CREATURE
FEATURE
Series
1/2/3/4/7. Level
GIANT REPTILES.
Just to be clear, I’m not
talking about dragons here. I’m talking about real live reptiles that were
brought into the studio at Anglia Television and enlarged by the magic of
advanced camera techniques, for the purpose of superimposing them into the
Dungeon as colossal saurian threats. The first of these appeared in series 1 in
the shape of giant snakes, which appeared from behind a broken-down door to
menace passing dungeoneers in level one. This challenge returned for series 2,
but caused no real damage to quests as it was only ever intended as a scare
factor. The closest shave, I think, belongs to Neil from series 2, who was a
hair’s breadth away from brushing a large purple pre-recorded snake before he
managed to escape.
The threat of becoming
snake-chow remained in series 3, in the particularly nasty form of the Dreadful
Khar, an enormous Egyptian Cobra. He popped out of his pit in level one to
menace travellers with his immense appearance, but never actually satisfied his
apparent constant hunger by eating a dungeoneer. Khar also appeared in level
three from a pit in the room that used to be used for Combat Chess. Mogdred or
Morghanna called him forth, but, again, he was purely a scare factor.
The threat of giant
reptiles returned for series 4, but shifted to the form of giant lizards. Simon
III had to stop a hissing monstrosity that was guarding the wellway by freezing
it in time with an hourglass. An even more enormous lizard lived somewhere
amongst the ruins of Dungarth, which started licking its lips and hissing when
it saw a dungeoneer. As Jeremy and Vicky found out, however, a speedy dash to
safety was all that was required.
After series 4, with the
advents of first puppetry and then computer graphics, it was much less common
to see threats such as the giant snakes and lizards. We were treated to one
more enlarged reptile, though, early in series 7: a tortoise called Nigel. He
was actually Hordriss in disguise, and Simon IV had to convince him to return
to his true form so he could rescue a mini-Sidriss from a bottle. So, we have
had giant snakes, lizards and tortoises - and, of course, dragons – so the only
question is, why were there no giant crocodilians? Answers, please!
Fear Factor: 7 Even if they were only pre-recorded film.
Killer Instinct: 0 Purely for show.
Humanity: 3 We’re all vertebrates.
Gore Factor: 8 Primarily the reason for choosing to enlarge them.