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Saw a first series episode for the first time ever last night due to being too young to see the first series the first time round (my parents didn't get round to having me until 1984) and too involved in local elections to see the first few episodes this time.

I can see what Tim Child meant by the first few epsiodes being a bit slow. I agree that inserting lots of non-puzzle rooms/outside areas doesn't help, but I thought Merlin and Folly talked for far too long before getting round to what they were actually meant to say. Casper the talking key was irritating. I don't like the idea of the dungeoneers having an acting guide; they ought to have to work everything out themselves. I was disappointed the didn't die in the moving keyhole room. Having them panic and try to follow round the moving keyhole whilst the timer ran down and the deliciously dark life force sequence ran its full length would have been wonderful; the kind of thing I remember from series 2 and 3 the first time round.

I disagree, actually, I think that by inserting a variety of different rooms like outside areas - it made a change and might've made things take a little longer, but picked up the overall pace of the program.

Funny how Merlin claims that the Hall of Spears is the Level 2 guards "holding a tournament" and that Danny must "brave their gauntlet" - but you can still hear the usual sounds of machinery operating the spears!

I'm not sure that's what that meant - I think it's more literal than that, and that if Danny had survived until the end of Level 2, we'd have seen Gumboil, Cedric and Gibbet having a competition of sorts! Ah well, wishful thinking I suppose.

I don't think so - he said it was happening "through the door", and the next room was the Hall of Spears. (Also, Folly catches up with Danny afterwards, and appears to be taunting the guards they've just passed - "You can't hit me!" etc.)

Good point.

Haha, it does look a bit like Cedric reads the first riddle off his hand (as spotted by Jake in his episode commentary). I think he's just gesturing to his outfit, though, when he says "this holy cloth"... his eyes remain fixed on the dungeoneer as far as I can tell, so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. :)

I've never understood the significance of the egg timer in this episode. Would Merlin really have sent them on their way with no riddles or rewards if they hadn't returned it to him? It seems to me that line of dialogue was added in just to justify the item. The whole thing seems a bit odd unless I've missed something?

My weekly dose of wild speculation is that the egg timer should have been used in the corridor of spears to slow down particularly fast moving spikes, but the production team had difficulty with the technical aspects of adjusting the animation speed so this was abandoned. No evidence for this at all of course!

HobGoblin wrote:I've never understood the significance of the egg timer in this episode. Would Merlin really have sent them on their way with no riddles or rewards if they hadn't returned it to him? It seems to me that line of dialogue was added in just to justify the item. The whole thing seems a bit odd unless I've missed something?

My weekly dose of wild speculation is that the egg timer should have been used in the corridor of spears to slow down particularly fast moving spikes, but the production team had difficulty with the technical aspects of adjusting the animation speed so this was abandoned. No evidence for this at all of course!

I agree with all you said. For me I thought there was no purpose of the egg timer unless it was to be used to stop the spikes or to pause something.

HobGoblin wrote:I've never understood the significance of the egg timer in this episode. Would Merlin really have sent them on their way with no riddles or rewards if they hadn't returned it to him? It seems to me that line of dialogue was added in just to justify the item. The whole thing seems a bit odd unless I've missed something?

The same is true of the headache pills in the previous quest...

It's possible that Merlin/Bert might have asked fewer riddles if the extra object hadn't been returned to him, making it harder for the team to earn a reward (if we assume that a score of 2 would have been sufficient), but that too is untamed conjecture.

Billy wrote:I noticed that all the advisors wanted to take the grapes, but the third one seemed to mishear that:
"Take the grapes"
"No, don't! How is he going to eat a raw fish?"
"Exactly, take the grapes"
"Oh"

I think he was confused as to whether "take" meant take as food or take as a clue object.

Although the team may have come across as indecisive, particularly in the clue room, I'd say that that had as much to do with loose editing as anything else.

Frustratingly, this episode feels like a bit of a walkthrough, in a way that became common in Series 4. This would seem to be partly the result of the production crew tackling the problem of 'wastage' i.e. unused material (which Tim Child has mentioned once or twice). If Treguard hadn't given a whopping great clue to Cedric's third riddle, the team mightn't have done well enough to earn the ANVIL spell, and the crew wouldn't have had a second chance to show off its effect. The Gumboil/ANVIL scene went very smoothly, as if the advisors had been well briefed - and their awareness of dispelling hadn't been imparted on-screen. Added to that, Casper gave the team a lot of guidance and Merlin's riddles were far from obscure, not least when he gave a visual clue during his third.

I wonder if FREEZER might have worked in the Hall of Spears. Although it could only affect sentient objects, and the spears weren't, Bert had implied that there were guards operating the spears.

Folly's Level 2 riddle was the seventh of the episode and the eleventh of the quest - surely records.

Billy wrote:Folly's riddle was something like this:

"Said the right hand to the left hand, 'I don't know the way'.
Said the left hand to the right hand, 'I'm in disarray'.
'Very well' quoth the right hand, 'Then I'll have the say'."

If that wasn't meant as political satire then (with a General Election a few months behind), does it apply now?

An unsatisfying episode in many ways, but redeemed by very enjoyable moments with Cedric and Bert.

They certainly made a meal of that moving lock room.
And the team were quick to decide NOT to use the freeze spell and using the anvil Are we getting to the end of the series then?

Overall I though the team has been doing quite well, they have gotten most questions correct, I to thought the egg timer was to slow something up, I thought that moving lock was quite fast and maybe they should have used it there? compare it with the other time the room appeared, it was much slower then.

And Folly still rocks.

it a wonder why they did not die due to their lifefoce clock
>:D

Why would they? They've picked up two food already in level 2, and there hasn't been many dangers that have hurt it.

Lifeforce is supposed to decrease by one unit per room.