 |
Seasons of Fear
(Paul Cornell and Caroline Symcox) |
|
 Name: Nimon
Format:
Television and Audio.
Time of Origin: Appear
to have been around since at least the time of the Roman Empire to
the future.
Appearances: "The
Horns of Nimon" and "Seasons
of Fear".
Doctors: Fourth
Doctor and Eighth
Doctor.
Companions: K9, 2nd
Romana and Charley
Pollard
History: The Nimon may be some of
the most heartless being that The Doctor has ever encountered. They
journey from world to world, on a pilgrimage they call 'the great
journey of life', in capsules via small artificially created black
holes, draining the worlds they leave of all their energy. They can
kill with bolts from their horns and some of them have been capable
of constructing a complex of shifting walls. They normally infiltrate
planets by sending one of their kind on from their previous location,
this Nimon claiming that they were the sole survivors of their race,
and promising the people of the new planet advanced technology in
exchange for 'sacrifices' from other planets. These victims were used
to provide energy to generate the portals for the rest of the Nimon
to travel through, thus starting the destructive events all over again.
 |
| The Fourth
Doctor |
|
However,
the Nimon eventually bit off more then they could chew while they
tried to conquer the planet Skonnos, which used to be the centre of
a vast empire which died out; only the army was left. Following their
usual pattern, one of the Nimon offered the people of Skonnos advanced
technology in exchange for human sacrifices from the nearby planet
of Aneth. Everything went well for a while, but then the Fourth
Doctor and Romana arrived on the ship transporting the sacrifices
by mistake, when its engine shut down. The Doctor managed to repair
it, but the ship then left with Romana, leaving The Doctor and K9 trapped in the TARDIS
- which, unfortunately, had been going through a complete systems
maintenance check-up by The Doctor, and so wasn't capable of dematerialising
at the moment.
Fortunately, The Doctor managed
to get the TARDIS working long enough to get to Skonnos, where he
and K9 managed to track down Romana and the other 'sacrifices'. Romana
discovered the capsule the Nimon had used to travel from their previous
conquest - the planet Crinoth - and, with the aid of the last survivor
of the planet, managed to acquire a weapon that could be used against
the Nimon. After the first Nimon had been killed, The Doctor destroyed
the complex on Skonnos, thus trapping the Nimon on Crinoth as it began
to die.
The
Doctor's next encounter with the Nimon was far less direct then this
one, and it took place four lifetimes later. The Eighth Doctor, attempting
to take his companion Charley
to a rendezvous in Singapore, was confronted by a man called
Sebastien Grayle, who claimed to be an immortal who'd succeeded in
killing The Doctor in his future; however, since The Doctor hadn't
left behind a body to gloat over after his death, Grayle had requested
that his 'masters' - the Nimon - create a pocket timeline so he could
brag to a past version of The Doctor about his victory instead.
 |
| The Eighth
Doctor |
|
However, The Doctor realised that Grayle's
actions had changed the normal law of time, so he could theoretically
change history so that those events never took place. Taking Charley,
The Doctor headed back in time, meeting Grayle in various points in
history; first in the Roman era, where Grayle became immortal in the
first place (Psionic energy beamed into him by the Nimon let him live
for several centuries, although he needs to 'recharge' after a certain
length of time) and attempted to bring his masters to Earth, then
the reign of King Edward the Confessor, Grayle's second chance to
contact the Nimon, and then Buckinghamshire in the year 1806, where
the Nimon finally arrived on Earth.
Despite
the risks, The Doctor tried to stop the Nimon by taking the TARDIS
into the time corridor they were using to travel to Earth in an attempt
to block it, but was then expelled into the time vortex with several
Nimon. Grayle managed to get on board the TARDIS, hoping to communicate
with the Nimon and learn how to move it, but Charley, based on prior
instructions from The Doctor, triggered the TARDIS's Fast Return Switch,
sending them back to the Roman era at the time of their previous visit.
Since the Nimon hadn't 'topped Grayle up', as it were, he was still
mortal at this time, and as a result, he was killed by his past self,
who refused to let himself become that thing that had lost all knowledge
of love and honour. As a result, the Nimon's invasion of Earth failed,
and history was set back on its proper course. |
|
