The Horns of Nimon - Episode 1

The Horns of Nimon is the last story of the season although that particular honour was suppose to go to ‘Shada’. Due to this, this season is the shortest so far and it’s the last story with Graham Williams as producer and Douglas Adams as script editor. I have never been a big fan of this story but I am going to try and be positive although I think that this may be difficult. This is the penultimate episode of the 1970’s with this episode being transmitted on December 22^nd 1979. The opening scene is quite interesting because its about the most serious scene in the entire episode. We have the pilot and co-pilot (for that is how they are credited) are doing a scene where they are complaining about the state of the ship and it’s they are the sort of characters that will be sort of clichéd in future Doctor Who stories. They do have a bit of a sinister side when its revealed that they have hostages with one of them being Janet Ellis who would go on to appear on Blue Peter from 1983-87.

When the action switches to the TARDIS that is when the serious/sinister tone goes for good. The humour returns after taking a slight holiday in the previous story. There are at least two things that occur in this scene which I found a bit tiresome. First is when the Doctor says “What could possibly go wrong?” just before something goes wrong and then he repeats it. The next is when he tries to give the kiss of life to K9.

After being impressed with the models and effects with the previous story I think that there is a dip in quality because the models don’t look as good and there are a few effects such as Soldeed walking through a curtain that look a bit ropey. Speaking of Soldeed, he is played by Graham Crowden who was considered to replace Jon Pertwee but instead the role went to Tom Baker. His performance is a bit on the pantomime side of things which isn’t the best way to start things. Another problem is the co-pilot who is played by Malcolm Terris who I just cant take seriously due to the way that he performs in the episode.

I mentioned the hostages and when they explain their circumstances to the Doctor and Romana I just don’t find it particularly interesting. Also the characters in general are rather bland and I don’t particularly find them interesting and so this is probably going to be a problem in future episodes. The Nimon design is also going to be a problem because it does just look like a bloke in a costume with a massive mask/head piece on. There are positives in this episode. Firstly the effect used to show the Doctor, Romana and K9 going from the TARDIS to the ship is quite well done and also I like the fact that Romana has her own sonic screwdriver which makes its debut in this episode. The scene where it is introduced is quite good as the Doctor tries to show that he’s not impressed with it before trying to do a swap on it. There was a joke delivered when the co-pilot says “Nimon waits for No man”. Ok so some jokes do work but that is the exception rather than the rule.

The cliffhanger would have worked quite well had it not been for the fact that Tom Baker plays it a bit to humorously. As a result I don’t think it has quite the dramatic tension that perhaps Anthony Read was hoping for. Kenny McBain clearly didn’t have much of a chance trying to keep Tom Baker in check because this has his finger prints all over it. There are good things in this episode but there are also bad things in this episode and I don’t think that my opinion will change over the remaining three episodes.