Thursday 7 January 2016

The Horns of Nimon



Ruther@Ruther2 Incredible to think that the director of this went on to launch Inspector Morse...

Jennie Rigg@miss_s_b ahhhhh Horns of Nimon is one of my faves!

Ed Watkinson@CouncillorEd it's marvellous. LOVE the sound effect when the TARDIS console explodes 😅😅😅😅


Paul Cooke@paulpcooke This was the very first story I saw on video when I joined a Who club. It was a Nth generation copy, and was virtually all static, what did appear was either red or green, and wobbled all over the place. Sound was OK tho. Loved it, regardless!

M@nterik@Manterik Nimon is a guilty pleasure. Love it.



It's only a model!

An interstellar craft from Skonnos breaks down in space on its return from the planet Aneth.

"When are we going to get modern equipment?" Next season, love.

The Co-Pilot can't wait for the Nimon, whoever that is, to give them new ships. So the Skonnon ship is *supposed* to look knackered and run down. That's lucky...

The Skonnons worry about their contract to deliver the tribute to the Nimon...

The "cargo" is a bunch of hippy kids in yellow pyjamas, or "Weakling scum!" as the Co-Pilot prefers.

It's Janet Ellis! All is explained: this is the good ship Blue Peter, held together by double-sided sticky tape.
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke I had a right crush on Janet Ellis as a kid (embarrassed look).

Crikey, talk about wobbly sets, that whole 'computer bank' is as light as a feather!

The Co-Pilot has overloaded the engines. "You blundering idiot!"

Nearby, the Doctor is planning some modifications to the TARDIS.

The TARDIS seems smaller on the inside this week.

The manual recommends shutting down all non-essential systems before starting.

No, K9! Wrong voice! Bad K9!

I'd always thought it was more but when you count it up David Brierley only did 3 transmitted stories.
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly Hate wrong voice K9. Just charmless, smug and awful. Speaking which, here comes Romana.

Horsey type that she is, Romana is dressed for a hunt meet. Erm, okaaay...
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly Romana 2 is such a toff. And people go on about Pertwee being a Tory. Imagine them two in the TARDIS! Taking calls from Thatcher, flying in to put those meddling miners back in their place!
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke cf Peladon stories
AJ Snowe@ajsnowe I loved this outfit on Romana. If I was ever to cosplay...

Let's hope that Romana doesn't run into any bull-like creatures while she's wearing that red coat!
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke Lalla looks great. And Tom's coat - I should like a coat like that!
Oh, I dunno, I think it's starting to look a bit tatty here.
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke I still want it! Its not tatty, its 'shabby chic'.

"Every single time I say 'what could possibly go wrong' something goes wrong! It's uncanny!"

Why does the Doctor try to give K9 mouth to mouth? Or is K9's laser also a breathaliser?

I guess anything goes after Erato.
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly It's the dying days of The Tom Baker Show and he's determined to cop off with anything in sight.

The TARDIS has materialized right in the path of the Skonnon ship! Fancy that!

Great costume design on Skonnos.

Heeeeere's Soldeed!
Ruther@Ruther2 Both Crowden and Julian "Scaroth" Glover came to season 17 after appearing in Henry VI and Coriolanus together at the RSC.

The TARDIS' shields are down. They're lucky it's not the space Titanic they crashed into, or something.

The Doctor thinks the Skonnon ship's been there for centuries. Eh?

Not keen on this new ability of the TARDIS' to create a boarding tube forcefield thingy. Bit convenient.
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke They use it now, though, don't they? When Amy was floating in space springs to mind, in The Beast Below.

Though I do like Romana hanging onto the Doctor's scarf as she goes down...

Finding their way aboard the dingy ship, the travellers discover a batch of radioactive Hymetusite crystals.

Tom dishes out the jelly babies to the Blue Peter kids.
AJ Snowe@ajsnowe He'd be arrested for that now. ;)

Seth and Teka explain that they are the "tribute" to be sacrificed.

The Doctor worries they're close to a Black Hole but dimisses Romana's attempt to go full Bidmead. "Never mind all that!"

The Co-Pilot isn't pleased to see them.

"Who are you, Space Pirates?"
"No!"
"Why should I believe you?"
"Missing, aren't they!"

WEAKLING SCUM!
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke I don't know what 'received wisdom' is, but I love "Weakling SCUM!!" being repeated over and over. 'course, I don't give a monkey's about 'received wisdom'. It's usually snobbery, and usually wrong. So, there!

Hear, hear! Received wisdom is for WEAKLING SCUM!
Ed Watkinson@CouncillorEd it's utterly joyful and silly. Who cares what the joyless stick in the mud Hinchcliffe lovers think😅😅😅

The Nimon will have to be informed his delivery's late.
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke Has he got a tracking number? He can follow it online.
Lisa P & Andrew T@lisacartman "We left your Anethans and hymetusite in a safe place." [Soldeed finds them shoved under the front door mat].
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly I like to think Amazon is run like this.

Romana suggests using the radioactive hymetusite crystals to power up the ship.

"I wish I'd thought of that!"
"You will Doctor, you will!"

Romana's got her own sonic screwdriver! Crikey!
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly Love that. She's becoming her own Doctor. A toffy nosed, charmless, smug-pot Doctor, but it's still a nice development.
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly The faffing about repairing things on the TARDIS scenes are much more fun and engaging here than in the 80s.

"Lord Niiiiiiiiiiiiiimooooooooooooooon!"
The gravity field begins to drag on the lower decks, slowing down time and their speech!

As the Time-Lords' repairs take effect and the power returns, the Co-Pilot starts up the engines, disconnecting the forcefield linking the ship to the TARDIS, and cutting the Doctor adrift...

Too late, Romana and the Blue Peter kids realize what the Co-Pilot's done.

But the Doctor realizes who's to blame straight away.

"Despicable Worm!" Romana gets her rage on.
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly OK, fair play, I thought she was great just then.
The Nimon waits for no man!
Ruther@Ruther2 I once read that the Nimon bull heads are supposed to be removable space helmets.

Yes, that would have been better I think. I think they were supposed to be insectoid i.e. true locusts underneath.
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke I'd heard of the removable helmets, but not the locust part. I thought they were meant to be like Sutekh, thin.

Something about asteroids, 9.3, and it's coming right for us... or something?

Curiously slapdash cliffhanger.


The Doctor seems about to admit defeat...

"You've been a good dog to me, K9."

...but at the last moment he manages to shift the TARDIS by applying spin his next incarnation would be proud of!

"With a talent like mine, I might have been a great slow bowler."

Romana urges the Co-Pilot to turn the ship around, and is locked up for her troubles.

Graham Crowden might be several hundred miles OTT, but his is the performance keeping your attention here.
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke Off programming, but he is superb, SUPERB, in A Very Peculiar Practice. He is never less than watchable.
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly Oh, he's magnificent. He's pitching it perfectly. Graham and Tom are holding this mess together through sheer force of will.
Soldeed orders an attack on Aneth to gain replacement sacrifices...
...but is relieved to hear the ship is on its way after all.
Seems Teka has a lot more faith in Seth than he has in himself.
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke the Anethans like their gurning in the background, don't they. "Give me MORE, darlings!"

BOING!

"That's very odd, wouldn't you say that's very odd, K9?"
"Odd not computable, master!"
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly Really is the end of an era. Tom will never look that happy, or have that much fun, in the show again.


Romana & the Tribute (great band) arrive on Skonnos.

Soldeed sees straight through the Co-Pilot's attempt to take credit for Romana's work.
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly The co-pilot is brilliantly un-nuanced. Just painfully, bluntly, scumbaggish.

Into the Complex with him!
Success at last! the Doctor might actually turn up in this story now!

Soldeed promises the Skonnons the Nimon will soon release the plans for the Death Star.
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly Tom's off chatting to the props, making jokes, whilst Lalla carries the plot and rather well too.

Romana & the Blue Peter kids follow the Co-Pilot into the labyrinth...

Is that the series first "all these corridors look the same?" Seem to recall Sarah saying "tunnels" in The Monster of Peladon maybe?
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly Didn't Phipps say it in Seeds of Death? Or was that vent tunnels?


"Ah, good morning. Or is it evening here? Lovely day, isn't it? Wasn't it? No?"

Romana finds the Nimon's grisly table leavings, drained of all life.
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke Romana doesn't dress it up for the Anethans, does she?
The story only really begins when the Doctor and Soldeed meet.
Or rather when Crowden & Baker meet and try to scenery-outchew one another.
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke They must've missed lunch, the way they chew the scenery. More power to them!
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly One of the best things about S17. "I just dropped in." "Drrropped in?"

Tom's sent into the Labyrinth...

Who knows what he'll find in there?
(Thanks to @SiHodges79 for this!)
Ruther@Ruther2 5 had the right idea!

The Co-Pilot thinks he can trick the Nimon into thinking he's just escorting the sacrifices.
Genuine, but completely unintended, hilarity as the co-pilot dies...
...splitting his keks in the process.

Understandably, Romana averts her gaze.

Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly Utterly appropriate for this pathetic character.

Interesting, if useless, fact: Romana seems to be ambidextrous, at least with that gun anyway.

The Nimon seems to go around roaring to himself for no apparent reason. Hungover, I reckon.
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly I like that he actuallly roars the word "roar". Taking the script too literally.

I blame the TARDIS translation circuits.

Hang about, the Complex seems to be shifting around them - that's cheating!

The Nimon sends a message via his giant horns, and summons... more Nimons!
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly For all the talk of Tom being over indulged and off-the-wall by S17, he's just fantastic here. Charismatic, heroic, funny.

Soldeed is amazed when the previously unopenable TARDIS reveals... K9!

The Doctor susses that the Nimon is using the nearby Black Hole as a gateway.

"Skonnos shall rule the heavens!" Soldeed has dreams of conquest. Best of luck with that.

Sorak begins to question the Nimon's motives. What's in it for him...?

"I play the Nimon on a long string!"

Seth sends Teka to warn the Doctor the Nimon's on his way.

Soldeed calls K9 a "monumental piece of engineering".
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke pregnant pause before "engineering"?

Leaving it till halfway through part 3 to start the story properly is... unusual.

But for once we have a part 3 that isn't just total padding.
The Nimon hop from planet to planet through black holes...

...they've polished off Crinnoth & Skonnos is next on the menu.

"Lord Niiiiiiiiiiiimoooon! It is I, Soldee-eeed!"

Romana tinkers in the capsule while the Doctor tries to reverse her flow.

 Whoops, Romana has been whisked off to Crinnoth in the capsule!

"You! Dock-tor!" Soldeed's blown the fuses so computer says no when the Doctor tries to get Romana back.
Then he threatens to poke the Doctor's eye out with his stick. "You meddling fool, you shall die!"
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke To be fair, you'd *need* a big stick for those eyes.

Looooooooooong recap here.

The Doctor takes matters into his own hands...

...and Seth stuns Soldeed. 

Then asks "is he dead?" Talk about 'shoot first'... Seth could join UNIT.
Romana arrives on Crinnoth.

Exeunt, pursued by a Nimon.

Sorak wonders if K9's power can be put to good use...

...while Soldeed does a runner and goes to warn the Nimon.

If the Doctor's gravitic anomoliser isn't compatible there'll be a bang so big you won't even hear it!
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly OK, how is Blue Peter lady not noticing what a feeble turd Seth is?

Back on Crinnoth, Romana is rescued by the old Soldeed, Sezom, who tells us what we've already figured out by now...

It's a nicely sympathetic turn, I'm rooting for him more than the drippy Seth, so fair play to him!

Sorak tries to reactivate K9 and get some answers, meanwhile Seth & Teka are split up by the shifting labyrinth.
Soldeed pounces to offer Teka to the Nimon...

...but didn't expect 3 of them!

The Doctor's making sure his buddies stay on Crinnoth.

They have a good roar about it.
The Nimon on Crinnoth certainly enjoy a good flounce.
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly Do Nimon just stroll about roaring at varying volumes when they're not busy invading?

It's something to do.

Jasonite? Oh, you're not even trying now.

K9 wakes up and, after being let off the table by Sorak, goes to stretch his, er, legs.

Romana shows the Nimon no mercy as she escapes back to Skonnos.

The Doctor's so busy at his tinkering that the Nimon are actually able to sneak up on him!

He'll be questioned, tortured and killed. "Well, I hope you get it in the right order!"

Romana returns!
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke Seth grows a pair!
And K9 brings up the rear!

Soldeed is back to call Romana a "meddlesome hussy!"

 How many Nimons have you seen today? How many? HOW. MANY.
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke Roughly about 3. Isn't this planet a little large for just the 3 of you?
"They're parasitic nomads who've fed off your selfishness & gullibility!" says Romana.
Soldeed's only got one answer to that.

"MY DREAMS OF CONQUEST!!!!"

What a death cackle. Spectacular. Joyous. Superb.
The Doctor arrives to wake the Atheneans, ahem, Anethans.

Really didn't think that Nimon would make it through the door then.

K9 can figure out where the exit is before the Complex explodes! Phew!
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly It's written as farce. That's why it gets so much better when the pace suddenly picks up.

Power Complex go boom.

Well, there you go, they've managed to send the Nimon back into their black hole.
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly And JNT sends Dudley Simpson to join them.

No idea how the insipid Seth is going to live up to the legends.
"Come on, old girl, quite a few millenia left in you yet."
"Thank you, Doctor."

"Not you, the TARDIS!"
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke Best panto I've seen this year :p
Simon Xmas/Name Pun@dimwittedly End of a shagged out but still enormously entertaining era. Cheers for that, 'twas fun!
Paul Cooke@paulpcooke No Anethans in the larder, no scenery to chew, what will I do? Starving!

Sounds like a load of bull to me! ;-P

TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... The Time Warrior

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