“The Interstellar Song Contest” is the sixth episode of the 15th season of the new “Doctor Who” series, also indicated as season 2, and follows “The Story & the Engine“. It’s available in the UK and Ireland on BBC channels and in many other countries on the Disney+ platform.
Beware that in various adverts and marketing materials, this season is promoted as season 2 passing through a new start with the production by Bad Wolf and distribution by Disney+, hence the double notation.
Note. This article contains some spoilers about “The Interstellar Song Contest”.
A new stage in the Fifteenth Doctor’s (Ncuti Gatwa) attempts to bring Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) home takes them to a space station where the interstellar song contest has begun. It’s supposed to be a show that entertains trillions of people across the galaxy, but threatens to turn into a tragedy when Kid (Freddie Fox) takes control of the situation with the help of Wynn Aura-Kin (Iona Anderson).
I don’t watch Eurovision, so I probably missed a lot of the references to the musical side and the characters involved. I didn’t even try to understand them and focused on the rest of the story, for example, the involvement of Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson), whose participation at last leads to a revelation.
The attack on the festival leads to a plot development that is far from the light-hearted one it initially seemed. “Doctor Who” has been telling stories with political, social, and economic implications for decades, and this episode continues in that tradition. In the original series, there was much more time to develop certain details across multiple episodes, while in the new series, it’s necessary to resort to easily recognizable narrative elements.
The problem in this episode is that Kid was created as a character based on the cliché of the psychopath seeking revenge. His motivations are derived from an injustice that to define as grave is not enough concerning his home plane,t but his actions go far beyond the search for justice. From this point of view, he could have done better, and overall, Wynn turned out better. In the end, the most interesting story is that of Cora Saint Bavier (Miriam-Teak Lee).
The development of the plot also concerns the Doctor and his reactions to the mavity of the situation. Unfortunately, part of the plot is based on the misconception that being exposed to the vacuum of space leads to extremely quick freezing. We have seen worse in “Doctor Who” and seeing the dark side of the Doctor is always an unforgettable experience, especially for the ones on the receiving end of his wrath. The visions he has throughout the episode are also interesting, and it remains to be seen whether these are isolated moments or there will be further developments.
There will certainly be developments after the finale of “The Interstellar Song Contest” and the revelation that represents the culmination of two seasons. Unfortunately, it came with something that frankly seemed to me to be a stupid idea invented only to keep open the possibility of still having a certain actor in the future, without making up more plotting, and instead it was repeated. For me, it wasn’t enough to ruin another moment that for the old fans of “Doctor Who” has an important meaning, and I await with curiosity the last two episodes of the season.
