Eurovision meets Die Hard in this week’s episode of Doctor Who, touted as the most expensive single episode of the series to date. It’s appropriately timed as well, being broadcast on the day of the Eurovision final. For people who are both Eurovision and Doctor Who fans, this could be their favourite night of the year; but for the Doctor and Belinda, this may prove to be one particularly challenging adventure.

While the first three episodes of this season built up the dynamic between the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), it’s fair to say that the last two instalments have seen our new companion pushed to the sidelines. In The Interstellar Song Contest, the TARDIS duo gets split up for the bulk of the episode, allowing us to see a more emotional and vulnerable Belinda without the Doctor to help her. It’s a really strong initial premise that the episode backtracks on fairly quickly (very quickly bringing the Doctor back into the fold), leaving Belinda to simply discover some exposition and then reunite with the Doctor at the end, forgoing any real character development. Part of the plot revolves around needing to revive thousands of people, but Belinda, despite being a nurse, isn’t actively involved in this at all. The Doctor’s storyline in this episode is slightly more complicated, revived in outer space by a vision or some kind of psychic contact from his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford, returning as the show’s first companion back in 1963) which is left incredibly vague, before aggressively confronting and eventually torturing the episode’s main antagonist Kid (a wasted Freddie Fox). For the Doctor of all characters to torture an antagonist like this feels like a step in an…interesting direction, but the violence displayed here is brushed off with no (immediate) consequences or repercussions, making it feel oddly gratuitous in a show like Doctor Who. The friction between the Doctor and Belinda established in The Robot Revolution has been well and truly wasted this season, and it’s particularly frustrating this week when this very episode seems to be the perfect opportunity to push this dynamic further.

The main issue with The Interstellar Song Contest is the tonal whiplash present throughout. The fun and whimsy of the titular event sets a specific tone at the start of the episode before the rug is pulled from the viewers and the contest’s live audience are seemingly massacred on screen…until the Doctor informs everyone that through some sci-fi technobabble, he’s ensured that everyone is still alive. It’s difficult not to feel that the episode is cheating there, especially after such a shocking moment. The Doctor’s surprising aggression with Kid is brushed off in nice moments with supporting characters Mike (Kadiff Kirwan) and Gary (Charlie Condou) and an emotional reunion with Belinda (the two immediately hug despite what’s just taken place between the Doctor and Kid). The protagonists discover that the Earth was destroyed in 2024 from a Graham Norton hologram, which feels deliberately jarring. Considering how many episodes of this era seem to content to just be fun romps, it’s surprising how seriously The Interstellar Song Contest takes itself at points. It’s not that the moments themselves don’t work, just that the episode feels inconsistent, at one point criticising the faceless ‘Corporation’ and then coming together to celebrate the wonders of the contest said Corporation is sponsoring at the end with a power ballad from supporting character Cora (Miriam-Teak Lee) – whose twist reveal is obvious from a mile away.

Doctor Who is a series that can go anywhere in space and time and tell all kinds of stories, and sometimes a story isn’t aimed at you. For this reviewer, a Eurovision episode wasn’t a particularly exciting prospect, and while The Interstellar Song Contest has a lot going for it, it’s certainly not my favourite episode of the season. It’s nice to see writer Juno Dawson make the jump to TV, having penned Doctor Who books, audio dramas the BBC podcast series Redacted in the past, and it’s easy to imagine that some viewers will love this adventure regardless of my personal reservations. The reveal of a bi-generated Rani, played by both Anita Dobson and Archie Panjabi sets the stage for a finale that may end the season on a high note…but after last year’s Empire of Death, it’s difficult not to feel a bit pessimistic.

Doctor Who continues on BBC One next Saturday at 18:50

Join us for our series blog review next week