CinemaSerf
Jul 4, 2024
6/10
The TARDIS collides with a space freighter and that introduces "The Doctor" (Tom Baker) and his companion "Romana" (Lalla Ward) to a group of young and beautiful people who are being transported to a labyrinth where they will be sacrificed to the Minotaur-esque "Nimon". He is to be worshipped at the command of "Soldeed" (Graham Crowden) so that they can continue to benefit from the enhanced technology offered to facilitate the creation of th second "Skonnon" empire. The travellers soon discover that the young virgins are to be used for a much more malevolent purpose as the horned "Nimon" has a dastardly plan to infest and conquer the planet. Luckily, they have the help of the feisty "Sorak" (Michael Osborne) and "Teka" (Janet Ellis), a special blue crystal and, of course, "K9" and his ever reliable laser gun. Though the baddies here are quite good fun, and Crowded proves to be an arch-ham as the ambitious "Soldeed", the story is too thinly stretched and I'm afraid that by now I was getting just a little more irritated by the "Romana" character - this time tantalisingly close to oblivion. Baker usually looked like he was having great fun making these, and that helped his character engage. Here, though, he seems to be having a bit of an in-joke with Crowden as to the preposterousness of it all, and it just didn't quite work.