DOCTOR WHO:  THE HORNS OF NIMON

commentary by Judy Harris

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#34:  THE HORNS OF NIMON (4 Parts)	
ORIGINALLY AIRED:  12/22/79 to 1/12/80
WRITTEN BY:  Anthony Read	
DIRECTED BY:  Kenny McBain
PRODUCER:  Graham Williams	
SCRIPT EDITOR:  Douglas Adams

This story, by former DOCTOR WHO script editor Anthony Read, is a thinly disguised retelling of the legend of the Minotaur, a half-man half-bull creature confined to a labyrinth and given periodic tributes of maidens and youths until slain by Theseus, who escapes from the labyrinth using a thread given to him by Ariadne (or the Doctor, if you believe THE CREATURE FROM THE PIT).

Most of the character and place names are truncated anagrams from the original Greek legend, eg, Anethians = Athenians, Seth = Theseus, Nimon = Minotaur, Skonnos = Knossos, etc. How clever this seems probably depends on how familiar you are with the details of the original story.

The ornate, impractical costumes for the citizens of Skonnos are throwbacks to those wonderful old 1930s innocent science fiction films and serials, such as JUST IMAGINE, FLASH GORDON and BUCK ROGERS.

In the opinion of most DOCTOR WHO fans, myself included, THE HORNS OF NIMON is the worst story of the Tom Baker era--even worse than UNDERWORLD and THE POWER OF KROLL. Not much happens in the plot; just a lot of running back and forth inside a labyrinth. The Nimon is a poorly conceived monster. It's just a man in black tights with an immobile bull head sitting top heavily on his shoulders. There is a slight attempt to make the head seem attached to the body by building a hump in the actors' backs, but this just prevents them from being able to turn their heads without turning their bodies, forcing them to move stiffly, like a Golem, especially when they have to bend over to aim the rays they shoot out of their horns.

Graham Crowden, a wonderful comic actor and member of the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company, is not seen to advantage in the pivotal role of Soldeed, but then he is not given much to work with. There is a form of theatre in Britain called pantomime, in which the performers act very broadly, address the audience directly, invite members of the audience to participate by shouting out suggestions and just generally camp it up. These pantomimes play regularly every Christmas in London's West End theatres (and elsewhere in Britain), so since THE HORNS OF NIMON originally was transmitted by the BBC over the Christmas season, it is possible to view this show as DOCTOR WHO's Christmas pantomime.

Certainly in the past season or so, other performers have overacted pretty outrageously and talked directly into the camera--Bruce Purchase as the Captain in THE PIRATE PLANET and Paul Seed as the Graff Vynda-K in THE RIBOS OPERATION spring immediately to mind. So there is some precedent for Crowden's interpretation of Soldeed.

Although there is certainly no stinting on polysyllabic technical terms in any DOCTOR WHO story, Tom Baker seemed to keep in mind a large portion of the show's audience was young children, and he always managed to slip in some physical or verbal silliness. These touches seemed to accelerate throughout his time as the Doctor, reaching a high point when Lalla Ward took on the role of Romana. THE HORNS OF NIMON has more than its share of this silliness.

An outdated Skonnon battleship, 12 hours out from Aneth, and 12 hours away from Skonnos, is bringing the last shipment of tribute to fulfill a contract with the Nimon. The Copilot checks the cargo--7 teenagers.

Impatient to return home, the Copilot feels the return trip can be trimmed to 6 hours, cutting out the dog leg around sector L75. He overloads the computer, which shorts out some components, including the automatic pilot, and the ship heads off course. The overloaded engines blow up, killing the Pilot, and the ship goes completely out of control.

To try out a little idea he had for a slight modification to the conceptual geometer, the Doctor has immobilized the TARDIS by dismantling half of the control system, including the conceptual geometer and the dematerialization circuits. Still, K9 insists the TARDIS is moving and accelerating, although the scanner shows no gravity field in the vicinity.

Romana, clad in a red riding habit and boots, asks if they're being pulled toward a black hole. The Doctor doesn't think so but wonders what it would be like to be crushed to a singularity.

K9 touches the console, setting off a small explosion, which twists his head 180 degrees. The Doctor blows into his snout and twists his head back into the proper position. K9 is all right, but the TARDIS's defense shields have been shorted out. The scanner now shows the Skonnon ship; the TARDIS is being pulled toward it.

On Skonnos, Soldeed returns through an invisible door from an audience with the Nimon. He carries a ceremonial staff which ends in a clear crystal held by pointed prongs. He announces the Nimon has promised to help the citizens achieve the Second Skonnon Empire.

The TARDIS collides with the Skonnon ship. Luckily the defense shield on its door is on a different circuit. The Doctor extrudes it, causing a beam to travel from the TARDIS to the airlock of the Skonnon ship. K9, the Doctor and Romana exit the TARDIS and climb down this ramp-like structure, linked together for safety by the Doctor's scarf.

They enter the Skonnon ship and find some hymetusite crystals, which are highly radioactive. K9 detects ultra radiation level Q7.325. The Doctor sends K9 back to the TARDIS to inspect all the circuits and tally up the damage. "Of you go then," the Doctor says.

Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor opens the next door and encounters the frightened Anethian prisoners. He offers them jelly babies and introductions are made. One of the boys is Seth, Prince of Aneth. The Doctor remembers Aneth as a charming place he's been to, "but not yet." Seth says his group are the bearers of Aneth's tribute to the Nimon, on their way to Skonnos.

Other objects are being drawn to the ship, which has become the center of a gravity whirlpool. The Doctor wonders if someone is beginning to create a black hole artificially with a "fixed gravity beam--attract matter to one point in space and when there is enough, it starts to collapse to a singularity." Romana explains a singularity is a mathematical point with no dimensions, and notices the gravity seems to be increasing.

The Copilot enters with a drawn gun and wants to know what the Doctor and Romana are doing with the sacrifices to the Nimon. He leads them to the control room.

On Skonnos, Sorak tells Soldeed the transport bringing the final sacrifices from Aneth has disappeared without a trace.

The Doctor checks out the engines, which are very old and patched up with much newer equipment which seems to be a product of an entirely different technology. The Doctor can make the engines work, but can he generate power soon enough to achieve escape velocity before they fall into a black hole with an event horizon? There isn't enough fuel, so Romana suggests using the hymetusite.

Telling the Copilot to load two crystals of hymetusite into the fuel cells, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS to fetch some equipment. He offers his sonic screwdriver to Romana, but she doesn't need it; she's made her own.

In the TARDIS, K9 informs the Doctor the Skonnon Empire is a military dictatorship extended over 100 star systems, which collapsed after a civil war.

K9 is completely covered in ticker tape damage report readouts. In addition to all the components the Doctor dismantled, the dimensional stabilizer is fused; they're on half power and full drive. "We're up a gum tree without a paddle," the Doctor says, mixing his metaphors. Fortunately, the gravitic anomalyzer is functioning normally, so the Doctor pockets it and returns to the Skonnon ship.

Gravity is now so dense it is slowing down people's movements and speech. Telling the Copilot to wait until he gives the signal, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS so he can move it inside the hold of the Skonnon ship, while Romana plugs the gravitic anomalyzer into the ship's main circuit.

Instead of waiting for the Doctor's signal, the Copilot starts the engines and heads away, abandoning the Doctor and K9 in the TARDIS. Romana tries to talk the Copilot into turning back, but he refuses.

On Skonnos, saying "In the name of the Second Skonnon Empire," Soldeed goes through the invisible door into the Nimon's domain. He journeys through a maze to a control room.

He is visibly frightened of the Nimon, but nevertheless requests the Nimon advance some technology, which he has promised. The Nimon says the terms of the contract are clear--he must be paid in full before he gives Skonnos the power to conquer the galaxy.

In the TARDIS, K9 alerts the Doctor to a planet or asteroid approaching at mach 9.3 with an estimated mass of 220 million tons, and a diameter of 96.4 kilometers. With an estimated time to impact of 89.4 seconds, the Doctor cringes, clutching at K9, then gets up and pats the TARDIS console, saying, "It's been a great, great partnership, old girl." He gives K9 a red ribbon which says FIRST PRIZE, telling him, "You've been a good dog to me, K9, the best I ever had."

The Copilot gets the Skonnon ship back on course and forces Romana at gunpoint back to the hold with the Anethians.

The Doctor spins the TARDIS like a cricket ball, so that it glances off the planet. He tells K9, "I just put a lot of spin on the TARDIS and the asteroid simply sliced us up out of the gravity whirlpool. You know, K9, sometimes I think I'm wasted just rushing around the universe saving planets from destruction. With a talent like mine, I might have been a great slow bowler."

Outside the power complex, Sorak tells Soldeed the lost ship has been located and is due to dock in 2 hours.

In the hold of the Skonnon ship, Teka, Seth's friend, tells Romana Seth is planning to destroy the Nimon, who is a great god of Skonnos, and lives in a power complex. Anyone who enters never returns, except Soldeed, the great scientist and engineer, who built the power complex. He's the only scientist left on Skonnos after the civil war in which only the army survived.

Seth confides to Romana he really isn't a prince; it was just a story he made up because he was a runaway. He asks Romana to keep his secret, and she agrees. The Copilot comes in to get Romana to help him land the ship.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor makes what repairs he can, but the TARDIS shorts out again.

The ship lands on Skonnos and Soldeed accepts the tribute from Aneth, but is not too pleased to learn there are two hymetusite crystals missing. Romana introduces herself and demands a ship be sent for the Doctor, but Soldeed refuses to listen to her.

The Copilot tells Soldeed Romana is a space pirate, who attacked the ship and killed the Pilot. The Copilot maintains he alone repaired the engines and captured Romana, who denies all this. Soldeed doesn't believe the Copilot has the skill or intelligence to adapt the engines. For endangering the tribute to the Nimon, Soldeed forces the Copilot into the power complex. Romana and the Anethians are also herded into the maze, where the walls seem to change as they move along.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor tries again, this time successfully, and heads for Skonnos. In orbit over the Nimon's power complex, K9's sensors detect hemispherical defense shields at a strength of 7,300 megazones. The building reminds the Doctor of something, but he can't remember what.

The TARDIS lands in the main Skonnos square. The Doctor exits to find two soldiers pointing guns at him. "Oh, no, not again. How is it wherever I go in the universe there are always people like you pointing guns or phasers or blasters?" the Doctor asks, adding, "Take me to your leader."

In the maze, Romana and the Anethians come across a body so dried up, it's as if something had sucked the lifeforce out of it and left just a husk. Teka touches the head and it crumbles to dust.

The Doctor is brought to Soldeed's lab and immediately takes an interest in an invention, which the Doctor calls a neutrino converter. He tells Soldeed someone is building a black hole on his doorstep; and asks for Romana, but Soldeed denies he's seen her.

Sorak enters with the gravitic anomalyzer, which the Doctor snatches up. He knows Soldeed has lied about Romana. Soldeed grabs his staff and shoots a ray at the Doctor, which hits the gravitic anomalyzer. The Doctor dashes out the door and into the main street, where he addresses the crowd: "Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I would like to say one thing and let me make it perfectly clear, I stand before you desperate to find the exit." The soldiers chase him to the entrance of the power complex. Soldeed says, "In the name of the Second Skonnon Empire;" the invisible entrance opens and the Doctor falls in.

As he treks through the maze, the Doctor puts a star on several walls, but when he retraces his steps, they're gone, and the walls have changed positions.

Romana and the Anethians find a kind of cryogenic chamber, with some Anethians in suspended animation. Romana calls it the Nimon's deep freeze. She guesses the Nimon feeds by ingesting the binding energy of organic compounds, such as flesh.

The Copilot arrives in this larder with a gun and calls the Nimon, who appears and realizes the Copilot has been sent by Soldeed to be executed. The Nimon aims his horns at the Copilot and a ray shoots out of them, killing him.

As the Nimon approaches Romana and the Anethians, the Doctor enters, saying, "Hello, is this a private party or can anyone join in?" The Doctor lures the Nimon into the next room and waves a red cape at him. (Shades of the Doctor's matador ploy with the Ogri in THE STONES OF BLOOD).

The Nimon shoots a ray out of his horns, but it misses the Doctor and hits one of the Anethians in his larder.

Romana snatches up the Copilot's gun and shoots at the Nimon's furnace. She ushers the Anethians out, but only Teka and Seth follow her. As they look for the way out of the power complex, the Doctor catches up with them.

The Doctor feels the Nimon will be too busy for a while repairing his nuclear furnace, fueled by the hymetusite, to chase them. "There's something horribly evil going on here," the Doctor says.

The Nimon uses the hymetusite to achieve operational power level in his equipment and puts the 5 remaining Anethians in his larder.

The Doctor discovers the Nimon's control room, which houses a transmitter. The horns the Doctor saw from the TARDIS earlier are the antennae. It's transmitting energy, but for what purpose?

Giving Seth the Copilot's gun (although it has no effect on the Nimon), the Doctor sends him and Teka out into the corridor to keep watch.

The Doctor suddenly remembers what the power complex reminded him of when he saw it from the TARDIS--a giant positronic circuit. The reason why the walls keep changing is when the circuit is in operation, the walls switch position.

The Doctor whistles for K9, who exits the TARDIS and is shot by a soldier, whom K9 stuns. Soldeed then shoots K9 with his staff and has him carried to his lab.

In the power complex, the Doctor puzzles over the Nimon's equipment. It might be a giant transmat, but where's the transmat pod? It's a direction beam of some kind, which is focused on the black hole. The Nimon has artificially created a black hole as a gateway to hyperspace, with an exit somewhere else.

Teka warns the Doctor the Nimon is coming, so the Doctor, Teka, Romana and Seth hide. The Nimon engages some equipment which causes the antennae atop the power complex to pulsate. A panel opens and an egg-shaped space capsule appears. The Nimon opens a door in this vehicle and two more Nimons exit. The original Nimon welcomes them to Skonnos, "the new home of the Nimon race, the next step in the great journey of life." One of the newcomers says they have arrived just in time; Crinoth is finished; the migration must begin at once. The three Nimons leave.

The Doctor tells Teka and Seth there are two black holes--"one at the beginning of the journey and one at the end, and a hyperspatial tunnel in between," with the Nimons' beam providing the motive power. The Nimons are invading Skonnos because they've run out of space or destroyed their own planet.

The Doctor sends Seth and Teka back on guard duty and asks Romana to check out the capsule. He locates the main power control. If he can reverse the flow, the energy will go back to where the space-time tunnel begins--Crinoth.

Seth and Teka warn the Doctor Soldeed is coming. The Doctor reverses the flow, dematerializing the capsule--not realizing Romana is in it. Before he can bring her back, Soldeed enters and shoots the equipment. Seth shoots Soldeed, stunning him.

Romana steps out of the capsule, not immediately realizing she's no longer on Skonnos. She's spotted by two Nimons, who pursue her.

The Doctor plugs in his gravitic anomalyzer to the Nimon's equipment in place of the component Soldeed damaged. He tells Seth and Teka if it is not compatible, "there will be a bang so big you won't even hear it." Soldeed comes to and sneaks out. Seth and Teka chase after him. They split up and lose each other in the labyrinth.

Just as the Nimons are about to zap Romana, they're stunned by Sezom, who has a staff like Soldeed's. He tells her she's on Crinoth. The planet and its people have been completely destroyed by the Nimons, who have swept over it like a plague of locusts.

Teka makes it to the Nimons' larder and runs into Soldeed, who is stunned to discover there are now three Nimons. He had thought the power complex was to provide energy from the stars to power the new generation of Skonnon ships. Now he realizes the Nimon lied to him, and is using the power for an invasion.

The gravitic anomalyzer works, and the Doctor brings the space capsule back, but instead of Romana inside are two more Nimons. The Doctor quickly slams the door, saying, "Oh, my prophetic soul!" He sends the capsule back to Crinoth.

In Soldeed's lab, Sorak puts K9 back together. K9 insists on being placed on the floor and dashes off, locking Sorak in.

Sezom tells Romana there's no energy left on Crinoth. If something goes wrong on Skonnos, the only way the Nimon can escape is to convert the matter of Crinoth into energy in a chain reaction.

Sezom says he's discovered jasonite, a rock which carries a powerful electromagnetic charge, has the power to stun the Nimons. He has modified his staff to use as a weapon against them and gives a piece of jasonite to Romana.

With Sezom's help, Romana makes it back to the capsule, but he is killed holding off the Nimons.

On Skonnos, two Nimons return to the control room. Just as the Nimons on Crinoth are about to blast the capsule with Romana inside, a Nimon on Skonnos brings the capsule back. Romana rushes out and runs into Seth. She tosses him the jasonite, telling him to jam it between the prongs of Soldeed's staff and aim it at the Nimons. He manages to knock both Nimons out.

The Doctor locks off the Nimons' transmat for good. The third Nimon enters and zaps Seth. K9 blasts him. The Doctor hooks up K9 to the equipment, saying, "I want to modify the controls. I want to divert the space-time tunnel and send the Nimons back to the middle of nowhere."

Seth and Romana rush off to rescue Teka in the larder and meet Soldeed, who pulls a switch on the nuclear furnace. The switch jams; the furnace goes critical and turns into a bomb. The Doctor arrives and K9 frees the Anethians.

The Doctor and K9, his "brilliant tracker dog," lead everyone through the maze, pursued by the three revived Nimons. K9 finds the exit but it looks like a wall to the others. "Off you go, then," the Doctor says. K9 glides right through it, followed by everyone else. The Doctor tells the people of Skonnos to take cover, as the power complex explodes.

In the TARDIS, all the equipment is dismantled again; the Doctor never finished the modifications to the conceptual geometer. On the scanner, they see Crinoth explode, signalling the end of the Nimons.

Seth, Teka and the others are on their way back to Aneth on a ship provided by Sorak, now in charge of Skonnos. "I'm glad this time I reminded them to paint their ship white; last time anything like this happened, I completely forgot. Caused quite a hoohah," the Doctor says, talking of "other times, other places."

This refers to the original Greek legend: Theseus set out on a ship with black sails, promising his father King Aegeus to defeat the Minotaur and return with white sales, indicating all went well. However, he forgot to change the sails and his father, seeing the ship returning with black sails, threw himself into the sea in grief and died.

"Come on, old girl, there's quite a few millennia left in you yet," the Doctor says. Romana thanks him for the compliment. "Not you, the TARDIS," the Doctor replies.

Graham Crowden, who plays Soldeed, is another National Theatre/Royal Shakespeare Company member, who has appeared in such films as O LUCKY MAN! (1973), THE RULING CLASS (1972), THE FINAL PROGRAMME (1973, also known as THE LAST DAYS OF MAN ON EARTH), JABBERWOCKY (1977), FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981), A COMPANY OF WOLVES (1984) and BRITTANIA HOSPITAL (1982). Lately he's been seen in the British sitcom WAITING FOR GOD.

Malcolm Terris, who plays the Copilot, played Etnin in the Troughton story THE DOMINATORS.

John Bailey, who plays Sezom, played the Commander in the Hartnell story THE SENSORITES.

Clifford Norgate, who provides the Nimon Voice, performs the Generator Voice in the future Tom Baker story THE LEISURE HIVE.