TV Recap: Ruby Sunday Returns with a Boyfriend Who’s Not All He Seems in This Week’s “Doctor Who”

It’s my lucky day, as there’s a new episode of Doctor Who! But is it a lucky day for a returning Ruby Sunday? Find out in my spoiler-filled recap of “Lucky Day."

Our story begins as the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda (Varada Sethu) manage to get the TARDIS to land on Earth in 2007, on New Year’s Eve specifically. While setting up another vindicator, they are surprised by a young boy in the same alleyway as them. The Doctor hands the boy a 50p coin and tells him it’s his lucky day (hah! That’s the name of the story). The boy, who’s name is revealed to be Conrad, takes the coin to his mother and tells her the story of his meeting, which she responds by hitting Conrad who is “spoiling her night."

We hear a grown up Conrad (Jonah Hauer-King) talk of following that blue box ever since, interviewing eyewitnesses. And he’s got the best catch yet, managing to track down Ruby Sunday for an interview on his podcast – which brings us to the title sequence. Post credits, voiceover from Conrad continues as he explains the second time he came across the TARDIS, just last year in 2024. After exploring around a room filled with some rather creepy, covered mannequins, this time he sees the Doctor with Ruby – who mentions that this takes place not thirty minutes after the events of “The Devil’s Chord."

Conrad gets a sticky green substance on him, which he overhears the Doctor telling Ruby (who also got marked with substance) that it marks you as future prey for some sort of creature. Fortunately, there is an antidote that Ruby receives, but not the stalking Conrad. As the Doctor and Ruby head back to the TARDIS, Conrad takes a hidden photo of Ruby – stupidly with the camera sound on, which causes Ruby to call out.

We then jump back to the present day and Ruby’s podcast recording with an increasingly smitten Conrad. Ruby talks a bit about her experience with aliens and what happened that day, while being questioned that perhaps aliens aren’t real from Conrad. After the interview, the two appear to start flirting with each other, which leads to a coffee date. She shows Conrad a video of the creature they were looking for, the Shreek, who live in a pocket dimension. She reveals that the Shreek came back exactly a year later, as Conrad was marked as its prey. Ruby gives Conrad the antidote and instructs him to drink it tonight.

Conrad tells Ruby about his meeting with the Doctor as a child, and shows that he’s still carrying around that lucky 50p coin as a necklace. He asks Ruby out to a proper dinner, which we get to see after a brief reintroduction to Ruby’s mum and grandma. Several scenes showcase Ruby and Conrad’s relationship blossoming, and we even get an appearance from Ruby’s birth mum. Conrad invites Ruby to a weekend away with some friends, and there, they decide to make things official.

Strange things start to happen, as Ruby notices the power going on the fritz at the bus station. The same thing appears to be happening at a pub, which prompts Ruby to call Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) at UNIT to see if anything is going on. Ruby talks about her paranoia and the two have a bit of a heart to heart. Kate says that they have the Shreek safely locked up at UNIT, and goes to check if it is indeed still there – it is. Cut back to the pub, where Ruby lets her feelings out to Conrad, revealing that she’s just constantly waiting for something to go wrong, perhaps a bit of PTSD from her travels with the Doctor.

An old lady comes into the pub saying that there’s a creature outside, which causes the pub patrons to go into a panic. Ruby quickly takes charge, as Conrad shares that he can be the Doctor for her. Ruby has Conrad stay inside, as he is the one that has been marked by the Shreek, while she goes out to investigate. Conrad doesn’t listen though, and follows her as there now appears to be multiple Shreeks.

UNIT arrives to take control of the situation, but in a brilliant plot twist, the Shreeks are revealed to just be men in costumes. They tried to fool UNIT with sound effects and these costumes, but perhaps even more disheartening, it’s revealed that Conrad and his friends are all in on it. In fact, Conrad is the boss. They are part of a group called Think Tank, whose goal is to “expose the lies perpetuated by UNIT." They’re live streaming what’s going on, as they reveal themselves to be skeptics of alien life and UNIT’s mission as a whole. Kate tells Conrad that he made “a very big, very dangerous mistake" and arrests him. Here, Conrad reveals himself to actually be a pretty vile guy, making fun of UNIT’s scientific advisor, Shirley Anne Bingham (Ruth Madeley) – who is in a wheelchair – and making fun of Ruby’s name.

We cut to newsclips reporting on the subject, which reveals that Conrad was released from jail due to public protest not 24 hours later. We get a number of TikTok social media posts of people agreeing with Conrad and Think Tank’s stance on UNIT, demanding the truth. Ruby, Kate and Shirley are now back at UNIT, which appears to already be getting some cuts thanks to Think Tank’s shenanigans. The UK cabinet is now supporting a full inventory of UNIT premises – which would not be good if anyone outside of the entity were able to get ahold of their technology.

A mole, Jordan, is revealed to be working within UNIT, and he lets an armed Conrad up into the headquarters. As Conrad confronts UNIT, Kate is getting increasingly frustrated with what he has done to undermine her and the organization, showing some deep anger, and protection for Ruby. As Conrad tries to get UNIT to admit to their “lying ways," Kate decides to take a drastic course of action by letting the Shreek loose on Conrad (who never took the antidote), despite her methods being questioned by everyone around her. In a harsh and rather terrifying scene, the Shreek comes after Conrad who pleads with UNIT to shoot it, but Kate refuses.

Ruby eventually tases the Shreek, and while Conrad initially shows gratitude, he doesn't really learn anything – as he stands up and declares that UNIT’s special effects are improving, before being bitten on the arm by a not-quite-dead Shreek. Ruby has another heart to heart with Kate, deciding that she needs a break from everything for a while to get her head around things, to which Kate gives her full support.

We then cut to Conrad in a jail cell, who appears to have a prosthetic arm of some sort now. As he sits there, we hear the sound of the TARDIS materializing, which brings Conrad on board the ship and face-to-face with the Doctor. The two have a tense conversation, as the Doctor shares his disgust with what Conrad has done on behalf of humanity and what Conrad did to Ruby. This serves as a really good metaphor for some of the ways people hide behind online and TV personas, making a lot of noise and weaponizing lies, but doing nothing to actually help society move forward. The antithesis of the Doctor.

Despite only appearing in a few scenes, Ncuti Gatwa provides an intense performance here as the Doctor, even revealing to Conrad exactly how he’s going to die – alone in a cell at age 49, having done nothing meaningful with his life. But despite all of this, Conrad says that he rejects the Doctor’s reality and asks to be put back in his cell. Back in the jail, someone is seen walking towards Conrad’s cell with a set of keys, and would you believe, it’s the mysterious Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson). Conrad asks if he imagined what just happened with the Doctor, to which she says, “no sweetheart. It’s ever so big, isn’t it?" Showing Conrad the keys, Mrs. Flood tells him it’s his lucky day as the credits roll.

While feeling like a bit of a shift from the previous three episodes, it was great to catch up with Ruby Sunday, and this episode does a great job of exploring the difficulties that can follow the Doctor’s companions after they leave him. I enjoyed the twist regarding Conrad, and thought Hauer-King did an excellent job portraying both sides to the character. As I mentioned, the story serves as an excellent parallel to the mess of influencers and talking heads in modern media that serve no other purpose than to stir the pot, and not actually solve any problems. Even though it was a Doctor-lite episode, I felt we saw enough of Ncuti to make him feel like a big part of the story, and as always, he explodes onto the scene with the little screen time given.

Next week takes us to Lagos, the mysterious Barber reigns supreme. The Doctor discovers a world where stories have power, but can he stop the Spider and its deadly web of revenge?