This article contains spoilers For “Doctor Who” season 2, episode 6, “The Interstellar Song Contest”.
In many ways, “The Interstellar Song Contest” captures things that “Doctor Who” does best in a practical package. The episode marries the funny, cheesy and sincere air of the show with the tragic past of the doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and a deep disgust towards those who would kill, while adding references of tradition and deep pop culture and pop culture to things. To top it all, the episode includes a few cameos which are Really Juicy if you know British popular culture.
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First of all, a word on the cameos in question for our American readers. The first real notable celebrity that we see in “The Interstellar Song Contest” is Rylan Clark, a personality of the British television show who was presenter and commentator of many series, including the Eurovision competition (yes, the same competition in Eurovision which inspired Will Ferrell’s comedy). Here, it is redesigned like the Immortal Rylan, a version of itself which, it seems, has organized the competition in the last 900 years. Later, we see another even more popular television personality (and a renowned Eurovision presenter on the BBC): the actor Graham Norton, whose Hologram of the AI presides over the Eurovision museum of the satellite of the song competition. Rightly so, given the soft-lovers of the episode, these two roles are largely played for laughter … but tease a lot of pain hiding below.
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Indeed, “The Interstellar Song Contest” largely treats Clark and Norton in a comical way. However, there are several indices not so subtle as the versions of “Doctor Who” of these people are trapped in what is equivalent to a living hell.
An eternity involving a song competition does not seem to be a good time for Doctor Who
Since Rylan is frozen in a cryogenic suspension between the competitions, the episode declares that he except that he lives his life entirely during the accommodation of concerts. Since he looks like what he does today, he has apparently done it since the 2020s, which implies that he spent 900 good years living entirely on stage. Yes, it is played for laughter, but there are clues that the situation affects it negatively. It depends deeply on the studio clues and struggle to operate without direction, and once it is sucked in space and that its skin begins to freeze, it is horrified and can only say “not yet” – which implies that it may not be stuck in the circle of gel voluntarily.
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Later, we see Norton as a Hologram Ai at the Song Contest Museum. Although his presence is also comical, the first literal thing he does is to express his solemn wish that he has not signed his resemblance to perpetuity. Again, I played for laughter, but there is a current of despair and despair – especially since the hologram later reappears in the episode and offers an important exhibition. This, with its ability to state its aversion as a result of being trapped in this condition in the first place, strongly implies that Norton AI is at least semi-teated and hate it.
All of this complies with the treatment of the Gatwa era of the famous British television faces, by the way. In his first complete episode of “Doctor Who”, the 2023 Christmas special “The Church on Ruby Road”, noted that presenter Davina McCall finds herself at the reception of a series of Rube Goldberg scenarios induced by the Goblin who would not be in their place in the “Final Destination” franchise, so maybe Rylan and Norton will not be in his place.
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