Series 7 & 8
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2-4-6-8, who do we appreciate? B-A-R-R-Y. Barry!
Hehe, you might have guessed from that that I'm another fan of Barry. His quest was my absolute favourite in Series 7 (a fantastic series!), not to mention in the whole of the time I watched Knightmare. Every time I watched his quest (I had it taped but it got mould on it, so I can't watch it now ), I laughed at the bit where he was in the dark room with his torch and he bumped into the wall!
I loved the rest of the series too, with Julie's team coming a close second to Barry's. That was absolutely hilarious when Sly Hands jumped out of the mural, then got drunk and sung "Ten Dead Goblins Sittin' On The Wall"!
Lord Fear was excellent in this series two and some of his conversations with Lissard and Sly were really funny. I loved his Black Tower with its stinky sewers too, not forgetting those flickering torches which added to the atmosphere.
I love Series 7 - it's one of my favourites. There were a lot of extremely funny moments in it (as mentioned above, plus Hordriss turning green!) and the characters were good. I liked Majida but she can't replace Pickle (no-one can!).
My only moans about this series were the fact that every journey on Smirky was the exact same. Why did they have to get rid of all that nice scenery from Series 5/6?
I'll get back to you on Series 8. I need to think a bit about it.
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Grimaldine (must mention him!)
Anyone who doesn't gets the lovely green staff whacked across their head.
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Righties, start with Series 7. I know I'll end up ranting a little about this season, but not because I think it's no good. I think it's great. It just annoys me because I think it could easily have been a lot better with a few changes.
My likes this year:
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The character list is by now really taking shape.
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Lissard is wonderful, lots of comedy to be had there. Great make-up too. At least I hope it's make-up.
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Rothberry. As I've said before, I think he's easily the best of the various trader type people.
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Majida. I know lots of people don't think much of her, but I thought she was superbly acted, and the banter over the next two seasons with Treguard was just great.
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Grimaldine. Just brilliant.
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The Brollachan. A great idea, the technology is used well, and the voice is just spot on.
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Some great floor puzzles- especially the Trial by Spikes and Play Your Cards Right.
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Goth. I really enjoyed it- a hugely atmospheric environment worthy of the Opposition. I really liked the idea of sneaking into the tower via the sewers.
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Some decent stories this year. Green Hordriss has to be my favourite.
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Goth was absolutely brillig, and I have to say Barry's team cracked me up. I love smartarses...they make me laugh! I cracked up in one of my exams last year because I had this random memory of Barry meeting Brother Strange in the dwarf tunnels and trying to run in the other direction - damn boy nearly got me disqualified!
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Yeh, there's quite a lot I didn't like about Series 7. Some it's specific to this year, but some has been annoying me since about Series 5:
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The Brollachan. Yes, in a way it was brilliant. But with a little story-rewriting it could have been able to tell the difference between correct and incorrect answers to questions. I don't like the "confidently guess and get away with it" formula one bit, as I've said so often.
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Hordriss. Clifford Norgate is still fantastic, but the stories for him this season really involve a shift in his character. This year he seems less Hordriss the Confuser than Hordriss the Confused. Hordriss the Hapless, Hordriss the Hopeless. He's turned into Sidriss! I know that character integrity isn't all important in a show like this, but he was just so interesting before Series 7 came along and he had to repeatedly rely on a blindfolded 13 year old who can only carry two objects at a time for survival. The specific stories about him are very mixed: getting green fireballed is great, and his imprisonment is nicely handed, with an excellently directed spyglass scene between Fear and Lissard with Hordriss in the background. The rest, for me, are pretty silly, and I really dislike the Lissard disguised as Marta story, even if Lord Fear gets a few good gags out of it. I mean, if you want to kill Hordriss why disguise Lissard as Marta?
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There's some pretty dull characters introduced for The Powers That Be, and I guess that's one reason why so many of the stories have to be centred around Hordriss and Sidriss. Why invent Fidjit when Motley was just infinitely superior? Romahna is okay, even if she's not as good as some of her predecessors and her name is stolen. I found Marta dull too- writing her into that last Hordriss story for me just shows how limited she was. And Brother Strange: well, he's acted well enough, but the possibilities are hardly endless.
Okay, rant over for now. That's just the stuff specific to Series 7. I'll leave the more general stuff because, believe it or not, I really don't like ranting too much.
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I didn't like the green lighting and cheesy smoke in series 8
That sucked almost as much as Pickle's departure, and ten times worse than Majida - and that's suckworthy."Eee's too deefeecult to invent beeelieeevable characters. I preferred eeet eeen bottle anyway."
That reminds me of something else I forgot to mention about Series 7- The shift toward sight potions and such. And, of course, Majida would have to recite a line like the above to hint to use it. Hints about as subtle as a bull in a china shop- it just made it too linear and obvious for my taste. I know there had always been hints: even unpredictable Treguard of the early seasons had given clues sometimes, but I think for the sight things it was just too blatant.
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That reminds me of something else I forgot to mention about Series 7- The shift toward sight potions and such. And, of course, Majida would have to recite a line like the above to hint to use it. Hints about as subtle as a bull in a china shop- it just made it too linear and obvious for my taste. I know there had always been hints: even unpredictable Treguard of the early seasons had given clues sometimes, but I think for the sight things it was just too blatant.
Indeed, it become of a necessity, just look what happened to Team 2's quest when they didn't take it
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Indeed, it become of a necessity, just look what happened to Team 2's quest when they didn't take it
Yes. I wouldn't mind if the sight potions and such gave them an advantage in the floor puzzles. But speeding them up etc. so that doing them without the extra vision is impossible was just a bit cruel, I thought. It also adds to the view that success in the dungeon was becoming about surviving one or two difficult chambers per level.
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Yeah, provided a team could survive an obstacle such as the moving block floor (with occasional fireballs), Play Your Cards Right or Trial By Spikes as well as picking up the two right clue objects, the rest of the dungeon proved to be a walkover
The only exception in this case is Team 5 as it wasn't made clear to them when exactly to use the darkness powder
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Righto, Series 8. I remember being a bit disappointed that all of the real outdoor scenes had been removed and it was just the same rooms being used over and over again. Another disappointment was the view pool - what was wrong with the screen? I was also annoyed that there were no more flying Smirky scenes - poor old Smirky, stuck in that pit! Lastly, Snapper Jack was SO not frightening!
On the plus side, I thought the graphics were excellent, especially the corridor scenes in Level 3. I liked Lord Fear's new outfit (although he had a bit too much make up on, lol!) and his new headquarters. The return of Motley was good too and I liked the Miremen.
Overall, I enjoyed it as usual, but not as much as earlier series. There were more disappointments for me this time round.
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I liked Lord Fear's new outfit (although he had a bit too much make up on, lol!)
You know, I think you're right. It wasn't so much the new helmet that I thought made him look slightly odd as much as the overdone make-up. I'd never really thought of it before.
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I mean, look at it. The helmet still looks a bit odd tho'.
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Okay, Series 8. First, my likes:
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Thankfully a lot of the lesser characters from Series 7 are gone. Don't bother to write, Fidgit.
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Motley's back. I can't really see why he ever left.
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The Cave Tunnels. I liked those a lot.
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At least Brother Strange now has something to do, with his proverb collection.
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Some of the Eye Shield sequences from Level 3 were just amazing.
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Some great fireball obstacles.
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The ship was also pretty good. And the "outside" room place from Level 3.
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Thankfully Smirky's stopped flying. I'd been getting bored with his repetitive flights in Series 7, to be honest.
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Snapper Jack. Please, I'm not mad. Everyone else seems to dislike him, but I thought he was quite good. At least he can tell true from false.
All in all, I thought a lot of things were "back to normal" this year. Hordriss is also more like his old self, thank goodness. Although there were several things I didn't like, I think by now things were going in the right direction again. A pity it was only allowed to be a short series, and the full VR Series 9 didn't happen as planned.
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the "outside" room place from Level 3.
I meant this one. Hard to describe in words.
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A quick skim over what I didn't like about Series 8:
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We've got rid of a lot of bad characters, but Grimaldine's gone too! No! Say it's not so! I have no idea of the reasons, but I would have loved to see him return. Grimaldine, Gundrada, Grimwold. Bring them all back!
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Brother Strange. Even with his proverbs, I still don't like him much. Hopefully one of the snapdragons will finish him off for me soon.
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Bhal-Shebah. I can't be bothered to check the spelling. The Brollachan was infinitely better: it's green robed fellow traveller was pretty good too, as I remember.
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I don't think the dungeon really needed Honesty Bartram.
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Goth as Level 2 is okay, but a bit predictable as little of it's been changed from last year. I'm all for recycling environments, but recycling it as a whole unit is perhaps just a little disappointing.
And three things that hardly need mentioning: The Short Cut, the Life Force Quiche, and Reach. titter
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