(*6*)
That being stated, that is in all probability the episode I used to be wanting ahead to the least this season. I’ve no affection for the Eurovision Song Contest, particularly in recent times. And whereas Rylan and Graham Norton admittedly acquit themselves fairly effectively right here, as with the primary Russell T Davies period, the showrunner’s enthusiastic engagement with modern TV and British superstar tradition can really feel awkward, even barely cringeworthy. Not solely does it immediately date issues, but it surely really makes it more durable to droop disbelief and interact with the tales – having the likes of Davina McCall doing their acquainted schtick places the present that a lot nearer to our actuality, which I discover simply makes me ask questions I don’t wish to be asking.
All that being stated, the concept of Rylan being frozen in stasis and unfrozen yearly to host the Interstellar Song Contest is… type of pleasant. So, in conclusion, “The Interstellar Song Contest” is a land of contrasts.
Really, Bart Simpson’s immortal line has hardly ever felt extra apropos. There’s a lot occurring right here, arguably an excessive amount of. Author Juno Dawson has said that Davies pitched the idea as ‘Eurovision meets Die Onerous’, with catastrophe film parts, and the episode broadly fulfils that transient – it’s a superbly workable idea, and if it had merely been allowed to be that, it might need hung collectively extra cohesively. Mockingly sufficient, the Eurovision / Rylan elements of the episode broadly work.
It’s a few of the different parts that unbalance proceedings, and whereas it’s pointless to invest about which concepts had been Dawson’s and which had been imposed by higher administration, it’s exhausting to imagine {that a} visitor author would have been allowed to independently embrace the primary look of Carol Anne Ford as Susan Foreman in correct mainline continuity televised Doctor Who since 1983. The Doctor’s sudden, unexplained visions of his lengthy misplaced granddaughter are a completely enormous curveball to throw into the episode, they usually instantly suck all of the oxygen out of the room.
For viewers who know the importance of the character – and the actress, one of many final surviving hyperlinks to this system’s very first episode, greater than half a century go – it’s probably going to be a large distraction. Why is that this all of a sudden taking place, the place is she, when will they reunite, and oh yeah, why hasn’t the Doctor ever gone again for her (a continuity scab in all probability finest left unpicked)? In the meantime, viewers who aren’t acquainted with Susan, even accounting for final season’s indirect mentions, are in all probability simply considering… huh? Presumably she’s going to characteristic within the two-part finale indirectly – her look right here will probably be much more complicated if not – but it surely looks like type of an unfair requirement to foist on what ought to be the enjoyable romp earlier than the season’s concluding fireworks.
The different huge facet of the episode that feels jarring is the Doctor’s rage. We’ve seen the character in vengeful mode earlier than, punishing characters in way more baroque and existentially terrifying methods for comparatively much less critical crimes. However not solely does the Hellions’ plan really feel like a gratuitous elevating of the stakes that isn’t actually earned – certainly saving the 100 thousand individuals floating in area would have been ample – the episode doesn’t actually map out a stable trajectory for the Doctor to reach on the level the place he’s enthusiastically torturing Child.