OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 524
STORY NUMBER: 108
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 05 January 1980
WRITER: Anthony Read
DIRECTOR: Kenny McBain
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 9.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Myths & Legends: The Time Monster, Underworld & The Horns of the Nimon
Welcome to the first episode of Doctor Who shown in the 1980s!
The Doctor interrupts the Nimon allowing Romana, Seth & Teka to escape but the remaining Anethians stay rooted to the spot. The Nimon deems that five crystals will suffice. Soldeed & Sorak examine the Tardis. The Doctor finds his friends. The hymetusite crystals are fed to the Nimon's furnace, with the Nimon being delighted that operational power level has been achieved. The Doctor remembers what the power complex reminds him of: a giant positronic circuit. He summons K-9 but he is captured and immobilised by Soldeed. The Doctor thinks that the power complex is focussed on the Black Hole and using it as a gateway to Hyperspace. Soldeed orates to his generals about the power the Nimon will give them. Soldeed & Sorak are alarmed when the antennae on the complex start to glow. The Doctor & Romana observe as a capsule materialises in the centre of the power complex containing a two more Nimon who tell the first one that Crinoth is finished. The Doctor realises the Nimon are invading but while Romana examines the capsule the Doctor accidentally transports it away but before it can be retrieved they are interrupted by Soldeed who damaged the equipment and swears to kill the Doctor....
After a rather long reprise, which lasts till 2:23 into the program, we get what is essentially a big run around the Nimon's Power Complex (Labyrinth) culminating in a revelation that there's more than one Nimon and they're mounting an Invasion. It's not the worst third episode but until quite close to the end it is just running around.
Simon Gipps-Kent, as Seth, had done a lot of child acting in the 1970s but his career dried up in the early 80s and he died of a morphine overdose on 16th September 1987. His female companion, Teka, is played by Janet Ellis had done some acting during the 1970s, including a memorable appearance in The Sweeney. By the time this episode aired she was presenting Jigsaw (which also featured Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy and then went on to present Blue Peter. Nowadays she's most famous for being the mother of popstar Sophie Ellis Bextor. Janet Ellis' father is Mike Ellis, a BBC visual effects designer, who will later operate Drathro in parts 1-4 of Trial of a Timelord. Soldeed's general Sorak is played by Michael Osborne who had uncredited appearances in The Myth Makers and The Ark while the surviving co-pilot is played by Malcolm Terris who was Etnin in The Dominators. One of the Nimon, Bob Appleby, will be back as a Vervoid in parts 9-12 of Trial of a Timelord while the Nimon voice is provided by Clifford Norgate who will voice the Generator in the next transmitted Doctor Who story, The Leisure Hive. Finally, although we haven't seen him yet, Sezom is played by John Bailey who was the Commander in The Sensorites and Edward Waterfield in The Evil of the Daleks. We'll be a bit busy tomorrow so I thought I'd better mention it now.
EDIT: I thought I'd recognised one of the female Anethian extras and dug out the DWM with the archive in (247) to get their names: Rachael Wheeler, Zena Daire & Katy Jarret. It turns out Katy Jarret had another job at around the same time as this story was filmed: She was Zuckuss in The Empire Strikes Back, where she works under the name Catherine Munroe. She's got a website at www.zuckuss.co.uk (albeit with some rather broken links) and CV there reckons she's in Full Circle too. There's an interview here where she talks about working on Empire Strikes Back. IMDB credits her with playing E-3PO, the silver protocol droid on Bespin, but she believes she was on of the aliens on Bespin instead.
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