Series 2 - Episode 16
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Think back to front day might have confused the producers as well - after the clue room the mechanical warrior is in front of them in the corridor which for my money is back to front. Appreciate that a threat advancing from this direction is in line with how the corridor normally works though so open to debate I suppose.
Sad that Friday Knightmare is over for the time being...
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Back to front day, a brilliant idea in concept, but I reckon Tim might have been frustrated as to how it worked out. I always thought it would have worked better once there were two permanent members of the Powers that Be, so one can always play things the right way around, to hammer the point home.
Wasnn't the Jerivho 6 Room where Series 1 ended as well - same animation?
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This episode is perhaps the only one where Treguard's dungeon ditty is longer than what it's actually recapping!
It's a sad irony that Audrey [Jenkinson], who had a hellish personal life in the 1980s and 1990s, came to doubt her own prettiness so much that she resorted to rhinoplasty.
An irony that hits home even harder when rewatching this episode, with Gretel trying to give herself a nose job.
I liked Back-To-Front Day and the idea that Treguard was joining in just to mess with the team's minds. Granitas should perhaps have opened with "I am not Granitas of legend".
Is this the only time that a dungeoneer found food in two consecutive rooms? And is Karen the only dungeoneer to encounter fish, poultry and red meat?
This team somehow managed to survive to the end of the series despite making some crucial slip ups- one of which being that they didn't call out 'I Command You' due to them still thinking it was back to front day.
The team did err by not calling out "I command you" but it was far from a crucial slip-up. They'd already been advised as to which clue object to leave behind, so it's hard to imagine that the bonus information they missed was anything important. They didn't need both clue objects to complete Level 1 anyway - though perhaps going down a wellway with the gold was what landed them in the gold mine.
It's interesting to see Mildread so vulnerable and then so benevolent. She'd never met a female dungeoneer before so perhaps she looked kindly on Karen.
This quest certainly packs in the slapstick. But not at the expense of satire ("blackleg"), innuendo ("playing with his plunger") and surrealism ("Toenails will save me!"). It makes for an entertaining if not epicurean quest.
Robin/Mashibinin once showed me how a certain dungeoneer's name can work as a gun powder pun. AK ash. I like the advisors' excited reactions when Bumptious tells them he's giving them a spell.
Wasnn't the Jerivho 6 Room where Series 1 ended as well - same animation?
Series 1's final quest came to a natural end at the Jericho wall, with no special effects of the Dungeon disintegrating. In Karen's quest, Jericho seemed to be inserted as a way to curtail the quest.
I wonder what became of Casper when Karen was magicked back to the antechamber.*
If this last episode of '88 was the 24th of 112 (in Series 1-8) then Knightmare had 88 episodes ahead.
*I don't wonder.
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Back to front day, a brilliant idea in concept, but I reckon Tim might have been frustrated as to how it worked out. I always thought it would have worked better once there were two permanent members of the Powers that Be, so one can always play things the right way around, to hammer the point home.
Wasnn't the Jerivho 6 Room where Series 1 ended as well - same animation?
It was a good idea in concept maybe, but to pull it off was going to be so hard to do.
An example for me was that Grantias might have scorned the team for getting all riddles right if back to front day was in effect. You can't just have certain parts stay as normal otherwise it would be so confusing to the team and the viewers.
I don't blame the producers as it was so hard to execute this and they were trying something different. I just think it was better to have left the idea alone.
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And one final appearance in the Challenge + 1 top ten for the week!
1 WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE CELEBRITY? (SAT 1559) 50,000
2 WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE CELEBRITY? (FRI 2202) 42,000
3 TNA IMPACT (SUN 2200) 38,000
4 FUN HOUSE (FRI 2301) 28,000
5 TOTAL WIPEOUT UK (MON 1800) 25,000
6 WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE CELEBRITY? (WED 2201) 22,000
7 KNIGHTMARE (FRI 2330) 21,000
8 BULLSEYE (SUN 2100) 21,000
9 FAMILY FORTUNES (THU 2000) 20,000
10 BULLSEYE (SUN 2131) 18,000
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And one final appearance in the Challenge + 1 top ten for the week!
1 WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE CELEBRITY? (SAT 1559) 50,000
2 WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE CELEBRITY? (FRI 2202) 42,000
3 TNA IMPACT (SUN 2200) 38,000
4 FUN HOUSE (FRI 2301) 28,000
5 TOTAL WIPEOUT UK (MON 1800) 25,000
6 WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE CELEBRITY? (WED 2201) 22,000
7 KNIGHTMARE (FRI 2330) 21,000
8 BULLSEYE (SUN 2100) 21,000
9 FAMILY FORTUNES (THU 2000) 20,000
10 BULLSEYE (SUN 2131) 18,000
7,000 people watched Fun House but then turned off when Knightmare came on!!! There's no accounting for taste . . .
Seriously though, that is an encouraging viewing figure for Knightmare. Let's hope that Challenge stick to their word that they would buy more series if it attracted good viewing figures.
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Despite watching the mine scene several times before, I've only just noticed the hilarious way Gretel keeps shoving Bumptious back onto the floor every time he starts to sit up! The second time there's an audible thump as his head hits the ground.
Oooh! Nasty!
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This was the episode I watched this morning and can remember it being shown a year or two ago, the ending hit home straight away, but more of that in a moment.
Just wanted to say felt sorry for the team that began the episode (three boys) as they were quite intelligent and answered riddles well, only to miss an easy response to Merlin's "what does an elephant never forget". Such a shame as they needed a correct response to get past the next room but fell short because of a simple error.
Also the room with thr chess piece, WHY ?

For as long as I've watched I have never understood the point of this. It takes up valuable playing time and is one of the most boring, mundane challenges the show could offer. I think it was only featured on the first or second series, but every time it appears, you feel compelled to leave the room and make a cup of tea or something.
It was nice to see Ariadne (forgive the spelling) featured again and thought for a moment the dungeoneer was truly stuck when the three webs appeared but they managed to get past it. Another spider was featured on the same episode along a ledge - is this the same arachnid of one of Ariadne's cousins ?
Last and perhaps most importantly, thought the way they finished the series was a but unfair. They had just introduced the three girls from Scotland and were early in the quest when all of the sudden the series came to a close and Treguard had to bring the dungeoneer back to the safety of the 'team room'.
Wouldn't it have been easier to wait until the team either perished or even achieved their goal of reaching their quest before ending the series - or even doing so after the previous boys team had come to an end - before suddenly ending the series like that (what were the Walls of Jericho doing on Level One ?)
Thing is I haven't seen beyond Series 1 or 2 for such a long time and can't remember if those Scots girls featured again on the next series but it seemed to me when watching as if they had made a long journey to the Anglia studios for nothing.
Anyway, it would be appreciated if Challenge could show the next series sometime instead of going over the same early episodes again and again, but thought there was room for improvement on todays viewing.
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Also the room with thr chess piece, WHY ?

For as long as I've watched I have never understood the point of this. It takes up valuable playing time and is one of the most boring, mundane challenges the show could offer. I think it was only featured on the first or second series, but every time it appears, you feel compelled to leave the room and make a cup of tea or something.
Couldn't agree with you more. The most pointless room and at times, frustrating to watch.
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The end of a brilliant series, but not an episode i particularly liked. Immediately there is a sense of anti-climax when Treguard announces that this is the final stage of this phase. Team 13 are only just starting, so they clearly do not have time to complete their quest. The episode effectively becomes a filler as they will either die or be cut-off mid-quest. I will comment on the end-of-series issue elsewhere....
It's a real shame as this team were both very competent and very entertaining. With time for a full quest, they would have been genuine challengers.
I thought the back-to-front section was rather silly, but did laugh when they didn't realise it had finished. 3/3 against Granitas, but when Treguard told them to call out, "I command you!" the advisor shouted out, "Don't!"
Fortunately they had enough info to take the correct items anyway.
Bizarre description of the mechanical warrior: a guard with a fishing rod with a hard ball on the end. That would be called a morning star.
The well room scene was hilarious. "Help, there's a guard here....cast a spell on him or or somethin!" Then when they moved her round the incapacitated guard, "I see a bit of foooot."
Did they seriously answer that gunpowder is pink?
Karen nearly took a tumble on the level 2 clue room stairs, not just once, but twice. I thought dungeon health&safety rules insisted on dungeoneers using the hand rail.
They had just left the clue room when time ran out on them. grrrrr
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Bizarre description of the mechanical warrior: a guard with a fishing rod with a hard ball on the end. That would be called a morning star.
That's more a description of the actor playing him, rather than the character himself!
There was a discussion about the Automatum's weapon a while ago. I don't think it's a morning star - because a morning star has spikes - this may be a flail: a similar thing, but a more blunt instrument.
I always thought the Automatum's weapon - we never see him without it - was part of the machinery itself, rather than something being carried by a separate entity. As he is a construct, that was my assumption!
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Haha yes Knightmare had more than it's fair share of saucy puns which escaped the CITV sensors.... (Somebody has already mentioned the one about bumptious' plunger later in this episode.)
That's more a description of the actor playing him, rather than the character himself!
There was a discussion about the Automatum's weapon a while ago. I don't think it's a morning star - because a morning star has spikes - this may be a flail: a similar thing, but a more blunt instrument.
I always thought the Automatum's weapon - we never see him without it - was part of the machinery itself, rather than something being carried by a separate entity. As he is a construct, that was my assumption!
I hadn't heard of a flail before. You learn something new everyday. Thanks.
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