Series 5

The whole clue object choice thing is partly what I was waffling about when I said I could see why they were hesitant about offering the gem to Elita. I can think of a few reasons why they might not want to give it to her: Pickle has said some rather nasty things about her. It's at least plausible to think she might not be wholly trustworthy, although the evidence from their own Quest doesn't really support that, since she held to the bargain over getting them a ride on Smirkenorff. She's conducting some kind of ritual, thus I think they're not totally dense to ask what she wants to do with the ruby. If she's using it to summon evil spirits, create more disgusting and downright offensive clothing like her current attire, or something equally evil, then our "Truth and Justice" motto would perhaps make us question if we want to give her the means for the rite. Elita's unwilling to tell them much about what help she'll offer them in return for the ruby. "The key to my dungeon is the jewel in my crown." Note my dungeon, my crown. This is, I guess, Lord Fear's Dungeon, so it's at least plausible that the right thing to do is to keep the gem for the final encounter and not waste in on a smelly little cavern elf with no dress sense. It's also possible, of course, that the clue just meant "take the jewel because you'll need it", but I'm arguing not that it was needed later on, but that I can see why they had reservations about giving it to Elita. GG does like trying to help excuse teams just a little, to balance out being rather bitchy about them. GG also seems to like making nice orderly lists. 1. 2. 3. Mmmmm, nice lists. This is a very old post (only 20 years later haha) but I'd like to thank you for this as it offers some understanding to the team's actions that I hadn't thought about before. I always thought it was annoying that this team took so long deciding to give Elita the gem, but with the reasons you mentioned it does make it more understandable.

Resumed from time-out with Skarkill. Didn't have the gold to bribe him with, so instead tried to give him the goblin horn and convince him it was a magic horn! (blow it and riches beyond your wildest dreams will appear). Skarkill told them to blow the horn so he can hear what it sounds like. One of the advisers starts to mention that "Dungeoneers..." - perhaps he was going to suggest that the horn doesn't work for dungeoneers? But they he blew the horn - and summoned two goblins. Skarkill 'kills' the team by putting the irons on them... Ooh, nasty! God, this scene is just so brilliant. I absolutely love that advisor thinking on his feet and coming up with the story about the "magic" horn (what an imagination that kid must've had!), and Skarkill's response to it is equally perfect. Rayner Bourton is such an underrated Knightmare actor, he's fantastic in all his scenes.

I found the advisors' confusion towards Elita's voice disappointing. Speculation: the intention was for the team to have some interaction with the voice and establish its identity before spellcasting BAG (...again). Yes I suspect the producers were a bit disappointed too. But it was short-sighted on their part not to forsee that the team would interpret it as a wall monster-esque riddle to be answered. She shouldn't have asked a question like that.

If it were beef bonce it'd be synonomous with 'meat head' which of course is fairly derogatory. Not as overt slighting as cow..slip but not as much fun as dragonsbreath for companion with other dungeon expletives.

This being her last appearance, we never do find out why Aesandre hates blondes so much. Does she have a dark and traumatic history with a unknown fair-haired figure? Or maybe it has something to do with a certain White Witch? I've always seen it as an in-joke based on Juliet Henry-Massy, who played Aesandre, having blonde hair herself. As for an in-game explanation, perhaps a wider prejudice resulted from Elita helping a dungeoneer (Ben) to quest through Winteria. Or was it something Sidriss did? Maybe there's a fanfic in this. Speaking of which, I liked your Knightmare fanfic, DragonsBeHere - particularly your use of second person narrative and the reference to the books.

Having completed a run thru series 5, i thought i would consider some general points. Before series 5 was originally broadcast, way back in 1991, i had hoped that the eye-shield would have been dropped after S4 as an idea that didn't really work, but sadly there it still was.... In S5 with further sweeping changes, the last links to the original program had all-but gone. Treguard still remained, of course, but even his character seemed to have modified to an extent. The biggest change was the introduction of a new arch-villain and sadly i felt that it didn't work at all. The earlier antagonists Mogdred, Morghanna (and even maybe Malice) had an arthurian-legend feel which seemed to fit in with the original concept so nicely. Lord Fear was more like a creation from a cheap pantomime. This is no criticism of the acting of Mark Knight, who gave it plenty of enthusiam, but i felt that the character was simply wrong from the start. This seemed to be the general trend of S5. Between series 2,3 & 4 there had been changes to the cast and some great characters departed, but each time the producers created wonderful replacements. In S5 however, many of the new characters simply fell flat. Sir Hugh didn't really seem to have much point. Pixel quickly became samey and fortunately didn't appear later on in the series. Aesandre was rather bland and didn't have anywhere near as much menace and impact as Malice, let alone Morghanna. The most tedious of the new characters was Skarkill, a totally cardboard character. Rayner Bourton did far better with his portrayal of the shifty Scaramonger. His improvised patter had some great lines, even more so considering he had to deal with several rather passive dungeoneers. Sly Hands got better as the series progressed. For me the pick of the new characters was Elita, the stroppy cavern-elf who needed handling with tact. She combined the fiery character of Lady Velda with the abusiveness of Cedric and really gave dungeoneers some serious attitude, not all of which was undeserved. Stephanie Hesp really seemed to get into this character. Thankfully there were some familiar faces. Motley was back in good form, Brother Mace returned in style and Hordriss was even more grand and pompous than ever. The look of the series changed as well. Sadly the corridor of blades seldom appeared and seemed to be used simply to terminate teams who had fallen into losing status. The causeways were a nice addition and really tested teams directional movement. The spy-glass scenes in the "clue-rooms" (clue-areas?) seemed to provide clues easily and were less challenging than the traditional three-questions scenario. The pace of the program, which had dropped-off in S4, seemed to get even slower. The eye-shield sequences were getting excessively long, to the point of being shameless padding. The dragon sequences looked great, but slowed down the game even further.... The array of teams was good tho. A couple of teams were very competent and some of the other teams were very entertaining. In the '90s, i slowly lost interest in Knightmare from S5 onwards. At the time i assumed that i had simply outgrown the program (i was 17 when S5 arrived) but looking back it seems that from S5 there was a clear shift by the producers to aim the program at a younger audience. (Consider the introduction of Lord Fear in particular.) This could explain the fact that in middle-age i still really like S1-3 (and to a point S4) but find the later series disappointing.

They really had a shocker in the descender. Told to descend 7 levels, Ian told Duncan to say, "Stop!" but he reacted too slowly and also mumbled it and they kept going. Finally stopped in the wrong place. Entered into a super-fast corridor of blades and were sliced almost immediately! Their reaction said everything. They didn't even look that disappointed.... I agree with others who have suggested that this super-fast corridor of blades might have offered the first short-cut to level 3, had they survived it. Tough challenge tho. An excellent team would have found it difficult and i think it's fair to say that team 8 could not be described as excellent.... Possibly, but I think no team would have got through, even the best. The blade came along and sliced the dungeoneer before they even had a proper chance to take stock of where they were. They had virtually no time to call out the instruction to move right and the dungeoneer to react in time. My opinion is that it was an elimination from game punishment for not following the scroll instruction carefully enough. Those who legitimately enter the COB (i.e. it is on their correct path) have nearly 10 seconds before the first blade comes toward the dungeoneer, and even then, the first one isn't a threat to the dungeoneer.

Though if it was an error, it was hardly the size of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Interestingly, since I made the faux pas of confusing the size of Jupiter's Great Red Spot with that of the planet itself, scientists have made note of the width of the Spot decreasing. It's now about 1.3 Earths in diameter, rather than the original estimate of about 3. Well, I think it's interesting, anyway. As our leading aficionado of TV comedy, I'm sure you're familiar enough with 1960s Batman not to need telling what the Joker and Batman's relationship is. Even if Superman is based in a different DC Comics city, I can imagine the Joker visiting via public transport. Joker has his own self-titled comic series in which he did, in fact, visit different cities - a notable example being Joker #4 in which he turned up in Star City, facing off against Green Arrow and Black Canary. In order to make a nebulous Knightmare connection here, arrows were also used by a defender of the Greenwood. I share your opinion: my childhood memories of snap involve special packs of cards (e.g. a Disney set) rather than the traditional decks, and the match taking all rather than the joker taking all. That is also interesting, because I always played it with Jokers as a child. But then again, childhood games always vary according to family, friendship groups, school situations and the individual child. The game of "it" (or "tag") is always a good example - I'm still noting variants in school playgrounds that I'd have never thought of when in primary school myself! Anyway, none of this (except possibly the last point) isn't particularly related to the episode, but still...! Back to the episode, I can't genuinely think of any other game in which the Joker has the ability to take all. Practically every other card game I can think of has the aim of losing your cards (apart from trick-winning games, like whist, pontoon or pooka... er, poker). Variants aside, I'm still inclined to think of snap as the logical choice. The team took a very long time and a clue from Treguard to get it - I'm surprised Paul Valentine's muscles didn't seize up!

Team 2, started on Smirkenorff who was a bit slow today. Maybe there was a strong headwind.

Nice one, i shall look out for that. I like those little connections to earlier series that sometimes appear in the background.

Team 7 were doing ok. They seemed a little hesitant at times, which was understandable as they looked a very young team. They eventually made a good choice in the clue-room. Elita was in a comparatively agreeable mood this time. Nice to see Skarkill get his comeuppance, attacked by a swarm of bees when he opened the honey. They did very well with 3/3 answers to Brother Mace. Good answer on the last one by advisor Paul. At the entrance to level 2 another appearance by Elita. More insults, but she seemed to be less abusive than usual to this team. Great reference to Aesandre: "old icy-knickers". Seven things on the table in the clue-room. We're gonna need an episode just for each clue-room at this rate. They took the silver rather than the green gem and the advisors wanted to take Motley's jester-staff, but Chris talked them into taking the quill/feather. They were hurried out by a haunting before they could change his mind....

Team 6 seemed to get a let-off early on. Gwendoline stated that Alex must score at least 2/3 answers to get the password. Only scored 1/3 but Gwendoline agreed to help him anyway, as he carried her arrow, but she noticed the arrow before she told him he needed 2/3. Amusing moment when they gave Sly Hands the book from Hordriss and Hands turned into a goblin. Finally a scene where Sir Hugh actually served a useful purpose, sending the shifty Skarkill packing. The team used clock-face directions quite neatly to move Alex across the causeway. Encountered Elita at the end of level 1. (Much predictable abuse of dungeoneer.) Elita has certainly livened this series up so far. In the clue-room they asked Treguard if the jam-jar was food and got told, "No, you can't consume a bottle." Just before time-out, they discovered that poor Elita had just lost her voice. What are we gonna do for dungeoneer abuse now?

Yes, i had noticed the shield appear in several places during series 5 quests as well. Hi Morganna, it's great that you've helped to reinvigorate interest in the programme just when it was beginning to feel like everything that needed to be said, and plenty that didn't , has been said already. If you want further interaction with Knightmare contestant alumuni then you can by all means visit Knightmare Chat of a Sunday night between 8 and 10. Amongst the chatters and in charge is frequently the webmaster of this parish Mr Alan Boyd aka him that was part of Serie's 8 winning team and the main man behind the Knightmare convention, Notmare, ægis Quest and several fan meetups of the last few years. He also features on James's documentary. https://www.knightmare.com/chat.html Thank-you, that sounds really good. It was discovering this fantastic website & forum that really restarted my interest in all things Knightmare. It's been great watching these episodes again. Some of them i hadn't seen for many years. There are still a few episodes from S6,7,8 that i have never seen, so looking forward to them soon.

Team 4 resumed in the level 3 clue-"room". They almost scored a spectacular own-goal when one advisor wanted to take the dagger but thankfully the others over-ruled him. Phew! Another appearance by Elita (and more insults ) and they traded the new green gem for the bone they required. A second encounter with Hordriss. Ben spoke to his advisors a little too loudly, so that Hordriss thought he was being called a dog. Cue outrage from him. They sorted it out and exchanged the bone for two spells "FIRE" and "FREEZE". Hordriss explained that one spell would defeat Aesandre, the other would release their quest object. In the next room Aesandre appeared and challenged them but they got their retaliation in first and cast "FREEZE", which trapped her. *Excellent logic from them. You might have expected that an ice sorceress would be defeated by something hot, but the team correctly reasoned that the spell which would release their quest object could hardly be "FREEZE", so they cast it on her instead. Well done! * The final causeway was straightforward. They were an intelligent team and worked out the patterns easily. They had not moved Ben very efficiently across the smaller hexagonal blocks of the earlier causeways, but this one was a bit more spacious. Halfway down they encountered the SHIELD, frozen in ice, and cast "FIRE" to release it. Made it thru the exit before life-force ran out. Yay! Team 4 were a likeable team who fully deserved their win. Team 5 (also from Exeter) quickly arrived at the level 1 clue-area. Chose some gold and a mysterious box. Brother Mace was on ferryman duty for a change and offered them some info during the crossing. They encountered the glib trader Scaramonger. He gave them some free grub and he was in full flow when the bell sounded.

Amusing scene first-up, which had Hands pretending to be a dungeoneer (complete with fake helmet of justice) and Gwendoline trying to decide who was what. Then another rather pointless scene with Sir Hugh. Nice scene with Brother Mace, but they were rather suspicious and disagreeable to him. Finally gave him the book and received a "SESAME" spell. If they had watched series 4 (and they really ought to have done) they should have known that Brother Mace was a trustworthy character. Made very slow progress across a causeway again. Team 4 were generally very good, but their directional movement was not the most efficient. Passed the blocker ok, but were then confronted by Skarkill and had only the horn. (no gold) However, this time the horn was not a goblin horn, but a summoning horn for Gwendoline, who sent the weaselly bounty hunter packing. They received the clue for the descender from her. Entered level 3 in Winteria. (It's always winter here, but never Hanukkah ) Ben has magically gained a warm cloak. They arrived straight at the clue-"room". First sighting of the ice-cold dark sorceress Aesandre thru the spyglass just before time-out arrived again.

Team 4 made good progress. Agreed to find a green gem so that Elita would release Motley from the stocks. Encountered Scaramonger, who surprisingly enough just happened to have one, but at least he didn't try to cheat them. Liked his comment about the grub: "Well that's a funny place to put it, i'm sure." Received some good abuse from Elita, but finally got her help in exchange for the green gem. Can't believe one advisor seriously suggested Ben should climb up the rope. (If you can't see where to go, just hold up the eye-shield!) For a team who are generally competent, they were surprisingly slow across the causeway. Did one of the advisors mutter something slightly rude when the blocker moved towards Ben? It sounded like it. Nice scene with Hordriss, altho Ben seemed underwhelmed by his sense of humour. Chose the right-hand exit from the descender, even tho it had a fright knight symbol. Are teams supposed to follow these or avoid them? I assumed they were to be avoided, if possible. They had some confusion with the scroll, thinking that it was related to the clue objects. Chose the book and the horn, not the gold. We know how that went for team 2.... Just about to be mugged by Sly Hands when time-out arrived. The eye-shield sequences were getting shamelessly long.

Team 3 negotiated the causeway easily, then encountered the dragon and Elita, an elf with with attitude. Is it possible that this rude and highly-strung elf could actually be the daughter of Cedric the abusive monk & Velda the stroppy elf? (altho i'm not sure they were in the dungeon at the same time....) Elita tried to haggle and gave the team some attitude, but Sarah gave her some back and told her that's all the silver she had, take it or leave it! Nice one. In the level 2 clue room they missed the point of the scroll clue, but guessed the correct items anyway. (The chess piece wasn't a conventional chess knight.) Nice scene where they return the chess piece to Brother Mace and received some info, then a rather pointless scene with Sir Hugh de Witless. They were clever enough to not be tricked by Sylvester Hands, but took ages to agree their actual trade. Time-out arrived on a causeway again....

A nice intro to the series, with Treguard standing outside. Like the way teams now have to choose their quest in advance and the eye-shield is given out during the intro, to save time Team 1 looked very smart in their matching outfits. (the bee team) I reckon that this is what S2 team 3 were trying for, but one lad must have forgotten his yellow shirt. The actual quest had a slow start. Took forever to get on the dragon, then the flight seemed to be very long. Finally encountered Brother Mace playing cards with a new character, the shifty Sylvester Hands. (Great to see Mace again. ) Accepted some gold from Mace to take to a bloke called Julius Scaramonger, whom they soon found. He turned out to be a very slippery, smarmy character. They received a spyglass, which they used to see the new villain: Lord Fear. The first sign of a massive change in plotlines. Into the forest and they met Gwendoline, a stroppy greenwood guard, who is a menace with her bow&arrows. Earned a password from her. First sighting of the blocker walls, which looked a bit like like 3-d wall monsters. Used the password to get by it. Into a descender to level 2, where they took the left-hand door to avoid a fright-knight symbol. Encountered Hordriss as time-out arrived. (Nice to see another familiar face return. )

Early in Series 5, the Corridor of Blades was still a relatively new obstacle. It would have undermined it to introduce the idea of a spell being necessary (or even merely helpful) to survive it. As a watcher, I'd have been unimpressed to see a dungeoneer standing in this tense and deadly location, totally impervious to blade after blade, because of a spell they'd got off a scroll. The idea of a Corridor of Blades survival spell was only introduced in the last quest of Series 8 (BURST). Even then, it was because Lord Fear had made the blades faster than normal. The GHOST spell in Series 3, which turned dungeoneer Martin into a ghost, was highly unusual in getting the team past more than one obstacle: a wall and a wellway guard. There's no evidence that GHOST in Series 5 would have been similar. It may, for example, have summoned a haunting. Or it could have neutralised an adversary by making them faded. (After all, SPEED in Series 3 affected the dungeoneer while the same-named spell in Series 8 affected the room.)

It was good to raise the profile of the opposition - I agree with the reviewer who said John Woodnutt was underused as Mogdred, although to be fair to the production team they had an awful lot to get right on the first few series - although I would have preferred the main baddie to be some kind of wizard, in keeping more with the genre, and secondly I felt the distinction between the opposition and the powers-that-be was too clear-cut (in-fighting among the opposition notwithstanding), which ironically reduced the number of subplots that could have been developed. Conversely, for me, Lord Fear was over-used to the extent he seemed to be there more for entertainment than gameplay.