Spoilers Lucky Day grade and discussion thread

[jaime]

I have to admit it was a good ploy in the sense that when he insulted the Brigadier, it aggravated me. And agree they went that route to make you buy her actions. But that's like a cop beating a prisoner because he insulted your mom. I'm sure it happens but I'd also think Kate is better than that.

A realistic ending to the story would involve charging him with tax invasion as they implied he was doing in the story. That worked with Capone. Maybe not as satisfying storywise though!

The way to make it work is to have the thing escape because of his actions (not because it was waiting for an uber by sheer chance in that one set they have..) breaking in, it works its way up the tower, and then Kate giving the order to *not* help him. It’s what he requested. ‘I would not want to do anything with Conrad’s own consent’ and then it’s all pretty much fine. But they went for this instead, for… reasons.

 

[Starkers]

Meh, what does on between two consenting adults is their business.

She's literally his boss. Switch the genders around and see how that looks.

 

[Starkers]

First chance I've had to post about it and I saw it live!

Anyhoo. An odd one to call. I'll be honest, up until the twist I thought it was pretty poor (and I like Ruby).

I didn't see the twist coming, and it was way more interesting in the second half of the episode, though I still had issues with it. I get that sometimes episodes have to be on the nose, but this was so much of a sledge hammer I'd thought RTD had written it. Saw someone on Bluesky quote Garth Merenghi's "I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards!"

Conrad was a much better villain than, say, the guy in Rosa, but it does seem amazing no one had heard of Think Tank, and UNIT's vetting procedure is obviously terrible.

Loved Kate being a badass, and guessed exactly what she was going to do. Thought the Doctor popping in at the end was a good performance from both actors but soooo heavy handed.

And how come the Doctor doesn't then recognise Conrad at the start given he clearly knew all about him/his history?

Decent but the weakest episode of the season so far for me. And the first that hasn't been better than the corresponding episode of last season (and yet again RTD has a clear pattern.)

Episode 1. The lighter, comedy episode that's actually darker than you think. Robot Revolution is better than Space Babies.

Episode 2. The play with the formula, crazy fantastical episode, a musical last season, a partially animated episode this year. Lux was better than The Devil's Chord.

Episode 3. The dark, gritty, filmed in a quarry episode where people gonna die horribly. Can't believe I'm going to say this but I think The Well is (just) better than Boom.

Episode 4. The Doctor lite, Ruby heavy episode featuring UNIT. 73 Yards was way better than this.

Can't tell about episode 5 yet but episode 6 seems a slam dunk as the mirror image of last season, the episode riffing on a popular cultural phenomena (Bridgerton/Eurovision)

 

[The Wormhole]

She's literally his boss. Switch the genders around and see how that looks.

Granted it is a questionable judgment call, but I'm not going to clutch pearls over it.

 

[Richard Baker]

My favorite part was when Ruby was describing the Shreek and the diner darkened, lighting went red and it became night outside. When she finished everything popped back to normal, well done.
This season is better than the last IMO

 

[jaime]

My favorite part was when Ruby was describing the Shreek and the diner darkened, lighting went red and it became night outside. When she finished everything popped back to normal, well done.
This season is better than the last IMO

It’s possible that’s a way to make the Doctor/Belinda/Conrad scene as well as all the other scenes of Conrad in the past into unreliable narration.

 

[Chakoteya]

My favorite part was when Ruby was describing the Shreek and the diner darkened, lighting went red and it became night outside. When she finished everything popped back to normal, well done.
This season is better than the last IMO

That was him remembering the empty shop from a year back. When that couple came in and the bell by the door went ding, he was back in the room.
As far as I am concerned, anyway.

 

[jaime]

I see a lot of comments on YouTube giving the episode a high rating because they like the message. Which is sort of fair enough, and sort of… not really useful at the same time. Paradise Towers had a good message. It doesn’t make it good. Love and Monsters had a message. Kerblam! Had a message… anyway.
The presence of a message, that you agree with, doesn’t make a piece of art good.
It’s really about the execution, and in SF usually the power of the allegory. I’m not entirely sure one so thinly veiled as this (and open to misinterpretation, some reviewers have mentioned getting ‘just stop oil’ vibes from Conrad) even counts as allegory.

Still. It’s an interesting way to think about it.

I therefore declare Battlefield to be the greatest Who serial of all time, as it features a level of political correctness that I am absolutely fine and on board with (Black Woman Brig, Chinese Girl, Old Men Everywhere, a Powerful Woman Sort-of-Villain, and a Blind Person! I am sure people had a fit of the vapours…) and the best message ever (War Bad, Especially War with Weapons of Mass Destruction!) It also had very low viewing figures, so that’s worth an extra gold star.

(I am likely not even joking. I actually do love Battlefield, it’s let down only by Ben and Fiona not having a clue how to use/say ‘shame’ and some odd cheap production design choices. And it might even contend for my favourite. It’s just also an excellent example of everything some groups don’t like about modern Who, and other groups do like about Modern Who, except Battlefield actually does it all right.)