Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who Episode Six, The Intergalactic Sing-Off.
Ncuti Gatwa 's second season as the Doctor alongside Varada Sethu playing the role of an unwilling companion Belinda Chandra is coming to a close, with just the two-part finale remaining.
However, despite a robust season featuring some of the show’s finest consecutive episodes in years, Juno Dawson’s The Interstellar Song Contest left me feeling quite perplexed—and uneasy.
This particular episode holds significance for multiple reasons.
We not only encounter Mrs. Flood again but also witness a significant revelation: the Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan Foreman, materializes before him in urgent, still unexplained hallucinations, urgently asking him to locate her.
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Aside from a brief cameo in 2013’s The Name of the Doctor, the character’s last onscreen appearance was in a 1965 episode, making this a huge twist ahead of the finale where she will no doubt play a bigger role.
However, the Doctor’s strange dismissal of the visions set a shaky tone for the episode, which was clearly trying to tie up as many pre-finale threads as possible while also providing a main episode plot.
I'm uncertain whether it fully achieved the correct equilibrium.
Certainly, ultimately, we find ourselves with a holographic version of Graham Norton projecting the news to our time-traveling pair, revealing that Earth ceased to exist on May 24, 2025. As they rush back inside the Tardis aiming to head home, the doors burst open forcefully from their frames.
An appropriately thrilling ending to the episode as we finally confront the season's main antagonist next week.
Slightly clunky plot mechanics aside, there was another element of this episode that left me feeling deeply unsettled. And that was the Doctor’s attitude towards the villain, Kid, played by Freddie Fox.
When the cryogenically revived Rylan launches the galactic edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, Kid seizes control of the program controller, exiles the spectators to perish in deep space, and initiates a scheme to eliminate all three trillion viewers watching from their homes.
Even though he first appears as an intimidating and profoundly wicked antagonist, we quickly learn that his species, the Hellions, have faced widespread abuse, slaughter, and discrimination at the hands of the rest of the cosmos.
It's clear there are some scorching similarities here with the Extensive demonstrations against Israel’s participation In this year's Eurovision — and the repetition that the competition is not politically oriented.
In this scenario, it was incredibly shocking and distressing to see the Doctor interrogate Kid and promptly start torturing him, exhibiting a callousness that remains wholly unexplained throughout both the build-up and aftermath of the situation.
Belinda, displaying much greater empathy towards the struggles of this race, succeeds in preventing him from fully carrying out his intentions. He rationalizes his actions merely by stating that his anger got the better of him due to the massacre of the Time Lords.
None intended, but this is an issue the Doctor has wrestled with from the beginning of the reboot (considering they even used an entire regeneration cycle for therapeutic healing). This extreme cruelty was only prompted by their arch-nemesis, the Daleks.
Furthermore, even after the Doctor uncovers the complete background of Kid's aggressive behavior, he demonstrates no inclination towards trying to appeal to whatever goodness might still reside within Kid or attempting to aid his species.
Just sends him to prison without a second glance. Despite the good intentions of the episode, the episode ultimately felt like it bit off more than it could chew.
It’s a horrid move for this Doctor’s characterisation, who has shown more kindness to literal racists. Even Lucky Day conspiracy theorist Conrad (Jonah Hauer-King) got away with a bit of a scolding.
In a usual conclusion for Doctor Who, another individual from the aggrieved species, Cora (played by Miriam Teek-Lee), unites everyone via the strength of her singing—a resolution I suspect several viewers might find disappointing yet appears to provide a form of atonement.
I'm pleased that we can recognize the Hellions' fight and understand the significance of giving them a platform. Additionally, the Doctor exhibited some regret over the harshness he demonstrated.
In other areas, the episode is hampered by the limited screen time we've had with these characters due to the shorter season.
At some moment, Belinda asserts that she has never witnessed the Doctor as furious as he was this time (even though he displayed immense anger in the previous episode). However, her profound comprehension of the Doctor seems hard to accept, considering they've only been seen interacting four times before.
All in all, it’s a shaky addition to what would otherwise be a solid season. I’m hoping the upcoming two-part finale will manage to uplift me again.
Doctor Who premieres every Saturday on BBC Number one and BBC iPlayer. You can watch it online through this platform. Disney + outside the UK.
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