Doctor Who: The Interstellar Song Contest Review - 5 Ups & 4 Downs

Coming off the back of what is, in my opinion, a five-for-five run of good to outright great episodes, The Interstellar Song Contest is the one I’ve harboured the most concern over.

When the slate of episodes for Season 2 were revealed, I couldn’t help but groan after seeing how The Devil’s Chord handled the previous ‘musical’ episode. Full disclosure, I was fully expecting this to be something of a car crash. I am pleased to report, that, at the very least, it really wasn’t. This one had an actual plot, though much like The Devil’s Chord, I could've done without the ‘twist at the end’.

There are definitely elements to this episode that deserve full marks, and it makes full use of the brand synergy afforded by airing next to Eurovision. All the more, it’s not the Eurovision premise that lets this episode down in the slightest, but rather the baggage of the impending finale which lumbers it with some surprise reveals through no fault of its own.

Bon soir! This is WhoCulture calling from the United Kingdom, and here are our douze points and nil points for The Interstellar Song Contest!

This was an episode that stood to benefit from the Disney budget immensely, and I have to say, credit where it’s due, the effects and costumes looked fantastic. The Harmony Arena is an atmospheric and fully-realised backdrop for the story and, in an era that has often been a little stingy in terms of actual aliens, it was oddly nostalgic to see a Star-Wars-style menagerie of weird bug-eyed monsters for this episode.

Tonally, this one felt very RTD1. In particular, it gave me Ninth Doctor vibes (a little bit of The End of the World, a little bit of Bad Wolf). It’s very rare that I get Eccleston-era feelings from this show anymore, and it was most welcome indeed.

The decision to riff on Eurovision for every possible ounce of campiness is a match made in heaven for this era of the show, too. You can tell Ncuti is in his element here, and the script itself is dripping with love for Eurovision, but in that quintessentially British, semi-ironic, it’s-trash-but-we-still-love-it sort of way. To try and play this episode straight would have been a mistake, you’ve got to lean right into that cringe – case in point: cryo-frozen Rylan Clark and hologram Graham Norton, both of which I enjoyed immensely, even if the latter being the one to reveal the tragic fate of Planet Earth slightly undercut the moment.

Lastly, I’d like to thank production for relegating all the original songs they created, with the exception of Cora’s pivotal musical number, to the background. Of course, given the theme, we needed original songs, but being self indulgent in this regard absolutely could have derailed the runtime of the episode.

I, for one, am both delighted and surprised at the level of restraint employed here by not making us listen to Dugga Doo in full.