Doctor Who Season 2, Episode 6 Review - “The Interstellar Song Contest”

This reappraisal contains spoilers for play 2, occurrence 6 of Doctor Who, “The Interstellar Song Contest.”

“The Interstellar Song Contest” someway manages to compression successful capable moving parts that it could astir apt substance an full play of Doctor Who. A galactic Eurovision successful abstraction (debuting the time of its earthbound counterpart’s last round), well-realised antagonists, astonishment cameos, and much each jostle for attraction successful a choky 45-minute runtime. It’s a batch to instrumentality in, and the occurrence does extremity up a small bloated, but the publication holds it each unneurotic with a crisp consciousness of fun. Writer Juno Dawson gleefully leans into Doctor Who’s emotion of big, pulpy sci-fi spectacle, wheeling retired “delta waves” and “mavity” jokes, and the effect is an occurrence that feels remarkably live and focused successful spite of each it has to wage attraction to. Director Ben A. Williams adjacent matches Dawson’s maximalist vigor with confident, striking visuals, nary much truthful than a chilling series wherever 100,000 radical are flung retired of a abstraction station. It’s yet different stand-out illustration of play 2 nailing its horror-inspired themes – the country unsocial is 1 of the highlights of the full season.

It’s besides the season’s champion showing from its broadside characters truthful far. With truthful overmuch crippled to juggle, it would person been casual to fto them blur into the inheritance similar usual, but “The Interstellar Song Contest” gets astonishing mileage retired of its supporting cast. Even the episode’s cameos (such arsenic Rylan and Graham Norton) service a larger purpose, but nary much notable than the melodramatic reappearance of Carole Ann Ford arsenic Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter. It’s a immense cameo that avoids feeling similar bare instrumentality service, with conscionable capable value to warrant its impact. Despite everything “The Interstellar Song Contest” is already trying to balance, the occurrence makes a wide effort to guarantee its characters actually matter, not conscionable instrumentality up space, whether that’s successful a one-off quality oregon the instrumentality of the quality that gave the precise archetypal Doctor Who serial its name.

The aforesaid tin beryllium said for this week's main threat, “Kid” and “Wynn,” members of an alien contention known arsenic the Hellions, humanoids with distinctive horns protruding from their heads. They won’t beryllium troubling immoderate all-time large lists, but alternatively than rolling retired moustache-twirling schemes, their program is rooted successful a tangible motivation: revenge for the demolition of their homeworld for profit, an lawsuit tied to the Song Contest’s firm sponsor. This besides ties neatly into 1 of the season’s strongest throughlines: its timely and affecting look astatine issues of race, displacement, and discrimination. From the Doctor and Belinda’s reflections connected assemblage successful “The Story & The Engine” to the unflinching depiction of 1960s racism successful “Lux”, these topics person been explored with a deft manus truthful acold this season, and that continues with the broad-but-effective allegory for the marginalized that is the Hellions.

It’s casual to empathise with their anger, made each the much troubling erstwhile considering that they’re retired to termination 3 trillion radical successful response. That makes pitting them against the Doctor progressively much interesting. Their confrontations are amazingly intense, and “The Interstellar Song Contest” adjacent does a bully occupation of playing up 15’s quirky veneer to acceptable up a melodramatic jolt aboriginal on. One infinitesimal he’s blasting backmost into the abstraction presumption connected a confetti cannon, the adjacent he’s lashing out. His abrupt outburst reveals a darker borderline that has been mostly hidden this season, and it’s a invited instrumentality of a much analyzable broadside to the character. But portion the intent is wide and the country mostly works, it does consciousness a small sudden.

As we attack the extremity of the season, Belinda remains a captivating presence, but she besides feels similar idiosyncratic caught successful the aforesaid quality improvement unreserved arsenic the Doctor. Her unsocial inheritance provides a sturdy foundation, but her transportation with the Time Lord present ironically feels some hyper-accelerated and strangely static, forced to transportation the affectional heft of an incoming two-part finale without the integrated maturation a longer episode, oregon season, mightiness person allowed. There are respective large ideas sprinkled passim “The Interstellar Song Contest”, specified arsenic Belinda’s fearfulness of being displaced successful clip and space, oregon her distrust of the Doctor aft seeing the Time Lord’s rage, but it each ends up feeling alternatively sidelined by the end. Ultimately, portion “The Interstellar Song Contest” is bursting with ideas, and its ambitious scope is 1 of the galore reasons it’s truthful enjoyable, it besides unluckily gets squeezed by the season’s eight-episode sprint. Still, it’s a testament to its vigor and ambition that it remains truthful undeniably charming, adjacent if it leaves you wishing determination was conscionable that small spot much to experience.