It's safe to say that Doctor Who has had quite alot of campy episodes in the past and weather or not those episodes should have been camp in the first place is most certainly up to you the viewer to decide. However the episode that i'm going to be talking to you all about today is perhaps the only episode in the shows very long history where it would have felt wrong if it wasn't camp and so then join me as I review the episode that sees two classic characters return with the episode in question being called simply just "The Interstellar Song Contest" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when The Doctor and Belinda stop of on a space station that is hosting it's annual song contest that's broadcast across the galaxy the dup find themselves in trouble when the broadcast is hijacked and they must find away to defeat the villains before they kill three trillion people. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as while the plot of the episode is arguably more lighthearted alot of the time then the rest of this seasons plots are given the fact that the characters are quite clearly appearing in a spoof of the Eurovision Song Contest an event that is known to be camp and quite lighthearted it does make sense that this episode would follow suit but at the same time tho this plot is still one that does still work with the context of it being a Doctor Who episode as we still get alot of the things that we've come to expect from this season of the show and yet the plot of this episode is one that does also feel a bit on the thin side of things as well as the episode doesn't really put alot of focus onto it's plot rather it instead puts more focus onto the episodes musical numbers with this having the adverse effect of making this episodes plot feel more like an afterthought this being despite the fact that the premise alone which was described as being "Eurovision meets Die Hard" being something that does sound like a really fun plot it just needed a better writer to help to bring it to life is all with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor , Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra and Julie Dray as Sabine. Also starring in this episode is Rylan Clark as Himself , Imogen Kingsley Smith as A Runner , Kiruna Stamell as Nina Maxwell , Iona Anderson as Wynn Aura-Kin , Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood , Charlie Condou as Gary Gabbastone , Kadiff Kirwan as Mike Gabbastone , Freddie Fox as Kid , Miriam-Teak Lee as Cora Saint Bavier , Akemnji Ndifornyen as Len Kazah , Christina Rotondo as Liz Lizardine , Graham Norton as Himself , Abdul Sessay as Jeddy Kine , Archie Panjabi as The Rani and Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With both Ncuti and Varada being really good in this episode with this being something that was kind of expected as all throughout this season of the show those two are always turning in some really good performances with this being something that even those that don't like this era of the show all that much have to admit is true as the pair of them are a pair of really good actors in their own right with it being helped by the fact that alot of this episodes guest actors like for example Miriam-Teak Lee , Kadiff Kirwan and Charlie Condou do really good jobs as well with all three of them feeling that fit in in the world of Doctor Who with even the returning Carole Ann Ford just slipping right back into character with it feeling like that she never really stopped playing Susan as while she doesn't get alot of screen time in this episode she is still really good with it being made clear as day that she is having alot of fun in the episode with the best actor in the episode being Ncuti Gatwa as we do get to see another side to his version of The Doctor where we do get to see him pushed to the point where he believes that killing someone in cold blood is the best thing with Ncuti putting all that across beautifully in the episode with the acting that's in this episode not really being helped by the fact that the script for this episode is just so bad as it gives none of this episodes actors anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first lace which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Pixomondo and Real SFX. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good with the makers of this episode making some really good use of CGI in this episode as while this episode was always going to be an effects heavy episode just due to the amount of crowd shots and shots of the space station alone there is a shockingly high amount of practical effects to be in the episode as well with them all blending in really well with the episodes CGI effects and while it could be argued that this episode does go overboard with the amount of CGI that they use so much so that it makes this episode feel alot more like a cartoon then it does a live action show there was really never going to be anyway that you could do this episode without using alot of CGI in it just due to the fact that the episode does things with it's characters that you couldn't possibly do for real with the episode having some really cool looking CGI effects in the episode like the shot of all of the people being sucked out on the space station is a really cool looking effect with the same thing even being true for the shot where the ice on The Doctors body breaks away when he's stuck in space and while yes it would have been nice if this episode was done fully practically as then the effects would age at a much more slower rate the makers of this episode did use that Disney money really well as we got some really good looking effects in this episode.
This episode is known for having two major characters returning that being of course The Rani and Susan Foreman. With both characters having last been seen in an episode of Doctor Who being the dreadful charity special Dimensions In Time with Susan's last appearance in the regular show being all the way back in Peter Davidson's era of the show in The Five Doctors so to say that having her appear again in this episode even tho it' just for a few minuets is something that is a big deal because as of this writing Carol Ann Ford is the longest surviving Doctor Who actor having appeared in the very first episode of the show but while it was really nice to see them again one has to wonder why they were included in the episode in the first place as the whole point of this new era of the show was to get a much more younger audience to Doctor Who and there not going to know who Susan is and nor are they going to know who The Rani is either as those characters haven't been seen since the nineties with this being case of the makers of the show including nods to classic Who for the older fan but not really giving the newer fan a reason to care abut these characters returning and while it could be argued that the next two episodes do give them a reason to care for The Rani and why she is returning but for Susan we get nothing as The Doctor doesn't even mention seeing her to Belinda at the end of the episode where it would have made perfect sense and it would have given the newer audience some background information on the character of Susan as well now there is s good chance that the new audience might still have understood who Susan is and why they should care for her in the originally planned ending for this season which we do know thanks to the scripts for this season being released that there was a different ending which Carol Ann Ford herself even admitted that she was going to be a part of the ending but as things stand the new audience isn't given a reason to care for her character which is a shame as seeing her back as Susan Foreman really is a big deal.
Whilst alot of the episodes of this show are indeed camp this is the only episode that should be camp due to the fact that it's spoofing a camp singing contest. With the fact that the episode is camp being something that does work in the episodes as it allows the episode to take it self seriously enough to the point where as the audience buy into the plot and into the threat that the characters are in but also it doesn't take it self that seriously that the episode can't stop and make a joke or two every once in a while with these more campier moments being where the episode does being to shine as it's there that the episode does feel like that's being a proper spoof of the Eurovision Song Contest and is going all in on that idea which is something that it really had to do i order for the idea to work as best that it could do as the episode would have felt off if it was still spoofing Eurovision but was instead playing everything super straight which yes would have been good for the drama aspect of the show as this show is meant to be an action drama show afterall but that doesn't mean that you can't have fun with it's concepts and that is something that the episode does really well even down to the fact that it is has a song from a band that was in Eurovision itself play over a montage which is a pretty funny in the first place with it being something that does embrace just how mad that Eurovision can be alot of the time and it's scenes like that and when The Doctor uses a confetti canon to push himself to airlock and get back inside the space station that does show you that the makers of this episode new full well that they could have more fun in this episode as they take full advantage of it's premise and go all in with the kinds of jokes that they could do in this episode.
There is one point where alot of people do agree that this episode doesn't work quite that well that being the episodes main villain Kid. As he's a character that wants revenge for the death of his people and that's it as the episode doesn't really go into that much detail about what it is that makes him tic due to the fact that the episode doesn't focus on him all that much with the episode being more focused on showing us The Doctor and Belinda when it could have spent alot more time in giving us more of a well rounded villain as he does come across as being more of an after thought then anything else as while the idea of having someone be out for revenge for the death of there people is a really good idea the episode does kind of squash that idea by showing us a character that is also out to do the exact same thing but in a more peaceful way in the character of Cora Saint Bavier who just wants to sing a song that her people sang and to win the show as a way to show the company that run the contest that there race will never be forgotten and yet it's her that gets alot more attention from the episode when it would have made more sense for Kid to get alot more of the attention due to the fact that he's the episodes main villain with things being made even more worse when you remember that this is the episode where The Rani reappears with her being a more better villain then what Kid is and while the episode did have to reintroduce The Rani as she plays a big part in the next two episodes here she kind of takes away attention from the episodes main villain when if Kid was more developed as a villain then he would be all the more memorable as a character.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly forty seven minuets and thirty one seconds. Which is pretty much the bogstandard running time for this show to have with this episode having just about the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place and yet in saying this tho the episode doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as the episode doesn't take the time that it really should have done to fully develop it's plot and while this would usually be seen as being a bad thing this is a case where having an underdeveloped plot here it is something that does work in the episodes favor as the episode is meant to be alot more fun and spoofing something that is really camp in the first place and therefor the episode didn't really need to have a fully developed plot to work in the first place rather it just needed the basic setup and that's it and yet the episode also doesn't really take the time to fully develop any of it's characters and while that's OK for The Doctor and Belinda as there you could make the argument that they have the rest of this series to get there character development in the first place the same thing cannot be said for the episodes guest characters all of whom come across as being blanks of wood as the episode doesn't give any of them character development as we know as much about all of the episodes guest characters coming out of the episode then we did coming into the episode with this being something that could have been fixed by giving the guest characters more times to shine and by giving them more scenes that show of just who they are as characters something which would have made them be all the more memorable as characters but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With the episode not really having that much action in it which given the fact that this episode is basically Die Hard in space is something that does make alot of sense but at the same time tho it would have made perfect sense if the episode did have some over the top action in it as this is meant to be a really over the top episode and therefor it's something that wouldn't seem out of place in this episode with the best action scene in the whole entire episode being where The Doctor who is so enraged as he thinks that Belinda has been killed almost tortures Kid to death something which does bring out a new side to The Doctor but at the same time tho this action scene doesn't quite work all that well as The Doctor hasn't really known Belinda for all that long so there would be no reason for him to get this upset at Kid at least not to the point of almost killing him whereas if this was someone like Ruby Sunday for example then it would have made more sense due to the fact that both of these characters have had more time together and have a stronger bond then what he has with Belinda but it is still a good really good scene in it's own right as it's a scene that does show us just how far that The Doctor could possibly go to when he doesn't have a human there to keep him grounded in the first place in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall whilst it is easy to see why this episode isn't as good as it could have been as there alot of faults to be found in the episode this episode is also one that's really fun to watch and whilst it really does have an ending that ties into the two part finale this is an episode really that a none fan of the show really can watch and still find some level of enjoyment out of it in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now the i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad thigs that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , Tardis . Wiki and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great Tardis . Wiki really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Tardis . Wiki really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.