SOMETHING STIRS
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And for all we know the InterMedia Lab Website is probably just being redesigned or something.
I'd like to think so, but I'm afraid that's very unlikely. When a website goes offline for redesign work, it's usually only for a few hours - most of that work is in fact done in the weeks before the old site is taken down - and while the site is in transition, there'll be a message explaining what's happening and asking the user to come back soon. I don't think I've ever seen it divert to a completely different site without any reference at all to the old one, except when the old one is gone for good.
Tim might very well have something up his sleeve, but again, past experience suggests otherwise. When he's gone this quiet for this long previously, it's been because nothing is happening, period.
Sorry, I don't want to sound like an old misery-guts, but the signs really aren't good.
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Hello
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but a winding up petition was issued on 9th October 2009 for Intermedialab Limited - http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/59208/notices/941441/. This means that the company cannot pay its creditors and so is looking dissolve. Winding up can be voluntary (the company instigates it) or compulsory (successfully petitioned by a creditor) - I don't know which is the case here. The domain name intermedialab.co.uk is up for renewal on 18th October 2009 so it will be interesting to see what happens after that.
You may also be interested to know that Televirtual Limited was compulsorily wound up and the business was taken over by Intermedialab Limited. Also, Broadsword Television Productions Limited is at risk of being struck off the companies register and being dissolved for what looks like not filing accounts for nearly two years.
Anything further on this would be purely speculation so I think we'll have to wait until next month to see if Intermedialab is wound up and Broadsword is struck off. What I will speculate however is that this is not what was meant to beguile us in 2009.
Regards,
Tiggy
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If I'm reading that page correctly, it appears to be that Intermedialab is voluntarily dissolving since the petition is presented by Intermedialab themselves.
This is becoming more and more curious. From his original post, I had assumed that TC was working on a new project that was planned to take place in 2009. In which case, it seems rather confusing that the company is voluntarily dissolving.
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I have a nasty suspicion that the "stirring something" may have been the very thing that has led to this. If it was expensive in some way, and the whole idea fell through, it would constitute a terrible failed gamble; with both Televirtual and Intermedialab getting so little noticeable work over the last four years or so, income for the firms must have been very low indeed. And if they were making some kind of big investment in this mysterious project Tim hinted at and then nothing came of that either, the result was bound to be terminal.
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But wouldn't we have heard something?
It seems unlikely that they'd have taken a huge gamble that lead to the demise of the company without so much as notifying anyone for the last x months.
I think something else is afoot here.
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Another possibility is that Tim as hinting at something which was in very formative stages and that the dissolution of InterMediaLab (and, for that matter, Televirtual) was just a result of the recession.
I'm reminded of the speculation that surrounded certain sections of the gaming community a few years back about a possible sequel to Superfrog following the eponymous hero's appearance in several Worms games. In fact, Martyn Brown (Boss of Team17, the company that developed Superfrog) actually let slip that they were working on "something very bizarre with him" and several websites reported on it. However, nothing came of it and Brown later said in an interview that making a Superfrog 2 was "just a concept... they are created all the time".
I think this would be something similar. I'd have a difficult time were I to believe that Tim actually had something along the lines of, say, a potential new series of Knightmare, or even a way to do something new. He only made one, very vague, post, which could have been made on a whim sans prayer. He could have just had a vague idea inside his head. Just a concept? They are created all the time, after all.
My reckoning is, Tim never would have anything to stir us up in 2009. He may have thought he would at one point, hence the post - but I'm pretty sure he actually didn't get as far as he (we?) thought he would. As has been said, InterMediaLab actually haven't done anything recently - well, have you seen them do anything? At the very least, Televirtual worked on their V-Actor thing, but I've not seen InterMediaLab doing anything! - and it's entirely conceivable that, in the aftermath of the credit crunch, they decided the only viable thing to do would be to close voluntarily.
Sorry to be a pessimist, but I think that there isn't anything to talk about, and there's no company to provide us with it, either.
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Interim update - the domain intermedialab.co.uk was renewed for a further two years. There's no website and there's a possibility that it happened automatically - mine are set to do that.
I've also found out that Broadsword Interactive Limited - http://www.broadsword.co.uk/ - a spin-off from Broadsword Television were liquidated on 29th September. The MD was David Rowe, the artist responsible for the drawings used in the design of the early series dungeons.
The proposal to strike off Broadsword Television is still ongoing. There was a previous strike off attempt in 2008 but it was called off for reasons unknown to me - possibly a creditor objected. Doing some further research, if it is struck off and dissolved then the assets pass to the Crown. If I recall correctly then Broadsword Television own the rights to Knightmare - Knightmare would effectively be nationalised!
By the way, the last episode was broadcast for the first time 15 years ago today...
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With respect to the rights, it's more compliated than that.
Apparently ITN hold 50% of the rights.
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As I say, it's more complicated. I'm not entirely clear whether it's just the format rights, or profit rights or whatever.
I know that ITN has held on to something though. I believe Tim Child himself (rather than any company) holds the remainder of the rights.
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Well, Broadsword Television Productions Limited has been struck off and dissolved as of today. This was for non-filing of anything at Companies House for a long, long time. Intermedialab is currently being wound up, and from the information I found on the Companies House website, it would appear to be compulsory rather than voluntary. I wonder what happened?
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Is that it then?
Has 'Something' turned into nothing?
I guess so, that is for anything new and official on the Knightmare side of things. I read somewhere a while back that 99% of children's programmes shown in the UK are imported. Of the 1% that aren't, only the BBC are making/commissioning new programming. That may go some way to explain why any concept that Tim Child may have had didn't get off the ground. With only one broadcaster and banks not lending money, it was always going to be tricky. I suspect that like Knightmare was back in 1987, it was ahead of it's time, pretty spectacular, but unfortunately rather expensive . I would be fascinated to learn what it was and if TC fancies popping back in and letting us know what we missed out on...
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Is that it then?
Has 'Something' turned into nothing?
I guess so, that is for anything new and official on the Knightmare side of things. I read somewhere a while back that 99% of children's programmes shown in the UK are imported. Of the 1% that aren't, only the BBC are making/commissioning new programming. That may go some way to explain why any concept that Tim Child may have had didn't get off the ground. With only one broadcaster and banks not lending money, it was always going to be tricky. I suspect that like Knightmare was back in 1987, it was ahead of it's time, pretty spectacular, but unfortunately rather expensive . I would be fascinated to learn what it was and if TC fancies popping back in and letting us know what we missed out on...
Well that is is indeed a shame if that is indeed the case!
I agree, it would be nice for Tim Child to pop back, even if just once more to give us any updates as to what happened, or in this case didn't happen...
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it does look as though you will have something to talk about
This Daily Mirror article from today mentions Knightmare. The good news is that it includes an early publicity photo not seen before. The bad news is, unless I'm missing something, that it has quoted from Tim Child's 'SOMETHING STIRS' post of 4 years ago as if it were current.
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This Daily Mirror article from today mentions Knightmare. The good news is that it includes an early publicity photo not seen before. The bad news is, unless I'm missing something, that it has quoted from Tim Child's 'SOMETHING STIRS' post of 4 years ago as if it were current.
Is that picture taken from the pilot, do you think? I don't recognise the dungeoneer's jumper.
Shame about the Mirror falsely getting people's hopes up.
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The jumper's familiar from various magazine articles on the website, including some from 1987, so it could well date from the pilot, or from a dedicated pre-Series 1 publicity shoot.
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Someone care to scan the article and post it please?
I haven't scanned the full article (the link to the online version I think is sufficient enough) but I have scanned the part containing the bit on Knightmare - you can find it here:
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