Had a near miss taking the grub from in front of the catacombite tho.

Notable that one advisor started almost every sentence by saying "Right". Possibility of confusion when they wanted Richard to go left....

Given it was the first ever 'set-piece' scene to include more than one dungeon character, I guess the insults duel was bound to have quite an experimental aspect to it. It did go on too long, and it also had, to my mind, excessive consequences, in that the team didn't really have to do anything much at all to get through Level 2, as Folly basically laid it all on a plate for them by defeating Cedric on their behalf.

If this scene had happened in this form in, just for instance, season 6, it would have been completely unforgivable. I think, given how young the show was in 1987, the slowness and clumsy execution can be overlooked, and the scene can be given a pass. Just.

Yes, i agree. There were a few things in series 1 which didn't quite work-out perfectly, but as you say, that was understandable as it was a brand new concept.

If this scene had happened in this form in, just for instance, season 6, it would have been completely unforgivable. I think, given how young the show was in 1987, the slowness and clumsy execution can be overlooked, and the scene can be given a pass. Just.

I thought so too - you suddenly notice just how long it goes on for, when it's taking up a good chunk of your weekly viewing time, and it does seem really strange how the dungeoneer is just standing silently in the corner while the actors do their thing! It almost reminded me of the spyglass scenes from later years, with the key difference that the team learned absolutely nothing useful from watching this.

I'm not a fan of this scene. The idea was ok, but it went on way too long.

One of the minor problems with the inaugural series was the pacing of the episodes.

On the Friday, the standard Challenge logo was used in place of the Challenge Late Zone logo;

On both the Friday and the Saturday, there were no continuity announcements over the end credits.

One more part to Series 1 to go,and soon the end of the generic intros and outros

This is the first time I've ever really analysed the show on an episode by episode basis and a key trend appears to be the heavy manipulation of quest length by the production team. Will be interesting to see if this continues into series 2.

(Hmm, gameplay integrity vs good television - might make an interesting article )

Of course, another theme is experimentation as the show finds its feet and the insult contest could simply be viewed in this context - the producers trying something out to see if it worked and to provide some variety.

Yes I see what you mean. While Folly and Cedric's scene might have made good tv to the viewer, at the same time the team suffered and all of a sudden their quest took a back step. It was still good the production team tried to do something different though. Just one episode left of series 1 to go!

(Hmm, gameplay integrity vs good television - might make an interesting article )

Of course, another theme is experimentation as the show finds its feet and the insult contest could simply be viewed in this context - the producers trying something out to see if it worked and to provide some variety.

The insult sequence is an interesting one looking back. In the past when I've viewed it I've just thought "Lol funny" and took it as a fun bit of diversion, but watching it today in the context of one episode a week, ala 1987 (even the 2004 Challenge repeats were daily) it's so bizarre and brings what was initially a strongly-paced and energetic episode to a screeching halt.

I thought so too - you suddenly notice just how long it goes on for, when it's taking up a good chunk of your weekly viewing time, and it does seem really strange how the dungeoneer is just standing silently in the corner while the actors do their thing! It almost reminded me of the spyglass scenes from later years, with the key difference that the team learned absolutely nothing useful from watching this.

Imagine the fury if Barry's quest in S7 came to an abrupt end thanks to the seven-minute Hordriss and Grimaldine fireball scene!

LMAO!

Always love the corridor room, always looks great, and Folly shows us why he was the best jester in the series.

The insult stuff was clearly a 'time waster' they had to fill up the last episodes without a team getting killed or even winning. Pretty much giving the team a free ticket, same with the well spell. I always thought the boy was making sure his helmet didn't fall off as he climbed in and not 'holding his nose' (unless he thought it was a real well?)

Looks like with got our first 'Password' next episode.

And I Hate that snake. it looks so out of place in the dungeon.

But everyone loves that giant skeleton creature... awesome, although their life force should have ran out they took so long and pretty much walked into it.

Yes the snake wasn't very good, not compared to the king cobra in Series 3! Must say Folly and Cedric's insults bit was a bit time consuming but the team were never gonna win anyway as we find out they chose the wrong item.

The insult sequence is an interesting one looking back. In the past when I've viewed it I've just thought "Lol funny" and took it as a fun bit of diversion, but watching it today in the context of one episode a week, ala 1987 (even the 2004 Challenge repeats were daily) it's so bizarre and brings what was initially a strongly-paced and energetic episode to a screeching halt. It does literally seem just an excuse for a bit of end-of-series fun and a way for Lawrence Werber and Alec Westwood to really get to exercise their acting skills, along with Hugo getting a rare opportunity for humour with his commentator spiel and Tim's first chance to write some major character interplay. Closest we've had so far are a couple of Merlin/Casper interchanges and Olgarth making digs at Granitas and vice versa, but here it's like everyone's gone "Screw it, this might be the only series so let's go crazy at the end". Can you imagine this happening later on in the series' lifespan? Imagine the fury if Barry's quest in S7 came to an abrupt end thanks to the seven-minute Hordriss and Grimaldine fireball scene! It's like an online fanfic before such things existed

They have had a bit of an easy ride to be honest, avoiding the Cedric riddles and haven't really had any tricky challenges so far. Perhaps with the end of the series imminent, they needed at least someone to get to level 3 to actually prove it exists and to be fair they're one of those brilliantly loud and excitsble teams that are always watchable. Definitely agreed with the 'Series 1.5' comment made a few years back!

The insult stuff was clearly a 'time waster' they had to fill up the last episodes without a team getting killed or even winning. Pretty much giving the team a free ticket, same with the well spell. I always thought the boy was making sure his helmet didn't fall off as he climbed in and not 'holding his nose' (unless he thought it was a real well?)

Looks like with got our first 'Password' next episode.

And I Hate that snake. it looks so out of place in the dungeon.

But everyone loves that giant skeleton creature... awesome, although their life force should have ran out they took so long and pretty much walked into it.

Was that the most pointless 'I command you' hint ever, though? The first hint was basically 'Don't take the key or the fish', and the 'I command you' one was basically 'Take the gold and the soap'...

To be fair, it was a bit more useful than that - they were specifically told to give Lillith the gold and keep the soap for later. Lillith said she would accept anything as a gift on this occasion, so they could have messed up if they decided to give her the less valuable item.

*[EDIT: I've just realised that Totodile is a Pokémon, and therefore probably not exactly the right spelling! Yikes.]

The dark monster in the corridor - I guess the primitive CGI ensured it could never be any more convincing as a threat than the toadodile of Series 2-3. Shame - there's the germ of a good secondhand idea there. Doesn't it remind one of another "fierier" creature that appeared at the end of a long corridor (in the film, not the book) and was initially almost invisible?

Someone remind me... at any stage over the eight series, did any dungeoneer jump or fall into any (simulated) water?

The shark tank from series 3 that I have vague memories of doesn't count, as I'm assuming they didn't jump into it.

One dungeoneer did jump into the shark tank, but only after they had emptied it of water. I do remember dungeoneers climbing out of the water in that room though.

I found two things funny in this episode:

a) The duel of insults with Cedric and Folly.

b) When Richard held his nose when climbing into the well.

my favrote part in this episode was the insult contest bettween cedric and folly

watching the ep. it feels like series 1.5- the pace feels like series 2 but has the style of series 1.

Definitely agree there - by that time they had obviously found their feet. In fact, I thought that team was in series 2 until I found this site (nearly five years ago!) and was able to see the episode guides.

Today's episode was all about seconds- this was the SECOND time a snake was shown to roll out on the floor, the SECOND time the serpent's stomach appeared, the SECOND time Treguard said 'Ooh, nasty' and the episode ended in the SECOND level.

i think it was also the SECOND time a catacombite room was used and the SECOND time 2 food objects were in a clue room.