Doctor Who- The Interstellar Song Contest review

 

To be honest, I had been expecting this episode to be the season’s dud but it just goes to show that you can never predict what Doctor Who might do. From a spectacular opening through what is at times a surprisingly serious story yet one that also has its frivolous moments, `The Interstellar Song Contest`  is like one of those unfavoured  Eurovision entries that ends up winning the whole thing.

 

Spoilers past this point

 

I’d thought that releasing this on the same day as the actual Eurovision final takes place was a mistake as the real thing would seem bigger than a fictional contest that is supposedly on an intergalactic scale. Yet from the bravura opening shots of the Harmony Arena the production values are very impressive indeed. With just a hundred extras and a lot of very well realised digital effects we really feel the size of the hundreds of thousands of beings that are at this contest. Juno Dawson’s economical script knows just what is achievable and the production successfully delineates between simply being a futuristic Eurovision and something in its own right. Cameos of Rylan Clark and Graham Norton are successfully deployed without jarring while any idea that this story might be a camp romp is shoved aside within ten minutes or so when most of the audience are sucked into space and frozen. As an eye-popping opening gambit, it’s fearless and gripping.

So, while the episode is decidedly camp at times, very queer coded and delivers a strong message about genocidal tendencies it is also hugely entertaining and well structured despite the need to incorporate a lot of elements. As I seem to say every week it could do with being  two parter really. The pre publicity suggesting Eurovision meets Die Hard doesn’t actually play out with the characters being mostly static and  brightly lit sets - what happened to someone blowing all the lights out in these situations?! There’s still time for some signature moments, notably the Doctor powering himself through space with a glitter cannon. This is probably the silliest such action since the fifth Doctor did something similar with a cricket ball back in the day yet it provides a moment to cheer. Yet soon after we’re talking about a threat to billions of people. This shift from light to dark, from humour to deadly seriousness is something the episode does well. I know some people find these mood swings distracting but isn’t real life kind of like that?

Ncuti Gatwa delivers something of the rarely seen vengeful side of the Doctor and it always takes the viewer aback as happened during the closing scenes of `The Family of Blood`. On that occasion though his actions remained whereas here it is Belinda who manages to pull him back from the edge before he goes too far. While extravagant, emotional behaviour has become Gatwa’s go-to mode I do think he’s very good when trying some different things. The episode also provides Varada Sethu with some of her best scenes. Throughout the story, as in the old days, it is Belinda who is our eyes and ears and whether she thinks she’s stranded here without the Doctor or when his anger terrifies her, the actress is so strong conveying it. Miriam – Teak Lee is terrific as the secretive Cora even if her association with the Kid and Sabine is a bit convenient for driving some of the plot but her story is a sad one and the end song, despite being in an alien language, is beautiful. Freddie Fox also does a good job as the protagonist named Kid whose motivations turn out to be inconveniently complex for the moralising Doctor. One aspect that might have been further explored is the complicity of events that allow themselves to be financed or sponsored by organisations involved in murderous actions.

Juno Dawson does manage to fit in a number of layered characters without the episode ever seeming too rushed or crowded. Some have called “the moralising” in the episode too heavy handed but they are generally people who always say that. I thought it was a well thought through backstory with a good mix of the fantastical (poppy honey) and the allegorical. Fact is these kinds of things do happen and Doctor Who has always called them out in some context or other even sometimes right back to the classic series.

Of course, as it turns out that all of the Eurovision stuff is actually not the main talking point of this already busy episode. Beforehand Russell T Davies had warned fans to avoid social media ahead of viewing due to being spoilered and I actually did just that so imagine my surprise when we have the brief return of Susan in the moment when the Doctor is left floating in space something nobody could have predicted. Carole Ann Ford lends the episode a significance with just a few lines and the implication is she will be back to play a more substantial part shortly. Plus there is something surreal about someone in their eighties referring to someone in their thirties as “grandfather”.

Ever since the mystery of Mrs Flood got started online speculation has been that she is the Rani because Rani is an anagram of rain which causes floods. Thankfully – after the rather silly Sue Tech reveal last year- that explanation was not given on screen but the Rani she is in any case. And she bi- generates though I thought that only happened to the Doctor because of the Toymaker. So is he still pulling the strings? Curiously it seems as if when that happens there is a senior and a junior version. With the Doctor, the David Tenant version retired to a life of teatime in the garden. Here Anita Dobson seems to be the lackey of the new Rani played by Archie Pankjabi with what seems to be a little less camp than Kate O’Mara. I will miss the sly Mrs Flood though with her fourth wall looks and secrets. Somehow it doesn’t seem quite as interesting now its all out in the open. Younger viewers may also not be aware that the Rani is not really considered to be in the top pantheon of classic Doctor Who villains. For good measure just before this the Tardis doors blow open in a fiery blast.  

There’s a lot to digest in this episode but it chalks up another win for a season that is now looking like the most consistent since Peter Capaldi’s final run some eight years ago.