Ooh, nasty! (Knightmare)

Member Name: Bharat Sahota

Product:	Knightmare
Date:	16/07/01 (688 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great rooms, scary atmosphere, multiple ways to die.

Disadvantages: The Eye Shield, unexciting flying dragon rides, not on TV anymore.

When I was a kid, I loved watching this. This show was always a highlight of the week. It was great to come home from school and watch Knightmare. The show gained a bit of a reputation for being scary. It was almost like a cross between a quiz show and a videogame but there were important elements and rules that made it stand out.

The concept was this. One contestant was to enter a computer generated dungeon (all hail blue screen technology)! This contestant was to wear a helmet that prevented them from seeing the obstacles around them, but they were able to see what was under the helmet. This helmet wasn’t to be removed in the dungeon and to guide this contestant, were their 3 advisers that stayed behind in a separate room. This room had a screen that showed where the contestant was in the dungeon. This enabled the advisers to give commands to the contestant on what to do to advance through the dungeon. Tregard the Dungeon Master was in the same room as the advisers, overlooking proceedings and occasionally giving hints and guidance to the contestant and advisers. Hence, the contestant and advisers had to work together as an efficient team.

The contestant had a Life Force that was represented in 3 ways. For all representations, the Life Force was an onscreen indicator of the contestant’s ‘energy’, appearing at critical moments. For the early series’, it was represented by a face that wore away, losing parts of its helmet, then skin, then leaving a skull that cracked and broke, with the eyeballs being the final things to leave, one at a time. When this occurred, the contestant ‘died’. This, in my opinion, was the best and scariest representation (especially accompanied by eerie music). A walking knight that lost its armour and flesh represented it in later series’. The walking skeleton that was left, crumbled at ‘death’. The third representation used in series’ later than this was a
cake (not exactly frightening). In each series, the premise was the same. To replenish Life Force, the contestant was generally required to place food (found in certain rooms) into their knapsack.

Sometimes the contestant found items in the dungeon, thus a rule was that the contestant was allowed to carry only 2 items at a time. The best choice of item often depended upon nearby clues that indicated what to take, such as scrolls, or verbal clues from characters in the dungeon or wall entities. Spells were sometimes acquired, which meant one adviser became a ‘Spell Caster’. Spells were useful at certain points and required the Spell Caster to shout out “spell casting”! The name of the spell was then spelt, e.g. “F-R-E-E-Z-E” which sometimes stopped life threatening enemies or obstacles. A “Dispel” reversed the effects of a learnt spell and required the caster to spell the word in the wrong order, e.g. “E-Z-E-E-R-F!” In addition to Spell Casting rites, there was another rule. No turning back!

There were 3 ‘levels’ to the dungeon, each more difficult than the previous. Most of the dungeon experience involved solving puzzles and overcoming obstacles in each room, enabling the team to move onto the next. For example, some rooms contained wall monsters that required the team to answer at least 1 out of 3 questions correctly. 2 correct answers meant the wall entity gave them a clue and 3 enabled more bonuses. There were some puzzle rooms that required the team to guide the contestant efficiently and step upon specific tiles to advance. Some of these tile games were set above a huge pit so that the contestant fell if the wrong tile was touched or if the team guided him wrong. I remember the ‘bomb’ room. I also remember one room that had lasers shooting away floor tiles. Plus, another room involved floor tiles crumbling away and flying bricks as obstacles. Rooms such as thes
e required the team to quickly and accurately guide the contestant. Teams that issued the wrong commands to their contestants didn’t last long. “Sidestep to your left. <GASP> No, right!” DONG!

Yep, when the contestant ‘died’, their Life Force instantly ended, then there was the infamous DONG bell sound, usually followed by Tregard saying something like the equally memorable “ooh nasty” remark. Tregard was great as the Dungeon Master. He aided the teams in a few places, gave them warnings and told them how they could’ve prevented their contestant from ‘dying’ or in some cases pointed out that they had no chance in a hazardous situation due to a mistake made earlier (cue rapidly fading Life Force then DONG). He even chuckled at comical moments or when the team let out a sigh of relief after their contestant narrowly escaped from a hazardous room.

There were some great ideas for lethal rooms. One infamous dungeon obstacle that ‘killed’ many was the ‘Corridor of Blades’. The contestant would be moving along a conveyor belt and metal saws were to grind towards the contestant on either side of the corridor. Thus the team needed to efficiently guide the contestant to avoid the saws as they came towards them. Inefficient guidance resulted in something like this happening: “Okay Daniel, left left. Right, right get over quick right, right, right! Left duck, duck left! Right, right, right!” DONG! “Ooh nasty.”

Yes, the dungeon was difficult. Out of the entire show, only 8 teams managed to win. It was great to see the room concepts, new characters and ideas, because no 2 adventures were exactly the same. When a team got to Level 3, things became serious and dangerous. Efficient guidance and quick wits were needed to overcome obstacles here. It was great to see some teams get through, past the difficult rooms and win. But part of the fun was de
rived from seeing teams ‘die’ and wow, they certainly ‘died’ in many ways. My brother kept on saying: “It’s real!” ‘Death’ occurred in many ways. Over the years, challengers were often sliced, eaten, petrified or burnt. Some fell off cliffs and some were ‘killed’ by other characters in the dungeon.

Other the years, there were a variety of memorable characters. Merlin the Wizard was helpful with giving spells to adventurers. Mogdred was a powerful opponent that had the ability to incapacitate Tregard, do weird things to the contestant and often wanted the contestant to ‘pledge’ to him. I remember one room went multicoloured when Mogdred’s face appeared and he tried to get the contestant to take off his helmet, while Tregard was shouting out: “No, don’t!” In the later series’ Lord Fear and his henchmen eventually replaced Mogdred. In the later series’ there were even assistants to Tregard, such as Pickle (who actually entered the dungeon to help the contestant on 1 occasion! An enthusiastic lady named Majida, eventually replaced Pickle. Additional characters included Hordriss the Confuser and Sidriss. Plus there was the Boatman that never spoke to the contestant, whatever questions they asked. Oh and the goblins! I remember the goblin horn sound that made teams hastily move their contestant in a panicky way.

The early episodes were great in my mind and in series 3 there were many great room designs (incidentally, no team won in series 3). Later on though, elements such as the Eye Shield were introduced, as well as a friendly dragon that gave the contestant a ride in the air. This took away a lot of the excitement. Sure, it gave the program a chance to show off pretty graphics but it eliminated the need for the team to constantly think, giving them too much of a break. The fun was to be had with character interaction, the need for the team
to be efficient and of course the great rooms and encounters that created a sense of danger and tension that was enhanced with the scary music. The show eventually ended in 1994. No more episodes were shown since. Repeats were shown on the Sci-fi Channel, but that was about it.

Knightmare emphasised good teamwork and I found it great viewing when I was a kid, with the whole concept and room designs. Plus it was great when contestants ‘died’, especially in silly ways or due to a team’s stupidity or ignorance regarding clues. And of course, this was undoubtedly a very scary children’s programme!

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