Day 525: The Horns of Nimon Part 4

This story always feels a bit bittersweet. For all the fun and enjoyment that it represents, it's also the end of an era. This is the last story to be produced by Graham Williams, producer for the series since Horror of Fang Rock. It's also the last story to be script edited by Douglas Adams, the last contribution to the series by the previous script editor, Anthony Read, and is the last story to have the music composed by Dudley Simpson, who's been doing the music for the series regularly since the start of the 70's, and before then composed the music irregularly from around Planet of Giants onwards.

The reason why I feel the need to mention all of this is that their work has been fantastic, and I've loved every moment of it. They've created so many wonderful worlds, and stories, but the time has come to leave and new blood will enter the series as we enter a new decade: the 1980's. This new blood will demand that the slate be wiped entirely clean, and so only a very small handful of writers and directors who had worked on the series previously will work for it again. So I view this story as the last hurrah for the era of the 1970's. The one where we look back at the past and enjoy what has happened before as we stand on the cusp of a new decade awaiting the future.

And what we get is oddly serious. The Nimon costumes may be laughable, as is the fact that the actors within them decide to gesticulate wildly when they talk, so as to reveal which one of them is talking, but their plan to take over the Universe is actually quite depressing. They feed off other planets, choosing someone to be their herald, setting themselves up as gods, only to get their herald to unwittingly create a gateway for the Nimons to attack in force. We see this in the character of Sezom, an old man who wanders about the previous planet that the Nimons occupied, helpless to stop them. Suddenly, the story seems a bit depressing. This is the way that we're leaving the Graham Williams era of Doctor Who. Not with a great high, but with a slight low.

Enter Graham Crowden. The actor who plays the villainous Soldeed, he has made the decision to overact massively throughout the entire story, and when he comes to die, he makes it into the most memorable death scene in Doctor Who history. Shouting and screaming, with accompanying hand movements (and a far too good performance from Lalla Ward as Romana, who is perhaps the only person on set who has decided to take this seriously), Crowden makes this story fun again.

Because the Williams era of Doctor Who is all about having fun. Whether it's Leela slapping Adelaide, a giant prawn menacing a robot dog, witches fighting archaeologists, overthrowing societies ruled by tax, updating the old classic Greek myths or defeating the attempted invasion of Gallifrey by tin foil. We've met Binro the Heretic, a Pirate Captain (with Mr Fibuli!), Amelia Rumford, Kroll, Drax and of course, the Taran Wood Beast. There are robots caught in stalemate, spaghetti monsters caught in time, a phallus trapped in a pit, cuddly yet deadly creatures with drugs hidden inside their genetic makeup, and the world's hammiest Doctor Who villain.

And I love this era with all my heart, in particular this story. And this story inspired me for one afternoon, late in 2013. I was looking for a title for my new blog, but I wasn't sure what to call it. At first, it was going to be We've Got Work To Do, but then I got another idea. That idea was scrapped the next day, after everyone that I talked to said that my first idea was better, but I still hold a soft spot for that temporary title. So as far as I'm concerned, for today only, I'll choose to think of this blog not as We've Got Work to Do, but as something more celebratory, as we continue on THE GREAT JOURNEY OF LIFE!