Congratulations on reaching issue 50 - another excellent read!

The only way Knightmare could ever have been completely fair, in the strictest sense, would be if every single team had an identical quest and each gave it their best shot. Obviously this would be terribly repetitive television and as is the case with all game/quiz shows the creators simply have to do the best they can to make the challenges approximately equal in each case.

In situations of people being allowed to "cheat death" when it appears others were denied that opportunity, it might also be worth considering what might have gone on that didn't make the final edit - who knows how often teams that were harshly treated might have made almighty blunders that had to be cut from the programme? I'd imagine their general demeanour off-camera might play a reasonable part in determining whether or not the producers would be willing to cut them a little slack!

I was thinking recently about the occasion when a sword rose out of the water. Could it have been a Lady Of The Lake reference?

I always assumed that was the case - nice little touch I thought. I also vaguely remember the shark fin's appearance being accompanied by some Jaws-like music!

Yes please

Rothberry & Mildread for me. Both capable of being genuinely funny, whereas I often felt that other "comedy" scenes were aimed at children. Which is understandable, of course, given that it was a CITV programme!

Does anyone else see Mrs Grimwold as a direct replacement for Mildread - i.e. the dungeon witch/crone?

In that context, I can't help but feel that Mildread was the far better character. Less comical, and some of the tricks she concocted to try and lead dungeoneers to their deaths were fantastic. She genuinely appeared to be a little bit deranged.

I realise this is a Grimwold thread so I'll shut up now - just wanted to chip in!  

Though I agree with what the KM staff did - whether they used the footage or not, they may as well use that free time to film a couple more rooms in case they needed them. All the better for lucky Gavin - he got to play a couple of extra rooms!

I think Gavin probably had a unique 'status' with the production team after being given a reprieve. i think he was probably going to be given the chance to get as far as he could, but with a massive extra degree of harshness - one step out of place and he's dead. The swamp being a perfect example - I think any other team would have been allowed to get away with that, or at least given a hint by Treguard to avoid the swamp.

I think the simple reason for giving Gavin a second chance was because there's no way Broadsword could justify any amount of studio time, actor's time, production staff time, high-technolgy equipment in use etc. without a team being there to be filmed!

Just to throw my hat in the ring on other topics mentioned here.. the main thread running through all points raised (McGrew's DANCE, Mogdred's BUT and Merlin's backward questions) is that there seems to be some inconsistency in the assistance given to the team by Treguard/Pickle.

As has been rightly pointed out, it should have been made immediately obvious to the team that McGrew needed to be shown mercy. As far as they knew he was a dangerous enemy and they simply had to dispose of him - either McGrew should have immediately declared that he'd do anything to help them or Treguard should have drawn their attention to what he was saying.

As for the 'But' spell - a simple hint that they needed to use magic "quickly" would have been enough of a hint. Or at the very least Hordriss should have indicated when 'But' could be used. How were they to know that 'But' needed to be used before 'Transformation'?

The backwards questions was another example of the team clearly not understanding what part they were supposed to play in the challenge before them - admittedly they didn't have a clue what the answer was to the first two questions, backwards or otherwise, so the argument is futile, but I do think they should have been told that they didn't have to give backwards answers themselves.

It's like football referees - all we're asking for is a bit of consistency!  

Maybe they thought the Block and Tackle (since it was vitually that room where they confronted Aesandre)

Definitely agree with you on that point. Jonathan (I think..) almost tells him it's the block & tackle when they first enter the room but seems to forget what it's called! Until the point where they left I think they were convinced the room was going to "come to life", hence the totally unnecessary panic over the relatively simple process of leaving the room!

I think Ben was guided to the left hand door by a member of the production team since they were that close to victory

I think this is conspiracy theorising gone too far! I'd be very very doubtful of there ever being a need for the production team to actually help a team through an exit. Particularly when the "challenge" of a particular chamber has already been won. The way it's edited does make the scene quite confusing but I'm certain that's all it was - a bit of clumsy editing. Probably because they wasted so much time actually getting out of the room that it wasn't deemed interesting enough to show us every step of their progress!

In my opinion, the life force was only ever added to heighten tension in post-production. I don't believe that the team ever saw their life force clock during their quest.

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.

I know that everyone says this, but university really will be the best time of your life, so just make the most of it!

At the risk of showing my age, the key is striking the right balance between work and play  

Playing is a lot of fun, but you'll be kicked out soon enough if you don't put the work in. On the other hand, if you bury your head too far into your studies you'll not make any friends and might as well just do a home study course.

I veered ever so slightly too much in the direction of play, but I have no regrets!

I didn't appear until 1989 Grimaldine, that was 1988

If we're going to be trainspotter-esque about it, I think the reference was to Melly's repeated failure to steer clear of stocks in series 4/1990, as is backed up by the references to Motley and to the Goblins. Sorry mate!

I found Akash and team altogether more annoying than Douglas and co for the simple reason that they didn't appear to take it very seriously and found the whole thing to be a bit of a laugh. A bit of a slap in the face for those who failed the auditions!

Douglas and team seemed to be nothing more than shy & nervous in my opinion, which is worthy of a little more sympathy. Anthony & team in series 2 were another that were clueless, but not without enthusiasm.

The final team in series 5 got up my nose for reasons similar to those of Akash.

I suppose the logic could be that the Medal siginifies "winning" the battle against Ariadne? There's as much logic to that as whistling your way past her, anyway...

I agree that they were harshly treated though. A couple of seconds of dithering is all they were guilty of - perhaps this would be punished in level three, but the automaton gave them no time at all.

They had to free Gretel, though. No team would have been allowed to continue and win if they'd refused the chance to free her.

Blimey! Not sure how healthy all this repressed regression is, chaps!  

Surely FLIGHT would be an interesting one? Or that wicked combination of TRANSFORMATION and BUT would be worth a giggle or two.

It is true that the last team of series 1 had a less difficult time because they didn't have Cedric's riddles to contend with.

Perhaps they were helped into Level Three a bit in order to show the audience what it actually looked like. This happened, in fact, in the final programme so the series finished on a high.

My thoughts exactly. I suspect that at the time the entire series was very much a case of CITV dipping it's toe in the water (if you can imagine such a thing..) and a tantalizing glimpse of what level 3 may hold wouldn't have done any harm in terms of helping the decision makers to commission another series.

I applied every year from 1989 onwards, and auditioned twice. Undoubtedly one of my biggest ever regrets that I never made it...

I honestly believe there was no fixing in any Knightmare quest - although I could be convinced that something suspicious was going on in the final quest of series 1. Quite apart from the neat finish of the quest ending at the very end of the final episode, I found that the team seemed to be given almost a clear run through to the third level.

We'll never know for sure I suppose, but I can't really see the logic in 'fixing' anything.

I agree with SrWilson3S - I think there was a logical reason for choosing either of the two doors and therefore I don't think any of the teams were punished for their choice.

As pointed out, Martin & Leo got questions wrong. I'm convinced that at least one of them would have won otherwise.

As for Ross - they were just unlucky, I suppose...

Mogdred

Pickle

Treguard

Merlin

Morghanna

Hordriss

Motley

They'd been given a pretty obvious clue though hadn't they? Nothing wrong with a but of hurrying along - if they were panicked into rash decision at that stage, they'd never have coped with level 3 anyway, so I think reaching the end of level 2 was a fair enough measure of their ability.