Day 522: The Horns of Nimon Part 1

I love The Horns of Nimon. It's perhaps the ultimate comfort Doctor Who story, one that you can just sit back and laugh with/at. We'll get into the unintentional humour in the next couple of days, but for now we'll have a look at a particular reason why I love it.

As has been mentioned previously, as a child I became mildly addicted to the Real Time Strategy game Age of Mythology, which sparked an interest in Greek myths and legends. Now, The Horns of Nimon is loosely based on the legend of the Minotaur, a beast that hid in a labyrinth to kill all prey that came forth, namely sacrifices given to the people living on the island Crete. It's an engaging story, and was good enough to make me want to see this story. So I watched it when I was about eleven or twelve, on a video borrowed from my local library. I don't remember much about watching it for the first time (which given later events in the story feels like a massive disservice to my memory), but I do recall watching Soldeed, the villain of the story who brings a whole new meaning to the idea of an over-acting Doctor Who villain, meets with a man who we shall refer to as Sydney Opera House man.

As I watched this, I laughed at the ridiculous costumes, made fun of the dialogue, and began to slowly see that Graham Crowden's performance as Soldeed was something special. And that sums up my first memories of The Horns of Nimon: having a lot of fun whilst watching it and getting the sense that this is something special.