Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...
Day 546: The Horns of Nimon, Episode Four
Dear diary,
This episode marks a number of important moments for the history of Doctor Who. I’m artificially extending out Season Seventeen over the next six days with the inclusion of Shada, but since that story never made it to broadcast, this episode is officially the final appearance of several key things. It’s the last appearance of this particular title sequence, which has been in place since Tom Baker’s first season, and is an adaptation of the one used in Pertwee’s final one.
Along with the titles goes the ‘diamond’ logo for the programme, which has come to be such an emblem of the ‘classic’ series. It’s also the last time in the original BBC run that a story isn’t produced by John Nathan-Turner, who’ll be taking over from the next (broadcast) story, and then sticking around until shortly after the programme finishes in 1989. That said, the next story I’ll be watching didn’t make it out of the BBC until the early 1990s, with an edit produced by JN-T, so this really is the end of an era before he takes on the job.
Alongside those things, we also see the Doctor’s multi-coloured scarf for the final time. I’ve always thought of him as having several different scarves throughout his era - which he does - but when you watch through an episode a day like this, you start to lose track of them. The scarf he dons in this story may as well be the same one he emerges from the TARDIS wearing in Robot, for all the notice I’d have taken! This is also the final appearance of David Brierley as K9, with John Leeson taking back over again for the final days of the metal mutt in Season Eighteen (Leeson also voices K9 in the version of Shada I’ll be watching, so this really is the end for Brierley).
Despite this episode being such an important ‘tipping point’ for the programme, there’s no sense of that at all. Because The Horns of Nimon was never intended to close Season Seventeen, it has none of the scale, or grandeur that - say - The Invasion of Time or The Armageddon Factor had. In many ways, this is just a run-of-the-mill episode of Doctor Who, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and it’s by far my favourite episode of this serial.
As a story, The Horns of Nimon has felt a bit fractured. We start on the spaceship, move (briefly) through the planet before the Doctor, Romana, and all the supporting cast are trapped in the labyrinth. It’s never really felt like it’s managed to get going, but I think there’s a bit of energy injected with this part. Having the ability to show us more than one Nimon (it seems like a great expense to have them really only for this last episode), adds a little more threat to the story. Having one solitary creature stalking around the place wasn’t making much of an impact - now they’re en masse, they feel like more of a problem. Kenny McBain’s direction does a decent job of making it feel like there’s more of them, too, though I’m sorry to say that I’ve noticed in this episode that they walk as though they desperately need the loo… and once you’ve seen that, you can’t forget about it!
I’ve also found that the idea of them hopping from world to world, destroying them as they go, is an idea that really chimes with me. I’m fascinated by the idea that Romana can effectively meet Soldeed’s counterpart on another world that’s further along the ‘Journey of Life’ than Skonnos is. I almost wish that they’d made more of this fact through the story - moving back and forth between the worlds to really hammer home the threat that’s facing these people. I also wonder if I’d have liked Soldeed to come fact-to-face with his ‘other’, and really see the error of his ways.
While I’m on the subject of Soldeed… During each episode of this story, I’ve made note to mention him. When I’ve sat down to actually write the entries, though, I’ve never really been able to find the right words. It has to be said that Graham Crowden is really going for it (whatever it may be) with his performance in this story, and it feels almost like the last of the Williams-era eccentricities, sending this phase of the programme out on a high. Even though it’s such an over-the-top performance, I think it actually works! I’ve certain enjoyed watching him, and it’s not harmed the story for me. Crowden was on the short list of people to play the part of the Fourth Doctor back in 1974, and I think this episode may give us an indication of where he may have taken the series if he’d been cast!
