The Interstellar Song Contest - a review

Big Spoilers ahead, though if you've got this far in the day without catching social media then you're probably going to be watching the evening broadcast and won't be reading this until later anyway.

There was obviously a great deal of hype in advance of this episode, as (a) it was scheduled to broadcast on the evening of the Eurovision Song Contest, (b) it would guest star real Eurovision personalities Rylan Clark and Graham Norton, and (c) Ncuti Gatwa would later be the celeb who was going to announce the UK's voting. Unfortunately for Whovian Eurovision fanatics, who are apparently legion, Gatwa has dropped out at the last minute, to be replaced with the daughter of a former Doctor Who guest actor.

I went into it with a certain degree of trepidation as I thought the hype was just so much gimmickry, and I really can't stand Eurovision. Can't say I've seen it since the 1970's, when the only controversy was Greece and Turkey always giving each other Nil Points, but what I have seen of it lately online hasn't encouraged me to return to it. It's all too terribly tacky for me.

Norton has form with the series, none of it positive thanks to two unplanned intrusions in the past. He and Clark are well known in the UK, but does their presence have the slightest meaning to viewers outwith this country?

So, is this story nothing more than a gimmicky cash-in, or does it actually stand up in its own rights as a decent Doctor Who story?

Douze Points, or Nil Points? A Sandie Shaw hit, or an Olly Alexander flop?

From the little information we could glean from advance publicity, it looked like the main plot was some sort of terrorist attack on the titular Song Contest, and this proved to be the case. A young couple from the planet Hellia hijack the space arena hosting the event in revenge for the planetary devastation wrought by its sponsor, an outfit known as The Corporation. 

First they eject the vast majority of audience members and participants into space, and then they set up a Delta Wave which will fry the brains of everyone watching its broadcast across the galaxy. This latter action immediately brought to mind the finale of Series 1 in 2005, which also saw a mash-up of popular culture with Doctor Who, and involved a Delta Wave projection.

This might sound terrible, but I think that they really ought to have left the victims dead. It was a shocking, adult moment for the show, and I think it was totally undermined by the fact that they could all be saved. This, especially, as we're supposed to believe that the Fifteenth Doctor is capable of turning to the dark side. I could believe this of the Tennant or Capaldi Doctors, or Smith at a push, but it just didn't go with this lightweight and often superficial incarnation.

I might just have found it credible if Kid really had just murdered 100,000 spectators, but knowing they could all be rescued completely undermined any justification the Doctor might have had for torturing the guy.

You will have spotted that Cora St Belvier was representing the planet Trion - home to Davison era companion Turlough. (And I like to think that the singer Liz Lizardine is another native of Malpha's planet).

But if you thought that references to the series' past would be little more than "blink-and-you'll-miss-them" you'd be very much mistaken - and this is where the spoilers come in.

First we get an actual on-screen appearance from a companion of the classic era, and then we are treated to the return of an old villain who hasn't featured since 1987 (I'm totally ignoring Dimensions in Time). 

The Doctor is one of those who gets ejected into space, and he's on the point of death (or so we think at the time) when visions of his very first travelling companion come to him, urging him to live. We've suffered possible hints of the return of Susan several times in the past, but finally Carole Ann Ford makes an on-screen appearance for the first time since The Five Doctors where her inclusion was very badly handled, leading some to question her familial relationship with the Doctor. Her role here really does cement the fact that she is his granddaughter.

Also ejected into space is Mrs Flood, and her shadowing of the Doctor is finally given some reason. She isn't simply Susan Twist Mark II, but has been following the Doctor to get the co-ordinates he has been collecting for his Vindicator device (though how she manages to get places before him isn't explained).

Once rescued and revived, she then undergoes a regeneration - except it then becomes another bi-generation... 

We knew that Archie Panjabi was going to feature in this series, and that she would be playing a villain, and here it's revealed that she and Mrs Flood are actually incarnations of the Rani.

My joy at seeing Susan again was in sharp contrast to my complete indifference to the return of this character. Played originally by Kate O'Mara in one middling and one pretty dreadful story in the 1980's, I've always considered the Rani a third rate villain at best. She isn't supposed to be a criminal mastermind in the same vein as the Master. She's simply a scientist devoid of ethics, and my fear going into the finale is that RTD2 is just going to turn her into Missy Mark II.

These two big call-backs to the classic era will obviously elevate the reputation of this episode, but if you set them aside, what are you left with?

Actually, I thought the story stood up rather well in its own right. As mentioned, I would have preferred Kid to have been a really nasty character like Conrad, but this was watered down to deliver an upbeat ending. The visuals were great, and I know enough about Eurovision to know that some of the songs featured mirrored the sort of thing which you always get - including really naff but highly addictive tunes. Dugga-Doo, I'm looking at you.

A terrorist threat is hardly original for an action-heavy drama, but it's rare for it to form the basis of a Doctor Who story.

Rylan's presence was bearable - even poking fun at himself - and Norton only appeared a couple of times as a hologram in the Song Contest museum. He got to be the one to tell the Doctor and Belinda that the date they are aiming for is when the planet Earth disintegrated, which brings us to next week's episode.

We have been told that the finale involves an "unholy trinity" and the rise of something called the Underverse. There are Bone Creatures and a Bone Palace, and one image of the latter appears to show robot drones identical to those seen in today's episode. The cast list also mentions a return for the child Poppy (a plant mentioned throughout The Interstellar Song Contest, so is this heading anywhere?).

Presumably two thirds of the "unholy trinity" are Conrad and the Rani. Anita Dobson features, so is she the third member, or is there going to be someone else introduced? Rumours abound.

Among the rumours I've seen recently are that Omega appears (but he is forever being rumoured to turn up), and that Conrad is hosting the consciousness of the Master, who makes an appearance in a new body at the end.

What did The Interstellar Song Contest score in the end? Dix Points from me.