Series 15, Episode 6 | 1 part | First broadcast: 17 May 2025 | Writer: Juno Dawson | Director: Ben A. Williams
Cast
- Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor
- Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra
- Freddie Fox as Kid
- Miriam-Teak Lee as Cora Saint Bavier
- Rylan Clark and Graham Norton as themselves
- Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman
- Archie Panjabi introducing the Rani
- Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood
Summary
At a future Eurovision-style Interstellar Song Contest, a Hellion terrorist named Kid hijacks the venue’s oxygen dome and kills thousands to avenge his species’ exploitation by the contest’s corporate sponsor, and after the Doctor and his allies, including a secretly Hellion contestant, stop the plot and revive the dead, the fatally injured Mrs Flood undergoes an unprecedented “bi-generation” in the closing scene, splitting into two beings revealed as two incarnations of the classic villain the Rani.
Interesting Facts
- Carole Ann Ford returns as Susan Foreman, the Doctor’s original 1963 companion and granddaughter, for the first time in over forty years.
- The episode reveals Mrs Flood’s true identity as the Rani via bi-generation, the same device introduced with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctor split in 2023’s “The Giggle.”
- Original songs featured in the episode, including the viral hit “Dugga Doo,” were co-written by Russell T Davies, Juno Dawson, and composer Murray Gold.
- It was deliberately scheduled to air just ahead of the real Eurovision Song Contest 2025 final.
- The episode drew 3.75 million consolidated viewers, then the series’ highest figure, and scored 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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