Perhaps one that can be forgiven in part, Crowden makes the mistake of going with the flow as he decided that the fact leading man Tom Baker was content to just muck about meant that he could, too. Baker is in high spirits here, probably because he's started doing the 'Zero room shuffle' with his companion Lalla Ward. Poor producer Graham Williams must have been puling his hair out, though, finding his sci-fi programme had morphed into the light entertainment nightmare of 'The Tom Baker Show'. The Horns of NImon, viewed in the right light (normally after copious amounts of alcohol), is quite fun and features a race of parasites realised by bunging some male dancers into tights, Cuban heels and bull masks. It even has comedy sound effects taken from The Goon Show when the TARDIS console breaks down. Made to go out before Christmas and with the - subsequently cancelled - location heavy Shada to follow, Horns of Nimon generally has a sort of pantomime feel to its proceedings. It takes some doing to out-ham Tom Baker in the late 1970s but somehow Crowden, who plays villain Soldeed, manages it. Wielding a prototype version of Loki's staff from The Avengers, Crowden never knowingly underperforms a line or attempts any semblance of naturalism. By the end, his eyes are rolling around so much in his head that one fears they've come loose and are about to fall out. If CBeebies had been around then, he'd have had work for life.
Writer of The Blog of Delights, a review site covering film, TV, cult TV, books and audio. Fan of Dr Who, Bond, X-Men and Marvel. Also the writer of e-book 'Fictional Legends: Doctor Who - the TV Adventures' for Collca.
