Season Two (Series 15); Episode Six - “The Interstellar Song Contest” by Juno Dawson

I am finding this season incredibly hard to rate. The Interstellar Song Contest is an episode I am in two minds about because whilst I want to just enjoy it as a fun run around, it’s too caught up in trying not to be. This whole season is like an emotional blind spot, trying to deepen its storylines and messages but clearly not knowing how, because every time it turns to melodrama. If there was an episode this season that needed to be purely fun, it was the Eurovision parody. There are twists, there are turns, there is fun to be had and problems to be explored, let's start the show.

The Doctor and Belinda arrive at the Interstellar Song Contest; but something is very wrong. After a disastrous attack leaves the lives of three trillion people in the balance, the Doctor has to contend with a devastating revenge plot and himself.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

So I’ve never watched Eurovision. I know, who’s more qualified to evaluate this episode than I? Because of that, I wasn’t totally bought into any of the homage stuff but luckily, that’s not what all the episode’s about. Unluckily, all the other stuff was exceptionally clumsy. First of all, I can enjoy a fun episode and when this story got going, it was nice, it was fast paced with a nice visual style and some good, classic RTD camp. Once again, amazing set and costume design that repeatedly blew me away with its scale and quality and, you know what, props to RTD2 for having a musical episode with at least passable songs. And stuff like the image of the Doctor flying through space on a confetti cannon is somewhere between bizarre and metal as hell and it really works (would’ve worked better without the marvel-esque “Did I just fly through space on a confetti cannon?” though).

You know what, let’s talk dialogue, because watching this I thought I’d been transported back into the Chibnall Era. No disrespect to Juno Dawson but every character just says exactly what they’re thinking at all times and it is tiresome. This also ties into my biggest problem with this episode: the attempt at political commentary. First of all, I love the sentiment; corporations suck and racism is a ridiculous and vile thing but you can’t change it through violence. Great, love that, but if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it's a bad allegory. This is all so on the nose and hard to take seriously because it’s Orphan 55 levels of just saying s**t to camera.

Didn’t help that this episode did not know what it wanted to be. One second it’s a fun Eurovision parody, the next second it’s Die Hard, then it's an ultra serious political thriller that pushes the Doctor to his limit, then it’s a fun Eurovision parody again. It’s not cohesive and each aspect detracts from the other, losing pretty much all impact. At first, I liked where it was going, the initial attack was masterfully directed and genuinely very tense; I found it especially to be a good subversion of expectations as I didn’t expect anything quite like it from an episode about space Eurovision. But then you hear that nobody’s dead yet and you know they’re all going to be magically fine at the end. Plus, the episode really didn’t keep the tension going, what with its constant genre changes.

I will say that this is by far this season’s best sidecast, with another Slow Horses actor showing up. Kid himself could’ve been a little more explored but what we got was good enough and, whilst they’re basically just convenient plot devices, Gary and Mike were well acted and likable.

Whilst we’re at it, let’s talk about this episode’s conveniences, because there are a lot. The biggest offenders are Mike and Gary magically having the perfect jobs for the situation but there’s also stuff like Kid and Wynn not just wiping out the survivors whilst they had the chance for no reason and Deus ex Susan saving the Doctor from deep space somehow. The actual resolution was fine but I didn’t think the Doctor’s anger was particularly built up; he’s been through worse and been less furious. There have been worse examples of unsatisfying revolutions in RTD’s eras but it’s enough to make the end of the episode not feel earned.

Now, we should probably get onto what will likely be this episode’s claim to fame - it’s twists. First of all, whilst I’m happy she’s returning, Deus ex Susan was done in such a weird, sudden way that it felt more like a jumpscare than a reveal; I mean, that quite literally came out of thin air. As for the Rani, it’s just so utterly predictable and banal. I literally went “yeah, no s**t” when it happened. Also, two seasons of build up and that’s how you’re going to reveal that, randomly in a post-credits scene? Russell’s just become a parody of himself at this point, all of Season Two has basically been a verbatim retreading of the previous one, down to the series arc. However, I’m not going to list these as a negative outright because it really depends on where they go. Yeah, these were awfully constructed reveals uncharacteristic for even RTD but if they go somewhere, I don’t really mind. I really hope they go somewhere.

The Interstellar Song Contest really needed to choose what it wanted to be. A fun run around is alright, and so is a serious political commentary that questions the Doctor’s character, but you can’t just have both, at least not without some masterful tinkering. Its twists are not very turny and its beats are not very surprising, but it’s certainly a fun episode that I can say I enjoyed. Does not change my opinion that I think the script is weak though.

5/10

Pros:

+ Really fun when it wants to be

+ The sidecast felt decently characterised

+ Incredible set and costume design

+ Fantastic direction and cinematography

???

~ The twists really could go either way but aren’t promising as of now

Cons:

- Fails at simple allegory

- Not tonally cohesive

- The dialogue is on the nose and clunky

- Resolved through a series of convenient deus ex machinas