Amazon.co.uk Review
In
Doctor Who: Horns of Nimon, the declining Skonnon Empire's quest for the technology to launch a second galactic empire rests upon tributes from the people of the planet Aneth. The fourth doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward), encounter a starship full of such young people, including Janet (
Blue Peter) Ellis, on their way to be sacrificed to the bull-like alien Nimon. While Romana becomes trapped in the Nimon's ever-changing labyrinth, the doctor struggles to repair the Tardis and finds that someone, or something, is engineering an artificial black hole.
Doctor Who had previously explored the Cretan legend of the Minotaur in "The Time Monster" (1972), and here pays homage to the story without attempting to incorporate it into the Who mythos. Tom Baker is on good form and script editor Douglas Adams keeps the story tight without allowing the humour to take over. The best performance comes from Lalla Ward, fully at home as Romana and a commanding presence in her own right. The set and costume design are notable except for the Nimon itself, which is rather laughable. This story, finally making its video debut, is an entertaining if ultimately unexceptional adventure for the good Doctor. --Gary S Dalkin
Video Description
The inhabitants of the planet Skonnos have been promised by an alien Nimon that he will restore their empire to greatness if they in return provide young sacrifices and radioactive hymetusite crystals, both of which they are obtaining from the nearby planet Aneth. With the Tardis immobilised for repairs, the Doctor and Romana encounter the Skonnan spaceship transporting the latest sacrificial consignment from Aneth. Romana is captured and taken to Skonnos on board the ship, while the Doctor follows in the now semi-repaired Tardis. Once there, they are consigned by the Skonnans’ leader, Soldeed, into the Nimon’s labyrinthine power complex. The two Time Lords discover that the Nimons are a race of parasites moving from planet to planet like a plague of locusts. The bull-headed creatures send a lone representative to an unsuspecting world, offering assistance in order to gain the trust of its inhabitants, then arrive in force to drain it of its resources. The power complex, fuelled by hymetusite, uses a black hole to create a space tunnel through which the Nimons cross from one planet to the next. The Doctor manages to destroy the complex on Skonnos, thereby trapping the Nimons on their last home, the dying planet Crinoth.
Running time: 100 mins approx.
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