Recap: The Nimon is a minotaur like creature who has made a contract with the former glorious empire of Skonnos. The Skonnons have been gathering tribute for the Nimon, and when the final batch of Anethans (food for the Nimon) is delivered, he is to give them technology to build their new battlefleet and start a Second Skonnon Empire.

The Doctor and Romana get caught up in things. (Yanno, that line could be a regular description.)

Episode 3:

The Doctor shows up, just after the Nimon slays the co-pilot. Waving a red piece of cloth, he speaks to the Nimon, coaxing him to follow. Backing into the larder, he waves the cloth like a matador’s cape, but the Nimon blasts at it with his horns, seemingly releasing one of the Anethans in cryo.

Romana grabs the co-pilot’s gun and fires on the Nimon, urging the Anethans to flee. Only two, Seth and Teka, do so and follow. The Doctor runs off in a different direction.

The Nimon begins speaking of the journey of life again, something he speaks of often, apparently. He says that the mere five crystals will suffice.

Soldeed and Sorak examine the exterior of the TARDIS. K-9 watches them from within.

The Doctor reunites with Romana, Seth and Teka. They discuss the changing walls and pathways and the crystals that were brought as tribute and the Nimon’s using them in his furnace.

The Nimon orders the Anethans to bring forth the tribute and they place the crystals in a machine. The machine (the furnace?) glows brightly and the Nimon growls and gesticulates. He says they have achieved “operational power level” and “the next step in the great journey of life will soon be accomplished.” He then blasts one of the Anethans with his horns.

The Doctor and others find a room full of machines. The Time Lords quickly deduce that the set up is for transmitting energy – even the horns on the building itself are for that. Teka and Seth are sent to keep watch for the Nimon.

The Doctor then realises that the complex resembles a giant positronic circuit, which is why the walls keep moving. They decide they need K-9 to solve what the system is designed to transmit. The Doctor blows his whistle.

K-9 comes out and is accosted by Soldeed, Sorak and the guards. Soldeed manages to neutralise K-9.

Trying to guess what the purpose is, The Doctor speculates a transmat, but there’s no transmat pad. They quickly determine that it’s beaming to the black hole.

The Doctor brings up mentioning the black hole to Soldeed and him not knowing what The Doctor was talking about. Romana gets the best line ever in response: “Oh, well, people often don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Soldeed gives a rousing speech to his Skonnon battlefleet leaders. Afterwards, he speaks with Sorak, who questions what’s in it for the Nimon. Soldeed says that the Nimon is godlike and thus it appeases him to receive tribute in exchange for power.

They return to Soldeed’s quarters, where Sorak says something for nothing is something he finds hard to trust. Soldeed claims that he is playing the Nimon “on a long string”.

The Nimon walks the halls, growling. Teka and Seth stand on watch; again Teka seems to think that, somehow, this little boy is going to solve it all. They hear the Nimon approaching and Seth sends her to warn The Doctor.

Seth follows her to the room where the Time Lords await, as the Nimon is right behind him. Everyone hides behind machines as the Nimon enters and tends to the instruments. The Time Lords try to determine what he’s doing, but it’s no use, they’re unable to.

Soldeed crows about how he has used the Anethans, the Nimon and he said he would use K-9 (who is in the room, his side panel open) if he could figure out how. He admits that K-9’s construction is greater than his knowledge.

Suddenly, the horns on the power complex begin glowing; Sorak sees this through the window and points it out to Soldeed, who says to mark this moment as the beginning of the Second Skonnon Empire.

The sky glows red and the Skonnons are trepidatious. Soldeed enters the power station to confer with the Nimon.

Teka asks Seth what the Nimon is doing, but the ‘prince’ admits he doesn’t know. She demands to know why he doesn’t know. I could really do without the whole Seth/Teka storyline.

As the Nimon works the controls, a door opens in the room and a large stone… egg? Appears. The Nimon approaches it, growling. He opens a hatch and out step a group of other Nimons. He welcomes them to the new home for the Nimon race.

One of the two new Nimons say that his work is just in time – their planet, Crinoth, is finished. The three of them set about to begin the migration.

The Doctor and Romana realise that they’ve used the black hole as part of a hyperspace tunnel to travel across the universe. Seth and Teka are set on guard duty again as the Time Lords set to examining the capsule and equipment.

A gleeful Soldeed marches through the halls.

As the Time Lords tinker, an alarm sounds. Romana rushes to where The Doctor is, but he says not to worry. He thinks he can reverse the beam and possibly even send the Nimons back.

Soldeed calls out for “Lord Nimon”. Seth and Teka hear him and rush to The Doctor to warn him. The Doctor is busy with the beam reversal and ignores them, but accidentally sends the capsule, WITH ROMANA STILL IN IT, back to where it came from.

As he sets to bringing her back, Soldeed arrives and blasts the machinery with his staff. As The Doctor frets about Romana, Soldeed points his staff, saying “You shall die…” and the credits roll.

Again, I’m not terribly thrilled with this serial, like most of this season.

Episode 4:

Seth shoots Soldeed before he can blast The Doctor. The Doctor checks on the damage to the machinery, but seems less than optimistic.

Romana appears on Crinoth and is pursued by two Nimon.

The Doctor says he cannot fix the machinery without K-9.

Sorak enters Soldeed’s chambers and contemplates K-9.

Romana runs from the Nimons.

As The Doctor tries to use his gravitic anomoliser to get the machine working, Soldeed slips off. There’s a whole butt load of overacting. It’s really not impressive.

As Romana is cornered by the two Nimon, a man comes to her aid, using a staff much like Soldeed’s. He blast the Nimons and introduces himself to Romana as Sezom. Romana is very, very jumpy and Lalla Ward is overacting. Seems to be a theme.

Sezom says this is left of Crinoth; the Nimons have destroyed everything, everyone… everyone but him. He is weak and says his time is almost up. She helps him to sit down. He says the total destruction of the planet and his people is his fault – he was the one who allowed the Nimons to come there, to serve them in exchange for promised peace, technology, prosperity.

Sezom says there was only one Nimon at first, that he had no idea that the cost would be so great.

Seth (carrying Soldeed’s staff) and Teka (wth the blaster) get separated in the changing halls as they pursue Soldeed.

Sorak fiddles with K-9 and results in activating him.

Sezom compares the Nimon to locusts. He agrees to help Romana try to get back to Skonnos to warn them.

Seth runs through the halls, calling out for Teka. There’s a lot of S-names in this serial. Teka walks backwards through the halls, then comes across the dead co-pilot, his body laid out on the feeding table. This brings her to the larder.

Soldeed takes her captive there, but then the three Nimons arrive, much to Soldeed’s horror.

The Doctor fiddles and pulls the lever, bringing back the capsule. However, inside is not Romana, but several Nimons. He quickly closes the door and sends them back.

On Crinoth, the Nimons depart the capsule, confused to find themselves still on Crinoth. One stays to guard the capsule while the other departs.

Sezom and Romana skulk about, hiding from a Nimon who storms by, growling.

K-9 demands to know where he is. Sorak is amazed he can speak, but once K-9 blasts him with a warning burst, he obeys the robot dog’s instruction to put him on the floor. K-9 departs, Sorak calling after him to wait.

Romana overhears several Nimon discussing the “final contingency”. If Crinoth explodes too soon, too many Nimon are still there and the great journey of life must continue. They leave and Sezom explains that without the power plant on the other side, the only way for the Nimon on Crinoth to power the transfer would be to canniablise Crinoth’s energy itself.

Sezom explains that though the Nimons gave him his staff, he’s modified it enough so that it can stun them, using jacenite (a rock with a powerful electromagnetic charge) to amplify it. They use the staff to stun the Nomon guarding it, but before it goes down, he blasts Sezom.

As he lays dying, Sezom holds off other Nimon with his staff, while Romana goes back inside the capsule.

Two Nimon approach The Doctor. In a great case of shoddy dialogue, one Nimon tells the other, “Kill him… but not yet, we need to know who he is.” Yeah, that’s really awesome. They take him prisoner.

On Crinoth, two Nimon prepare to blast the capsule, knowing an alien is inside.

On Skonnos, the Nimon reverse the beam and the capsule is brought there, just as the Crinoth Nimon start to blast the capsule.

Romana throws the jacenite to Seth, who just arrived, and he is instructed to wedge the rock into the staff and blast the Nimons. One of them blasts Seth (though he’s barely hurt), but K-9 (who just arrived) blasts it from behind.

The Doctor sends Romana and Seth to the larder to find Teka and save the others, while he and K-9 work on trapping the Nimons in a time tunnel.

At the larder, they find Teka in one of the cryo chambers. Soldeed is there and he calls Romana a “meddlesome hussy”. She confronts Soldeed with the knowledge that there are a great many Nimons and he’s been played. Soldeed’s mind doesn’t handle this, but he blames Romana. He rushes to the furnance and pulls down some levers, saying they’re all doomed. Seth blasts him, but it’s too late.

The reactor has gone critical.

Seth frees the others from the larder (ok, not cryo, just paralysed.) Teka celebrates that Seth defeated the Nimon. K-9 leads everyone out of the power station.

The Nimons awaken in the control chamber and leave in pursuit.

Outside the power station, Skonnons gather, perplexed and confused.

K-9 keeps having to recalculate the path. This is the slowest, most boring chase scene ever, worse than when the cops were chasing OJ Simpson. He leads them to a wall, but K-9 insists it is an exit. The Doctor argues with him for moments, not figuring out it is an illusion.

The Skonnons are amazed as the Anethans come out. Teka starts praising Seth as the Skonnons ask questions, but the Time Lords come through, yelling for everyone to take cover. (Right, a nuclear reactor is going to blow and taking cover isn’t going to help much, yo.) Everyone flees the great hall.

The power complex explodes. I love when the little model buildings go blooey.

Back in the TARDIS, Romana bemoans when she sees The Doctor is tinkering with the TARDIS console yet again. They discuss leaving Skonnos with Sorak in charge – The Doctor says he won’t be much better, but they’ll be too busy rebuilding to bother anyone else.

On the scanner, they watch as Crinoth explodes. The Doctor says it’s the end of the Nimon, and good riddance, too. Then they watch the Skonnon ship taking Seth and the Anethans back.

And we end with a silly joke that I won’t even bother repeating.

Not the worst serial this season, not by far, but I am still pretty much not happy with this entire season.