Another episode of tasteless, offensive messaging. Coming just two weeks after the mess that was Lucky Day, it’s somewhat concerning. But, in my opinion, Lucky Day’s optic missteps pale in comparison to the inherently anti-resistance messaging that The Interstellar Song Contest is rife with. And no matter when the episode was written, it is nearly impossible to not view it today as a hamfisted allegory to the genocide in Palestine.

Framing individuals who suffer through violent colonization and racism as villains with a cartoonishly evil plan (three trillion people!) is ignorant at best, downright harmful at worst. In this story, resistance is terrorism; and the harmful status quo isn't questioned, it is merely stated. The fact that the Doctor never even condemned the corporation, didn’t try to destroy it, and then at the end sat back down and watched the rest of the contest? Unbelievable. (And the trope of ‘singing a song to make it all better’ was grating and childish.)

I’m all for the Doctor going to dark places, it’s part of what makes them an interesting character. However, the scene of actual physical torture in this episode felt wildly out of the blue. It makes me think back to another time the Doctor resorted to physical torture: in Dalek, the Doctor electrocutes the dalek out of an intense emotional reaction from coming face to face with a species that tried to commit genocide against the Time Lords. That moment was completely earned and, crucially, interrogated by the narrative itself; the Doctor realizes himself by the end of the episode, with Rose’s help. In this episode, the Doctor only stops the torture when Belinda walks in—he feels a sense of shame, I suppose, for showing this side of himself to her, when he’s been busy putting up a ‘travelling with me is fun’ front. But it isn’t really brought up after that? We’ve got people who saw the Doctor—a stranger to them!—literally torture a person then say to him “I’d go anywhere with you.” It makes no sense. There should have been far more reaction to this moment, from the Doctor and every other character in the room.

There’s a lot more to be said about this one, but I’m tapping out here. I don’t care about the Rani, whatever. Susan’s appearance was neat. The visuals were solid. Some individual lines were quite amusing. A few good moments here and there. But, honestly, there’s really nothing to redeem the episode—I don’t think there ever could be.