Season 2 of Doctor Who’s Disney+ era has shined in its most intimate moments. Whether The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa, Sex Education) bonds with a hotel concierge as he lives through a year without adventure, offers message of hope to a grieving mother, or walks the TARDIS runway with his new bestie Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu, Andor), he connects with viewers and brings a unique new take on our favorite Time Lord. Gatwa is incredible in the role, but he needs space to breathe and work his charms on his fellow cast members. Unfortunately, ‘The Interstellar Song Contest’ attempts to cycle through about a zillion big ideas while also parodying Eurovision, playing with celebrity guest stars, and making a huge lore reveal: The Rani has returned, my fellow Whovians! This puts us in an exciting place ahead of the finale, but ultimately, this episode is a bit of a (shiny, glittery) mess.
As Kurt Vonnegut once said, “Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.” If we buy Vonnegut’s assessment, then this episode is dealing with a pretty severe lung infection.
On the other hand, it’s quite possible that this reviewer has simply forgotten how to have a good time – because there are good times in this episode! For instance, we get an immortal Rylan Clark (British Seacrest?) stepping out of cryo-sleep to host the titular “Interstellar Song Competition,” a lovable couple learning more about one another (and crushing on Fifteen), and of course, the bop of the year from planet Grimbald: Dugga Doo’s self-titled “Dugga Doo.”
In all honesty, the relationship between husbands Gary Gabbastone (Charlie Condou, Holby City) and Mike Gabbastone (Kadiff Kirwan, Slow Horses) is a total delight. Gary’s tech expertise is useful to The Doctor, but nurse Mike steals the show with his playful and confident revival of The Doctor – he doesn’t even skip a beat at the discovery of two hearts. He just wants to heal the patient in front of him.
In the end, though, the episode felt like a bit of yadda-yadda-ing to bridge the gap until the finale. There’s technically a plot in there. A couple of scorned Hellions (they have horns, kind of like devils, get it!?) hijack The Interstellar Song Contest because the corporation behind the event burned their home to the ground to acquire natural flavoring for a popular honey product and also ran a successful smear campaign against their entire race (a very inelegant version of what The Empire just did to Ghorman over on Andor) leading to interstellar racism. Lead terrorist Kid (Freddie Fox, House of the Dragon) and inside woman Wynn (Iona Anderson, Six Four) decide to send out a deadly delta wave to kill the trillions of viewers of the song contest as a form of vengeance. A few plot moments have us believe that Wynn’s views are less extreme than Kid’s views, but that episode doesn’t take time to explore those nuances.
One of the most jarring things about the episode is the fact that it does some very serious things in the form of very silly half measures that challenge our emotions, but not in an interesting way…in an almost insulting way. Early in the episode, the terrorists shut down the barrier separating the stadium from the cold vacuum of space. In a harrowing sequence evocative of an apocalyptic blockbuster, we watch thousands of happy fans get sucked out into the cold vastness of space. We get enough of a beat to feel the weight of this loss and understand why The Doctor and Belinda both believe that their companion was killed in the chaos.
Now, while this reviewer was thrilled to hear that the folks outside could still be saved because of a “mavity bubble” that WAS still intact, this development felt like a very cheap cop-out. While this reviewer finds “surviving direct exposure to the vacuum of space” content very annoying in general, this episode finds it..funny? The Doctor shakes off some space ice and rides a glitter cannon back to the space station. Later, the other “dead” bodies get teleported back to their seats, ready to go in full rave mode (there is a line of dialogue about converting their little pods into medical pods, but …yadda-yadda). This isn’t the first time that Doctor Who has undone death on a massive scale, but in an episode like ‘The Doctor Dances,’ the gravity (yes, you heard me right, Doctor Who!) of the situation was addressed directly and we remembered the emotional stakes. This twist all felt like a silly shortcut to a plot reveal without properly addressing the stakes of the situation.
Also, the episode fails to capitalize on some wonderful guest appearances. Freddie Fox is a talented and compelling actor, but here, he is resigned to play a one-note character who looks like he got ousted as DM for the Hawkins Hellfire Club. Laurence-Olivier -Award-Winning stage actress Miriam Teak Lee (& Juliet) also pops in to play a secret Hellion pop star named Cora Saint Bavier. She is given much more to work with than Fox, but her character Cora’s plan to make an emotional appeal to her brethren gets undercut by The Doctor’s rage. When she arrives to deter the terrorists, The Doctor is already in full vengeance mode torturing Kid via holographic light manipulation. He believes Belinda is dead, and he is going to make someone pay for it.
While we don’t get much time to watch Cora manage her now-strained relationship with her bigoted manager, later, she does get to wrap the Interstellar Song Contest with a stirring song from her homeworld that seems like it has started the hard work of cutting through the galactic hatred levied at her people. This is a nice moment, but it’s one of the few nice things the episode finds time for between all of the bells and whistles.
Even The Doctor and Belinda get an oversimplified resolution. Fortunately, it at least comes on the heels of another great Gatwa performance. Fifteen gets his first opportunity to channel “The Oncoming Storm” and show us his angry, vengeful Doctor. He delights in punishing Kid (wait…like a baby goat…because he has horns…get it?) until Belinda pops in to see how far he has fallen into anger. Sethu, also nails the emotional reaction of a previously smitten companion who is a bit terrified by seeing the dark side of her time-hopping friend for the first time.
Unfortunately, before the pair can unpack this shift in their relationship, the season-long plot arc swallows up their time together. Hopefully the two-part finale will cash in on this character beat. Despite taking some responsibility and walking back his rage a bit, The Doctor makes it clear to Kid that he is not off the hook of The Doctor’s vengeance: “that ice that you put in my heart, I think it’ll be there forever now.” This could become a delicious character beat if the show decides to do something with it. For now, Belinda only lightly chastens The Doctor by saying that he “scared” her, but holo-Graham Norton (get it?) interrupts the proceedings to reveal that the Earth was destroyed on the very day in time that The Doctor and Belinda have been attempting to find all season. Two-part finale here we come. Roll credits.
But wait! There’s more!
We have a mid-credit lore reveal. The Rani is back! It turns out she didn’t survive her time in the vacuum of space as comfortably as The Doctor, so it’s time for a regeneration…well, bi-generation. That’s right, Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson, EastEnders) was The Rani, but she becomes simply “a Rani” and falls into sycophantic lockstep with her new form as actress Archie Penjabi (The Good Wife) emerges to officially claim the role of The Rani.
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While we don’t get any more insight into The Rani’s plan beyond a general desire to terrorize The Doctor, this lore (and casting) reveal leaves us in a very exciting place to ponder what this not-so-ethical Time Lord scientist might be scheming. Is it possible that we could trace her plan all the way back to Fourteen and the dawn of “mavity” when the Pantheon gods started shifting into reality? Could all of these repetitions and coincidences be the work of a super-villain mastermind? We’ll have to wait until next week’s ‘Wish World’ to find out, but for now, Whovians can kick back and enjoy the anticipation of spending time with a returning fan-favorite character!
