In Ancient Greek mythology, there is no greater beast than the mighty, horned minotaur! The minotaur has been represented multiple times in Doctor Who, most notably in the form of the Nimon encountered by the Fourth Doctor and Romana. However, minotaurs can take on all shapes and sizes and they are almost always aggressive and scary!

The Mind Robber

★★★☆☆

TX: 14/09/1968 – 12/10/1968

Written by Peter Ling    Directed by David Maloney

The TARDIS makes an emergency takeoff from the planet Dulkis, but the ship explodes and the Doctor and his friends are thrown into a white void. The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe have arrived in the Land of Fiction. The time travellers are menaced by white robots as well as encountering other fictional characters and beings, including the Karkus, Medusa, a minotaur, a unicorn, clockwork men, Lemuel Gulliver, Rapunzel and Cyrano de Bergerac. The Doctor and Zoe also have to solve puzzles, riddles and word games, including one which involves rearranging Jamie’s face! The Doctor and his friends ultimately confront the Master of the Land of Fiction, who wants to recruit the Doctor to take over his role as the creative power in this realm. It turns out that the Master of the Land of Fiction is in fact an ordinary Earth man abducted and brought to the Land of Fiction in order to provide creative energies for the unseen aliens who are really in charge. Everything that the Doctor has experienced was a series of tests to prepare him for his role as his replacement. The aliens’ plan is to control everyone on Earth and bring them to the Land of Fiction, leaving the Earth itself empty for easy colonisation. The Doctor rescues Jamie and Zoe from within the book they were trapped in, and they return to the control room to free ‘the Master’. Jamie and Zoe overload the computer and it explodes, with all 4 leaving just in time. The TARDIS reforms and the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are able to escape.

The Time Monster

★☆☆☆☆

TX: 20/05/1972 – 24/06/1972

Written by Robert Sloman    Directed by Paul Bernard

The Third Doctor, Jo and U.N.I.T investigate a new scientific project called T.O.M.T.I.T (Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time) lead by Professor Thascalos, the latest disguise for the Master. The Master has constructed T.O.M.T.I.T at the Newton Institute in Wootton — to gain control over Kronos, a time-eating Chronovore from outside time. The creature is summoned but proves to be uncontrollable. It is clear that the Chronovores were the inspiration for the Reapers in Father’s Day. The Doctor explains that Kronos is a “chronovore”, a creature from outside time that feeds on it, attracted from the vortex to ancient Atlantis using a crystal trident larger than one seen to have been used by the Master. The Doctor suspects capturing the chronovore is the Master’s purpose, and that this represents a danger to the entire universe.

Meanwhile, the Atlantean High Priest of Poseidon, Krasis, is transported through interstitial time by the Master and brought to an office at the institute. The Master seizes the Seal of Kronos from the priest and uses it to conjure Kronos, a white, bird-like figure, who devours the Institute’s Director, Dr Percival. Kronos is briefly contained by the Master, but breaks free, Krasis surmising the Master only has the smaller fragment of the original crystal. The Doctor and his allies, alerted by the Master’s actions, build a time flow analogue to interrupt the experiments. The Time Lords then duel using time as a weapon, leading to a series of bizarre temporal effects. When they pit their TARDISes against one another, the Doctor is ejected into the vortex, but survives thanks to Jo and his TARDIS.

In ancient Atlantis, King Dalios is troubled by the disappearance of Krasis and the threat to the Kronos crystal, which is guarded by the Minotaur at the heart of a maze. The Master has travelled to Atlantis in search of the crystal and soon inveigles himself at court, wooing Queen Galleia. When the Doctor and Jo arrive, the unnaturally long-lived King confides that Atlantis turned from Kronos and sought to end the link by which the chronovore could be controlled, by destroying the crystal, but they could only splinter it. The Doctor then faces the Minotaur to rescue Jo, duped into the maze by Krasis, and the creature is destroyed. The crystal is now produced from the maze – but the Master’s schemes have borne fruit and he has usurped the throne. Jo and the Doctor are soon detained and witness Dalios’ death after being smitten with a trident. Krasis uses the crystal to summon Kronos to Atlantis once more. The enraged chronovore begins to destroy Atlantis while the Master flees in his TARDIS, with Jo Grant in tow. The Doctor heads off in his own TARDIS in pursuit while Kronos destroys the city and people of Atlantis. In the vortex, the Doctor threatens the mutually assured destruction of both TARDISes by a “time ram” in which both vehicles would occupy the same space/time co-ordinates. When he carries this threat out, a thankful Kronos is set free, saving the Doctor and Jo and returning them to their TARDIS. On the Doctor’s insistence, the Master is spared, too, but he flees in his own TARDIS before he can be apprehended. The Doctor and Jo return to the institute, where normality is returning, through a final use of the Master’s machine, which now overloads, and the time experiments end. During U.N.I.T’s search for the Twelfth Doctor in The Magician’s Apprentice, Kate Stewart and Jac identify “three possible versions of Atlantis” that the Doctor previously visited.

The Horns of Nimon

★☆☆☆☆

TX: 22/12/1979 – 12/01/1980

Written by Anthony Read    Directed by Kenny McBain

The declining Skonnan Empire is being controlled by the Nimon, an alien which resembles a minotaur. The Nimon resides inside a labyrinthine Power Complex on the planet Skonnos, and communicates only with the Skonnan leader, Soldeed, who reveres the Nimon as a god. The Nimon demands a regular tribute of young people, who are flown in from the nearby planet Aneth, as well as a supply of hymetusite crystals. A transport ship bearing the sacrifices from Aneth breaks down and becomes stranded in interplanetary space, close to a black hole. Outside the ship, the TARDIS materialises. The Fourth Doctor attempts to save the TARDIS from being drawn into the black hole by attaching it to the Skonnan ship with a force field. The Doctor and Romana then board the ship, leaving K-9 behind. Once aboard they find a cargo of hymetusite crystals and a hold full of young prisoners from Aneth, led by Seth. The Doctor and Romana are captured at gunpoint by the co-pilot, who forces them to fix the ship using a hymetusite crystal. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS to get supplies, and becomes stranded when the ship’s engines start. Steering the TARDIS away from the black hole, he travels to Skonnos. On Skonnos, the Nimon is enraged by the delayed sacrifice and threatens to withhold the promised armaments that will help rebuild the Skonnan Empire. The ship arrives, bearing the sacrifices and Romana, who are forced to carry the hymetusite crystals into the Power Complex. Within the labyrinth, the walls seem to shift and change, forcing them towards the Nimon. They discover desiccated husks of bodies, previous Anethans who have been drained of life. They meet the Nimon, who has the power to fire deadly laser beams out of his horns. Meanwhile, the TARDIS has materialised on Skonnos. The Doctor enters the labyrinth and distracts the Nimon, enabling Romana, Seth and Teka to escape. In the centre of the Power Complex, the Nimon operates a transit system, opening a tunnel through a pair of black holes. Large globes carrying two more Nimon appear. It is revealed that the Nimon are a parasitic race who travel via artificial black holes between planets, draining their resources, before moving on to conquer new worlds. They refer to this as “the Great Journey of Life”. They are now abandoning the distant Planet Crinoth to take over Skonnos. Soldeed questions his faith when confronted with multiple Nimons. Romana accidentally travels through the tunnel to Crinoth, which she finds overrun with Nimons. She is assisted by an old man named Sezom, who gives her a mineral called jacenite which can be used to destroy Nimons. Sezom admits that he was the one who helped the Nimons take over, falling for their promises (much like Soldeed). He realized too late that the small tributes were only the start of destruction of the whole population. Romana is brought back to Skonnos. Amid a struggle, Seth has taken Soldeed’s weapon, a ceremonial staff, and fitting it with the jacenite, he stuns the Nimons. K9, who has been held captive in Soldeed’s laboratory, shoots the remaining Nimon. Soldeed is also shot by Seth, but sets off a self-destruct system to destroy the Power Complex. Guided by K9, the Doctor and his party escape from the labyrinth. The Skonnans evacuate their city as the Nimon Power Complex explodes. Seth and Teka take a spacecraft to return to Aneth, while the Nimon-infested Crinoth disintegrates.

The God Complex

★★★★☆

TX: 17/09/2011

Written by Toby Whithouse      Directed by Nick Hurran

The Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in a hotel where every room contains each person’s worst nightmares. The trio meet a group of survivors, Rita, Howie and Gibbis, a cowardly alien from the planet Tivoli. They have tied up Joe in a room of puppets, because he has gone mad due to the fact that an alien minotaur is coming for him. The Doctor opens his room, where we can hear the TARDIS cloister bell but we don’t find out what is in there. Rita’s room includes her father being disappointed in her. Other rooms include a clown, a PE teacher, a gorilla, Weeping Angels (for Gibbis) and girls (for Howie). The Minotaur chases the survivors around the hotel. The Doctor tries to reason with the Minotaur, which he realises is from another planet. The Minotaur kills Joe, Howie and Rita, feeding on their faith. The Minotaur possesses its victims and forces them to say phrases like “Praise Him” as a precursor to killing them. The Doctor realises that the Minotaur kills people by latching onto their faith, which it feeds on. The Doctor, Amy, Rory and Gibbis lay a trap for the Minotaur using Howie. Amy starts to say “Praise Him”, indicating that she is the Minotaur’s next victim. The survivors are chased by the Minotaur and Amy discovers her room, which contains her worst nightmare: her being abandoned by the Doctor as a child and waiting for him for year. The Doctor encourages Amy to lose her faith in him, in the same way that he asked Ace to forget her faith in him in The Curse of Fenric. This repels the Minotaur and the hotel reveals itself to be the spaceship that belongs to the Minotaur. The Doctor checks the ship’s computers which reveals that the alien Minotaur is a distant cousin of the Nimon from The Horns of Nimon. Gibbis, a survivor of the creature, asks for a lift home to the planet Tivoli and the Doctor then takes Amy and Rory to London, believing it best for the two to stop travelling with him before they end up getting killed.