The Horns of Nimon

This story is a guilty pleasure of mine. I don't think that its particularly good and its overacted as fuck but i just find it too funny to dislike. Graham Crowdens' acting makes me laugh every single time i watch this and it makes this story enjoyable for me. Some of the cliffhangers are also hilarously bad.

If anyone hasn't seen it i'd reccommend the how many nimon remix on youtube.

The story is a bit of a mixed bag. On the positive side, it features some truly funny moments, with Tom Baker providing a stream of hilarity through the first two episodes. In addition, Romana has one of her strongest episodes. The villain was delightfully over the top.

On the other hand, the sets were really rather cheap, the direction was a bit dodgy, and the actors playing the juvenile leads were more than a bit stiff. It's not as horrible as some say, but it's also far for being Doctor Who's finest hour.

One or two lines of dialogue so awful as to merit the 1/10 aside - incredibly bad. If Nightmare of Eden is a recycled Invisible Enemy, Nimon is a recycled Underworld: unimaginative Hellenic tale ripped wholesale; lame guest characters on a nondescript adventure against a heinously poor villain.

The Nimon are Michael Grade sympathisingly terrible, with the effects across the board warranting double takes. Sets are poor and so bland as to be not even be recognisable as we leap from planet to planet! 40 minutes worth of plot is dragged out over 100 minutes and every. minute. is. felt. by. the. viewer.

After three seasons, Shada aside, this is the parting gift of the Williams era. After three seasons, Holmes and Hinchcliffe let out the jaw-dropping Talons of Weng-Chiang. All this after a run of serials from good to superb barring the sole exception of Revenge of the Cybermen. Many may feel comparisons to be unwelcome but I really must disagree. From script to effects, lighting to performances, Nimon is awful Who but marginally below average for Williams' run - with rare exception (City of Death) a step backwards for the show, where the 'peaks' (Sun Makers, Ribos, Stones, Pirate Planet) in all honesty are marginally below the 'average' Hinchcliffe era serial.

A stinker, and easily my least favourite serial from my least favourite era of the show.

Pantomime acting, something of a regular occurrence in the last 2-3 years of Tom Baker's reign, goes close to ruining what could otherwise have been a reasonable story.

The Nimon don't quite work as a monster, they are more ridiculous than scary.

I can see that some reviewers have scored this one highly. I presume they are applying the so-bad-that-it-is-good criterion.