Broadcast a mere 50 minutes before the start of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, The Interstellar Song Contest saw the Doctor and Belinda attending a futuristic version of the musical competition and uncovering a plan to kill trillions of lifeforms across the galaxy. With ratings that ranged from 2 to 9, this was a divisive episode amongst our members. Those who loved Juno Dawson’s contribution described it as “spectacular”, an “amazing spectacle” with “brilliant character work”, and “tremendous fun”. Various scenes were singled out for praise, such as Carole Ann Ford’s cameo appearances, the dissonance of Dugga Doo singing his “inane” earworm over Belina’s breakdown over the realisation that she may never return home, and the cinematographic shot of thousands of bodies drifting up into space. Even Rylan Clark’s performance as a fictionalised version of himself was praised for being “surprisingly funny” (although one member was left wondering how he had managed to survive the complete destruction of the Earth in 2025).

The biggest point of contention revolved around the climax, during which an enraged Doctor repeatedly electrocuted the story’s villain. While one member argued that it was “massively impactful to see the Doctor’s darker side getting the better of him when there’s no companion around”, more members felt that there was “zero narrative or social consequences” resulting from this dark scene, which ultimately went nowhere. In the words of one respondent: “the Doctor’s cruelty and the background conflicts were swept under the rug to foreground a cheesy, celebratory, power-of-song ending with seemingly no consequences for anyone involved.” Another member suggested that Dawson “should have genuinely killed off all the spectators and kept the tone deadly serious afterwards”, since this would have better explained the Doctor’s “questionable actions”.

While one member was enthralled by how “the bright and cheerfully camp Space Eurovision episode turns out to be one of the darkest in the series”, another maintained that Dawson didn’t go far enough to create a more shocking contrast between “a dark thriller and a cheery setting”. Another member agreed, stating that while the story was solid, it “could never quite decide if it was a fun romp or a serious morality piece.” Other criticisms included how the initial premise and visuals were let down by “confused messaging” and “2D, functional characters”, as well as the story having “too much forced emotion” and an underlying assumption that everybody watching loves Eurovision: for those who didn’t enjoy the real-life contest or Cora’s ballad about her home planet, the emotional climax fell flat.

As the Doctor himself once sung, there’s always a twist at the end and this episode was no exception: the mid-credits scene, in which Anita Dobson’s Mrs Flood suddenly bi-generated into The Rani, played by Archie Panjabi, didn’t come as a surprise to some members who had heard the leaks online (#RIPDoctorWho). Nonetheless, the reveal was described as “ridiculous but should result in a lot of fun for the series finale”. However, would her evil plan to blow up the Earth involve some immoral science and a motivation beyond simply being evil?

The society made their minds up and gave The Interstellar Song Contest an average rating of 6.50 (from 10 responses). Coming up next: Wish World