 "The Horns of Nimon" is lauded by many fans as being one of the show’s worst stories, possibly undeservedly due to the overacting by Graham Crowden who played the part of Soldeed.
This story was written by former Script Editor Anthony Read and was inspired by the tale of the Theseus and the Minotaur - a fact that The Doctor comments on at the end of the last episode. Previous reference to The Doctor’s involvement in this story from Greek Mythology was made in "The Creature from the Pit".
Unfortunately like the previous story, "Nightmare of Eden", this story was subjected to budget crunching. So much so that the Nimon were originally intended to be aliens wearing bull-masks to frighten the inhabitants of the planets they invaded, but budgetary restrictions meant that the masks ended up being the real creatures.
It has been reported that Producer Graham Williams quickly grew unhappy with this story feeling that the underlying ideas were not particularly strong. With no other scripts available, Williams was forced to proceed with Anthony Read’s story, but he decided to position it in the season’s fifth slot (on both the broadcast and production schedules) in the hope that it would quickly be forgotten once the planned final story of the season, "Shada", began its transmission.
Graham Williams also instructed that the scripts be rewritten to remove any pre-filming, in order to save costs - a restriction which had also been placed on the preceding story, "Nightmare of Eden" as both "Destiny of the Daleks" and "City of Death" had been expensive productions to record. Also Graham Williams was eager to save money so that it could be used on "Shada".
The director assigned to this story was Kenny McBain, whose work to date included The Omega Factor. "The Horns of Nimon" would be Kenny McBain’s only Doctor Who credit. He subsequently became a producer on programmes such as Grange Hill and Inspector Morse. He also became the Head of Drama at Tynes Tees Television.
This story marked David Brierley’s final vocal appearance as K9.
The part of Soldeed was played by veteran actor Graham Crowden who is better known for playing the part of Tom Ballard in the comedy series Waiting for God. Graham Crowden had also been strongly considered for the role of the Fourth Doctor before Tom Baker was selected for the part.
The part of Teka was played by Janet Ellis. She would later become a presenter of the popular children’s magazine programme Blue Peter.
The Nimon Power Complex was based around the idea of a giant printed circuit, the paths through which changed to trap any visitors and draw them to the Nimon at the centre.
It is revealed that the TARDIS defence shield can extend outside the ship, maintaining an atmosphere (see "City of Death" and the 2002 Eleventh Doctor story "The Beast Below"). Even without it, the time machine’s outer hull is hard enough to withstand huge shocks.
Romana has made her own sonic screwdriver (first seen in "City of Death").
The Nimon journey from world to world (‘The great journey of life’) in capsules via small artificially created black holes, draining the worlds they leave of all their energy. They can kill with bolts from their horns and the Sknonnon Nimon has constructed a complex of shifting walls, with ‘horns’ projecting a defence shield.
The Nimon make a return in the Big Finish Productions 2002 Doctor Who audio story "Seasons of Fear", where their attempts to conquer Earth using the immortal Sebastian Grayle as their agent are thwarted by the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard.
The Doctor is heard to state that everywhere he goes he has guns, phasers and blasters pointed at him. (Phasers are the main personal weapon in Star Trek and blasters are the main handheld weapon in Star Wars).
Look out for the scene inside the TARDIS - the time rotor is removed. This is the first and only time this has occurred.
The famous ‘Bloodnok's stomach’ sound effect from the BBC radio classic The Goon Show is used in a scene in which The Doctor tries unsuccessfully to reactivate the TARDIS control console.
This story, unfortunately, contains a number of rather obvious errors: Sadly during a couple of scenes the TARDIS set had been erected incorrectly resulting in the roundels protruding outward on one wall. During his death scene, Malcolm Terris (playing the Co-pilot) split his trousers very visibly. Most infamously, Graham Crowden mistook the recording of Soldeed’s demise for a camera rehearsal, and began laughing hysterically. With time pressing - and with Kenny McBain already concerned that Graham Crowden was overacting in the part - the director was forced to retain the shot. In episode four Soldeed’s body also disappears from where it fell earlier.
In postproduction it was found that the final episode badly overran its twenty-five minute timeslot. In the past, such a situation had been resolved by reediting the footage to either alter the cliffhanger of part three or else shift some scenes backwards into that episode. Indeed, the third instalment of this story had come in well under the usual twenty-five minutes, resulting in an unusually lengthy reprise from the second episode. Nonetheless, it was found that all attempts to re-edit this story to meet its time constraints badly affected the pacing of the final episode. Consequently, authorisation was requested to broadcast this episode in a half-hour timeslot.
Despite Graham Williams’ intent that this story would ultimately be driven from viewers’ memories by the spectacle of "Shada" did not work out as he had planned. Although production began on this season’s finale as scheduled, it was subsequently disrupted by the latest round of industrial action at the BBC - a situation which had already affected the final stories of both Season Fifteen and Season Sixteen. As a result, "Shada" had to be abandoned – so bringing Season Seventeen season to a very abrupt close and making "The Horns of Nimon" the finale story.
"The Horns of Nimon" was also the final story for producer Graham Williams, who took over from Phillip Hinchcliffe three years earlier. For the beginning of the next season new producer, John Nathan-Turner, would take the opportunity to revamp the show in many ways – resulting in "The Horns of Nimon" becoming the end of an era for Doctor Who.
This meant that "The Horns of Nimon" marked the end of several eras: it featured the final use of the original 1963 arrangement of the "Doctor Who Theme", (which had been revised slightly over the years, notably in 1967, but remained essentially Delia Derbyshire’s version until this point); the last use of the diamond-shaped logo and ‘tunnel’ opening sequence by Bernard Lodge, which had been in place (with some modifications) since the 1973/74 Third Doctor story "The Time Warrior". The opening credits image of Tom Baker, now close to six years old, would also be retired.
A novelisation of this story, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in October 1980. Terrance Dicks begins with a history of the Skonnan Empire and Soldeed, culminating in the arrival of the Nimon.
This story was the last Fourth Doctor story to be released by BBC Video on VHS videotape.
| |
|
The Firsts:
The first credited Doctor Who story to be written by Anthony Read.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Kenny McBain.
|
|
(Position = 149 out of 159)
(Position = 189 out of 200)
(Position = 223 out of 241)
