THE INTERSTELLAR SONG CONTEST
Director: Ben A. Williams
Writer: Juno Dawson
Main Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Anita Dobson, Freddie Fox, Iona Anderson, Kadiff Kirwan, Charlie Kondo, Miriam-Teak Lee, Carole Ann Ford, Archie Panjabi, Rylan Clark
Streaming Service: Disney+, iPlayer
“Because I have met so many versions of you, Kid. And revenge is just an excuse. Because your cold, filthy heart just likes to kill.” – the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa)
Note to readers: This was written after “Wish World” came out, and “The Reality War” may already be out by the time you read this.
EUROVISION IN SPACE!
Ah, “the Eurovision episode,” as people had started calling it before it aired. It premiered the day of the most recent Eurovision finale (congrats, Austria!) and is very clearly a concept of what the contest could be like in the far, far future, complete with a cryogenically frozen Rylan Clark to keep him around hosting in perpetuity. I like to think that they would bring him out for the show, and then immediately after it’s over, shove him back in. No bathroom breaks beforehand.
Anyways, the episode opens with the Doctor and Belinda (Varada Sethu) landing during the most recent Interstellar Song Contest and deciding to stay while their Vindicator gets more readings to allow them to take Belinda home. During the show, however, it’s hijacked by a couple of people from the planet Hellia, called Hellions, who are seeking to kill every person in the stadium and—using a device that allows them to tap into the minds of everyone watching at home—the trillion people watching the contest live.
Their reasoning is to bring awareness to the genocide of their own people which was caused by the faceless “The Corporation” to secure the abundant Hell Poppies plant on their planet, which they harvested to make honey flavoring. As part of their plan, they launch everyone in the audience into space, however, the Doctor is able to expand the gravity bubble so that everyone is suspended in animation rather than immediately killed. Incorporating the help of two bystanders who were in the lobby and weren’t caught in the attack he’s able to make it to the Hellions and ultimately stop their attack.
During all of this, the Doctor gets flashes of his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford), returning to the screen for the first time since the 1993 special Dimensions in Time (which has since been made proper canon to the universe) and it’s so lovely to see her finally return in some capacity. I’ve personally been yearning for Ford to come back since the 50th anniversary special. All the while this is happening Belinda, who was also able to escape the worst of the initial attack, makes her way to the control room with contest contestant Cora (Miriam-Teak Lee) who we later learn is a Hellion herself.
The Doctor, unable to control his anger after being reminded of his home planet Gallifrey being destroyed and leaving him once again the last of the Time Lords, tortures Kid (Freddie Fox), the mastermind behind the attack, before coming to his senses. Kid and his partner are arrested, the audience members in attendance are unfrozen, and the show goes on, however emboldened by her people’s past Cora gives a protest of her own by singing a song from her home planet—Hellions were barred from singing in the contest so she originally hid who she was—and we get these incredible images of Hellia being razed to the ground and we get to see firsthand what The Corporation did to her home and people.
After the Doctor and Belinda leave, we then get the final reveal of the story as Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson), who got sucked up into the atmosphere with the initial attack by Kid, is unfrozen and bi-regenerates into a new form played by Archie Panjabi—they are both the Rani. A returning Doctor Who villain who, again, hadn’t been seen on screen since Dimension in Time, and is a fellow Time Lord like the Doctor.
Political messaging and what does it mean?
This episode is a bit difficult to talk about to say the least as its proven to be the most divisive episode in years thanks mostly in part to its portrayal of Kid and Wynn (Iona Anderson) and the Doctor and Belinda, as well as the messaging fans of all kinds are taking away from it. I’ve seen many consider it a pro-Zionist episode in favor of Israel with the ongoing genocide happening in Palestine right now. However, that’s missing the forest for the trees, as there’s nothing pro-Zionist about this episode. It’s quite textually anti-genocide and anti-terrorist, however it isn’t taking a centrist position either.
Dawson may have bit off more than she could chew in how she chose to represent these differences of fighting back against evil deeds, as this story could have gone more into the nuance of the actions desperate people take to stop being ignored and their plight heard, to free themselves of their shackles, but that’s not what we got and that I can easily be critical of. The Doctor when he tortures kid because he was reminded of the genocide of his own planet is hard to watch, but that’s the point. Kid and Wynn actively choosing to kill trillions of people is hard to stomach, but that’s the point. Cora hiding her true identity away so that she could live her life to the best of her abilities even if it means shutting away her home and people is hard to fathom, but that’s the point. The Corporation razing a planet to the ground for a crop and then erasing the heritage of the Hellions through mass propaganda and sponsoring a feel-good competition that is then forced to be “apolitical” when in reality it’s giving people an escape from the crimes they are committing in the name of capitalism is itself a political act should be impossible to wrap your head around, but that’s the point.
We often see freedom fighters in media as these heart of gold heroes fighting back against tyranny in a way that allows us to picture ourselves as those heroes and it desensitizes us from the atrocities even they commit along the way. Luke Skywalker destroys the Death Star, but everyone residing in the weapon was the weapon itself, a part of the machine, evil, and thus unworthy of existing. For him to save the galaxy, becoming a mass murderer and heralded as a hero was necessary. But that’s the illusion and The Interstellar Contest is about breaking that illusion. The Doctor, as much as a hero as he is, is also a broken man who was mere seconds away from letting trillions of people die, and to him the person who was trying to do it was some sociopath who was all to happy to do it.
In reality, everyone in this story are broken people led to make extreme decisions. And that doesn’t make any of them correct, nor does it make any of them totally wrong.
Where I will push back on the writing however, is that when the Doctor does learn of Kid’s motivations later we don’t get a follow up scene between the too. The Doctor doesn’t need to apologize, he wouldn’t, but I feel some sort of extra conversation between the two would have been nice. Likewise, Belinda who I have stated in the past is a character I feel like I don’t know a whole lot about just sort of exists in this episode and absolutely does not call the Doctor out on his actions which feels wildly out of character from the woman in the first episode we got who has now become more of a caricature running around in the TARDIS.
It’s easy for me to read between the lines of this episode and what I take away as the part of what it’s trying to say, but the lines I’m reading through are hard ones and they’re messy and needed a lot more refining before before being finalized. I’ve listened to Dawson’s work on Doctor Who related media like the incredible audio drama Redacted of which she was head writer for the first season. Of the two season’s it’s the best one. She’s really good, and I commend her for having something to say, but I wish we’d gotten a bit more.
Let’s talk about the rest
The production looked good, this was a really good looking episode. I really enjoyed the alien contestant Dugga Doo and its song Dugga Doo which has since been released in full online (it’s not long enough if you ask me). The married couple played by Kadiff Kirwan and Charlie Kondo are a delight and I enjoyed the montage at the end of all the audience members getting defrosted. The scene where the Doctor flies through space using a confetti canon is, as the Doctor himself says camp and I loved it.
I love, love, love seeing Carole Ann Ford again. And the reveal that Mrs. Flood is actually the Rani by bi-regenerate was…fine. I didn’t really feel much about it to be honest. I don’t yet have much connection to the character and when you’re comparing this reveal to the Master reveal way back in series three of the revival era they’re like night and day it just wasn’t that exciting in even it how it was unveiled.
I DO think this is a good episode and has more positive qualities than not, but it’s still messy enough that I wish it had done either some things better, or even just had a little bit more time to expand on them both thematically and personally for the characters. Though, none of that is exclusive to this episode and has been a running problem for this season as a whole.
I do hope Juno Dawson comes back in the future to write for the show again.
