Doctor Who: Lucky Day Review - 7 Ups & 3 Downs
9. UP - Conrad Clark
In the climax of Lucky Day, Conrad Clark strides into UNIT HQ armed with a gun and wearing a baseball cap, a hoodie and a bodycam. It's a striking image that draws uncomfortable parallels with real-world radicals. It's the ugly reality of online radicalisation stepping into the fantastical world of Doctor Who with its aliens and comedy robots.
Conrad Clark and his fellow conspiracy theorists are a great Doctor Who allegory for those who believed COVID is a hoax. They think the policies in place to protect humanity from Yeti in the underground are social control, and it's telling that Conrad refuses to take the very medicine that will stop him from dying at the hands of the Shreek. It's therefore utterly thrilling when Conrad's anti-vaxx sentiment comes back to literally bite him in the arm.
As a character, Conrad Clark is constructed brilliantly by writer Pete McTighe. Conrad doesn't really believe that the TARDIS and UNIT and aliens aren't real, he's just angry that he's never been asked to be part of that world. Jonah Hauer-King plays an absolute blinder as Conrad, his transformation into smug, smiling sociopath is utterly compelling to watch.
What's also interesting is that Ruby is the only character in whom Conrad doesn't bring out the worst...