Doctor Who Season 2 is underway, and the second episode described by multiple critics as “bold and wild”, aired last Saturday. But it’s not the only interesting one this season. The sixth episode, The Interstellar Song Contest, brings together the world of Doctor Who and the famous Eurovision in a fun and unexpected way!
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In an exclusive interview with SFX magazine—whose latest issue features The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 2 on the cover—episode writer Juno Dawson shared how the story came to life.
Advertisement According to Dawson, the idea originally came from showrunner Russell T. Davies. “Russell is a machine who doesn’t seem to need sleep,” she told SFX. “He emailed me around 1:30 in the morning,” she added. Dawson went on to share how she first found out about the episode pitch.
I didn’t see it until my alarm went off at 7am, Like any modern person, the first [thing] I did was check my phone – like an addict. And I had this email saying, ‘Die Hard meets Eurovision. What do you think?’
Dawson continued
I handed the phone to my then-husband, and I was like, ‘Am I imagining this?’ He was just like, ‘Oh my god’. Like, the call had finally come! It was the easiest ‘yes’ I’ve ever said.
She also revealed that her original pitch was inspired by the classic disaster film The Poseidon Adventure, though it proved too costly to produce.
I look back now with a slight cringe, What was I thinking? It was very ambitious. The bare bones are still in the finished product but, God, in one version I had robots wearing lederhosen! They’ve gone!
she added of that idea
Doctor Who: The Interstellar Song Contest is set to premiere on May 17. You can find more details in the latest issue of SFX magazine, hitting shelves on Wednesday, April 23.
New episodes of Doctor Who stream every Saturday on BBC iPlayer for free. Tune in each week for a breakdown of the latest adventures.
Source: GamesRadar