Series 3 - Episode 9

[Morghanna]

Treguard opened with a predictable quip about team 7 being Kelly's heroes, but their quest was more like a comedy than a war film.

In the die-room her lead advisor told her to exit thru the door in front of her! They then ignored the shield symbol over the centre door and moved her out thru the unmarked right-hand exit!

Possibly as a consequence of this the next room was a bomb room. She was fairly near the exit anyway, but they got her out calmly. Collected food in Kaa's chamber easily enough and then negotiated the beam-room with the broken floor very competently.

It looked like they had recovered after a nervous start, but then in the clue room they created more problems for themselves. Golgarach asked them two "trick" questions which they handled well, but then he totally fooled them with a double-bluff question and they gave an answer which was so ridiculous even Golgarach laughed. 2/3 answers earned them only partial information, so they had to guess between the crayon and the gold.

In the corridor of the catacombs, with goblins approaching, they got into a panic and after much confusion chose the left-hand exit. Took a long time to negotiate the vale, then encountered Lady Velda. She was in a less stroppy mood than usual and gifted them a "TRANSFORM" spell and told them which exit to take. Lead advisor then tried to move Kelly towards the other exit before her team-mates corrected her!

In the next room, used their spell to turn Kelly into an armoured knight, so she could scare away Mrs. Grimwold and break thru the barred exit.

Reached the well-room but needed the crayon (which they had rejected) to create a well. Enter Grimwold the ogre, with no escape for Kelly. Ooooh naaasty!

Team 8 got off to a bad start. They totally misjudged a dash past the scorpion and got stung, sustaining life-force damage.

Entered a dwarf tunnel just before time-out arrived.

[Drassil]

There's a short video online called 'If Knightmare's wall monsters had tension music' which uses the clue room scene from this episode.

This episode had a rare example of an actor playing a dungeoneer: in this case, Bryan McNerney (presumed to be the actor who played the Behemoth) playing Kelly as the Behemoth after the casting of TRANSFORM. In Series 5 we had an unknown performer playing Christopher as a goblin; in Series 8 we had Mark Knight playing Daniel as Lord Fear after Daniel drank the Fearsome potion.

This episode also had an example of an actor playing two different characters in consecutive scenes. Bryan McNerney (unconfirmed) played Kelly as Behemoth, then played Grimwold the ogre.

Sound-wise, there's a lot going on when Kelly meets her end. The floating skull; music; Grimwold roaring; heartbeat; bell. I like how Treguard heralds the calm after the storm with a drawn-out "Ooh nasty" fading to a whisper.

I remember watching this post-mortem speech of Treguard's for the first time and trying to take it all in. The reference to Kelly being gone but somehow present elsewhere; the detailed description of what Kelly should have done to survive, presenting a clear scenario of what might have been; the phrase "alive and kicking", which I'd never heard before, evoking an image of Kelly suspended in some kind of limbo, kicking to show she was still alive and ready to be reunited with her advisors.

Treguard's delivery of "D-I-S-M-I-S-S" is unusual, with "D-I-S" so close together without the usual pauses in between. It reminds me of seeing a production of Hamlet where Hamlet delivered the most famous line with unexpected emphasis: "To be or not to be."