The Doctor vs. Conrad was a satisfying fight
Every version of the Doctor is different. Some versions are quick to anger, others are childish, and then there is Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. He’s jovial, happy, until you come for one of his friends and then it doesn’t end well.
In the episode “Lucky Day,” the Doctor met Conrad when he was a young man and gave him a coin. He promised him a lot of things and it ended up hurting Conrad in the end. His own mother told him to stop lying and that turned into adult Conrad (played by Jonah Hauer-King) being angry at the world. He used Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) to expose the “lies” he thought UNIT was pushing and even when confronted with the truth, he tried to say it was all pretend.
While the Doctor did not play a very big role in the episode, we did get to see him in the end. And for Conrad, he maybe should have been a bit nicer to Ruby. After Conrad tricks Ruby into dating him, it ends up with him saying that the government and UNIT are lying to everyone about aliens. He says that it is all make-believe and even breaks into UNIT to prove his point.
That’s when Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) has had enough and shows him the reality of what has been hunting him. Even when it is proven that Conrad’s ideas about UNIT are wrong, he briefly tries to dismiss what he saw until he’s literally attacked. It’s a commentary on misinformation, what people will fight, and conspiracy theories.
But what I loved most about the episode (outside of getting to see Ruby Sunday again) was seeing the Doctor get angry and protective over his friends.
Don’t hurt a friend of the Doctor’s
One of the moments in “Lucky Day” that really worked was when the Doctor confronted Conrad. The entire episode, Conrad spoke negatively about the Doctor who he met but never saw again and thought that he knew better. So when he does meet the Doctor again, one thing is clear: Don’t hurt his friends.
The Doctor explains that you don’t just get to come onto the TARDIS because you want to. You are special if you’re invited in but because of how he treated Kate and Ruby, the Doctor brought Conrad on to end it. He told him about his future, showed his anger, and put Conrad back in his prison cell. I don’t think that’s the end of Conrad but knowing how the Doctor feels about him does make their interaction so interesting.
He’s mad. On behalf of Kate, the legacy of UNIT, and Ruby but to see the Doctor really just use fear in this way was a fascinating new side to his character. We’ve seen him angry, protective, and upset but this was a new kind of “mad” for the Time Lord and it was really fascinating to see how Conrad faired up against the Doctor. And now I hope we get to see them square off again.
(featured image: Disney+)
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