Doctor Who: The Interstellar Song Contest ★★★★★

“Did I just fly through space on a confetti cannon? Camp!” – the Doctor

Storyline
Welcome to the 803rd Interstellar Song Contest in the year 2925. The Doctor and Belinda are delighted when the Tardis lands in the Harmony Arena space station but, as the entertainment commences, the show is sabotaged and the audience are expelled into space. The hijackers are led by Kid, a vengeful Hellion, whose home world Hellia was pillaged for poppy honey by the corporation promoting the contest. He plans to transmit a delta wave to wipe out the three trillion viewers. The Doctor intercedes with considerable rage, but is having strange visions of his granddaughter Susan...

First UK broadcast
Saturday 17 May 2025

Cast
The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa
Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu
Susan – Carole Ann Ford
Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson
The Rani – Archie Panjabi
Rylan
Graham Norton
Kid – Freddie Fox
Mike Gabbastone – Kadiff Kirwan
Gary Gabbastone – Charlie Condou
Cora Saint Bavier – Miriam-Teak Lee
Sabine – Julie Dray
Nina Maxwell – Kiruna Stamell
Wynn Aura-Kin – Iona Anderson
Len Kazah – Akemnji Ndifornyen
Liz Lizardine – Christina Rotondo
Jeddy Kine – Abdul Seesay
Runner – Imogen Kingsley Smith

Crew
Writer – Juno Dawson
Director – Ben A Williams
Music – Murray Gold
Producer – Vicky Delow
Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson

RT review by Patrick Mulkern

I can’t stick Rylan, not for love or money. An instant turn-off on air. But he’s actually very good in Doctor Who and it made me like him. That’s how strong and persuasive this episode is. Graham Norton I love, and his hologram form here is a lovely answer to the two occasions when he popped up unwanted (thanks to BBC Presentation) in earlier programmes. Now he’s a harbinger of the cataclysm that befalls Earth in 2025. So far, so Eurovision with these two. I was half expecting the ghosts of Terry Wogan and Katie Boyle to manifest.

This futuristic, interstellar spin on Eurovision is simply magnificent. From the epic stadium lightshow to the hordes of squealing fans, to snatches of quirky songs in the final to the soaring anthem that Cora sings. Even if the intercut reactions to the gawping cast edge it towards mawkish, Miriam-Teak Lee belts her song out of the arena. Winner of the 2020 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for & Juliet, she’s great casting here; and perhaps the new songwriting partnership of Russell T Davies, Juno Dawson and Murray Gold should be representing Royaume Uni. The burst of Bucks Fizz’s 1981 winning entry Making Your Mind Up, when the expelled crowds are being saved, is a total hoot.

This is a return to peak RTD, channelled through Dawson, who gets sole writing credit. The joy of this episode is that it is, rightly, as camp as… well, Eurovision… but it is also a gripping adventure, simple to follow, with winning and believable characters. Freddie Fox is superb as the fanatical villain “Kid”, a horned beast from the planet Hellia. His motivation and vengeful nature are also clear. Kadiff Kirwan and Charlie Condou are lovely as Mike and Gary, the couple who stop bickering to make a valuable contribution and go weak at the knees in the presence of the Time Lord.

Best of all, Ncuti Gatwa really is the Doctor here, fully formed and multi-faceted. Mercurial, in that he’s warm and fun-loving on arrival at the Harmony Arena, but also ice-cold when blasting painful retribution into the squirming Kid. He also dazzles everyone he meets with total conviction. Star quality. This is Gatwa’s finest episode yet.

And then we come to Susan. Beautifully filmed, dream-like glimpses of Carole Ann Ford, one of the original stars of Doctor Who in 1963 and 64, now in her 80s. After all the red herrings last year with Susan Twist, how magical to have Susan back in Doctor Who, entering the Doctor’s mind and calling him “Grandfather”. I’ve grown tired of the sausage factory of mystery women in recent times, but Susan is the original enigma at the birth of Doctor Who. The stuff of legends.

Read more:

• Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review
• Episode 2 – Lux review
• Episode 3 – The Well review
• Episode 4 – Lucky Day review
• Episode 5 – The Story & the Engine review

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