That being stated, that is in all probability the episode I used to be trying ahead to the least this season. I’ve no affection for the Eurovision Tune Contest, particularly in recent times. And whereas Rylan and Graham Norton admittedly acquit themselves fairly nicely right here, as with the primary Russell T Davies period, the showrunner’s enthusiastic engagement with modern TV and British superstar tradition can really feel awkward, even barely cringeworthy. Not solely does it immediately date issues, however it truly makes it more durable to droop disbelief and interact with the tales – having the likes of Davina McCall doing their acquainted schtick places the present that a lot nearer to our actuality, which I discover simply makes me ask questions I don’t need to be asking.
All that being stated, the concept of Rylan being frozen in stasis and unfrozen yearly to host the Interstellar Tune Contest is… type of pleasant. So, in conclusion, “The Interstellar Tune Contest” is a land of contrasts.
Really, Bart Simpson’s immortal line has hardly ever felt extra apropos. There’s a lot occurring right here, arguably an excessive amount of. Author Juno Dawson has stated that Davies pitched the idea as ‘Eurovision meets Die Onerous’, with catastrophe film parts, and the episode broadly fulfils that transient – it’s a wonderfully workable idea, and if it had merely been allowed to be that, it may need hung collectively extra cohesively. Sarcastically sufficient, the Eurovision / Rylan elements of the episode broadly work.
It’s among the different parts that unbalance proceedings, and whereas it’s pointless to take a position about which concepts have been Dawson’s and which have been imposed by higher administration, it’s arduous to consider {that a} visitor author would have been allowed to independently embrace the primary look of Carol Anne Ford as Susan Foreman in correct mainline continuity televised Physician Who since 1983. The Physician’s sudden, unexplained visions of his lengthy misplaced granddaughter are a completely large curveball to throw into the episode, they usually instantly suck all of the oxygen out of the room.
For viewers who know the importance of the character – and the actress, one of many final surviving hyperlinks to this system’s very first episode, greater than half a century go – it’s seemingly going to be a large distraction. Why is that this all of a sudden occurring, the place is she, when will they reunite, and oh yeah, why hasn’t the Physician ever gone again for her (a continuity scab in all probability greatest left unpicked)? In the meantime, viewers who aren’t conversant in Susan, even accounting for final season’s indirect mentions, are in all probability simply pondering… huh? Presumably she’s going to function within the two-part finale not directly – her look right here will probably be much more complicated if not – however it looks like type of an unfair requirement to foist on what ought to be the enjoyable romp earlier than the season’s concluding fireworks.
The opposite huge facet of the episode that feels jarring is the Physician’s rage. We’ve seen the character in vengeful mode earlier than, punishing characters in much more baroque and existentially terrifying methods for comparatively much less severe crimes. However not solely does the Hellions’ plan really feel like a gratuitous elevating of the stakes that isn’t actually earned – absolutely saving the 100 thousand individuals floating in area would have been adequate – the episode doesn’t actually map out a stable trajectory for the Physician to reach on the level the place he’s enthusiastically torturing Child.