The Cutprice Guignol

Friends, I have something to admit to you: I have been looking forward to this episode perhaps more than any other in this whole season.

Yes, I know – the uber-campy episodes of Doctor Who aren’t for everyone, and I entirely see why. More than once, the show has delved into downright unwatchable territory (I’m so sorry, Kylie Minogue, but this is about you) in the process of pursuing the evasive high of true camp. But a EuroVision episode? In space? With Rylan, the actual host of EuroVision starring? I’m seated in more ways than I can count. I’m ready to make ABBA-themed Doctor Who puns like Dancing Slitheen and have a good time. These episodes are never a hard sell for me because, fundamentally, I am a person with quite bad taste, and I have long-since embraced that about myself and accepted that the Anne Droid from the season one finale is my favourite villain of all time.

And camp is where this episode begins, as the Doctor and Belinda crash into the Interstellar Song Contest, as hosted by Rylan Clarke – I, for one, was hooting and hollering at his introduction, his emergence from the cryo-chamber, his mix-up between “awe” and “aww!”. But even beyond that, the look, the feel, the songs, the lot, it was a pretty-much perfect adaptation of the song contest into science-fiction. I loved Belinda as a way into this story, a long-time fan gleefully bopping along to the classic bangers and new hits alike.

And that, to be honest, is where I thought this episode would remain for the most part. But The Interstellar Song Contest is perhaps one of Doctor Who’s most outrightly political episodes in a long time – because the contest is soon interrupted by would-be agitators from a planet exploited by the corporation sponsoring the event.

There’s no way you can read this plot point as anything other than a critique of Morrocanoil, a major sponsor of the actual, in-real-life EuroVision song contest – due to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the company’s involvement with the iconic TV event has led many to call for a boycott. And, look, there are aspects of this approach to the story that I genuinely admire – putting this on TV in the spot directly before the actual EuroVision song contest on the same channel it’s going to be broadcast on is a bold statement and one that I am thoroughly on-side with (and perhaps part of the reason why Ncuti Gatwa stepped down from the EuroVision broadcast just a couple of days ago – it would have seemed a bit odd to have this episode directly precede the real-life Doctor cheerfully reading scores for the very thing that the show just criticized). There are some profoundly hard-hitting moments – like the reveal that the villain’s name is “Kid” because his mother was killed before she could give his name, or the shot of hundreds of bodies floating helplessly in space – on display here,

But here’s the thing – by the very nature of the show, Doctor Who is going to have to make things a whole lot more palatable and neat than they are in real life, and that inevitably leaves things feeling a little too simple in the process. The dialogue is blunt and even a little clunky at times (even if, for the most part, I quite liked Juno Dawson’s script for this episode), the would-be villains yelling their political stance straight down the lens, and then a citizen of the invaded planet sings a nice song, and everyone cheers, and that’s just how it ends. Obviously, there is not the time nor the appropriate space to go into the appalling reality of the Palestinian genocide in a show like this one, but having the conflict wrapped up like this so neatly felt almost like downplaying the seriousness of the issues they were taking on. Not to mention the fact that the episode seemed to squarely aim most of its criticism at the corporation sponsoring the contest rather than the contest itself for accepting sponsorship from such a violent regime – but perhaps that would have been edging a little too close to something the BBC couldn’t comfortably explain away.

And, in general, I found this episode to be a bit simplistic in more than just its political commentary. This should have been a really interesting episode for Ncuti Gatwa, and, in some ways, it was – he’s pissed here when confronted with what the initial antagonist of this episode, Kid, was planning to do, rounding on him with a taser and physically attacking him in a rush of anger. I love it when the Doctor breaks out of the good-guy outline he’s usually placed in, but to really make that work, we need to see the impact of it, how it changes the view of the people around him, and I felt like we didn’t get that here. Belinda is initially shocked seeing the Doctor so furious and willing to cause harm, but it’s hand-waved away at the end with an apology, no harm done, apart from, you know, the torture. I love Gatwa as an actor and I think he is more than capable of handling the more morally-grey aspects of the Doctor, but the show needs to really embrace and explore them to let that happen, you know?

Bloody hell, nearly a thousand words in, and I still haven’t talked about that part of the episode yet. No, I’m not talking about Susan’s return, as exciting a moment as that was – as much as the nod to what to come is cool, we’ve barely seen more than a glimpse of her yet. But, of course, after nearly two decades of memeing and deluding ourselves into thinking that every woman who appears in the show is the Rani, the woman herself is actually back, baby! Well, women, actually, as this episode closes on the bi-generation of Mrs Flood, splitting her into A Rani and The Rani, as played by Archie Panjabi.

I have been banging the Rani drum for as long as I can remember, and, yes, this reveal had me bopping around my living room like I’d just been handed a giant check for several thousand dollars at first. Archie Panjabi (on who’s casting I will just say that it makes a lot of sense for me personally that the last episode will come out during Pride Month) is such a fantastic choice to play this iconic character, and, from the brief glimpse we got of her here, I just know she’s going to gobble this role up.

But with that said…damn, I’m a little sad that this is how we got her. I’ve been loving Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood since she first appeared, but I’m not sure what she’s been giving so far has been very Rani-esque. When I think of the Rani, I think of meticulous, scientifically-curious, domineering focus – her playful fourth-wall breaking stuff doesn’t really match with what we’ve previously seen of the Rani, at least to my eyes, as if Flood was repurposed after conception into the Rani rather than written for purpose in the first place. I am honestly a bit disappointed that Dobson seems to be taking on at the very most a shared role (at worst, a lackey) when she’s more than capable of delivering a killer big bad in her own right. After two seasons building her up as a mysterious antagonist, to see her take the back seat to Panjabi almost instantly leaves me a bit cold.

But hey, the Rani’s back, we’ve got a two-part finale coming up, and the entirety of Earth is coming to an end in just a week’s time. It can’t all be bad, right? Overall, I quite liked this episode, though it did stretch beyond its capabilities a little – though I would always rather see an episode that’s too ambitious than downright lazy. What did you think of The Interstellar Song Contest, and the major character reveals that came with it? Let me know in the comments below!

If you liked this article and want to see more stuff like it, please check out the rest of my Doctor Who reviews! I’d also love it if you would check out my horrible short story collection, and, if you’d like to support my work, please consider joining me on Patreon!

(header image via CultBox)