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Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 19:27
by Tom41
Back to the beginning for Knightmare today - the very first ep ever! Couldn't find an existing topic, so let's have a discussion about it.

Knice to see that animated intro again - including the imprisoned man that the knight rides past (later intros had this removed) and all those classic phrases!
"Welcome, watchers of illusion, to the castle of confusion. Phase with us now."
"The only way is onward, there is no turning back"

Being the very first episode ever, Treguard gave a VERY lengthy explanation of the dungeon, the life force, advisers, and the quests.

Interesting how the dungeoneer puts the helmet on himself - and the old 'room-change' noise freaked me out a bit! I'm so used to the whistle/magic noise of later series!

Ooh, they really took their time on that very first room where they had to spell OPEN! On a later series, they'd probably have brought a Pooka in or done troll footseps to make them hurry up ;)

Hmm, a 1980s digital effect was added to the red gem
When Treguard said "A manifestation is occurring", I expected a really scary face to appear in the wall..... and when the wall monster appeared, I thought "That's pathetic, come on!" ;)
Was the wall monster done using a puppet thing, or was it someone wearing a mask?

Anyone notice the dungeoneer appear to step off the causeway in Lillith's room and walk THROUGH the rock? They couldn't fall though, not on this causeway ;)

Death next, 3 reasons:
1. They didn't take the magic lamp for light
2. They went left, not right
3. They took the path with the symbol that wasn't on the charm.
That classic skull death again, full-screen, with a dark rearrangement of the Knightmare theme music. Ooh, Nasty!

Still, Treguard D-I-S-M-I-S-Sed them, and we saw them walk back to the real world again. I thought that changing-color sky was only used for a winning team though...

The second team got a more complex puzzle, spelling out SESAME in the same way. Ooh, nastily time consuming ;D I'm surprised the team didn't get 'punished' for stepping on letters in the wrong order...

I don't really like how Treguard seems to appear in nearly every room in the dungeon, superimposed on the view of the dungeon (and in some cases being affected by other characters, e.g. Lillith)
Haven't seen any of the dungeoneers using sidesteps yet. Perhaps sidestepping wasn't implemented until the second series?

No bell signalling time out, instead Treguard warns about Temporal Disruption, and the fire stops dead. Odd to hear Lillith laughing over the credits though.

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 20:03
by KFan
Tom41, you made this thread before the episode even started again! ::)

I enjoyed tonights, but yes I did find it a bit lengthy with the explination, however remember that this was the first ever! Some bits were good, and some bits I feel were very basic (and were yet to be improved). Little things like Treguard's chair... the black background didn't do much for me... infact the whole antechamber was one of the things that improved over the series.

Team 1 couldn't have known to take the lantern.

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 20:03
by LordF
Nice to see the 1st Episode again, 1st time I saw it was on the Sci Fi Channel.

It's all begun once again.

It's interesting as the same when I first saw it.

Anyone else notice the old Angila logo after the credits?

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 20:04
by Dan
Tom41 wrote: 2. They went left, not right
3. They took the path with the symbol that wasn't on the charm.
Actually, left was the correct way to go (and they went it); they were just supposed to have known this by remembering the symbol of the talisman. Not having to take it would've meant they could take the magic lamp they needed.

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 20:08
by Johnro
Treguard like his belt area :D

I actually got a perfect taping of this (i.e it started recording bang on time and managed to skip the 5minutes(!) of ads so all it is inbetween in the static Knightmare logo 8)

But it was sooooo slow :-\

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 20:27
by Porsmond
Brilliant to see Series 1,Episode 1 for the first time again in 17 years for me, Its really been a blast from the past, and I enjoyed it a lot.
Loved seeing the orginal opening credits again including the brief view of the prisoner behind the cell, This was cut out on later series.
Took a while to get going, but it was good when it started, never realised the dungeoner put on their own helmet.
First Team took forever to work out the easy opening puzzle, and even when they realised it spelt OPEN, they still seemed to take forever.
Wall Monster looked pathetic compared to later series, It made me laugh really, and it was rather odd.
I dont think the team died in Lillith's room, I didnt see them come off the edge, but yes they seemed to walk through the rock to get through the serpants mouth, lol

The Death - Are we sure he was meant to go left as I thought the wall monster gave a hint to go right at that moment(Maybe I got confused by something else he said)obviously the right thing to do was remember the charm though and take the candle, and I think they would have learned this information if they got all 3 questions right, Still we will never know for sure though.
I will admit to laughing though when the team told him to hold up the charm thing in the hope somthing would happen even though Treguard told them when they entered the room their quest was pretty much over ;D

So Team 2 start, Again they take forever working out the opening puzzle, and lifeforce is already down to amber, still they will be in the clue room soon to get health so no real bother.

Awesome Episode, Cant Wait for episode 2 tomorrow :)

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 20:30
by Porsmond
Crap, double Post, Please Delete

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 20:31
by 123Pooka
If that was the first time I ever saw knightmare in 1987, I would definitely want to see the next episode. For a starting episode, it was a little slow to start but I expected this.

For me it seems level 1 is an equivalent of a later series level 3. The tension and pressure is already high when they start! Treguard seems quite harsh in comparison to other series but i suppose thats so we know where he stands as dungeonmaster. Also, the riddles for level one are pretty hard, and having to get all three right seems a little extreme.

Thought the first team were good actually, despite their hanging around in the first chamber. They took the challenge seriously and acted more and more quickly as the quest went on. For me they were bound to die early on, as the show is in its nasty first stages. Great death music by the way.

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 20:32
by Purgatory
not bad.
nice death,
nice into

Bad Wall monster,

And Lilith was always one of the better ones..
um.. i noticed a lot of character names in the credits.. one of which doesn't appear in this season.

and Treguard seems more willing to allow the team to die then to help..mind you the amount of clues he had to give to the 1st teams 1st room.

1st seasons eps are always alittle slow, so the pilot is going to be slower, also takes a bit of getting used to,

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 20:36
by Billy
So, Monday 7th September 1987 brung this, the very first episode of Knightmare- one year before I was born!
"Justice lies on the right" was what Olgarth said, yet the correct Talisman was placed in front of the left door. That goes to show how hard the early series were, especially this one, as answering one riddle wrong in Level 1 lead to death. When I first heard the end credits I thought it was Treguard laughing, but it would have been a pretty bizarre laugh coming from him! And yes, that Anglia production logo at the end hasn't been seen on TV since 1987- when repeated on the Sci-Fi channel in 1995 and 1998, the logo was replaced with the current triangular one.

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 21:18
by Tom41
While this topic's still recent, here are a couple of media links:

http://tomsonic.dyndns.org:90/temp/km/deathmusic.mp3 Death music from S1E1 - sorry about the low quality, I used a mono VCR :(

http://tomsonic.dyndns.org:90/temp/km/death.avi DivX full-screen skull death sequence. Would have been more complete, except Challenge faded in the static KM logo over the last rolling eyeball.

Image Old Anglia production logo. I wonder why they didn't use Sci-Fi's tapes?

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 21:24
by HStorm
Every time I watch the early seasons, I'm always struck by how different Treguard really was. He was a lot slimmer, his hair and beard were much darker, and he was so EEEEEVIL!!! He was either disinterested or really enjoyes seeing dungeoneers getting squished, Never mind the dull grandaddy figure he became in later years, THIS IS how he was meant to be!

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 21:32
by MoanaLiza
Huh dull granddaddy figure? I think that he looked batter in the latter series' particularly in s7 and 8. Grandaddy figure >:(! I shall never defend you when others say bad things about that scatterbrained dizzy individual that came from that bottle ever again :P.

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 21:40
by FrightKnight
He really was apathetic, almost like an Angus Deayton type of character, without the smarminess (sic?).

"Still, why should you care?" Say what, Treguard? :o That's one inch away from "This programme is awful. Do not watch it."! (Which, of course, it ain't)

The wall monster looked like something anyone can do with their hand tilted sideways and moving your thumb from side to side, creating a mouth.

Oh, and they DEFINITELY died exiting the Lillith room- saw it blatantly on the monitors. Still, it was the very first team, and they were losing anyway.

The whoosh I didn't like, and the death music would have scared the living daylights out of me if I were younger.

I'll have to see whether I like this 'new' ('old', surely...) nasty Treguard, like the transition from nice to nasty Harold Bishop in Neighbours. Look, Neighbours was the only thing that was on as a student in the daytime at Uni... :-\

Re:Series 1 Episode 1

Posted: 07 Jun 2004, 21:41
by HStorm
oh I agree he LOOKED a lot better in the later costumes, I'm just saying that his personality became very dull when he became all nice and supportive, especially after season 5.