This review contains spoilers for season 2, episode 6 of Doctor Who, “The Interstellar Song Contest.”
“The Interstellar Song Contest” somehow manages to squeeze in enough moving parts that it could probably fuel an entire season of Doctor Who. A galactic Eurovision in space (debuting the day of its earthbound counterpart’s final round), well-realised antagonists, surprise cameos, and more all jostle for attention in a tight 45-minute runtime. It’s a lot to take in, and the episode does end up a little bloated, but the script holds it all together with a sharp sense of fun. Writer Juno Dawson gleefully leans into Doctor Who’s love of big, pulpy sci-fi spectacle, wheeling out “delta waves” and “mavity” jokes, and the result is an episode that feels remarkably alive and focused in spite of all it has to pay attention to. Director Ben A. Williams even matches Dawson’s maximalist energy with confident, striking visuals, none more so than a chilling sequence where 100,000 people are flung out of a space station. It’s yet another stand-out example of season 2 nailing its horror-inspired themes – the scene alone is one of the highlights of the whole season.
It’s also the season’s best showing from its side characters so far. With so much plot to juggle, it would have been easy to let them blur into the background like usual, but “The Interstellar Song Contest” gets surprising mileage out of its supporting cast. Even the episode’s cameos (such as Rylan and Graham Norton) serve a larger purpose, but none more notable than the dramatic reappearance of Carole Ann Ford as Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter. It’s a huge cameo that avoids feeling like empty fan service, with just enough weight to justify its impact. Despite everything “The Interstellar Song Contest” is already trying to balance, the episode makes a clear effort to ensure its characters actually matter, not just take up space, whether that’s in a one-off appearance or the return of the character that gave the very first Doctor Who serial its name.
The same can be said for this week’s main threat, “Kid” and “Wynn,” members of an alien race known as the Hellions, humanoids with distinctive horns protruding from their heads. They won’t be troubling any all-time great lists, but rather than rolling out moustache-twirling schemes, their plan is rooted in a tangible motivation: revenge for the destruction of their homeworld for profit, an event tied to the Song Contest’s corporate sponsor. This also ties neatly into one of the season’s strongest throughlines: its timely and affecting look at issues of race, displacement, and discrimination. From the Doctor and Belinda’s reflections on community in “The Story & The Engine” to the unflinching depiction of 1960s racism in “Lux”, these topics have been explored with a deft hand so far this season, and that continues with the broad-but-effective allegory for the marginalized that is the Hellions.
It’s easy to empathise with their anger, made all the more troubling when considering that they’re out to kill 3 trillion people in response. That makes pitting them against the Doctor increasingly more interesting. Their confrontations are surprisingly intense, and “The Interstellar Song Contest” even does a good job of playing up 15’s quirky veneer to set up a dramatic jolt later on. One minute he’s blasting back into the space station on a confetti cannon, the next he’s lashing out. His sudden outburst reveals a darker edge that has been largely hidden this season, and it’s a welcome return of a more complex side to the character. But while the intent is clear and the scene mostly works, it does feel a little sudden.
As we approach the end of the season, Belinda remains a captivating presence, but she also feels like someone caught in the same character development rush as the Doctor. Her unique background provides a sturdy foundation, but her connection with the Time Lord now ironically feels both hyper-accelerated and strangely static, forced to carry the emotional heft of an incoming two-part finale without the organic growth a longer episode, or season, might have allowed. There are several great ideas sprinkled throughout “The Interstellar Song Contest”, such as Belinda’s fear of being displaced in time and space, or her distrust of the Doctor after seeing the Time Lord’s rage, but it all ends up feeling rather sidelined by the end. Ultimately, while “The Interstellar Song Contest” is bursting with ideas, and its ambitious scope is one of the many reasons it’s so enjoyable, it also unfortunately gets squeezed by the season’s eight-episode sprint. Still, it’s a testament to its energy and ambition that it remains so undeniably charming, even if it leaves you wishing there was just that little bit more to experience.
