One of the most joyous parts about The Horns of Nimon is the co-pilot. He only appears in the first half of the story, but he's easily one of the best parts. For a start, he makes a clear decision to shout every single line that he's given. This includes a line which he whispers, which you may not have thought was possible and yet the actor portraying him, Malcolm Terris, finds a way. This is compounded with the fact that the character feels a need to shout "Weakling Scum!" every time he encounters the sacrifices sent to appease the Nimon from Aneth, as if he's inviting the audience to say it along with him. There's also the fact that, infamously, when he's killed at the end of this episode, he falls down and rips his trousers visibly. In other stories, we would look on this as an embarrassment, but here we look on it as just another thing to laugh at in this story.
But there's one thing that sets the co-pilot apart from any other character in this story for me. In Part One, he wears a helmet, as shown below:
This makes him feel authoritative, and a bit of a menace to the various characters. But then, once he removes the helmet, it reveals a man who is quite clearly balding, with white hair. No longer is it the imposing co-pilot that we once saw, instead just a lightly wet character who is trying desperately to survive, through shouting and shouting alone. It's just another reason to outright adore The Horns of Nimon.
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