The Horns of Nimon Part 1
The Doctor and Romana stumble upon a Skonnon spaceship carrying terrified prisoners to the planet Skonnos as sacrifices to the Nimon, and must navigate a complex web of intergalactic politics and technology to prevent a catastrophe.
The screenplay opens on a Skonnon spaceship, where the crew is struggling with malfunctioning equipment and discussing their impending arrival on Skonnos. The ship is carrying a cargo of prisoners from Aneth, who are to be used as sacrifices to the Nimon. Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Romana are dealing with the aftermath of the Doctor's experiments on the ship's systems. When the Skonnon ship crashes, the Doctor and Romana use the TARDIS to make contact with it and discover the prisoners. As they work to repair the ship and prevent a disaster, they uncover a sinister plot by the Skonnons and the Nimon to use the sacrifices to further their own power. The Doctor and Romana must navigate this complex situation, working with the prisoners and using their knowledge of technology and politics to prevent a catastrophe. Along the way, they encounter various characters, including Soldeed and Sorak, who are part of the Skonnon Empire, and the Nimon itself, a powerful and malevolent being. The story builds towards a climax as the Doctor and Romana work to stop the Skonnons and the Nimon, and to find a way to escape the gravitational pull of a black hole that is forming around them.
Events in This Episode
The narrative beats that drive the story
The narrative opens on a malfunctioning Skonnon spaceship, where the co-pilot's reckless attempts to accelerate the journey to Skonnos result in a catastrophic engine failure, leaving the vessel adrift. This ship carries a grim cargo: seven terrified Anethan prisoners, destined as "sacrifices" to the enigmatic Nimon, a key element in the Skonnons' "great contract" for future power and new battleships. Concurrently, the Doctor, engrossed in experimental modifications to the TARDIS's conceptual geometer and dematerialisation circuits, inadvertently renders his ship vulnerable. The TARDIS is violently pulled into an unknown, rapidly intensifying gravitational field, ultimately colliding and becoming jammed against the now-disabled Skonnon craft. Exploring the derelict ship, the Doctor and Romana first encounter highly radioactive hymetusite, then the cowering Anethan prisoners. Seth, the Prince of Aneth, reveals their fate as a "tribute" to the Nimon, destined for Skonnos. The Doctor deduces the increasing gravity signifies an artificially generated black hole, threatening to crush them all. The co-pilot, regaining consciousness, confronts the Doctor and Romana at gunpoint, confirming the Anethans' sacrificial role and demanding the Doctor repair the ship. This act establishes the immediate peril of the black hole, the sinister purpose of the Skonnon mission, and the Doctor and Romana's unwilling entanglement in a dangerous intergalactic pact.
Trapped aboard the crippled Skonnon ship, which is rapidly succumbing to the artificial black hole's intensifying gravitational pull, the Doctor formulates a desperate plan: convert the ship's engines to utilize the highly energetic hymetusite found on board. This intricate repair requires specific components from the TARDIS, necessitating the Doctor's temporary departure. Meanwhile, on Skonnos, the high-ranking official Soldeed, deeply invested in the Nimon's "great promise" of a Second Skonnon Empire, discovers the Anethan transport has vanished. His urgent decision to inform the Nimon underscores the critical importance of the sacrifices to the Skonnons' overarching ambitions. Back on the Skonnon ship, the co-pilot, a zealous adherent to the Nimon pact, seizes the opportunity presented by the Doctor's absence. He activates the ship's repaired systems, deliberately disconnecting the TARDIS's forcefield and abandoning the Doctor to the black hole. Romana, still aboard the Skonnon ship, confronts the co-pilot, vehemently arguing for the Doctor's rescue. However, the co-pilot remains unyielding, his fanatical devotion to delivering the "cargo" to the Nimon overriding any sense of obligation or humanity. This betrayal escalates the immediate threat to the Doctor and highlights the ruthless nature of the Skonnon-Nimon agreement.
The Doctor stumbles upon Seth and Teka in the dimly lit cargo hold, their faces etched with fear. With gentle persistence, he offers them jelly babies, a small but jarring …
The Doctor and Romana detect a gravity whirlpool forming inside the disabled Skonnon vessel, realizing it is an artificial black hole created by sabotaged energy systems. The increasing gravitational pull …
A tense confrontation erupts when the Skonnon copilot forces the Doctor and Romana into servicing the sabotaged ship at gunpoint, revealing his fanatical devotion to the Nimon’s sacrificial pact. The …
Sorak rushes into Soldeed’s laboratory with alarming news, shattering the high-ranking official’s focus on ritual preparation. The disappearance of the Anethan transport ship—carrying the final sacrificial victims for the Nimon—exposes …
With the Anethan sacrificial transport vanished and no conventional remedies available, Soldeed forgoes Skonnon bureaucracy to appeal directly to the Nimon. His decision underscores his absolute faith in the god-entity’s …
The Doctor and Romana discover the TARDIS has suffered catastrophic system failures, with K9 reporting critically offline systems including defense shields and dematerialisation circuits. The Doctor attempts reassurance and technical …
The Doctor and K9 discover the TARDIS is critically compromised while the Doctor probes the Skonnon Empire’s identity. As K9 details the ship’s fused systems, the Doctor pieces together a …
As the Doctor and K9 assess damage following the TARDIS collision, the Doctor rapidly identifies salvageable systems, fixating on the gravitic anomaliser despite the TARDIS being crippled. Romana arrives and …
With the Doctor and the TARDIS now irrevocably abandoned to the black hole's intensifying gravitational forces, Romana's impassioned pleas to the co-pilot for a rescue prove futile. The co-pilot, driven by an unshakeable, almost fanatical commitment to the "great contract" with the Nimon, prioritizes the delivery of the Anethan sacrifices above all else, including the life of the man who just saved his ship. He steers the Skonnon vessel, with Romana and the prisoners aboard, directly towards Skonnos. Concurrently, on Skonnos, Soldeed, having failed to locate the missing transport ship, makes his way to the Nimon's inner sanctum. He approaches the Nimon, a formidable, horned entity with a vaguely bull-like, humanoid form, which makes its dramatic and imposing physical debut. The Nimon, radiating an aura of malevolent authority, immediately challenges Soldeed for disturbing its solitude. This act culminates in a multi-layered cliffhanger: the Doctor and the TARDIS face certain doom in the black hole, the Skonnon ship races towards its destination with the unwilling sacrifices, and the powerful, sinister Nimon is now fully revealed, its presence underscoring the profound danger and the dark forces at play in the unfolding galactic drama.
Romana presses Seth for details about Skonnos' tribute demands, exposing the Anethans' annual sacrificial system to avert the battlefleet's destruction. Teka reveals the fleet's apocalyptic presence from her grandparents' stories, …
Romana detects the Skonnon ship’s abrupt departure despite the Doctor not returning from the TARDIS. Suspecting danger, she orders the co-pilot to halt the vessel. When he ignores her and …