Series 7 & 8
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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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Well I must say I can't believe people can't give S8 the light of day here! I am quite amazed that fans of the show can seldom pick up on what was good about the series.
But S7 first:
A terrific season, right after S3, this is my fav. The amount of GOOD characters, the amount of GOOD scenery/levels etc, it was super!
And the end of the season was the closest KM ever got to full on drama.
Majida was NOT as good as Pickle, I remember at the time being less than pleased, but she blended in as the season wore on, and she became a fixture after about 6 or 7 episodes.
As for...Fidget.......Well he was a mistake, but S8 (yeah, the EIGHTH season of KM, something good in it...) sorted that out with Paul Valentines return of the great Motley, whoever thought the silly locksmith was a replacement for Motely didn't add the sums up correctly imho.
A good season, and for once the teams were actually DESERVING of the victory, the final team were not only amusing, they we bloody smart too. And I have spoken to Julie a few times myself, and her team were certainly deserving too!
10/10 for S7, it had pretty much the formula for a perfect KM.
Season 8:
People 'ave a go at S8, and I agree fully that it was nowhere near as good as series 7.
BUT! it WAS Knightmare, and as always it had that extra spark to turn it from a poor retro show, to a super display of ideas (some...) and improvisation (in 10 eps, EVERYONE had to do that)
Firstly, KM was suddenly cut short to 10 eps from 15 (and indeed a hopeful 24, which S8 may have run for..), so the storyline went out, and the rushed job started.
Eye shield: No use, although some of the indoor scenes looked lovely, in practical terms the eye shield was there to simply show off technology.
Reach: Um well IF they could of had better technology, then it would have worked, but for me, all Reach is, is a guy with a mousepointer doing all of the moves for the team (look in Dunstans quest, he is practically on the floor yet the curser is on the roof nearly).
However, the atmosphere was EXCELLENT, and although I didn't like the new pool, the ante chamber itself looked amazing (as if it had been rebuilt after the troll smashed its way through the floor). Some of the rooms were bland, and the use of fireballs grew tiresome, but places like Marblehead, and the docks, looked super, with some very nice incidental music.
On the TEAMS side, many were rather poor, only the second team and the final team seemed to have what it took to go all the way, but Dunstans team won, an obvious act of "we must have a winner". For me that was the biggest insult of the season.
But considering all of the problems the production lot would have had, they did a good job in just 10 episodes, and IF ONLY we had seen a series 9 in 1995, I expect that would have picked up where S8 had left off, and S8 had a LOT of potential.
I give S8 a 7/10
And I give CITV 0/10 for what they did to the show.
Have they done anything right ever since.......?
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Well I must say I can't believe people can't give S8 the light of day here! I am quite amazed that fans of the show can seldom pick up on what was good about the series.
I think I did. If it was a normal length season, I think I'd prefer it to Season 7.
I personally think Season 9 would have ironed most of the problems is Season 8. If it was full VR (as we're encouraged to believe it would have been), then the small role the Eye Shield was playing by S8 would now be nil. There'd be no need to carry it at all. Something more effective could have taken Reach's place too, I'd guess. I didn't dislike Reach per se, I just thought it was used far too much. Some of those combination locks were just tedious to watch. Perhaps Fidjit could have unlocked them all before he left. I'd have liked to have seen it used more occasionally, and for things like spellcasting. Teams often spellcast just in hope that the right thing would happen, sometimes with no idea of what they were trying to achieve. Make them point at what they're spellcasting on. The dungeoneer? Another character? An object? It'd make them think through how they're using the spell, as well as creating the possibility of a few dilemmas, something similar to the "unfreeze the quest shield or unfreeze to save the dungeon" scene with Greystagg, but a little more subtle and cunning. Just my opinion.
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I forgot to do my usual thing of mentioning the team I felt sorry for in each series.
For Series 7 it's pretty easy. Team 5's death is a little confusing, and the whole not using the darkness powder thing was a little unfair. Where were all the hints that most other teams got by this stage? A hint to use it was far more deserved here than in many other cases.
A lot of peeps mention Series 8 Team 1 as being unfairly dismissed. I can never make up my mind here, but I don't think they have as much justification in feeling aggrieved as some. I would have liked more clue scrolls to leave the teams in a little doubt, to be honest.
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