If you're going to consider the end credit versions for speeds, consider the one at the very end of Season 3... it appeared just after the credits started, and began from the start of Condition Orange.

I think the only reason it would get particularly sped up would be if there was reason for it (e.g. dungeoneer getting damaged by magic sword), but that aside it didn't really have a "speed"... plus in some cases it was deliberately slowed down (e.g. team walks into L2 Clue Room, with LF already at red. The LF clock goes pretty slowly, giving the team time to get down the stairs and reach the food just as the eyes are beginning to peel away).

The Life Force ISN'T consistant for a very simple reason:- The entire face animation only lasts between 30-40 seconds (Check the end credits piece in the site 'clips' if you don't believe me). That would mean that , if ran like a stopwatch as you suggest, the team would need to eat several times in the one room!  

But if I'm not mistaken the lifeforce sequence used at the end of that episode was sped up if I remember correctly, probably to last the length of the credits. If you look when the first put something in the knapsack the lifeforce clock goes pretty slowly and goes really fast as it's about to run out. Something I wonder sometimes is if a dungeoneer uses up any lifeforce when they meet a character sometimes like a wall monster, because they seem to have the same amount of lifeforce when they finish with the character goes away as they did before the character appeared. I remember one episode (s3) the dungeoneer was low on lifeforce and put something into the knapsack, which the lifeforce went to green. Golgarach (I think) appeared and the dungeoneer took the food out of the knapsack and the lifeforce went back to the exact place it was before they had put the food into the knapsack. They were then asked the three questions, etc. and after the wall monster dissapeared I am pretty sure that the lifeforce was the same amount as when they took the food out of the knapsack. I might be wrong though or has anyone else seemed to think that?

Dont you think life force was a fix?.  Life force certainly brought fun and tension to some episodes but I definatly think the whole thing was a fix.  Was there actualy an amount of time that green yellow and red lasted?.  I personaly think they just made up the life force indicators as they went along to build tension or speed things up.  The life force clock just never seems to be consistant with the amount of time it takes.  What do you think?.

The Life Force ISN'T consistant for a very simple reason:- The entire face animation only lasts between 30-40 seconds (Check the end credits piece in the site 'clips' if you don't believe me). That would mean that , if ran like a stopwatch as you suggest, the team would need to eat several times in the one room!  

My guess is that the LF was used as a prod to speed dithering teams along (Pookas and Skulls were also regularly used for this purpose) and add that little bit of danger when the team had a movement/floor puzzle to face.

In later series, other methods of this had been developed (ie those beautifully distinctive goblin horns among others). The Life Force was effectively no longer needed for its original purpose and literally faded away to those terrible 'Walking Man' and 'Quiche of doom' versions.

Having said that, I found the 'Walking man' an interesting change even if not as good as the original 'face'....

"There's a certain snobbery for those who arrive, on the SECOND boat..."

The animations weren't original Knightmare hence instantly crap. It's the same kind of Argument as having Hugo Myatt back as Treguard...

WE NEED THE ORIGINAL!!!!!!!  

AJK

Btw, the skeleton Life Force was a feature of series 6 and 7 - the Pie/Cake/Quiche was in series 8 only.

So maybe Majida weren't the only 'pointless' thing that came out of the bottle then!

That's another thing with s5...there's hardly any sound at all in the episodes...no funky s1-3 music-on-one-instrument (I assume), and I think there was some music in later series...

I liked some of the s4 death sound effects such as when simon went into the pit and when Nicky was munched by Ariadne.

But series 5 is so quiet...the lack of a heartbeat can make it feel..well...dead at times. Yet still absorbing the rest of the time.

Its really funny how much you miss the heartbeat of the LF clock, series 5 doesnt feel right without it.

And as for the quiche, well we all have bad ideas every now and again...........

Oh, it was better than the quiche! That's not difficult, however.

Well anything beats the Quiche.

Personally, I liked the Knight LF. True, it was nowhere near as great as the Face LF, but it had it's charm. And when you see it "end" for the first time, it's a quality moment.

And I agree on the main part - it did drop in significance over time. S1-3, it would appear in nigh on every room, with replenishment needed every couple of rooms. Immediately after that it went more into not appearing so often (mainly just with food and death), but food was still needed regularly (maybe just a little less than before). Then it started going to the stage of something like "once in the clue room, once later in the level" (or at least that's how it felt), so that sense of "you're in need of food... better get some soon or the next room'll have us finished before we're halfway through it" was gone.

I still think that it was one of the best (if not the best) tension-building devices in the show. I'd really love it to be a feature in the revived show.

Given that, it would seem a little harsh to ever actually kill a team for failing to top up something which they can't even see. In think it served only two purposes - it gave Treguard a means of hurrying teams along when dithering set in, and it added tension at key points in certain quests.

My theory as to why it became less significant is that the production team wanted to explore other means of building tension - i.e. more music/atmospherics in the background, chasing footsteps, goblin horns etc.

Btw, the skeleton Life Force was a feature of series 6 and 7 - the Pie/Cake/Quiche was in series 8 only.

Series 6 in my opinion is by far the most scary and urgent and atmospheric.

Series 7 draws on that and is effective in some places, like the troll in level 2 'It comes, It comes!' but I was scared to death of those dwarf tunnels in the dark and the bit where a storm giest appeared, oh and the hand reaching in.

Series 6 was scary

Was the knight walking with bits falling off bad? I can barely remember it, but what I do know is that it was better than the cake thing.

Oh, it was better than the quiche! That's not difficult, however.

Series 5 is the last series to feature the original Clock and this time the heartbeat is gone (save for during the final causeway in today's excellent episode) and its importance has diminished. Apart from a bit of Life Force damage sustained during team 3's quest (opening Merlin's Magic Box) it has only cropped up when a Dungeoneer collects food.

Mind you, we still had some stunning Life Force moments in series 6 and 7 (both with winning teams) that are even better than today's one. No bad thing.

Still, even if it didn't kill people, I do think life force was far more important to the programme earlier on. Watching it as a brat, you didn't really realise that it wasn't really quite that important and a pie would always just happen to be there, and it really helped to create an atmosphere. The original life force animation was one of the very best visual sequences in the whole show, and still scares a great deal of people. I think the later series missed that sense of urgency sometimes by not having life force on screen more often, and of course, by replacing the original sequence with the inferior walking man and laughable pie. If they really wanted to forget the life force idea, I'd have preferred to see it go altogether than be replaced by that silly quiche.  

As I've said many times before- and I'm sure Tim Child must have seen at least one of our discussions on this topic- I'd love to see life force play a big role in any new Knightmare. I thought towards the end it became too reliant on soap opera and often lacked the sense of ongoing claustrophobia and urgency that the life force theme helped to provide.

S1 2 &3 I was a legit hazzard and even teams died from it running out

Never per se - this only ever happened when the team were trapped in a room or something. If it ever happened, there was always an earlier error.