The 803rd song contest is good to go!

With last week’s episode not quite managing to make the right cut, the latest adventure in season two’s arsenal, “The Interstellar Song Contest”, hopes to get the series back on track with a music-filled adventure and plenty of politics.

Eurovision in Space

Landing in a giant space music arena, The Doctor and Belinda’s latest Vindicator location has found them centre stage for the greatest music competition in the galaxy, the interstellar song contest. Instantly enthralled by the glitz and glamour, the two make an exception to stay and enjoy the show.

A clear sci-fi homage to the Eurovision Song Contest, Dawson’s penned episode easily captures the essence of the original show. There are bizarre alien creatures singing outlandish singles and awkward hosting moments aplenty. They even have their own version of Rylan, resurrected from cryo-sleep. Each of which adds to an electric starting ambience.

However, the episode can’t keep up with the festival fever forever, and it isn’t long before things go very wrong with the contest.

For the Land of Poppy Honey

Too much partying is the least of the audience’s worries as the contest comes under attack by the terrorist duo, Kid and Wynn. Starting their attack by flinging the entire audience into outer space, their full plan involves broadcasting a deadly audible delta wave to the homes of 3 trillion viewers.

A truly heinous act, Wynn and Kid’s reasoning stems from their home planet of Helia. What was once a peaceful world has been turned to ash, its resources destroyed and its people genocided by the corporation sponsoring the interstellar song contest, and now they want revenge. At this point, the episode’s metaphor becomes crystal clear, as the battle between the people of Helia and the corporation are stand-ins for the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Doctor Who is at its best when it cuts deep into controversial current events; it is also at its worst when it fails to do so. Unfortunately, this attempt falls into the latter category. Painting two young and impressionable Helians as unrepentantly evil takes any possible nuance out of the equation, as it never builds on their background or how the lives on Helia have been affected by the corporation. Without any scenes dedicated to the wanton destruction of the people’s lives on Helia, it becomes difficult to make the right connections as to how they got to this point.

These problems continue as the story progresses towards the conclusion of Helia’s tragic tale. While stopping Kid’s plans, The Doctor makes a speech about revenge being an excuse. Following the usual path of The Doctor’s morality, it is unfortunately undercut by his torturing of Kid mere moments later. Ultimately, this leads to a tone-deaf conclusion where Helia’s national song is meant to inspire change from the galaxy and the corporation.

When It Rains, It Floods

As if a Eurovision-themed story and a complex current event weren’t enough to unpack, episode six is also the lead-in to the season’s two-part finale and features two massive cameos.

Mrs. Flood’s sinister identity is revealed at the end of the episode as a new incarnation of The Rani. What’s more, there are two of them, as she bi-generates into Archie Punjabi’s Rani. Susan Foreman, The Doctor’s Granddaughter, also makes an appearance. None of these helps the pacing of this already packed episode.

Dawson’s “The Interstellar Song Contest” is an episode with a lot to unpack. At its heart, it’s a fun, if messy, adventure centred around the joys of Eurovision and the unveiling of the Mrs. Flood mystery box. Where the episode gets unstuck, however, is its take on controversial current events. A difficult subject to handle at the best of times, its allegory on the Israel-Palestine conflict ends up lacking nuance and a clarity of pitch.

I Give “The Interstellar Song Contest”: 6/10