In order to escape a black hole the Tardis lands inside a battle cruiser from the Planet Skonnos . The Doctor and Romana find a hold full of youths from the Planet Aneth who are to be taken to Skonnos to be sacrificed the alien Nimon
Stop me if you've heard that premise before . I think it was first used during the time when ancient Greece was at the head of civilisation . Yup once again DOCTOR WHO borrows a plot from another source but does it very badly . A very obvious reworking of the legend of the Minotaur it quickly becomes obvious the plodding storytelling is the least worst aspect of the production . No doubt schoolchildren in December 1979 were watching this on the back of the school pantomime and proudly thinking to themselves that their school production was infinitely more successful and sophisticated than anything seen here
I suppose you have to take it on in the right frame of mind in that it's possibly trying to deconstruct the show . Everything about it from the ridiculous design work of the Nimons to the disinterested performance of Baker to the corpsing of Graham Cowden screams " We're trying to make this show as silly as possible on purpose " from the production team and one wonders if it isn't intentional ? I mean no one would make something like this and claim it was serious drama could they ? I mean they are trying to make it comedy television for children aren't they ?
The Horns Of Nimon quickly established itself as being the very worst story ever produced in the history of the show . Perhaps even more sadly ten years later when the show ended subsequent fan polls voted at least half a dozen other stories all from the 1980s below it ! It's impossible to believe watching it in 1979 DOCTOR WHO would ever be capable of producing anything worse than this but to give a backhanded compliment to the production team of the 1980s they managed the impossible - on several different occasions
The following story Shada was hit by an industrial dispute which meant it was never completed and so was never broadcast which means the last story to be broadcast under producer Graham Williams was this one which is a sad but possibly fitting end for his often contentious era . He could defend himself by saying his hands were tied but the show had slipped in to painful parody in the late 1970s and it was time to move on with John Nathan Turner taking over the show from the next season . . Williams could also console the fact that despite the criticism and negative fan press he would never receive the outright hatred that JNT found himself receiving a few years later down the line
Stop me if you've heard that premise before . I think it was first used during the time when ancient Greece was at the head of civilisation . Yup once again DOCTOR WHO borrows a plot from another source but does it very badly . A very obvious reworking of the legend of the Minotaur it quickly becomes obvious the plodding storytelling is the least worst aspect of the production . No doubt schoolchildren in December 1979 were watching this on the back of the school pantomime and proudly thinking to themselves that their school production was infinitely more successful and sophisticated than anything seen here
I suppose you have to take it on in the right frame of mind in that it's possibly trying to deconstruct the show . Everything about it from the ridiculous design work of the Nimons to the disinterested performance of Baker to the corpsing of Graham Cowden screams " We're trying to make this show as silly as possible on purpose " from the production team and one wonders if it isn't intentional ? I mean no one would make something like this and claim it was serious drama could they ? I mean they are trying to make it comedy television for children aren't they ?
The Horns Of Nimon quickly established itself as being the very worst story ever produced in the history of the show . Perhaps even more sadly ten years later when the show ended subsequent fan polls voted at least half a dozen other stories all from the 1980s below it ! It's impossible to believe watching it in 1979 DOCTOR WHO would ever be capable of producing anything worse than this but to give a backhanded compliment to the production team of the 1980s they managed the impossible - on several different occasions
The following story Shada was hit by an industrial dispute which meant it was never completed and so was never broadcast which means the last story to be broadcast under producer Graham Williams was this one which is a sad but possibly fitting end for his often contentious era . He could defend himself by saying his hands were tied but the show had slipped in to painful parody in the late 1970s and it was time to move on with John Nathan Turner taking over the show from the next season . . Williams could also console the fact that despite the criticism and negative fan press he would never receive the outright hatred that JNT found himself receiving a few years later down the line