23/7/06... Knightmare's 'boom' of a couple of years back now seems to
be in a perpetual downward spiral, both in terms of looking back on the old series, and in terms of developing a new one.
Firstly, Challenge TV's rights to display old seasons are starting to expire one-by-one, and they haven't shown any
interest in renewing them any time soon.
Elsewhere, Tim Child has recently reiterated that there is little chance of successfully reviving Knightmare, as,
some two years since the release of the KMVR pilot, still no TV companies have offered any indication that they might
like to invest in the proposed new version. In Tim's own words (more or less), it's time to move on or abandon Knightmare
to television history. This is sad news, and the statement has met with objections from some quarters. But I think that, in
all fairness, after four years of considerable effort and investment in a revival attempt that has been largely unsuccessful,
it seems unfair to criticise Televirtual for finally giving up hope. Oh well, roll on, Timegate. If there's
any kind of future for the Knightmare 'canon', it will probably lie there...
21/1/06... Other Side is coming out of cold
storage with a brief obituary. John Woodnutt, the actor who played the roles of Mogdred and Merlin in Knightmare,
to say nothing of many, many roles in Dr Who, passed away on January 3rd at the age of 81 after a lengthy illness.
He appeared regularly as the sorcerous alter egos throughout the first four seasons of Knightmare, and made
a particularly powerful impact as the booming necromancer, Mogdred, triumphing mightily over the hackneyed way the part was
written for him. His performances as Merlin were perhaps less impressive, but nonetheless Woodnutt undeniably played a huge
and critical role in the early development of the series, and his passing is a sad loss to the series' heritage.
7/6/04... Firstly, apologies for the shortage of updates
to this section recently. I've been busy with the RPG and the new version of the FANSFAQ amongst other, non-KM, projects.
But news is plentiful. The aforementioned new version of FANSFAQ is now available. Version 1.1 is
largely a tidy-up job, but the new stats section, 'Anorak's Corner', has fleshed it out by a good twenty-five per cent. The
filming of the RPG was a reasonable success and a new season of that should begin "fairly soon" (whatever that means). There
are two more clips made with the Knightmare VR demonstrator now available for download from the Televirtual
website, including one with brand new Lord Fear voicework from that man Mark Knight himself! Result!
Slightly older news now (but very relevant as the day it comes to fruition is today) and it's
the best news of all. A few weeks back, Challenge TV bought up the rights to show the first two seasons of Knightmare,
the only two seasons they were still to procure. With the great success of their decision to show the final three seasons
back-to-back under their belt, tonight season one gets its first broadcast run anywhere since the Sci-Fi channel
last showed it back in 1998. Season two will follow immediately afterwards, and then - this is the best news
of all - seasons three to eight will run concurrently from there! That's right, folks, starting today all eight
seasons of Knightmare will be shown concurrently on Challenge. Knightmare every weekday for over
three months! Can it get any better? Well yes, if KM VR gets the go-ahead, but in the meantime what a bonus. Next
time you're out for a pint, remember to raise a glass to those wonderful folks at Challenge TV.
25/3/04... Top tidings from Televirtual.
The long-awaited Knightmare VR demonstrator is now up and running, and on T'Virtual's website
there's a seventy-nine-second film clip of its CGI warrior in action. The sequence has a vaguely Tomb Raider-ish
feel to it, especially the sound effects, but as prototypes go it looks very promising indeed.
14/3/04... Positive news on this site and less
happy news over on Illusion's site. Firstly over there, the server's gone down. Yes, no sooner does the forum get back
up, than the main site packs in. It should be back in business by the end of March (!).
Over here, part two of Sorcerer Scurvy is now available to read, and the version 1.0
of a new reference guide for Knightmare - the FANSFAQ (Frequently And Not-So-Frequently Asked Questions)
- can now be downloaded from the Essays section. Version 1.05 will soon be available, hopefully from Illusion's site,
in HTML form and including an appendix of statistical data.
26/2/04... Joyful relief - as of
last night the main Knightmare forum is finally back in action, and faster than ever after being moved to a new server.
19/2/04... Busy week, with lots of positive news.
Firstly, Hugo Myatt is renewing his role as Treguard on Saturday morning, when he appears as a guest on Dick And
Dom In Da Bungalow.
Better still, Challenge TV have today confirmed that they have purchased not one, not two,
but three (count them, three) entire seasons of Knightmare. Seasons six, seven and eight will all be
shown on Challenge in April and May. Spectacular times ahead!
And another bonus, of sorts, over on Illusion's tribute site. Following on from the episode
of Le Chevalier du Labyrinth at New Year, now available for download is an episode of the Spanish version of Knightmare,
El Rescate del Talisman. Personally I was none-too-impressed with it, but it's still nice to be able to develop
an informed opinion.
15/2/04... Illusion's site and the main Knightmare forum
are presently both out of commission. The forum had to go offline for several days while it moves to a new server, but further
technical difficulties have since set in and it will now be a while before it's restored to life. Therefore, I've added the
URL for the Knightmare Back-up forum to the Links section.
As for Illusion's site, I haven't a clue what's happened to that, but
it went offline on Saturday evening and hasn't been seen since.
8/2/04... This year's meet-up for filming the
Knightmare RPG was in some danger of being cancelled this week owing to a sudden loss of available studio premises,
plus problems finding accommodation. Fortunately, both of these problems appear to have been resolved. The cast
and crew will be housed AND they will film in a hostel off Manchester city centre called The Hatters (I've inspected
it myself, and it seems good value for the very cheap nightly rate). And yes, I will be present to help out this year,
although I won't be staying in the hostel myself (I only live two miles away!), nor will I be in the cast.
1/1/04... The New Year begins with a major
update on Illusion's tribute site. Of special interest is a downloadable .rm of a whole episode of the French version of Knightmare
- Le Chevalier du Labyrinth, which translates as "The Knight of the Labyrinth". A somewhat questionable title,
as the dungeon in that version doesn't appear to be remotely large enough to pass for a labyrinth! It still gets a strong
recommendation though, on a par with some of the weaker season three episodes of KM. NOTE: You'll need RealPlayer
to watch it, which you can download for free from the real.com website.
Elsewhere, the schedule for season four's re-run on Challenge TV has
been confirmed. Not the most social of times, it must be admitted. It'll be shown every weekend morning at 8:30am, starting
Jan 10th, and will be repeated the following morning at 3am.
We await news of which season, if any, Challenge will be buying next.
(Subtle, impartial hint - please, please, please, please, please show S2!)
21/12/03
