It ended up a day of three dungeoneers.

From 35 years and a week or so later, this seems rather prophetic.

I had a feeling of deja-vu near the start. Just like the previous lot, team 4 were doing ok and then suddenly they pressed self-destruct.

Yes, I often notice this when watching season 1; the patterns of Quest 3 and Quest 4 are the same. The teams start well, get a good impetus going, really show signs of getting the hang of everything they're doing, and as they get late into Level 2, you really start feeling optimistic for them that they can go a very long way. And then, they both suffer a breathtaking brain-freeze just as they're on the brink of Level 3, and commit a blunder that makes your face go bright white.

Nice to get the first ever, "Ooooooooooh nasty!" though.

I also love Treguard's very real expression of incredulity in both cases. "I can't imagine why you did it!" Treguard was always nice to teams after these sorts of cock-ups in later years, and it always seemed a bit condescending and disingenuous to me. Back in the early years though, when teams goofed up, Treguard really let them know about it. Good, it's much more insulting to try and sound consoling instead.

I had a feeling of deja-vu near the start. Just like the previous lot, team 4 were doing ok and then suddenly they pressed self-destruct.

They had done so well at the riddles (7/9 in total) and solved Folly's earlier effort, but then they flumped this. The riddle was easy enough and he gave them prompting, finally telling them not to follow him, before his exit left. So they went left, not right into a rapid-fuse bomb room, eliciting the first ever: "Oooh naaasty!" from Treguard.

Withering commentary from Treguard when they tried to go thru a locked door without the key just before that.

Team 5 seemed quite good during their short quest, but only getting 2/3 answers to Granitas meant they had to guess which exit to take in the corridor of the catacombs. They went left and were trapped.

Some thoughts:

1. Do you think they genuinely had a 50:50 chance, or were they doomed whether they went left or right?

2. As there were no other indications, surely right would have been best?

Team 6 just got started and surprisingly they took the left exit without any reason. I always thought this was inadvisable....

Current team dies almost straight away because they turned left, not right - even though Folly's riddle indicated they should go right!

In David Rowe's book, the quest diagram for Level 2 appears to be Danny's? (He visited the Monk Room, Combat Room, Clue Room, Key Puzzle Room, Merlin Room and Spear Room in that order.) It's a little hard to make sense of it, but the '8' and '9' squares could refer to the Bland Room (where Folly gave them the riddle about which door to choose) and the Exploding Bomb Room where they died. Presumably if they'd gone the right way, the next room would have been the wellway, which has the label 'guard'. Merlin had given them FLARE and FREEZER spells, so I'm guessing they would have faced a similar situation to Simon's team - having to illuminate the dark room and then neutralise a hostile Gibbet.

(I don't quite understand the note attached to the Combat Room, 'FIRE EXIT | OR B.F.'? I'd guess they were planning to have one deadly exit from that room - 'B.F.' might have stood for 'Big Foot' as seen on the Level 1 diagram.)

First team to encounter the Scorpion!

This wasn't included on the original plan for Helen's quest; instead it mentions something about a "small door, locked" in the second room (after finding a key in the first room). If it means one of those tiny doors, I'm not sure how they would have got through it without having acquired any shrinking magic!

Oh, and the items from Granitas were unusual. Note the key AND the gauntlet. Taking the gauntlet and the roses would have been interesting. Imagine Treguard:

"Well, team, you've stopped the bomb, but you're now stuck in a room with no exit. Flowers can't unlock doors."

Weirdly, the quest plan lists both the glove and the key as being useful in the bomb room! As you say, it's hard to imagine what use the glove would be if they couldn't leave the room afterwards!

But still, who is tuning into Bullseye LOL

18/06/2003 (#9, 80,000)

12/07/2003 (#8, 80,000)

22/10/2003 (#6, 100,000)

26/05/2004 (#10, 60,000)

From September 2004 it moved to an early morning slot so obviously not many watching after that, until the run ended in March 2007. So many of these recent ratings have been the highest in the channel's history.

Nothing to worry about, methinks

ratings are slipping

It's 30,000 more viewers than the last time an episode made the top 10!

1 CLASSIC WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE S1 (MON 2100) 178,000

2 TNA IMPACT (SUN 2102) 171,000

3 CLASSIC WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE S1 (WED 2102) 164,000

4 CLASSIC WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE S1 (FRI 2101) 145,000

5 CLASSIC WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE S1 (TUE 2103) 142,000

6 FAMILY FORTUNES (TUE 2000) 130,000

7 BULLSEYE (SAT 2120) 129,000

8 BULLSEYE (WED 2201) 123,000

9 FAMILY FORTUNES (TUE 2031) 119,000

10 KNIGHTMARE (FRI 2230) 118,000

This thread kicked off after Challenge showed Series 1 Episode 6 on 14th June 2004; and here we are, having watched it on Challenge exactly 9 years later.

Folly's riddle wasn't all clear..as already said the depends which way you face.

Before Folly departed, he advised Danny, "Don't follow me, follow your nose", making it clear which perspective was correct. Danny's nose was even pointed towards the right door at the time, which makes the eventual choice even more unfortunate.

hahhaha, that's one of my old accounts. Nothings really changed much in those 9 years.

So, wombstar, you posted as Purgatory? In that case, welcome back and may we direct your attention to the third Forum Rule?

This thread kicked off after Challenge showed Series 1 Episode 6 on 14th June 2004; and here we are, having watched it on Challenge exactly 9 years later.

Folly's riddle wasn't all clear..as already said the depends which way you face.

Before Folly departed, he advised Danny, "Don't follow me, follow your nose", making it clear which perspective was correct. Danny's nose was even pointed towards the right door at the time, which makes the eventual choice even more unfortunate.

hahhaha, that's one of my old accounts. Nothings really changed much in those 9 years.

Folly's riddle wasn't all clear..as already said the depends which way you face.

Before Folly departed, he advised Danny, "Don't follow me, follow your nose", making it clear which perspective was correct. Danny's nose was even pointed towards the right door at the time, which makes the eventual choice even more unfortunate.

Nice to see a Welsh team

Even nicer to hear one, and I'd have liked them to have got (or been allowed to get) to Level 2. In the event, we had a Welsh team who fatally went left and whose lack of Welsh wizardry was bemoaned after dismissal: who says that lightning never strikes twice? (Apart from Huey Lewis and the News.)

This episode is the only time I've noticed human eyes behind the wall monster mask.

Correct me if I'm wrong but is this the only episode in the whole 8 series of Knightmare that 2 teams die?

Already confirmed by Malefact earlier in the thread. This was also one of only two mid-series episodes (i.e. not Episode 1) to contain an entire quest. The other one is coming up in Series 2.

Something I've just noticed is that the room in which Team 5 died in is the same room in which Team 6 started- they just changed the lighting and added the symbol, drawbridge and gap.

And the same room in which we saw Team 4 at the beginning of the episode.

Sorry if I posed this twice, my first attempt didn't appear to work.

Yes the 2nd team's death might have been the harshest of all the series. In series 2 Neil's team only get 1 riddle right yet they reach level 2. A little bit unfair!

The sound when the 3rd team have to cross the bridge is so epic and rousing!

Smacks of the producers intentionally mixing things up. Perhaps they were deemed not good television. I did like they way they tried to race past the giant before anyone had a chance to say 'script'!

I wonder if they would have found the exact same room via the right hand door, but with the spell working?

But the other team got a really raw deal, killed off for only getting two questions right? When other teams get a pass? And a locked door in the bomb room was a nice touch.. I wonder had they not picked up the key if the same room would have been giving? Really thought they were giving a tough time, unless HAD they guessed the correct room they would be let off.

Why on earth they keep going left I don't know, everyone knows you keep right unless told otherwise.

Great to see the scorpion, better than the dodgy looking snake they had been using.

Also encounter the Giant "Fee Fie Foe Fum, I smell the blood of a... stumblebum!" What's a stumblebum?

A blunderer. The Giant could not have truthfully said that he smelt the blood of an Englishman, on account of the dungeoneer being from Wales and being a girl.