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

I know, I know. I’ve put Susan Foreman as a down, but hear me out.

It’s been 60 years since the Doctor rather unceremoniously left his granddaughter on Earth, and, shy of an appearance or two in charity specials and a run at Big Finish, things have remained that way. 60 real-life years of the Doctor’s only on-screen relative being absent from the show, but for the odd name-drop. 60 years of people wanting this character to be explored further. This is possibly the biggest reveal of a returning character you could make in Modern Who, and I for one am delighted it’s happening.

But.

That’s how you do it? Unceremoniously, in the middle of an episode, you just drop her in with zero buildup and have the Doctor completely underplay the moment? Carole Ann Ford, literally the first companion in the show’s history, deserves a little more reverence than playing second fiddle to the reveal of, of all people, the Rani (I’m saving that particular rant for the moment). This is like if in the middle of Series 3, at the peak of the ‘last of the Time Lords’ arc, the Master had popped up and said ‘I’m alive by the way, see you in the finale’.

I understand this was a teaser rather than an outright reunion, but the timing and content of the scene felt entirely lacking to me – either lay some better groundwork for this or save the reveal in its entirety for the finale. RTD is capable of this – he made me hyped as hell for Rose Tyler’s return in Series 4, and I’m not even a particularly big fan of Rose.

If Season 2 has had this in its back pocket the entire time, why, and I cannot stress this enough, have we spent so much time focusing on Anita Dobson?!

I’ll admit, I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes though.