Doctor Who: The Interstellar Song Contest (15x06)

This episode kind of felt like it had too many moving parts, but overall I liked a lot of it!

Cons:

The big letdown for me is that like... I don't know who "the Rani" is. This is my own fault, I suppose. I could get into Classic Who so these multi-decade-spanning surprise returns actually impact me, but... I think a lot of the audience probably doesn't know who this character is. And the Mrs. Flood twist has been built up for so long, that getting an answer that means absolutely nothing to me did hit as a real letdown. I also thought having her bi-generate was a little odd, what's the narrative function of it not just continuing to be the same person playing the role for the rest of the season? Maybe I'll eat my words after seeing next week, but that just feels a little unmotivated at this point.

While overall I like the idea of the Doctor being triggered by the loss of Gallifrey into acting uncharacteristically, I do kind of wish that it hadn't felt so abrupt. It was a little too perfectly convenient, Belinda tuning in just in time to see him threatening Kid and then being like "that's not him." Maybe the Doctor tries at first to find compassion and understanding but just can't manage it, or maybe he comes out of the trance of that violence a little less easily when Belinda returns... something needed to be slightly finessed here, the pacing or arc of it just felt off to me in a way I can't quite define.

Pros:

I love the fact that this episode is in honor of Eurovision but is also openly critical of it and other awards-based art celebrations being tainted by capitalism... like, it managed to be a love letter to something and also calling out its bullshit, which I think is the sweet spot. As an ignorant American who has never gotten into the whole Eurovision thing, I'm sure there were a ton of references that I didn't get, like, I figured Rylan was like, a real dude, but I had to look him up to be sure. I did recognized Graham Norton though, that was fun!

I thought this episode had a great cast of guest characters, they felt distinct and memorable to me immediately. The people running the song contest, the villains, the star singer at the end, the gay couple both crushing hard on the Doctor... it was nice to see such instantly realized and fun characters throughout. I really did get a kick out of both men in that relationship being like "oh, I'd do anything for you" and the two of them sort of playfully fighting over who had a stronger connection with the Doctor. Like yeah, I get it, he's something special!

I'm still really impressed with how Belinda is being written. I had wondered if the idea of "companion that just wants to go home" would get pretty stale, but honestly it's lovely how her kindness, compassion, and curiosity lead her to wonder about the places they visit, but at the same time she does still have this overarching drive. The most emotionally impactful moment of the episode for me was when she realizes, or believes, that the Doctor is dead and gone forever, the TARDIS too, and that she's truly stuck and alone. She doesn't even know where she is, or when she is, and she has nobody to protect her. That was such a believable and effective reaction!

I also got actual goosebumps and teared up a bit during the song at the end. I think having it be in an alien language was honestly a brilliant choice, it was just the pure emotion in her voice, the vulnerability of what she was expressing within the context of the story. It felt political in a way that was both broad and specific, if that makes any sense? And the reaction, the crowd held in suspended animation, and then the silence afterward, and the roaring applause... I don't know, it just felt very relatable even though the circumstances were so (literally) alien.

So yeah, I think I'm going to say that for this one, the sum was maybe not as great as the parts, in that the A-plot stuff is getting less and less promising to me, while the individual character moments and themes of the episode itself were really lovely. We're going to see how it all culminates very soon... fingers crossed it's exciting...

7/10