5. The Nimon
The Fourth Doctor faced many unconvincing enemies during his long tenure. Mandrels, Marsh People, the hand of a giant vampire, a cuddly giant rat... the list is quite extensive, but in the 1979/1980 serial, The Horns of Nimon, he encountered an enemy that took the proverbial biscuit for looking cheap. The Nimon was - not to put too fine a point on it - a guy in platform shoes with an absurdly unconvincing bull head. Their crowning glory of light-up horns didn't quite convey the sense that these aliens were supposed to be like the Minotaur. Rather, it made the Nimon look like something out of a deranged disco-esque pantomime. It didn't help that they moved around incredibly slowly with arms and legs akimbo in a manner that can only be described as "blind zombie acting". Many fans have a soft spot for this story because they like a good laugh, and the combination of the slowly lurching Nimon and the deliberately OTT Graham Crowden as Soldeed (the humanoid villain of the piece) are undeniably amusing. If laughter is the best medicine, The Horns of Nimon is the super-antibiotic of televised Doctor Who. But come on, let's face it. The Nimon look pathetic.
Mike Morgan
Contributor
Mike has lived in the UK, Japan and the USA. Currently, he is based in Iowa with his wife and 2 young children. After working for many years as a writer and editor for a large corporation, he is now a freelancer. He has been fortunate enough to contribute to many books on Doctor Who over the last 20 years and is now concentrating on original sci-fi & fantasy short stories, with recent sales including Flame Tree, Uffda, and The Martian Wave. Also, look for his contribution on Blake's 7 to "You and Who Else", a charity anthology to be released later this year.
You can find him on Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/culttvmike
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