Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

S02.E06 (BBC/D+): The Interstellar Song Contest

DanaK

By DanaK
in Doctor Who

Recommended Posts

DanaK

DanaK

Quote

Premiering Saturday May 17 at 8am in the UK streaming on BBC iPlayer and Disney+ internationally (In the US, that would be 3am ET Saturday morning) and then broadcast on BBC One in the UK at 7:10pm UK time

Synopsis: The Doctor’s quest to get Belinda back home to Earth leads to a space station hosting the famous song contest. But a harmless night of fun soon becomes a battle to survive.

Writer: Juno Dawson

Director: Ben A. Williams

Runtime: 47 minutes

Full production listing https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002cgzl

 

Llywela

Llywela

Susan! The Rani!

I cannot describe the noise I made when Carole Ann Ford appeared. And then Archie Panjabi as the Rani is just the icing on the cake. Fandom has been saying 'is it the Rani?' every time there is a mysterious woman in the show for the last 20 years - finally, here she is!

Really enjoyed this episode. Cora was a standout guest character, she was so kind to Belinda when she was freaking out.

  • Like 9
DoctorAtomic

DoctorAtomic

I assume Rylan is known figure in the UK? I know what Eurovision is and have seen some clips every year on the news. That must have been fun to write the songs. There must have been easter eggs I missed. 

Minor, neat world building detail - Western Arm of the Galaxy. I like when stuff like that is thrown in. 

All the people being sucked out of the airlock was horrific. I'm not sure why the TARDIS would get sucked out. Although, smart as she is, she should have gone to catch the Doctor. 

The "I'm telling you no" was very Ten. 

What an amazing episode. Lots of turns. That was dense. 

I thought Hellia was supposed to be Earth, but they showed two moons. 

Kudos to Wikipedia being on time on the Rani. I never saw One, but I know who Susan is. 

  • Like 3
John Potts

John Potts

I guess if you keep guessing that Susan and/or the Rani will turn up, you're bound to be right eventually. Not happy we get another Bi-Regeneration - couldn't we just have a mundane regeneration?

While it seemed out of character for the Doctor, I did like how he went a bit psycho on the villain, but I'm also glad he stopped himself (Kid was trying to kill trillions - and had almost killed Belinda). Nice callback to Christopher Eccleston with the Delta Wave.

Wild speculation: the Rani is trying to get back to Earth (where her TARDIS is?) and isn't the villain, she's just piggybacking on the Doctor's rescue (probably not). Sure, she'd have no problem killing anyone to save herself, but she isn't killing anyone without purpose.

26 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I assume Rylan is known figure in the UK?

He's the UK presenter for Eurovision (or one of them). The song where they are rescuing all the people from space ("Making your Mind up") is a former UK winner (Bucks Fizz, 1981?).

  • Useful 4
PurpleTentacle

PurpleTentacle

So the Flood was just a massive red herring.

It's funny for the first 10 to 15 years of NuWho fans were like "Is it the Rani?!" every time a new female character showed up. But at some point everybody seemed to have given up on that. I haven't seen anybody seriously suggest that Mrs. Flood was the Rani.

That episode was really fun and extremely well timed with the ESC, coming out just hours before the finale. They couldn't have planned it like this, considering this was filmed ages ago and they couldn't have known their air dates back then. So this was just fate.

I thought the hellian singer (which was obvious that she was hellian early on) would have her horns in her massive hairdo. Not that she had chopped them off.

  • Like 3
Lantern7

Lantern7

(edited)

That was fun. It's another episode where I don't feel that connected to the source material (this time: because I've never watched Eurovision), but we have the Visions of Companion Past talking the Doctor out of extended torture AND the return of the Rani. Apparently, she was Mrs. Flood . . . but Mrs. Flood went through her own biregeneration (bi-rengeration?), and the Rani looked to be treating Mrs. Flood as a lackey. Is this season going to end in a tag-team match? Probably not, but I have this image of Mrs. Flood putting David Tennant in a headlock, and I wish to share that mental image.

You know what's more tired than Mrs. Flood's pop-ins going into this episode? "Mavity." So. Tired. Soooooooo tired.

I've only seen "The Mark of the Rani." I've heard bad things about "Time and the Rani." I know she's more than just "hey, female Master," but I fear that some episode are now awaiting the Master to go through his own biregeneration. We had fun the last time we had two of them on at the same time, right? I don't think Rani was meant to be a conqueror of worlds, so it should be interesting to see what she's up to.

I meant Carole Ann Ford in 2015. Nice that the foreshadowing of Susan isn't a fakeout like last year. It would've been so easy to have someone else play the role and chalk it up to regeneration, but I'm good with what looks to be the plan.

ETA: There's no teaser for next week's episode?

Edited by Lantern7
PurpleTentacle

PurpleTentacle

(edited)

For anybody who has never seen the ESC and wants the context, you can watch yesterdays finale here: 

My personal favourite was Finland:

But a big part of it is also the announcers. This year Hazel was a highlight. I didn't follow anything up to the finale this year so I was pleasently surprised to see her on the stage.

Edited by PurpleTentacle
DanaK

DanaK

  • Author
(edited)
5 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

ETA: There's no teaser for next week's episode?

No there wasn’t. The behind the scenes show Unleashed had a teaser

Being sandwiched in between the FA Cup Final and Eurovision helped the episode get its biggest rating of the season, with 2.57 million viewers and was 3rd for the day behind the two above programs (6.73 million and 4.66 million, with the latter show shared between the BBC and ITV) respectively

https://www.tvzoneuk.com/post/doctorwho-interstellarsongcontest-overnightratings

Edited by DanaK
baldryanr

baldryanr

(edited)

I hope there's a reason why this supposedly mythical, never before seen bigeneration has now happened twice.  They've made a big deal of how regeneration is still comparable to killing the current incarnation, but now it's no big deal because you can heal from your fatal wound AND still stick around.  15 paid lip service to how excruciating it was in a later episode, but you wouldn't know it from what we've seen.

Edited by baldryanr
  • Like 1
John Potts

John Potts

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

She said she was forced when Belinda asked if she did it herself. Even worse. 

Which is weird, because you'd think it would have been her manager that insisted on it ("No Hellion can get anywhere in this business..."). But obviously not, since he apparently was unaware of her origins (I guess he never saw her without her wig on?).

libgirl2

libgirl2

28 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I've only had a smattering of the classic era on PBS myself, but Susan is super important because she is the Doctor's granddaughter. One traveled with her and two other teachers during his tenure. 

The Rani, I'm hazy on, but she's been some amoral scientist Time Lord that battled wits with Six or Seven? 

I grew up watching the classic and Susan is very important. She is part of the Doctor's past that we don't know as much about. Was he married? Kids? Grandkids? Did she call him grandfather out of respect  of him being an elder? Who is her mother? Is she a Time Lord? Honestly, in the over 40 years I have watched this show, THIS is BIG! 

The Rani was a devious TL kind of like a female Master but I was never a huge fan of hers. I always preferred the Master. 

  • Like 1
Llywela

Llywela

(edited)
12 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Unclear. Seems she hasn't regenerated yet.

Originally only timelords could regenerate, not regular Gallifreyens and afaik Susan was just a regular Gallifreyen. But NuWho has retconned that. So all bets are off.

We actually have no idea what kind of Gallifreyan Susan is, whether Time Lord or not, because neither Gallifrey nor Time Lord existed as concepts during her time in the show! All that backstory came after she'd left. All we know is that she is the Doctor's granddaughter - and that Carole Ann Ford is very protective of that relationship, which she does not want to be retconned.

So we don't know whether or not Susan is a Time Lord, we don't know if she can regenerate, all we know is that she is the Doctor's granddaughter, who he left behind on Earth sometime in the late 22nd century. What became of her after that remains to be seen - it has been centuries since then for the Doctor, but may only have been a few decades for Susan, for all we know. Timey-wimey, and all that. So I agree, her appearing with the same face doesn't necessarily mean that she can't regenerate, it only proves that it hasn't happened to her yet.

Edited by Llywela
  • Like 3
  • Love 1
libgirl2

libgirl2

4 hours ago, Llywela said:

We actually have no idea what kind of Gallifreyan Susan is, whether Time Lord or not, because neither Gallifrey nor Time Lord existed as concepts during her time in the show! All that backstory came after she'd left. All we know is that she is the Doctor's granddaughter - and that Carole Ann Ford is very protective of that relationship, which she does not want to be retconned.

So we don't know whether or not Susan is a Time Lord, we don't know if she can regenerate, all we know is that she is the Doctor's granddaughter, who he left behind on Earth sometime in the late 22nd century. What became of her after that remains to be seen - it has been centuries since then for the Doctor, but may only have been a few decades for Susan, for all we know. Timey-wimey, and all that. So I agree, her appearing with the same face doesn't necessarily mean that she can't regenerate, it only proves that it hasn't happened to her yet.

She also married a human and might not have wanted to regenerate or was able to not have to and grow old with him. But yes, we don't know for sure if she is a Time Lord or what. 

  • Like 3
PurpleTentacle

PurpleTentacle

(edited)
9 hours ago, Llywela said:

We actually have no idea what kind of Gallifreyan Susan is, whether Time Lord or not, because neither Gallifrey nor Time Lord existed as concepts during her time in the show! All that backstory came after she'd left. All we know is that she is the Doctor's granddaughter - and that Carole Ann Ford is very protective of that relationship, which she does not want to be retconned.

Considering that the doctor treated her like a child, she often behaves like a child and she even went to school on earth, it's pretty clear that she didn't go through the academy yet.

But we agree on the part where we don't know if she can regenerate, as NuWho lumped Gallifrayens and Time Lords together. Under Moffat regeneration was a consequence of time travel and it seemed to effect the entire race. But then Chibnall retconned that into genetic modification with DNA from the timeless child (the Doctor). But since it's DNA-modification that should also be inheritable. So really unclear, as the lore around regeneration keeps changing.

20 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I was thinking how the War Doctor just automatically started the regeneration when his time was up.

Well considering Jon Hurt died only 4 years later it seems they weren't that far off.

Edited by PurpleTentacle
Llywela

Llywela

15 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Considering that the doctor treated her like a child, she often behaves like a child and she even went to school on earth, it's pretty clear that she didn't go through the academy yet.

But we agree on the part where we don't know if she can regenerate, as NuWho lumped Gallifrayens and Time Lords together. Under Moffat regeneration was a consequence of time travel and it seemed to effect the entire race. But then Chibnall retconned that into genetic modification with DNA from the timeless child (the Doctor). But since it's DNA-modification that should also be inheritable. So really unclear, as the lore around regeneration keeps changing.

Regeneration isn't necessarily tied to going through the academy. Like you say, the lore around regeneration keeps changing. So really, anything is possible, where Susan is concerned.

  • Like 1
PurpleTentacle

PurpleTentacle

1 hour ago, Shellgame said:

Moffat says they re all the same man (person now, I guess) with different faces.

I don't think even Moffat actually believes that.

It's the nature vs. nurture thing. With the doctor, the nurture stays the same. So all the experiences that shaped them. But their nature, their biology changes. Their overall values stay the same, but their personality, demeanor and even sexuality change.

tennisgurl

tennisgurl

Oh my God I so called it! My Doctor Who guesses never pan out, I am so excited that I was right! Mrs. Flood is The Ranni, after years of fans wondering where she went before giving up on seeing her, and she's played by Archie Panjabi! I love it! 

This was another great episode, I have to say that this season has been an improvement on last year, which was pretty good but had a few more misses and meg episodes than this one, which has had all winners, and its a better showing for Fifteen. 

As an uncultured American, I don't know a whole lot about Eurovision and had to google who Rylan is, but that's a fun cameo and the giant intergalactic singing contest was a really delightful episode idea, very classic wacky science fiction. We also had a good supporting cast, the bickering couple, the secret Helion singer, the lady running the broadcast, and some fun cameos. I know that terrorists never make a lot of sense, but this plan seemed particularly deranged. They want to tell everyone what happened to their home world? If they kill literally everyone in the galaxy, who is going to acknowledge what was done to them?

Did we get a Doctor tear in this one, or was he too angry to cry? He went pretty dark there for a second but its hard to blame him given the mavity of the situation.

Susan! Its Susan!

  • Applause 1

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...