'Doctor Who' Season 2 Episode 6 Review - Eurovision Meets Die Hard In The Explosive And Campy "The Interstellar Song Contest"
Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) and The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) | Photo Credit: Lara Cornell/BBC Studios/Disney/Bad Wolf
The Doctor and Belinda's journey back to May 24, 2025, takes them from 2019 Lagos to the depths of space, in the far future, on a space station hosting the 803rd Annual Interstellar Song Contest. Written by Juno Dawson and directed by Ben A. Williams, 'The Interstellar Song Contest' pays homage to one of Europe's most beloved traditions, the Eurovision Song Contest, in the most Doctor Who way possible. One part love letter to Eurovision and one part Die Hard -style thriller, 'The Interstellar Space Contest' is a delight from start to finish—even if the episode feels a good twenty minutes too short to really delve into everything it wants to explore. Still, it's a love letter to a European tradition wrapped in a very Doctor Who blanket and packed with huge ramifications for the upcoming two-part season finale. Welcome to Eurovision…in Space!
When the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda (Varada Sethu) land on the Harmony Arena space station in 2925, they find themselves in the audience of the 803rd Interstellar Song Contest. But as the festivities begin, a sinister force breaks into the control room and takes over the broadcast, expelling the audience into the cold depths of space and separating the Doctor and Belinda. Can the TARDIS stop the malevolent Kid (Freddie Fox) from committing mass murder? Or is the 803rd Interstellar Song Contest destined to go down in history for all the wrong reasons? Juno Dawson returns to Doctor Who (after penning the 'Doctor Who Redacted' podcast and the Thirteenth Doctor novel The Good Doctor ) with a story that combines Doctor Who 's penchant for camp mixed with horror and a genuine affection for the Eurovision Song Contest (what with its cameos from BBC Eurovision stalwarts Rylan Clark and Graham Norton).
Dawson's script strikes a good balance between Eurovision excess and Doctor Who drama, paying a lot of love to Eurovision's long cultural history with its campy Europop ballads and over-the-top performances while still sticking to what makes a good Doctor Who story. In this case, a base-under-siege tale mixed with some biting social commentary. It's all a bit Die Hard meets Doctor Who, with an over-the-top terrorist trying to cause as much destruction as humanly possible. But Dawson and director Ben A. Williams mostly pull it off, held together by some solid tension and a shockingly dark performance from Gatwa; his most Capaldi-influenced yet. It's the weakest episode of the season, hampered by some uneven pacing, but it's never anything less than delightful. Rylan Clark and Sabine (Julie Dray) | Photo Credit: James Pardon/BBC Studios/Disney/Bad Wolf Frenetic Pacing Leads to a Slightly Uneven Message
Where 'The Interstellar Song Contest' falters is in its pacing, suffering similar problems to 2018's 'Kerblam!'. 'Kerblam!' overlooks the atrocities of its Space Amazon analogue while focusing on its antagonist's misguided terrorist actions, and 'The Interstellar Song Contest' makes a similar mistake as it overlooks the atrocities committed by the Poppy Honey Corporation against the citizens of Hellia. Dawson's script (in its struggle to cram a story better suited for two parts into 45 minutes) and Fox's performance paint Kid so thinly that it makes him a cartoon caricature of a villain. Yes, Kid's plan to kill the three trillion people watching the completion as an act of revenge against one of its sponsoring companies is obviously horrendous. But there's a nuance to Kid's motivations that's hinted at in the script, mostly absent in Fox's over-the-top performance, and woefully underexplored as a whole that robs the situation of that nuance. 'You' Season 5 Review - A Satisfying, Gluttonous Send-Off
And like 'Kerblam!', 'The Interstellar Song Contest' offers no retribution for the evil company. No follow-up on the exposure of its misdeeds, hardly even a mention after the Doctor's defeat of Kid—except for Cora (Miriam-Teak Lee) singing a traditional Hellion song onstage. Perhaps that in itself could be a criticism of Eurovision's very milquetoast take on geopolitics, with its 'music brings everyone together' state of mind while some of its very contestants commit unspeakable atrocities. But the episode doesn't frame it this way; rather, it comes across as an unearned 'come together' moment in a way that leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Kid's actions are horrific, but so were those of the corporation he was seeking to punish, and a longer, slower-paced episode may have had ample room to explore that. Kid (Freddie Fox) and Wynn (Iona Anderson) | Photo Credit: James Pardon/BBC Studios/Disney/Bad Wolf Susan, Mrs. Flood, and the Destruction of Earth
A large part of the episode's franticness is its need to lay the groundwork for the two-part season finale—often in the most obvious of ways. Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson) keeps popping up in the crowd, rejoicing as the Doctor's Vindicator finally finishes its final scan, opening the door for the Doctor and Belinda (and Mrs. Flood herself?) to return home. There's that hologram of Graham Norton that gives a pretty big exposition dump in the final few minutes of the episode, telling the Doctor and Belinda all about the Earth's destruction on May 24, 2025. And then, most mysterious of all, are those flashes of the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan (Carole Ann Ford, reprising her role after 42 years' absence), on the TARDIS and telling the Doctor to find her.
Speaking of mysteries, this episode finally solves the mystery of Mrs. Flood. Last seen in the eighties, during the Seventh Doctor's era, the renegade Time Lady scientist known as The Rani returns as the episode reveals when Mrs. Flood bigenerates at the end, with Archie Panjabi taking over as the freshly bigenerated Rani. Just how she's back, what her plans are, and how they intersect with the rest of these storylines remains to be seen, but their inclusion here lays the groundwork for what's sure to be an explosive finale. Final Thoughts
Despite its frenetic pacing and underbaked commentary, 'The Interstellar Song Contest' still delivers an enjoyable Doctor Who take on a European cultural landmark. Sure, you can feel the episode struggle to cram all of its ideas into its meager 45-minute runtime, and the necessities of setting up the season's final two episodes occasionally steal the episode's focus. But Dawson's loving homage to Eurovision, combined with Gatwa's shockingly fierce performance, makes for appointment television nonetheless. Though it's the weakest episode in a season of absolute bangers, and the episode whose runtime feels most constrained, it's nevertheless a deeply fun Doctor Who experience that's sure to draw you back time and time again. All eyes, however, turn to next week's 'Wish World', the first half of a two-part finale, and the culmination of Mrs. Flood's machinations. Until then, let's just enjoy the ride so far.
New episodes of Doctor Who premiere Saturdays at 3 am on Disney+.
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