A good topic for us watchers to think about. I can easily say when I think it's most pronounced - in Series 7, when Treguard frets and dotes like never before - but pinpointing when the transformation starts is less obvious.
While Treguard's overall brilliance is down to Hugo Myatt's performance, the degree of help he gives teams owes more to an earpiece and Tim Child. For the purposes of fun speculation, I'm going to discount that and assume conscious decision making on the part of Treguard.
At the end of Series 2 Quest 5, after dungeoneer Tony has met a chilling fate in Mogdred's playpen, we get a sardonic but hilarious reaction from the Dungeon Master: "Never mind. I suppose even Mogdred's got to have some fun." As PookasRule/Nathan says, strictly neutral and sometimes even antagonistic.
During Series 2 Quest 6 (dungeoneer Akash), Treguard's familiar glee at a struggling team reaches its crescendo: he breaks the fourth wall mid-quest to comment on a "team [that] seems to hunt for trouble".
But it's not long before Lillith ends the adventure and Treguard sympathetically says, "Poor old Akash!" Two quests on from a victory, Treguard has seen how the dungeon shows no mercy to a poor team and maybe, just maybe, he decides that he should be more supportive of teams under threat...
...Because one quest later we get the "Letter O" incident, where Treguard breaks through Mogdred's constraining magic to give increasing, essential help to a team who, on the face of it, have shown a lack of basic competence by repeatedly omitting one letter from the dispelling of a six-letter spell. (I say 'on the face of it' because I'm come to believe that the scene was staged and that the team weren't as careless as it appears.)
In Series 3, Treguard still shows himself not to be on teams' side at times...
Not only did Treguard say "We're celebrating an unbroken record" at the start, but he recounted the 10-0 score with a big grin on his face- who's side is HE on, then?
...But there are also times where his allegiance is very much with the team against any threat: "No!! Don't!!" he cries when Mogdred tells Leo (Series 3 Quest 4) to take off the Helmet of Justice.
In Series 4, it becomes harder for Treguard to be impartial because he has a partisan assistant with him throughout every quest. I don't know when Treguard last laughs at a team's demise but it may well be Simon sidestepping to his left in Quest 4.
In Series 5, the Opposition renews itself with the arrival of Lord Fear and builds itself into an organised force, making neutrality less justifiable. Series 5 Quest 4 has a jarring moment of sympathy where Treguard checks that the team has "got the magnifying glass", echoing their own misnaming of a spyglass.
Series 6 Quest 4 is when I think there is no way back to neutrality for Treguard. Ben's team, perhaps the most helped winning team in all of Knightmare, get a massive twofold hint for a puzzle on Level 3, when teams really should be fending for themselves:
Treguard's advice that the team should consider not simply Lord Fear, nor simply Lord Fear's sense of humour, but Lord Fear's "so-called sense of humour", made the TRICK or TREAT riddle a lot easier to solve. (If only Team 1 of Series 4 had received help like that with their TRANSFORMATION and BUT predicament.)
By Series 7 Quest 2 (dungeoneer Nicola), the former Dungeon Master is gone and Uncle Treguard is here to stay, fretting and doting and referring to "we", making himself an extension of the team:
"W-what we need is the Nightsight, where's the Night- ... aw, they haven't got the Nightsight."
And his "Ooh nasty" for that team, side by side with Majida, is so compassionate that I'm surprised he didn't offer the advisors a box of tissues.
The way he talks to (or in front of) Series 7 Team 7 (Barry) - a team that need no help - during Play Your Cards Right is a very, very, very long way from Series 2 Treguard. I was tempted to call it peak Uncle Treguard but it's more than that: it's Grandpa Treguard. I don't find it easy to listen to at all.
"Yes ... you've gotta get across the gap. Get, get right to the edge."
"One two three four, it's the it's the Eight. One two three four, yes it must be. The Eight of Hearts."
It's not a character journey I enjoy but as PookaRules says, it's evolution. I have to remind myself that Tim and Hugo didn't go down the pub one day and plot to destroy Treguard: the character adapted to a changing realm.
