "Lucky Day" Remembers Doctor Who's Biggest Ongoing Challenge
By Dan Bibby
Feel free to carry on reading if you don't care about spoilers for "Lucky Day."
Ncuti Gatwa is barely in Doctor Who's Ruby Sunday comeback episode, "Lucky Day," but the show really makes his reduced screen time count. In total, the Fifteenth Doctor appears in just three scenes. Sure, it's an improvement on last season's "73 Yards," but it's still a shockingly light workload for Doctor Who's current leading man. You'd think that Fifteen's presence in the story of "Lucky Day" would be pretty straightforward due to Millie Gibson taking the majority of the limelight. But no, the show manages to find new ways to subvert expectations when it comes to the Doctor's time-traveling nature.
Because the Doctor never stops traversing all of space of time, any reunions he experiences tend to take a little legwork to work out how well he knows the person he's meeting again, and if they even remember him. There are several permutations of this problem, but that's the long and short of it. However, Doctor Who quite often keeps things simple and just allows a Doctor's connection with a specific character to remain surprisingly linear. Of course, there are exceptions, and "Lucky Day" is a great example of one of those outliers.
Because the Doctor never stops traversing all of space of time, any reunions he experiences tend to take a little legwork to work out how well he knows the person he's meeting again, and if they even remember him. There are several permutations of this problem, but that's the long and short of it. However, Doctor Who quite often keeps things simple and just allows a Doctor's connection with a specific character to remain surprisingly linear. Of course, there are exceptions, and "Lucky Day" is a great example of one of those outliers.
The Fifteenth Doctor's Timeline Is All Over The Place Each Of The 3 Times Conrad Sees Him In "Lucky Day"
Conrad's encounters with the Doctor were not linear
Although the Doctor is only aware of two of them, Conrad has three encounters with him by the end of "Lucky Day." In the episode's opening minutes, a very young Conrad meets the Doctor and Belinda and receives the 50p piece he's later revealed to have turned into a necklace. This is the first time that Conrad meets the Doctor, but it's the latest point in the Doctor's personal timeline that he speaks with Ruby's villainous love interest.
The next time Conrad is in the Doctor's vicinity is when he happens upon the TARDIS as an adult, and watches as Ruby and the Doctor do battle with a loose Shreek. For the Doctor, he's just been through the events of "The Devil's Chord," so the scene is set within Gatwa's first season as the Time Lord. Therefore, this is the youngest the Doctor is in "Lucky Day." Conrad recognizes and remembers the Doctor, but the Doctor would not know who Conrad was if the two had spoken during this moment.
Finally, there is the conversation between Conrad and the Doctor when Gatwa's character uses the TARDIS to temporarily liberate the episode's bad guy. Fifteen is acting in his capacity as Ruby's friend, although she has already left the TARDIS at that point to bond with her recently-revealed birth mother. After a well-placed comment, Conrad works out that the Doctor has yet to meet Belinda. As such, Fifteen still has yet to give Conrad the 50p in 2007. The Shreek adventure has happened for Fifteen in this scene, though.
The Doctor & Conrad's 3 Meetings In Order (From Both Perspectives)
Let's break things down a little further
Both points of view can be difficult to imagine at the same time. If you're anything like me, it's easier to write it all down. The Doctor's timeline with Conrad isn't the most complex Doctor Who phenomenon, but there's no shame in admitting that it's not exactly simple either. Conrad's perspective is easier to follow, because his meetings with the Doctor happen in the same order as they're shown in "Lucky Day."
Conrad's POV of his encounters with the Doctor
- The Doctor & Belinda's landing in 2007 to get a Vindicator reading.
- The Doctor & Ruby's 2024 Shreek adventure.
- Speaking with the Doctor in the TARDIS in 2025.
The order in which Conrad's Doctor sightings happened from Fifteen's POV
- The 2024 Shreek adventure with Ruby.
- Speaking with Conrad in 2025 in the TARDIS.
- Meeting Conrad in 2007 and giving him the 50p.
"Lucky Day" Wouldn't Have Been Able To Play With The Doctor's Timeline If Fifteen Had Been The Main Character
Ruby's comeback arrived at the perfect time
"Lucky Day" obviously acknowledges the existence of the Doctor, but it instead focuses on what the Time Lord leaves in his wake. As well as former companions like Ruby, who are struggling to return to a normal existence, there are countless other individuals who are left confused by a time-traveling alien dropping in and out of their lives at random intervals. "Lucky Day" communicates this beautifully, and justifies the surprising decision to sideline Ncuti Gatwa once again.
Placing the Doctor front-and-center for an episode like "Lucky Day" would mean following his timeline in a far more linear fashion. The confusion (and, let's face it, probably fear) Conrad feels as a result of the Doctor's timey-wimey existence would have been completely lost, and the mavity of Conrad's story would also have been massively reduced. That being said, I'm glad that Doctor Who keeps episode structures like this for special occasions, or the show would get lost in its own formula very quickly.
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