Doctor Who meets Eurovision in this high-octane episode

This is another BBC media package where everybody interviewed is gushing over everything else. Interviewees are guest stars Mark Rylan Clark and Freddie Fox, plus writer Juno Dawson and director Ben A Williams (no relation to Rory, presumably).

A few things stand out from the enthusiastic politeness, though. The following are things I hadn’t gleaned from trailers.

Freddie Fox:

Kid is a charismatic, devious, revolutionary leader of a group. They are trying to get justice for wrongs that he wants to tell the galaxy and the universe about.

What you’re saying then is, Israel is still part of this 900 years later? 😬 I’m slightly worried where the show’s sympathies would fall on this, but it would be a gutsy move either way.

Juno Dawson:

Russell initially pitched the bare bones concept of Eurovision meets Die Hard, which were two things I knew really well. […] What would happen if an enemy faction planned an attack on the Eurovision Song Contest in space?

I think people are certainly going to expect it to be … let’s just say camp. I mean of course it is, it’s the Interstellar Song Contest. But also, it’s action-packed. It doesn’t let up for a second. It’s a really high-octane episode.

In places it’s quite harrowing. I think the best science fiction and fantasy should always have something to say about the world.

And finally, something for the Murray Gold fans out there:

Ben A Williams:

Murray (Gold) has created a song that is weapons-grade catchy. I played it once to my 2-year-old. He hasn’t stopped singing it since.

So, in a nutshell — hitting that shared target segment between Eurovision and Doctor Who 🤣 Plus potentially controversial terrorism. Should be fun!

Edit: got Rylan Clark’s name really wrong because I’m not really big on British ESC traditions.