User Reviews

Review of all 4 parts:

It gives me no pleasure to say this is one of the worst stories in the show ever for me. It is enjoyed in a perverse way by some who enjoy the terrible production values, awful acting and dreadful dialogue finding it funny and "so bad it's good". I can see where they are coming from as it is indeed laughable and to be fair it is harmless fun really but I cannot enjoy it on any proper level myself. It is too boring half the time to be fun, the humour at the expense of how bad it is was not intentional and this pantomime silliness is not something I can judge as good in any way. In fact, it is arguably harmful to the reputation of the show.

I can laugh about it and see it as just a bit of fun but I have to judge it fairly on how bad it is. I give a bit of credit for the fact it is trying to be lighthearted family entertainment but that does not add up to much.

It is essentially the mythological story of the minotaur transplanted to space. A number of earlier such stories of mythology twisted into Doctor Who stories had also been poor (The Underwater Menace, The Time Monster, Underworld) and this is the worst of the lot for my taste.

Graham Williams took over from the great Phillip Hinchcliffe as Producer of the show from the start of Season 15. BBC bosses wanted to make the show more comedic and 'child friendly' moving away from the more grown up, serious Hinchcliffe era where humour was more sophisticated wit in amongst many horror based ideas and serious science fiction. It was a very bad move. The show has never been better than those years when Hinchcliffe was Producer and the wonderful Robert Holmes was Script Editor. Williams brought in a much more lightweight era with 'zany fun' and silly humour. There were still lots of very good stories and some truly great ones and we still had the marvelous Tom Baker but standards were much lower overall than they had been for Seasons 12 to 14 or indeed for the Pertwee era prior to that. Season 17 was the last Williams led Season before John Nathan Turner took over as Producer and The Horns of Nimon was the last story broadcast before that change of leadership because the following story Shada was not completed or broadcast due to industrial disputes and was not released until many years later. So this story was the on screen finale of the Williams era and it really is all the worst aspects of this era put together to make what I think was the very worst serial that had been made up to this point. A few later stories in the mid 80s at the low point of the John Nathan Turner era and would match this low level.

Tom Baker is my favourite Doctor but sadly not only is he unable to rescue this serial he even adds to the problems by joining in with the over the top performances. He is rather out of control and overly silly. However, he and Lalla Ward are still the best things in this story because almost everyone else is awful.

Lalla Ward herself joins in with the over the top goings on with lots of shouting and melodrama. That is nothing compared to Graham Crowden as the villain though as the normally endearing actor puts in the most bizarre, bad pantomime performance. Many viewers find it hilarious and I can see why because it is very funny but it is like a comic relief parody, not a proper edition of the show. I find it all very embarrassing and sub standard.

The pilot who is killed in the opening scenes seemed fine and it is quite sad he is the one killed off. His co-pilot puts in a scenery chewing, terrible performance and his prisoners that he is transporting as tributes to the Nimon are very wooden and bland. Once we meet the pantomime villain and see the ludicrous costumes things become worse. The first episode at least takes time to fall apart and has some ok parts but things then go downhill.

The Nimon themselves are the worst monster ever in the show in my opinion. The pathetic costumes of what appears to be full body thights and papier mache bull's heads with plastic cones for horns. They look a total joke and are also acted very poorly with terrible movement and very unimpressive voice performances. The whole cast is very poor and the direction by Kenny McBain is terrible. It literally is like a very low standard pantomime.

Part 2 of the story is in the running for worst episode of Doctor Who ever and Parts 3 and 4 are of similar bottom of the barrel quality. The dialogue is rubbish, inane and bizarre such as the co-pilot's unprovoked screams of "scum" etc to his prisoners, the villain calling Romana a "meddlesome hussy" or all the nonsense about praising the Nimon and "how many Nimon have you seen today". Add into that Tom's eccentric ramblings and the whole thing is totally bonkers. For me that is amusing to laugh at but not what I want from a scifi fantasy show at all I am afraid.

Season 17 overall was held up to decent level by the great City of Death and very enjoyable Destiny of the Daleks. I now include Shada as part of Season 17 as it has been reconstructed and it is a brilliant addition which I thoroughly enjoy and love. But even if you count the reconstructed Shada this still one of the less impressive seasons of Tom Baker's era (along with Season 15) because of the two unexceptional filler stories prior to this - Creature From the Pit and Nightmare of Eden - and this very disappointing low point. No amount of CGI enhancement would hide the poor standards in this story.

My ratings: Part 1 - 4.5/10, Part 2 - 2.5/10, Parts 3 and 4 - 3/10. Overall - 3.25/10.

My Season 17 average rating: 7.87/10.

If the Nimon's appetite was cannibal, he'd enjoy a large platter of uncooked bull, but he seems to prefer humans, with his marinated onions, to ensure his bovine belly is quite full.

In a conversation with K9, The Doctor explains 'we're up a gumtree, without a paddle,' it's kind of how I felt after getting through Part one.

I'll start with the positives, Lalla looks awesome, her costumes were hit and miss in this season, this one was awesome. I'm glad to see Graham Crowden, a lovely actor who could well have been The Doctor.

On the downside, is almost everything else, it's very cheap looking, sets, costumes etc, nothing looks quality. The script is relatively poor, the story features nothing original, but worst of all, the comedic tone that Williams insisted on having, it did nothing for this episode, other then make it appear that those involved were sending the show up. David Brierly, a nice voice I'm sure, but he just wasn't K9.

Hoping it gets better. 4/10

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