Doctor Who Is Classic: The Horns of Nimon

It's time for another edition of Doctor Who Is CLASSIC  where I post about Doctor Who episodes from the classic era.

On March 2nd, I did a post about the episode "The Creature From the Pit".  Today's post is from the same season featuring "The Horns of Nimon".  

 

Welcome to the planet Skonnos, once the center of a might space empire.

These days... eh, not so much.

The leader of Skonnos is Donald Trump Soldeed, an ignorant blowhard who promises to Make America Skonnos Great Again with the help of Elon Musk the Nimon.  

The Nimon resides in a labyrinthine Power Complex and Soldeed promises that the Nimon will restore Skonnos to it's former glory and all the Nimon asks for are sacrificed fired federal employees young people and hymetusite crystals.

This is the mess that the Doctor, Romana and K-9 have wandered into. 

They've got to save those kids and figure out what the Nimon wants with those crystals. They doubt it has anything to do with any actual benevolence towards Skonnos.

The Nimon is part of a large parasitic race who travel via artificial black holes between planets.  

They go to a planet, drain it of all power and resources, then move on to the next one. The Nimon refer to this as the Department of Government Efficiency "the Great Journey of Life". 

They are now abandoning the distant Planet Crinoth to take over Skonnos. The crystals power their black hole tunnel.

The people are snacks.

The Doctor has his hands full trying to save a planet that has been sold a vision that there's an easy route to good times again. 

Education Time

"The Horns of Nimon" is an analogue of the Classical Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. 

There are several allusions to the original myth: 

• the name of the planet Skonnos is close to Knossos
• the Anethans, like the ancient Athenians, are sent to die in a Labyrinth
• the eponymous bull-headed Nimon is based on the Minotaur

Like many stories of the classic era, "The Horn of Nimon" could benefit from some judicious editing eliminating some dull stretches due to meeting the mandated 4 half hour episode structure.  

Lalla Ward is great as Romana whose patiences is constantly challenged by the sheer stupid incompetence of MAGA the people of Skonnos. And she's rocking a pretty gorgeous ensemble in the process.

Props to Graham Crowden and his scenery chewing turn as Soldeed. 

Connection to Modern Who

In the 11th Doctor episode "The God Complex", the beast that stalks the inhabitants of the space time hotel prison is identified as being from a species that is distantly related to the Nimon.   

"The Horns of Nimon" was the last episode of the 17th season of Doctor Who. But it wasn't supposed to be.  The six part "Shada" written by Douglas Adams was curtailed due to a technicians strike against the BBC.   

The show marked the departure of producer Graham Williams. With the next season (18), John Nathan Turner would take the helm as the producer of Doctor Who. 

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