Doctor Who released another episode, titled "Lucky Day," and by the cold open, I saw that it was going to be more like season 2's "Love and Monsters." Admittedly, I liked this episode more than I liked "Love and Monsters," with two small caveats. Let's get into it.
This was a Doctor-lite episode, and didn't really feature much of Belinda, season 2's companion, either, but instead focused on Ruby Sunday. I loved Ruby in season 1, and I loved her here, and Millie Gibson is a fantastic actress. The Doctor finds this guy named Conrad Clark in 2007 on New Year's where the Doctor gifts him a 50 p coin. When he shows it to his mother, his mother degrades and slaps him. Methinks he has some mother issues going on given the content of the rest of the episode.
Ruby then meets him later and she goes on his podcast to talk about the Doctor and UNIT. I guess one of the good things that Chris Chibnall did is bring back Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT., although I can't say much else about the previous showrunner's tenure. Anyway, I've digressed. Ruby ends up dating the guy, but it turns out that a year prior to them dating, Conrad was marked as future prey by an alien known as the Shreek.
As far as alien design goes, I liked the Shreek. The idea of a hunting alien tends to work for me, and the whole pheromone thing makes sense without too much explanation. I think it works for the episode as a one-off thing.
It turns out that later, in a small town (I'm assuming, I've never been to the UK), while Ruby and Conrad are on a date, the Shreek seems to be on the prowl despite Kate confirming that they have it locked up at UNIT HQ. It turns out that Conrad was in fact a far-right conspiracy theorist podcaster that was trying to expose UNIT for their "lies" about how aliens are a threat to the planet and that they're actually just people in costumes that the government is wasting money on.
I love when Doctor Who is topical, don't you? And this is a British show, so watching it from afar in the US is.... I'll let you, the reader, finish that thought.
Anyhow, Ruby gets moved into a safe house along with her family, and it all comes to a head when Conrad breaks into UNIT HQ, steals a gun, and threatens the lives of Kate, Ruby, and Shirley. Conrad jibs at Kate bringing up her father, and at Ruby bringing up the Doctor. Kate tells Conrad that he consider himself lucky that the Doctor wasn't there as he would've stopped Kate from siccing the Shreek on Conrad and letting it hunt him until he was literally in danger.
And here we come to the first of my two small caveats with this episode. Kate took fighting Conrad's disinformation scheme a little too far there. I'm glad the episode later acknowledged that with the guard talking to Kate afterwards, but still, in the moment, it felt gross. Yeah, the Doctor is trapped elsewhere (I'll get to that in a second), but I'd imagine that the rest of the Doctor's former companions would probably like to have a word with Kate about that if they found out about it (Mel, Donna, and Rose I would imagine mostly). It only slightly hampered my enjoyment of the episode, but I did want to throw that caveat in there because it's pulling on me. I'm currently watching through the Star Trek franchise in a semi-chronological order, so one thing on my mind is how one should value life even if they don't. I think the Orville, a parody of and homage to Star Trek created by Seth McFarlane, says it best: "Show the galaxy that humans are different, that we value life, even when our enemies don’t!"
I won't spend too long on that scene, it got the paragraph it deserved. Moving on to the end of the episode with Conrad's encounter with the Doctor while in prison. I liked that the Doctor got to give this talk to him. It reminds me of the failed companion idea they tried to do (and I think landed successfully) in season 1 with Adam Mitchell in "The Long Game." I also think it proves to put this story in the timeline continuinty of the Doctor's story (as he meets Belinda Chandra and the Doctor when he was eight years old in 2007, so he knows that the Doctor will travel with Belinda at some point), and I assume he knows that the Doctor is a time traveler from talking to Ruby throughout them dating. The Doctor is asked if he's traveling with Belinda yet, and the Doctor doesn't seem to know who Belinda is. I'd imagine the bulk of this episode takes place in-between season 1 and 2 (minus the bit at the beginning in 2007).
Now to my second caveat: Mrs. Flood. Listen, I like a fourth wall break. I do. I like mysterious characters. I do. I really liked Severance's characters that have a lot of mystery to each of them that gets unfolded throughout the season. One reason I liked Severance's first season that Doctor Who is missing with Mrs. Flood is that one of the main questions a viewer may have is in regards to the identities of our main four characters outside of Lumon (other than Mark, of course, as we're shown glimpses of his outie's life throughout the season). Those get somewhat answered at the end of the season, and we get the biggest answer of all about Helly's identity (which I'll keep secret here in case you haven't seen Severance as this article is not a spoilered review of that show). Anyways, Doctor Who has been stringing along the mystery of who Mrs. Flood is or even what she's doing here for two seasons. I'm tired of it. Also, it would be one thing to be reminded of her every now and again throughout the season, but she's showing up in every episode now. I'm over it. Tell us why she's here or keep her out of the episode.
That sums up my review of the episode. I'm definitely excited for next week's episode as it looks like we'll be diving into some African mythos.