The Horns of Nimon

The elements of this cover were pretty clearcut - the Doctor (of course), the Nimon and Soldeed - as was their arrangement: Soldeed menacing the Doctor with his staff as the Nimon loomed above them. It's a layout I've used often (most recently with The Time Monster, in fact) as it fits the shape of the cover well. I did think of having the Nimon larger, more central and facing forward but in the end didn't have a suitable photo, so he ended up on the right. Given the title of the story, I didn't want his horns disappearing behind the logo, so decided on what I think is only the second time I've let the illustration break out over the logo (Robot being the other). I also enhanced his torso with some appropriately muscly pecs and abs - I'm glad no one walked in when I was Googling images for that!

There were a couple of shots of Soldeed menacing the Doctor with his staff but the best was actually of him confronting the co-pilot. I had to flip it to fit the layout, which I generally try to avoid, but at least it meant the light on him was coming from the same direction as on the Doctor. There were also several usable images of the Doctor in the DVD's photo gallery (for once!) and I almost used one of him facing left so he'd seem unaware of Soldeed behind him. But his head was too much in profile and I preferred him looking forward in this more dramatic shot.

The background was the most complicated part of the illustration. As there was a bit of a 'hole' in the centre of the image, I thought the Nimon travel capsule would fit nicely without drawing attention too much from the main figures. I then mixed in the doorway from a shot of it open to hint at the coming Nimon invaders. So it then seemed obvious to surround it with the Nimon's power room,, a fairly memorable set, only there was no suitable shot of it without characters in the way. So I had to cobble it together from separate elements (with some joins handily hidden by the foreground figures).

Finally, it was a shame my choices left no place for Romana on the cover, given here greater role in this story, so I gave her the top spot on the back cover instead of the Doctor.

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