THE HORNS OF NIMON
22nd December 1979 – 12th January 1980
With a talent like mine, I might have been a great slow bowler.
The Doctor to K-9, episode 2
Tom as the Doctor greeted by two guards from the Skannos military as he emerges from the TARDIS in The Horns of Nimon. Picture © BBC
Soldeed (Graham Crowden), leader of the once-feared Skonnans, believes the assurances of a bull-headed Nimon alien that he will soon restore their empire to its former glory by helping them build an invincible fleet of space battleships. In return the Nimon demands regular supplies of radioactive hymetusite crystals and young bodies for ritual sacrifice. As part of this bargain Soldeed’s people are building a gigantic power station on Skonnos, in which the Nimon already dwells.
Out in space the Doctor’s TARDIS, temporarily immobilised while he carries out some repairs, falls into the same gravity whirlpool as a damaged Skonnan space transporter ferrying a group of young men and women for sacrifice to the Nimon.
The Doctor repairs the Skonnon ship, but gets left behind in his defunct TARDIS by the transporter’s co-pilot (Malcolm Terris), who flies on to Skonnos with Romana and the sacrifices. However, when an asteroid hits the TARDIS, the Doctor escapes the gravity whirlpool’s pull, lands on Skonnos and steals into the complex just in time to save Romana and the youngsters.
He discovers the Nimon complex is the power generator creating the gravity whirlpool in space; which will soon form a Black Hole through which more of the Nimon race will arrive on Skonnos.
Romana accidentally gets sent through this rapidly stabilising Black Hole and arrives on Crinoth, the last planet occupied by the Nimons. She finds out that the governors of Crinoth were likewise duped by the Nimons into constructing a power complex, and were then wiped out when millions more arrived on their planet. The Nimons are locust-like parasites that teleport from planet to planet, usually with the collusion of a gullible native, stripping these worlds of their resources and population.
Just in time Romana returns to Skonnos and assists the Doctor close down their bridge from Crinoth before mass migration begins.
The Horns of Nimon is available
on Region 2 DVD
To find out more click on the cover.
The Horns of Nimon is available on Region 1 DVD
To find out more click on the cover.
