Written by Juno Dawson
Directed by Ben A. Williams
The Rani (to Mike/Gary, re Mrs Flood): "Our name is The Rani. Although she's become a Rani, while I'm the Rani. The definite article so to speak."
Holy bigenerations mark two! Yes, that ever so popular theory about Mrs Flood actually came to pass. She's the Rani, or more specifically, a Rani. The definitive article made her grand appearance at the end, giving gay couple Gary (Charlie Condou) and Mike Gabbastone (Kadiff Kirwan) something to mull over.
Bigenerations might be a divisive thing to do on the show and the one thing I found interesting was that Mrs Flood waited to pull off that little stunt, once the Doctor and Belinda had fled the titular contest itself. For years, fans have been clamouring for this character's return. Will RTD and company handle the Rani better than Sutekh? I think they just might.
The Rani promised to deliver absolute terror to the Doctor by the end of this episode and something tells me that he's not going to be the same man once he reunites with her. However, the Rani wasn't the only surprise that this episode had to offer. She was however, my favourite. Top marks to both Anita Dobson and Archie Panjabi during that reveal.
The other major surprise was Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford) herself. I might have known about the Rani but Susan's appearance genuinely blindsided me in the best way possible. The Doctor when trying not to freeze to death saw her in his mind and she made it abundantly that he had to find her. He better get on with that in the next two episodes.
Getting to the core of this episode, it was a shameless Eurovision spoof that tried to embrace both the sheer campness of the song contest as well as the political minefield it's become as well. Oh and Rylan Clark turned out to be very vital for this episode. His scenes complimented what it was going for on the camp front along with his feline, co-host, Sabine (Julie Dray).
Then there's the political side of things with freedom fighters and Hellia survivors, Kid (Freddie Fox) and Wynn (Iona Anderson) resorting to extreme measures in order to highlight the injustice of what happened to their world. Their actions however brought out the darkest side of this Doctor to date and even I found his treatment of Kid in particular rather harsh.
Between all of that, there was Cora Saint Bavier (Miriam-Teak Lee). The reveal of her being from Hellia with her horns removed wasn't shocking but I thought she really stood out as a guest character and had a nice singing voice. Her scenes with Belinda in particular were rather strong.
Let's circle back to Belinda, shall we? She was excited for the contest, had a panic attack when things went down with Kid and his Delta Wave threat and was also scared for and by the Doctor. Then there was finding out about the Earth's destruction in those last few minutes.
- The Rani reveal happened in a mid credit sequence and she was happy with Mrs Flood getting the results of the Vindicator.
- Graham Norton's cameo was rather genius. Of course he'd be the one to tell the Doctor and Belinda about Earth's destruction.
- The last time both Susan and The Rani appeared was during Dimensions In Time.
- There was no next trailer for the first part of the finale.
- Standout music: Cora's song to one side, of course the use of Bucks Fizz's Making Your Mind Up.
- Chronology: 2925 on the Harmony platform for the contest while the Earth went bye bye on May 24th 2025.
The Interstellar Song Contest certainly was divisive with it's attempt to tackle both the camp and political aspects of the Eurovision (which is on after this episode's television debut) but it certainly made use of its guest cast. However, it's the returns of both Susan and The Rani that made the episode for me.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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