Early Memories

Series, Teams, History, Behind the scenes etc. - all discussed here.
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stevendoig
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Early Memories

Post by stevendoig »

Hullo!

At the moment I am watching my box set of 'The Adventure Game'. This series contains some of my actual earliest memories in my life! (Season 3 - I was 4) Anyway, it got me in the mood to post some memories of watching Knightmare on first broadcast - I'll only go up to series 5 as I taped 6-8 and watched them constantly! I was born in August 1978 btw. Having not watched the first 5 series for a few years now, some memories are hard to tie down, and ONE is curiously wrong (I'll list it though)

I remember the opening credits of the very first episode! - Not havinga clue what the programme was about , I was looking forward to a pretty cool looking cartoon series!

Really loving caspar the key.

Think the wall monsters looked like those wee squishy hand face puppet thingys you used to get in party bags.

Cedric the monk blethering on and on while the dungeoneer's life force started to run out and getting given some food just in time!

The Gargoyle saying 'doom'

Treguard being paralysed.

Being completely shit scared of the cavernwights. Going to school the next day and discovering that everyone else who watched it thought the same!

Also being just as scared of the Catacombite.

Seeing a team cast a spell to free some woman and then being trapped by a spider!

Watching a bunch of nice Scottish lassies reach a wall and then the dungeon start to break up.

Missing season 4 ALTOGETHER and not even realising I had done so, as when series 5 started I thought Pickle was a brand new character.

'Oh no master! - its a blocker!' - Not sure if Pickle said that everytime,but it felt like it.

AND - a weird one.

Speaking about Knightmare with my pal during season 6. We were discussing the hilarious time when a brand new team fell off a ledge while choosing the door in the first room and died!

Never happened obviously, but we both remembered it at the time!

Your turn!
AriadnesLayer
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Re: Early Memories

Post by AriadnesLayer »

stevendoig wrote: 08 Jan 2020, 16:31
'Oh no master! - its a blocker!' - Not sure if Pickle said that everytime,but it felt like it.

Your turn!
Hey there!

Sorry you haven't had a reply until now. Welcome to the forum!

Yes, Pickle did indeed say that virtually every time. By the 6th or 7th quest it was like "Really, Pickle? You're still surprised by this why? It's exactly the same room a blocker has appeared in every other time." LOL. It's the same with the eyeshield's introduction in Series 4. "Look, Master, it sees!"

I was in a similar situation to you. I recorded series 5-8 (possibly S4 too, not sure). Gradually the tapes went missing or got taped over, over the years, until all I had left was the final episode of S7. My memories of the first 3 series were therefore very vague. They consisted of:

The wall monsters. I remembered them looking a lot more scary than they actually look now.
The catacombite. Actually still looks every bit as scary as I remembered.

I, too, expected a cartoon the first time I saw the opening credits.

Treguard being more scary/malevolent in the early years. Wasn't sure if this was just my memory playing tricks until many years later when i finally saw the episodes again and discovered that he was in fact much more sinister in the early series. He revels in indifference at some of the teams' deaths. He's like a cuddly grampa by S8 who very much takes the deaths to heart.

My overriding early memory is of Ariadne (or Ariadna as I'd incorrectly remembered her name to be). The giant spider was such a scary concept and something that hadn't been seen on kids tv before. And what a creepy name that somehow really suited her.
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Morghanna
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Re: Early Memories

Post by Morghanna »

Hi everybody! :) (This is my first post.)
I remember Knightmare from it's earliest days. My immediate impression was WOW! It was unlike any other TV game that i had seen. I was already a fan of the Jackson&Livingstone FF gamebooks, so the dungeon-adventure theme instantly grabbed me.
Hugo Myatt as Treguard was totally awesome from start to finish, but there was also great work from the designers and the ensemble cast as well.
I never missed the program for five series, but saw far less of series 6-8 as i had started my first job and was seldom home early enough. (and invariably forgot to set the VCR....) I have seen some of them on Challenge since.
I prefer the format from series 1-3. I guess it's because that's what i saw first. The original dungeon setting seemed more compact and i never really cared for the eye-shield idea.

So, some early memories:

The goblins and cavernwights giving the hurry-up to teams who dithered too long.

Folly the jester was good, but i really liked Motley's brand of chirpy-cockney wit.

I really liked some of the characters from these early series: Mildread, Olaf, Cedric, Velda.

Other things that stick in my mind are the teams who got soooooo close before failing. Especially the team who didn't take the shield and were consequently turned to stone (all of them) by the medusa. One of my favourite Knightmare demises.
Also being really pleased for the first two teams who triumphed. :)

I prefer the earlier antagonists: Mogdred, Malice & a certain twice-seen, deadly sorceress.... >:D
Somehow the idea of Lord Fear and his cronies didn't appeal as much. (Not a negative reflection on the acting of Mark Knight, who played the character with real enthusiasm.)

One of the best things about the later episodes was the increased presence of Hordriss and (of course) the alluring warrior-thief Stiletta.

My all-time favourite character? You guessed it: the beautiful, but deadly sorceress Morghanna. Such a shame that she could not have become a long-term character.
"I think it's about time you got wise to the ways of real magic. The kind that is borne on the dark side." >:D
AriadnesLayer
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Re: Early Memories

Post by AriadnesLayer »

Welcome! Great post.

I immensely enjoy many of the things that were introduced following the Series 1-3 dungeon confines, however I do definitely agree that "something" was lost by moving out of them.
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Morghanna
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Re: Early Memories

Post by Morghanna »

Yes, i guess any program has to move on to avoid becoming samey and many people love the expanded dungeon of the later series, but i could never have had too much of those early episodes.
I wonder if preference for the earlier or later series is influenced by which series people saw first?
"I think it's about time you got wise to the ways of real magic. The kind that is borne on the dark side." >:D
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Mystara
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Re: Early Memories

Post by Mystara »

hm, it certainly would be in my case. I saw the earlier series first and still have a preference for them. The dungeons just seem more....dungeon-like than forests and castles :)
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DragonsBeHere
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Re: Early Memories

Post by DragonsBeHere »

stevendoig wrote: 08 Jan 2020, 16:31 At the moment I am watching my box set of 'The Adventure Game'.
Ha! I love the Adventure Game. My Mum introduced me to it when I was younger. Escape rooms, riddles, shapeshifting space dragons... What’s not to love?

But back on point, I only have a few memories of watching as a young kid mainly of series 1 and 2 but I’m willing to share them.

First: Owen. Once again, the dragon catches my attention. I remember really liking the animation on the blinking eye. He remains my favourite character, Gwendoline the Green Warden being second.

Next: The life force clock. I actually missed a couple of episodes, it frightened me so much, but it soon dragged me back in. I was convinced that the life force was the dungeoneer’s soul, and that they would return home as an empty husk. Strange how your mind loves to make things even scarier than they actually were.

Next: Lillith. There was something gloriously sinister about her and little 5-year-old me believed every word she said. When you’re more powerful than the powers that be...

Finally: Wall monsters, or just clue rooms in general. I only remembered Granitas and Igneous, though. Olgarth was completely wiped from my memory. Maybe because his name doesn’t have anything to do with rocks. The clue object that really stuck with me was the ruby in the first episode. I always picture it when I think of Knightmare.

Personally, I think the second series was the greatest, but I quite liked seeing outdoor locations. What I didn’t like was when they used a photo for a room background. I always found that the lighting was slightly problematic
Who knows what lurks in uncharted waters...
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