Doctor Who: Lucky Day Review - 7 Ups & 3 Downs
8. DOWN - The Doctor
Which brings us to the Doctor, who turns up at the end to deliver the moral and the message.
"Cowards like you, weaponising lies, taking people's insecurity and fear and making it currency. You are exhausting. You stamp on the truth, choke our bandwidth and shred our patience. Because the only strategy you have is to wear us down. But the thing is, Conrad, I have energy to burn and all the time in the universe."
Ncuti Gatwa's steelier delivery means this is likely destined to feature in future lists of great Doctor Who speeches, but it runs the risk of undermining the episode and the character. Conrad's refusal to be cowed by the Last of the Time Lords is definitely an interesting beat. However, Fifteen taking the bait and telling Conrad he'll die alone undermines our hero, proving that this smug sociopath can even bring out the worst in the Doctor!
In its best moments, Lucky Day works as well as it does because the Doctor has no business being in it. This is a story about a very human problem that the Doctor cannot fix, so it would have been best to keep him on the sidelines.