OUR TIME IS NOW
By Rowan DT.
A few months ago, I was working as a boom operator on a
short film for a director friend and I saw something that fundamentally proves
that the time is right for Knightmare’s return. I’ve written in these hallowed e-pages
before about how a new series of Knightmare may not be quite up to par with the
original, but on the whole it’d be a good thing to have Knightmare back on our
screens. And, as I’m about to show you, now is the time.
We were shooting out in
So why is it that now,
ten years after the show came off the air, you can buy ridiculous merchandise
based on one of the characters? The answer’s actually pretty simple, and it’s
the same one you’d get if you were to ask why you can see Knightmare (a show
that came off the air ten years ago) every evening on Challenge TV, or why you
can go into any video shop and buy a Rainbow video, or The Magic Roundabout, or
even Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds.
Why can you go into a games shop and buy a
collection of eighties arcade games for your PC? Why can you get emulators that
let you play games on old computers that went bust in the nineties? Why can you
buy T-shirts with pictures of Gary Coleman, Transformers, Pacman and those
ridiculous HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC slogans you used to get on LPs?
It’s all retro! The people who are buying
air fresheners for their cars today are the same people who used to watch
Rainbow when they were kids. The biggest videogame market today is the
twenty-to-thirty-somethings with disposable incomes - the same people who used
to play arcade games in the eighties and computer games in the nineties. People
buying DVDs today used to watch Rainbow, Postman Pat, Mister Benn and other
such programmes back when they were kids. People like to re-live their youth
for all sorts of reasons and the manufacturers are taking full advantage. Why
do you think Knightmare is advertised on Challenge as that eighties cult
classic so often? For the most part, the people watching the Challenge
repeats are the same people who watched it on CITV back in the dark ages.
But even the younger generation
born in the nineties are getting in on it. The eye-gougingly irritating
Gamezville (aimed at either pre-teens or the mentally ill, I can’t quite fathom
it) regularly has a retro spot, talking about games that are practically older
than the presenters. Modern mobile phones always have simple, retro games on
them and they’re getting a revival accordingly. The market for the old stuff is
branching out all over the place, so a brand new series of Knightmare would
have its audience.
In many respects, it’s a mixed blessing. A
lot of shows and games from that era are far, far superior to the stuff
they churn out today, so there’s no real harm in enjoying it now if you missed
it first time around. But it does raise the issue of whether we’re just getting
bogged down in the past, and there’s no real progress any more. Doctor Who was
around in the sixties, and it’s coming back next year. If Knightmare were to
return, it would need to be markedly different (while keeping the spirit and
good points of the original) and handled very carefully if it wanted to avoid
getting tarred with the retro brush, and ignored by the pseudo-forward-thinking
retro detractors who’d rather play tosh like Driver 3 (or Driv3r if you’re an
IDIOT) than Galaxian.
Tread carefully, team.
Some thought-provoking
stuff there, Rowan.
About Challenge using the phrase “that eighties cult classic”, it always
seems to me that they say Knightmare is an eighties show when they’re showing
series 4-8, and a nineties show when they’re showing series 1-3, which is, of
course, the wrong way around! You're right about Knightmare having an audience
at the moment, of course, but would a whole new series really live up to our expectations?
I wonder…