Doctor Who's Lucky Day resolves one major series mystery
Who sent the Doctor in search of Belinda?
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Doctor Who episode Lucky Day.
There are a few significant mysteries at play in the new season of Doctor Who – but one big question posed this year has just been answered.
Season opener The Robot Revolution saw the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) in search of nurse Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), giving chase from present-day Earth to an alien world when she was abducted by androids. But why was he looking for her?
"I was told about you, by someone – it’s kind of a long story and I’ve got to be careful about timelines," the Doctor explained to Bel. "But he told me your name, that you would be important."
So, who told the Doctor about Belinda and tasked him with finding her?
Latest episode Lucky Day provides us with the reveal, opening with the Doctor's latest effort to get Belinda home as the pair arrive in London on New Year's Day 2007.
Here, they meet a young boy named Conrad Clark (Benjamin Chivers), whose brief interaction with the Doctor will end up having a profound impact.
We meet Conrad again as an adult (now played by Jonah Hauer-King), and while he initially appears to be a sweet-natured, alien-obsessed podcaster – even pursuing a romance with Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) – he is eventually unmasked as a devious con man who uses his digital platforms to amplify dangerous conspiracy theories for financial gain.
Ruby is left heartbroken by Conrad's deception, leading the Doctor to confront the now-jailed villain. However, this is a Doctor from an earlier point in his personal timeline, shortly after he and Ruby parted ways and prior to his first meeting with Bel that we witnessed in The Robot Revolution.
"You betrayed my friend," the Time Lord seethes, but Conrad simply scoffs: "You've had plenty of friends. Have you met Belinda Chandra yet?"
The Doctor doesn't know who Conrad is talking about and he refuses to elaborate, but the Doctor retorts with a few "spoilers" of his own, telling Conrad that he'll die aged just 49 of a heart attack, languishing in a prison cell "boiling in anger and poison".
"You aren’t even a figment, just ashes on the wind," he spits.
The episode ends with the Doctor having departed and the enigmatic Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) arriving at Conrad's cell, apparently to set him free – so has her intervention changed his fate that the Doctor foresaw?
Whatever happens next, we now know that it was Conrad Clark who set the Doctor on the path to meeting Belinda.
That's far from all of this season's mysteries resolved, though. Who is Mrs Flood? Why can't the Doctor return Belinda to Earth in 2025? And is it more than a coincidence that Belinda entered the Doctor's orbit after he'd previously met her descendant, Mundy Flynn?
Four more episodes to go until we find out...
Doctor Who continues next Saturday (10th May) on BBC One, with new episodes available from 8am on Saturdays on BBC iPlayer in the UK. The series is available on Disney+ outside of the UK.
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Authors
Morgan Jeffery is the Digital Editor for Radio Times, overseeing all editorial output across the brand's digital platforms. He was previously TV Editor at Digital Spy and has featured as a TV expert on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 5 Live and Sky Atlantic.
