Series 7 & 8
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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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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.
Series 7 Team 5 = indeed
Series 8 Team 1 = blantantly ignored advice from the scroll and so deserved to die
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Series 8 Team 1 = blantantly ignored advice from the scroll and so deserved to die
Well, that's what I thought too, originally. I'm not so sure now, though.
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I know why I didn't like Series 8 as much as past ones when it first aired on CITV.
Series 3 was my first Knightmare experience - I didn't know of it's existence before that. I enjoyed it immensly, but because it was to change format in Series 4, I didn't have time to appreciate the old format. When it did change, I was a bit puzzled as to why it had, but soon got used to the outdoor environments and soon decided I really enjoyed the change. When it changed again in Series 8, I was frustrated because of the lack of variety of rooms and the sameiness of it all. Basically, I grew up with the outdoor environments of Series 4-7. It was a big shock when they changed it after that.
Now, however, I've come to enjoy the clips on this site of Series 8 and I look forward to seeing it again at some point (when I can afford another order). I like it now (but still not as much as Series 3-7).
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Did you put a picture of a Pooka there before instead of that one, Emii? I'm sure when I checked this thread before there was a Pooka pic. there. begs it to be true and not the goblins in his head playing tricksies again
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That reminds me of something else I forgot to mention about Series 7- The shift toward sight potions and such.
I was a bit confused by the whole sight potion stuff. Granted, it was great fun for the dungeoneer to wear a pair of Virtual Reality glasses inside the helmet and to be seeing this sort of little holographic image of the room floating about six inches in front of your forehead. Very weird feeling. But not much fun for the audience, which surely is the whole point? So what if the dungeoneer could see? (He or she couldn't see very well I might add, the usefulness of Virtual Reality glasses cannot really be properly underestimated.) It seemed to me like it was a case of the technical guys really REALLY wanting to find a way to use a new bit of exciting technology, without realising that the audience enjoyment factor involved in using it was pretty much nil.
Sorry, that sounds really bleak looking back at it - the whole thing was a lot of fun, this gripe is a bit undeserved really given everything else that was good about the adventure.
By the way James - I think you should avoid putting up horrendous pictures like the one at the start of this topic, or at least put some sort of government health warning with them. You'll have people boycotting the site if you're not careful ;D
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