What's Wrong With... The Horns of Nimon

For many, it's the worst story of the worst season. In a number of polls, it has been the lowest rated story of the Tom Baker era.

Something has to hold that dubious distinction - so why The Horns of Nimon..?

Arriving just before Christmas, and looking like a pantomime (sets, costumes and performances) certainly didn't help.

The usually reliable Graham Crowden (the Fourth Doctor in an alternate universe - he turned the part down due to the publicity side of things) hams things up really badly. 

He later claimed that he didn't realise that his death scene was the take that was going to be used, thinking it would get a retake.

Another problem which isn't the story's fault is its placement as the series conclusion. It ought to have been the cheap and disposable filler story - the one where whatever money's left in the kitty has been reserved for the six-part one.

That was indeed the case - except that Shada then got cancelled due to industrial action.

The story itself is perfectly fine. It's simply the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in an outer space setting after all.

After Robert Holmes' obsession with horror movies, Anthony Read had looked to literature for his inspirations, and he'd already commissioned a version of Jason and the Argonauts (another cheap penultimate story).

The realisation of the VFX is mixed. The explosion of the Power Complex is good, but the model spaceships are once again video-taped in the studio instead of being filmed properly on the model stage.

The ships are so flatly lit that the Classical Studies joke about painting Seth's white at the end fails to work.

According to Read, the Complex was supposed to look more like a huge circuit board from above, and the walls were supposed to move like switches. This couldn't be realised in the available time in studio - so we simply have stagehands moving flats about off-screen.

The young Anethan hostages somehow mange to pull off doing nothing at all, and overacting badly, simultaneously.

Like the Krotons before them the Nimon have fantastic voices, but naff costumes. Dancers were hired - but couldn't do very much thanks to their stacked platform-soled boots. It was made in the 1970's after all  - if only just.

The Co-Pilot (another usually reliable actor who thinks he's doing pre-school children's television this week) has the most famous wardrobe malfunction in the history of the programme. Not only does he split his trousers at the bum in Part Two, but we get to see him do it all over again in Part Three because it happens at the cliff-hanger.

The first episode provides us with the dreadfully unfunny "Bloodnok's Stomach" sound effects in the TARDIS - except it isn't actually the iconic Goons sound effect at all, just similar.

The whole cricket ball / asteroid business is just silly.

It's really obvious that Tom Baker is being indulged throughout, and Graham Williams has given up on trying to rein him in. His resignation is already accepted, and he's coasting towards his departure.

The biggest tragedy of all is that this was the final story of Williams' tenure to be broadcast, and it's the last time we got to enjoy a distinctive Dudley Simpson incidental score.

The final outing for the 1967 arrangement of Delia Derbyshire's theme, and the 1975 "tunnel" opening sequence. The diamond logo will be back, but not until 2023.