The Interstellar Song Contest

This Story: Series 2 Episode 6. Production code 15.7
Overall: Story 318 Episode 896
Airdate: 17 May 2025
Written by Juno Dawson
Directed by Ben A. Williams

Notes

• Features the return of Carole Anne Ford to the series as original cast member and companion Susan Foreman.  This is the first time she’d appeared in a proper episode since 1983’s “The Five Doctors“, and in any capacity since 1993’s “Dimensions in Time“.  The character appears only in a dream sequence, and does not interact in the flesh with any other characters however.
• The character of Susan Foreman was last seen on TV in the 2013 episode “The Name of the Doctor“, but the character’s face was not seen and was played by a stunt double.
• Features the return of the Rani to the series from the last appearance in the 1993 special “Dimensions in Time“.  Technically the character has been back since “The Church on Ruby Road“, but we did not know Mrs. Flood was the Rani until this episode.
• Features the second (and hopefully last) bi-generation when Mrs. Flood becomes two people, one of which is Archie Panjabi’s incarnation of the Rani.
• Some of the items in the Section E exhibition of the Contest are posters from the real life Eurovision Song Contest – the event this episode is modeled after.
• One of the main characters (Cora Saint Bavier) is said to be from the planet Trion – the same one that former companion Vislor Turlough was from.
• The in universe mavity joke is continued here.
• This episode aired on the same day as the real life Eurovision Song Contest 2025 live final.  The Doctor Who episode went out right after the end of the Eurovision telecast.  Gatwa was supposed to appear live on the real special to announce winners, but had to pull out at the last second for undisclosed reasons.
• There is another episode with a company called  “The Corporation” – that was “The End of the World“.  It is not disclosed if that is supposed to be the same company or not.
• The song Dugga Doo does not appear in full in the episode, but a couple of days later, the full version of the song was released on Youtube, as well as for purchase on digital platforms such as Apple Music.  There was for a few weeks after the episode a live stream 24 hour a day loop of “Dugga Doo” on Youtube, but that version has been removed.  There is a loop version of it on Youtube now that runs 12 hours, you can see that one here, as well as the standard 1:41 edition.
• ADMIN NOTE: This post was actually made on 18 Sep 2025.  It was back dated to appear on the date the episode aired.

Links

[ Wikipedia | Tardis Data Core | SPS Historium | Official BBC Page | UK DVD | UK Blu-Ray | UK Steelbook ]