Doctor Who (2023) 2-06: The Interstellar Song Contest

Episode:

890

|

Serial:

318

|

Writer:

Juno Dawson

|

Director:

Ben A. Williams

|

Air Date:

17-May-2025

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This week on Grumpy Miserable Cynical Reviews, I'm hating on the latest episode of Doctor Who season 2! Okay to be honest I'm writing this bit before watching the episode, so I have no idea whether I'll like it or not. But the season really hasn't been working for me so far and The Interstellar Song Contest is the story I've been dreading the most this year.

I haven't seen any trailers, I don't know what happens in it, but I have zero interest in Eurovision so the premise has no appeal to me and all the references are going to fly over my head. And if The Devil's Chord is a harbinger of what's to come, then the soundtrack is going to be an assault on my ears. I'm going to have to leave the room and listen to the rain again.

Okay, there are going to be SPOILERS below for the episode and stories that came before it. I couldn't spoil anything that comes later if I wanted to though, as I haven't got a clue.

Doctor Who (2005) 1-08: Father's Day (Quick Review)

Episode:

704

|

Serial:

163

|

Writer:

Paul Cornell

|

Director:

Joe Ahearne

|

Air Date:

14-May-2005

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Father's Day, by veteran Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell. He only ever wrote two stories for the TV series, with this being the first, but he'd been writing Doctor Who novels, audio dramas and comics since the start of the '90s, so he'd had a bit of practice by this point.

The episode wasn't released on Father's Day, by the way. Wrong month entirely. Just like how the Christmas episode, The Unquiet Dead, wasn't released on Christmas. It's a weird thing to point out, but the series loves its holiday specials so much that these days that if you see a character eating an Easter egg, for example, the episode probably aired at Easter.

Alright, this is where the SPOILERS start, so it's your last chance to get off. Though I'll only spoil things that happen in this episode or earlier. As far as this review is concerned I've time-travelled back exactly 20 years to 2005, so if you're watching the series for the first time this will be safe to read.

Doctor Who (2023) 2-05: The Story & the Engine

Episode:

889

|

Serial:

317

|

Writer:

Inua Ellams

|

Director:

Makalla McPherson

|

Air Date:

10-May-2025

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about The Story & the Engine, the latest episode of Doctor Who.

It was put together by black writer Inua Ellams and black director Makalla McPherson, and I'm bringing this up because this may be the first time in Doctor Who history that the writer, director and Doctor have all been black. Though if you change 'Doctor' to 'one of the regular cast', then Rosa was first.

This is one of the episodes I've been most curious about this season. Partly because the middle three episodes were the best ones last time, partly because of all the new people involved. I think it's easier to get enthusiastic about seeing new names on an established TV series, as it's like a safety net. Whatever this is, it's going to be Doctor Who, and I typically like Doctor Who!

There's apparently a prequel story this time. Not a video like in the olden days, it's text on the website. But I generally skip the prequels unless everyone's yelling at me to stop what I'm doing and check them out right now (like with Day of the Doctor), so I have not seen it.

There will be SPOILERS past this point (and also SPIDERS) so if you haven't seen the episode yet you might want to go do that first (unless you don't like spiders).

Doctor Who (2005) 1-07: The Long Game (Quick Review)

Episode:

703

|

Serial:

162

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Brian Grant

|

Air Date:

07-May-2005

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching The Long Game, which is either the 7th or the 703rd episode of Doctor Who, depending on how you count it.

It's closer to 703rd to me, because I started in the Matt Smith era, continued watching the modern episodes as they aired, went back and watched all of classic Who, and now I'm here. Okay I did check out the big Russell T Davies era stories everyone mentions like the finales, Blink, Forest of the Night etc., but this never made the list. No one ever says "Hey, you've got to check out The Long Game, it's got Simon Pegg in it!" Even though he does turn up in it, I knew that much going in. I've also known how it ends for a long while, because it's a bit of a meme.

Okay, there are SPOILERS below for this episode and maybe earlier stories too, so stop reading now if you value your ignorance.

Doctor Who (2023) 2-04: Lucky Day

Episode:

888

|

Serial:

316

|

Writer:

Pete McTighe

|

Director:

Peter Hoar

|

Air Date:

03-May-2025

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, all I do is write about Doctor Who, constantly. This time it's the episode Lucky Day, from season 2. Or series 15, if that's how you're counting them. 41 is also an option.

I know something about this episode already (or someone, to be precise), because it was given away on the title reveal video... and in the thumbnail on iPlayer, but I'll not mention who because this bit up here is a spoiler-free zone.

I'll spoil something about Pete McTighe's previous Doctor Who episodes though: I didn't like them. Well that's not entirely true, as I thought Praxeus was harmless enough, it just fell short of what I expect from this series. And Kerblam! was actually pretty decent, except for the morally dubious resolution. Though both episodes were from the Chris Chibnall era, which could be a bit ethically wonky at times, so maybe this will be different. I do know that he's done a lot of work for the DVDs and Blu-ray collections, so his Doctor Who cred seems high.

This review will upload SPOILERS into your brain through your eyes if you aren't already aware what happens in the episode.

Doctor Who (2005) 8-02: Into the Dalek

Episode:

802

|

Serial:

243

|

Writer:

Phil Ford and Steven Moffat

|

Director:

Ben Wheatley

|

Air Date:

30-Aug-2014

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I already wrote the Ninth Doctor story Dalek and now I'm jumping forward exactly 100 episodes to write about the Twelfth Doctor story Into the Dalek. Not to be confused with Star Trek Into Darkness, which came out a year earlier and contains zero Daleks.

This is the second episode of the Twelfth Doctor's first series, coming right after Deep Breath, and the two stories were filmed by the same director, Ben Wheatley. He's more of a movie director than a TV director, specialising in horror, so he wasn't the worst choice for the job.

Phil Ford was the head writer on spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures for most of its run and wrote 11 stories, but he only ever wrote two episodes of Doctor Who: this and The Waters of Mars. Incidentally this is the first episode since Waters of Mars to have two writers credited under the title, though it became more common after this. I mean it was never uncommon to have two people working on the script, because the showrunner often did an uncredited rewrite, but after this point there's a lot of 'and Steven Moffat' or 'and Chris Chibnall'. I think part of the reason for this is that putting a bigger name on the script can entice bigger name actors.

Okay, I will be going through this episode scene by scene, sharing my thoughts and observations as I go. So if you want SPOILERS for this and earlier stories, keep reading.