Television Review | Doctor Who

Doctor Who: ‘The Interstellar Song Contest’ — unexpectedly spirited, camp fun with genuine stakes

The Doctor and Belinda arrive during a space station’s song competition, but what starts as entertainment turns into a fight for survival.

It’s surprising this episode wasn’t written by Russell T. Davies himself, as it’s exactly the sort of silliness one expected of his first year running the show. I’m not a fan of Doctor Who episodes that take modern British pop culture and extrapolate a version of that for the distant future, mostly because it’s often played for cheap laughs, feels too parochial for the references to work internationally, and the parody dates badly. Remember the Anne Robinson robot from scene, or the chair moment with Christopher Eccleston? Yeesh.

Therefore, the idea of a whole episode built around a futuristic space version of The Eurovision Song Contest filled me with dread. But, surprisingly, “The Interstellar Song Contest” overcame many of the major pitfalls…