The Horns of Nimon
| The Horns of Nimon | |
|---|---|
| |
| Season: 17 | |
| Episode: 5 | |
Vital statistics
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| Air date | 22 December 1979 - 12 January 1980 |
| Written by | Anthony Read |
| Directed by | Kenny McBain |
Episode guide
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| Previous | Next |
| Nightmare of Eden | Shada |
Horned by the Nimon was the fifth and final storyline of the 17th Season of the classic run of Doctor Who.
It starred the Fourth Doctor, K-9 and Romana 2 and accurately predicted the programme’s slide in quality with the following season when John-Nathan Turnip became showruiner.
Plot
Many plot elements of Horned are haphazardly-disguised thefts from the Greek mythology story of the Minotaur. Anthony Read who wrote this story thought he’d anagrammed the word minotaur into Nimon, but obviously he was wrong and was just suffering from a bad case of dyslexia, much like Russell: The Davies.
After cribbing from the Greeks, Read then jammed in a tired alien invasion story involving some children, and we’ve been regretting the results ever since. Read couldn’t even resist having The Doctor comment on the similarities between the myth and this story at the end of the final episode to lampshade just how clever the whole damn thing was.
But it’s not clever, it’s really really bad. Not bad like anything Colin “Pie Lord” Baker was in, but if not for the completely ludicrous acting by the main human villain “Soldit”, this story would probably be unwatchable, Tom Baker or not.
And the less said about the Nimon costumes the better.
Reception
Fans still hold out hope that the BBC will manage to lose this story’s master tapes the way they lost many of those featuring the First and Second Doctors.
