Series 4 Individual Team Pages: Team 8

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s4t8brett
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Series 4 Individual Team Pages: Team 8

Post by s4t8brett »

I really like our new Series 4 Individual Team Pages by Keith McDonald. The shots are well-chosen and the text is generally informative, interesting and accurate.

Here are a couple of thoughts, by way of response ...

1. Merlin in the stocks. On our way back to the Green Room we said among ourselves 'That was Merlin, wasn't it?' and just before Giles collected the key (in the Level 3 Clue Room), the Floor Manager (Tom Hunt) said to us 'When you were given your mission ... who do you think it was in the stocks?' 'Merlin.' Yes, it's no secret that it was Merlin.' I do concede it would have looked better in terms of gameplay had we established his identity from one of the game characters rather than off-screen - it's just that we didn't feel it was necessary, however.

2. Motley in the Crazed Heifer. Coming from Series 1-3, I couldn't believe all those people were in the studio! This section (through to the goblin chase in the forest) is one of my favourite sections of Level 1 of our quest; the adventure and excitement were Knightmare at its best, and on a par with series 3 here (dare I say!). Anyway, although I agree it sounds quite like Motley presented himself as a 'gay wit and reparteeist', I have always thought he actually used the three-fold identification that he was 'a gag, wit and reparteeist'.

3. Level 3. Our first game chamber on this level was actually the Swinging Axe room, which (as I recall) Treguard introduced by allusion to the Sword of Damocles. We got Giles about halfway across (over something like 2.5 or 5 mins) when he STOOD UP in the middle of the path - no doubt to stretch his legs - whereupon I think I stood up and asked him in no certain terms to get down again! I imagine the footage of this moment has not been retained, though.

4. The Block and Tackle. Giles explained that the Floor Manager (Tom Hunt) instructed him to take four large steps into the chamber (from the diagonal starting position at the front right). On each of the two takes, in his enthusiasm, Giles RAN (in spite of the Adventurer's Code!) across those 'four large steps', which made the action exciting because it put him very close to where, arguably, you have little time to know i) what's about to happen, ii) the pattern, or iii) what would be best to do about it! When Giles was standing over the black void on the first take, I quickly said 'Err, Giles, take a sidestep RIGHT' - which was no doubt an amusing contrast for the production team after the classic sidestep LEFT moment a few quests previously!

I still maintain Series 4 was a unique series and each quest, taken on its own (or even week-by-week as originally broadcast!) provided lots of fun, atmosphere, interest and adventure.

Best wishes everyone,
Brett
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KaM
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Re: Series 4 Individual Team Pages: Team 8

Post by KaM »

Hi Brett,

Many thanks for the positive feedback!

It's been a long-term ambition to generate individual team pages – partly to make them sharable on an individual basis, and partly to create a little more descriptive space. People will find a way to watch quests if they want to relive every detail, so these are intended as a scannable, swift-paced guide through the gameplay with some extras where we have them.

Yours provided a rare (and fun) opportunity to include some moments of insider-knowledge. As I'm sure you're aware, you are very much a rarity in terms of past contestants who engage with us closely on the site. (Thank you for all your efforts!)

Publishing these pages has also unearthed new things that I wasn't aware of. I didn't know that the 'Sword of Damocles' was included in your quest and not shown! I suppose if programme time was short, it would have been a real challenge to compress the footage enough. One of the Series 2 contestants has mentioned something similar about the lengthy 'Combat Chess' challenge. Likewise, you cannot just cut chunks out of that.

Interesting, too, that you were prompted by staff to consider Merlin's identity. It's always fun for us to add snippets of anything 'unusual' in terms of continuity or process. Unusually, that denotes initiative on a team's part, and that's probably the most interesting thing in terms of good gaming.

It's clear that you enjoyed the Motley scene. The patrons of the inn must get increasingly fed up with the puns over the series and finally snap. Imagine if Giles had needed to scavenge one of the cabbages from the floor for Life Force! I also find the goblin chase to be of the most gripping parts of the series. It's surely fair to say that yours was the most memorable quest of S4 – for the right reasons, at least.

One remaining question I have (for which I apologise if the answer has been covered previously): we heard about an alternative series ending, in case distribution rights were sold to countries that may not wish to air at Xmas. What did that involve – do you remember? Anything remotely exciting?

All the best!
Keith
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s4t8brett
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Re: Series 4 Individual Team Pages: Team 8

Post by s4t8brett »

Hi Keith!

Thank you for your personal response. I have enjoyed interacting with the Knightmare community over recent years and just wish I had been at the Convention.

I was surprised when your suggestion of Giles having to scavange for the dispersed cabbages to restore Life Force in the Crazed Heifer reminded me that the possibility did actually pass through my mind momentarily when Motley was being pelted! ('Would we have to pick these up?') But - in view of the direction Motley took the dialogue - only in passing ...

I wonder what would have happened had Giles not hesitated and shown Brother Mace the wrong card?! Perhaps the cards were deliberately mixed up for Brother Mace, although I tend to have the impression he did the mixing up himself (our chaperone reported that the actor, Michael Cule, pretended to shoot himself in the head as he departed the void after recording that scene!). I suppose the quest might have been altered so that the cards could have been switched so that Giles correctly had the Joker card by a further interaction with a game character. Or perhaps the production team would have simply given him the Joker in the succeeding scenes.

To answer your question, we definitely recorded two versions with Treguard saying farewell while we walked off to the right in the void. The dialogue for the international, non-Christmas version was something along the line of the dungeon reforming itself at a later time, as I recall. I can't remember whether we recorded a separate version with Merlin entering but no Christmas decorations; I am pretty sure we didn't, although we had two or three takes to shoot when Giles re-appeared in the antechamber. So in the international version of Series 4 Episode 16, I would think the action switched from Treguard casting the Unite spell directly to outside the castle - but I can't remember or say for sure.

Best wishes,
Brett
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Re: Series 4 Individual Team Pages: Team 8

Post by Drassil »

s4t8brett wrote: 29 Jul 2018, 12:12 Motley in the Crazed Heifer. Coming from Series 1-3, I couldn't believe all those people were in the studio!
According to a comment made by Hugo Myatt when interviewed by Debbie Glover in 2002, the Crazed Heifer involved overlays, suggesting that some of the patrons had been prefilmed. In your case, I suppose we can gauge how many by who was and wasn't throwing cabbages. (There's somebody at the bottom-left table with quite a poor aim.)

The Crazed Heifer in Series 4 was always my favourite recurring Knightmare room. It may have lacked the danger, claustrophobia and artistry of a typical Series 3 chamber, but there was so much atmosphere.

s4t8brett wrote: 29 Jul 2018, 12:12This section (through to the goblin chase in the forest) is one of my favourite sections of Level 1 of our quest; the adventure and excitement were Knightmare at its best, and on a par with series 3 here (dare I say!).
Series 4 appealed to me greatly at the time and still does. Your team met a jester in an inn, ventured into a forest then used magic to evade a goblin hunting party: if that's not adventure and excitement, I don't know what is. The bit where we're shown what happens immediately after the dungeoneer has departed, i.e. the goblins getting to the elf portal too late, is something I don't think Knightmare did before or since. To know that Giles was 'made to jog like mad during that part' (according to a YouTube comment he once made), not reduced to a watcher of his own quest, makes it even better.

The production team presented you with a fantastic adventure. To our delight (and surely also to theirs), you made it clear throughout that it wasn't wasted on you. Thank you.

David
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Re: Series 4 Individual Team Pages: Team 8

Post by MindlessAutomartum »

s4t8brett wrote: 29 Jul 2018, 12:12I still maintain Series 4 was a unique series and each quest, taken on its own (or even week-by-week as originally broadcast!) provided lots of fun, atmosphere, interest and adventure.
I agree that it was unique. The wooded areas had so much atmosphere to them, and no other series had scenes quite like these. It was a bit purple and a bit slow at times, but it was definitely a game changer.
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s4t8brett
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Re: Series 4 Individual Team Pages: Team 8

Post by s4t8brett »

This week happens to have the same dates as the original filming, 28 years ago (Monday 13th August-Thursday 16th August) so - as I type - we would probably have met the first Weeping Door and be waiting for the scene where Giles received the Eye Shield from Merlin (because I saw the time on his watch when he picked up the Eye Shield - it was something like 11:28! That shows how much more accurate the original images were compared to what we saw at home in standard definition).

Interesting about the use of overlays in the Crazed Heifer, David. All I can say is our chaperone said 'they were all there' in the studio on our quest.

Thank you for your comments, David and MindlessAutomartum. It is great to share the enjoyment of our quest with you once again.
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s4t8brett
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Re: Series 4 Individual Team Pages: Team 8

Post by s4t8brett »

Hi everyone,

Just a couple of qualifications: we did not audition as early as 1988.

Also, I did say we failed the first take of the Block and Tackle, but I think it is important also to bear in mind the context: that Giles's enthusiastic four large steps took him extremely close to where the floor began to fall away - whereas some teams earlier in the series started on the right hand side, right near the front of the chamber.

Best wishes,
Brett
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