By the third season, Buffy The Vampire Slayer was arguably into its strongest run of episodes in the entire series. When it was in its early incarnation, however, it struggled to find its feet. The first season included such flubs as the one where teens get possessed by hyena ghosts and eat the principal, and the sexy praying mantis monster. Shudder. The tenth episode of that first batch of Buffy episodes, however, is a stone-cold classic. And a piece of nightmare fodder which was, fittingly, titled Nightmares. The episode sees a kid in a coma's accidental mystical powers causing people's nightmares to become real, mostly with absolutely terrifying results. At first, Xander only has to deal with turning up to school in his pants. Then he's being chased by a knife-wielding killer clown straight out of Stephen King's It, tarantulas are crawling about everywhere, and Buffy gets turned into a vampire. Nightmares taps into primordial fears we've all had at one point or another, and exploits them mercilessly.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
