Fridays, 9pm,
Channel 4
And so we come to this, the pointless second series of the botched up revival of The Crystal Maze, and rather brilliantly rather than take on board the criticisms of the various first series’ of the show that saw four million eagerly expectant viewers tune in for, only for 80% of them to give up, to all intents and purposes it sounds like they’ve doubled down on the elements everyone complained about – so Channel 4! Needless to say we look forward to not enough (30 in this run) new “multilayered” games you can easily recreate at home, therefore losing any sort of aspirational element of watching them on TV and playing fewer games so we can get to know the personalities of the contestants, many of whom have already done reality television and whose personalities we’re already aware of anyway.
Still, that Richard Ayoade’s perfect isn’t he? So sarcastic!
Channel 4 have scheduled this against Love Island.
It largely doesn’t matter if this series is critically better than the last one – people aren’t going to flock back to it. Still, let us know what you think in the comments.
Are you trying to audition for Richard’s role, there? You’d work well as an acid-tongued Master of the Maze that genuinely hates that people have turned up.
“YOU WEREN’T VERY GOOD AT THAT, WERE YOU?”
I’m auditioning to be the new Boyard, Master of the Fort.
“Don’t worry Crystal Maze, that was a tough one, but let’s regroup and see if we can’t get past the next one. There’s still time! Let’s see what the next challenge is.”
I’m auditioning to be the new Fort… co-host? Coach? Cheerleader…?
If I was a host I’d just use split-personality for cheap puns
Will….
Yes Will….
Start The Fans Please!
Terrible I know.
Interested to see how well/bad it does compare to Love Island, it is a different demographic after all.
Still thinking this would work better at the tea time slot in Summer Holidays, it can’t get any worse in viewership can it?
Curiously I’ve made (rather slapdash) some old zones on Halo 5 to mess some random friends with puzzles because Forge Mode is awesome! Might record an escapade in the future.
There’s an article about this year’s game designs here.
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/crystal-maze-season-two-game-design-channel-four
Are there still some Season 1 episodes in the can that haven’t been broadcast yet?
Yep, three.
Well on the plus side they have tried a bit harder on some of the games. However all the other problems remain, of which there is many.
Quite strangely, I think it’s working much better this series. Richard’s found his groove a little more and Adam Buxton v Big Narstie was entertaining.
I’ve watched one part and can’t be bothered watching any more to be honest.
Interestingly 4OD reckon this is series FOUR!
Just split the remaining episodes into three series of three then this revival will be MORE successful than the original!
Bouncy planets is a bit lazy. Laser buzzwire – well OK, but what’s with the bailouts?
Industrial had two of the best games of the night, specifically the blowing a ball round a maze and the red ball one, which looked like fun even if it was quite hard to follow. Even the chimney game felt like classic Crystal Maze, will be nobody’s favourite game but does at least work.
Fishing for keys was OK but felt and looked a bit basic, like it was missing an element. Salary sorting a decent puzzle, even if a bit wordy for people at home – felt like a minute got cut somewhere. The Head is the head.
Spinny Symbols is just that shield game from Medieval. Swinging rocks is fine.
But God it just feels so hugely irritating to watch, it doesn’t flow correctly, Ayoade’s doing exactly the same gags as last time… it feels basically completely interchangable with the first series, so really, what is the point?
I knew they would recreate Planets, and this is definitely much harder with a tighter time limit, I can easily expect some craziness to happen there. Buzzwire with bailouts I always feel is a bit of a scapegoat, you should be committed almost from the get go but that’s just me being sadistic.
Vintage Maze with the air maze game, best game of the night. That was alot of balls in that room… Pipemania puzzle is almost a replica of the same game in futuristic from Series 3. As was the Symbols game in Aztec. For new viewers thats fine but I feel a puzzle such as pipemania is fine to replicate but not symbols as the technique once worked out makes it a very easy puzzle.
Very disappointed on the key game, the premise is fine but to grab 8 keys and then test everything within 3 minutes has too much to with luck than have any sort of skill element (I know it was classed as physical). A Crystal should be earned, not just by pure probability. Math puzzle was great but they obviously cut alot out on time which if you’re trying to do at home makes it harder to try yourself.
Jar head was great, for a family show im surprised they even got away with the bleeping (but not bleeping Arse from Richard?!)
That beam was very narrow in Aztec, so well play to Miss Porter on doing that without going in the Water once!
The pace felt better though, and Richard felt very relaxed, although assaulted.
I doubt it’s even classified as a family show. It was broadcast after 9, and if you play it in All4 it says the show is not suitable for under 15s.
The censoring made me think this was originally planned to be in an 8pm slot.
The Button did sign off with talk of a ‘next series. Here’s hoping.
Although the ratings have been rubbish they seem to have held across the series and viewers actually seem to be not too critical of it, so hopefully the BBC will give another series a go in a different slot.
I gotta be honest here, I actually really enjoyed this newest episode and found myself howling with laughter at some of the celebrity’s antics.
Richard Ayoade still ruins the atmosphere far too often, though.
1.12m (6.4%).
Pretty poor once again.
Better than the recent civilian episodes though so that’s a slight positive. With less repetitive games this series they may be onto a ratings climber. The question is how they are going to deal with the combined civilian run next time with S1 & S2.
Inevitably we’ll see the civilian episodes drop because of the same games being seen surely. It would’ve made more sense to get the new games shown on the civilian episodes first to make that the hook, but I totally understand they want to push off and get a higher viewership again. What was the viewership for Love Island?
2.3m.
oh.
Incidentally, the three unseen episodes from the original run are available on demand from their Australian broadcaster, if you can get around the geoblock. No new games in any of them (which means that despite claiming they had 60+ ideas and 41 new games, we only got 38), buuuuut a quick skim suggests there’s another big failure with Adam Buxton In A Jar and, somehow, a lock-in in the super-easy motherboard plug maze. Plus Word Tetris turns up twice in those episodes when it’s only appeared once in the UK season to date.
What everybody else said. You know I’m going to watch if there’s the prospect of new games, and the games were by and large merely all right, which is far lower a bar than it should be. I did laugh at the last 20 seconds or so, though again that’s a gag that will work once at most. It’s very hard to give up on a show like this but man are they trying to make it tempting.
As an aside, I no longer consider the transitions between the zones an essential part of the format when cutting a few minutes from the show if these traditions are as mundane as they are in practice – I would rather save a minute to go towards getting more games in.
“When you next see us, the landscape will look a bit different. That’s because of editing.”
Still a lot of the same problems, but a few of the games do seem more promising than what we got in the first episode last year. Unfortunately, keeping the dreadful pacing issues and limiting an episode to ten games means the dud games stick out far more than they otherwise would. It’s especially bad with the unbalanced setup we got, where we had six three-minute games and Adam Buxton In An Apothecary and all but one of them was in Industrial or Medieval, while Futuristic got two super quick games and that was it.
There was some good stuff – the Industrial maze was indeed a classic, and I also quite liked the chimney puzzle and Aztec Hit & Run Without Lycra – but there were still too much tedium. The key game is AWFUL (far worse than anything last year) and the coin one isn’t much better, Buxton and the space hoppers are too derivative, and the laser buzzwire is an excellent idea on paper that just doesn’t work in practice.
Would it work if they combined the key game with Adam Buxton In An Apothecary? Like you answer a riddle right and you get to pick one of, say, five keys for a chest with one lock on it? That seems like an easy way to take the elements of two tedious games and make one game that’s slightly less torturous to watch. (But that would be too obvious, so instead we’ll get Adam Buxton In The Canteen next year and Adam Buxton On A Pike the year after.)
Pressure Maze is an excellent design, and also a very iterable one. Ball attack is also flexible and fine, the usual set drabness aside.
Planet Hop’s poetics are much worse now, without the notions of orbital rotation and suspension in the heavens in play. The previous version didn’t really need fixing either, and physical games don’t wear their welcome out quite as fast as others. This also applies to Boulder Beam – transporting liquid when it’s just everywhere just feels silly.
Buzz Laser is nearly fine. So many physical tasks rely on repetition, and this one keeps itself fresh with the angle and judicious obstacle use. The aggressive colour obliterates detail to the extent you can’t tell what’s going on. The reset procedure is immersion breaking, and should either be changed (by say, using a real wire) or cut in editing. Maybe some subtle sparkle effect for cutting it too close?
Pay Day, Glyph Wheels, Colour Chimneys just have no reason to exist. I gather no contestant would willingly pick them or look excited when they show up, they’re boring to look at, hard to play along with, and very tired as concepts.
—
I feel like I want to “fix” Key Fishing, so I will. Addressing the luck bit: Attach a sigil to the keys. Put more locks on the chest. Attach two sigils (or a heraldic combination, if you must) to the locks. A lock opens with one of the keys that bear the sigil. Observant players will notice that the sigils of wrong keys are not on the chest. Really observant players will notice each sigil appears twice, so that fitting one key also tells you where the wrong choice goes, and this can chain all the way to knowing where all keys fit depending on designer choice. Also notice that on a hingeless lid, the locks on one side of the box need not unlock to gain access.
Splitting the room in half may not be best for camera angles. You could shorten the stick while maintaining torque fiddliness by making the stick hook-heavy or curving it on a different plane to the hook. Or maybe just give them a very floppy rod.
Channel 4 has posted a video containing clips of celeb teams and civilian teams by the looks of things, plus some brief flashes of new games (and near misses?)
https://twitter.com/Channel4/status/1006936736499421184
An unfortunate graphical slip tonight where a game clock counted down as follows:
02:00
01:59
(cutaway)
02:57
It’s the little things…
Tonights show easy the best episode of the revived Crystal Maze. Some great games and 2 modern updates of classics. Richard also on form, also what was that result from the dome haha.
So frustrating, glimmers of some pretty good ideas – loved the set up to the cage mazes, only for the actual game bit to be far too easy. Really neat updating of the door maze, but in the same episode three minutes of Bez picking up balls in an empty room. I thought both the Aztec games were pretty good.
I liked the look and feel of that Futuristic Quizzy Food Mixer game, but a minute of needle in a haystack not usually good TV.
This is my issue too. We’ve already seen 19/30 of the new games, and so many of them are SO close to being good games but they keep missing the mark in really obvious, easily-tweakable ways. The quality has definitely improved from last season, but even then we’re still only at about a 6 out of 10. And even then if you take out the games that are blatant copies of old games (Ropes And Ladders In A Pool With A Puzzle) or the ones that are too similar to each other (the two Fill The Tube With Balls games), you’re left with a heck of a lot of mediocrity.
Had they started with these games, it probably would have been fine. It wouldn’t have been a roaring success, but it also wouldn’t have haemorrhaged viewers as badly as last season did. But having these games now is far too little too late.
The only way I can see it is to completely revamp the show one more time with a new host, tiny changes here and there. Very much like Doctor Who does. It should feel like Willy Wonka, not Reality TV. If they can just get it sold to international markets more like Boyard does they won’t have a problem.
The big problem with remakes is that you have to get them pretty much bang on right off the bat, and the producers took the wrong takeaways from the successful Stephen Merchant special.
When people leave, they’re not coming back, they have too many other options.
My TV Guide has handily confirmed this mini-run is five episodes.
Show Discussion: The Crystal Maze Series 2, Part 1 definitely.
Funny how they went to all the trouble of commissioning a second season of a show nobody really liked and are now burning it off against the World Cup because nobody really wanted it. I have to think Ayoade has some sort of blackmail material against the head honchos at Channel 4.
First Aztec game a definite nod to Series 1s Ropes and Ladders, I hate Red font on stuff that isn’t distinct due to colour blindness so I barely noticed those arrows to go underwater, should be clearer.
Curious to see how the swinging game will pan out, and as noticed kinda major mess up point on editing which totally meant you knew what was going to happen. Looks particularly nasty though.
Spaceships was a neat idea, it’s a shame that I think the concept was way too easy, should be a figure like 101 or something to at least result in more than 1/2 targets being shot.
The Crystal Lottery as im now calling it makes me want to have one of those Red Crystals, but im in total agreement that there shouldn’t be games where luck is involved.
Another ball grabbing game? Granted this is alot nicer looking but should only be one of these in a series, plus 3 minutes of grabbing balls is not everyones cup of tea, which is why we saw alot of jump cuts there.
Cage Escape was a good idea but the key unlock just seems too easy. Im thinking that if someone is slow they wont block the door until they’re passed it, otherwise why give 2 minutes?
A Skill Game (if i heard right) for Bez’s clearly mental game? Seems a bit off. A classic escape room type puzzle but from experience people can spend double that amount of time trying to complete those ones!
Minecart forcing rules on the gems I get, I would’ve maybe added another factor and have big boulders have to be smashed on the other side of the room before taking them back to collect, instead of lighting digging them out.
Pipemania returns already, but worked well because of actually chatting to Mr Kemp more than showing the game off.
‘Vintage’ Maze with the doors, great look and feel and can be adapted for future series to be used in other ways.
0.87m excluding +1 last night.
Recently I’ve been watching some of the old shows in between these new ones. All the old editions on Now TV for anyone who didn’t know. I’ve been watching the Tudor-Pole ones mostly as they get dismissed as being rubbish but those two series have some of the best games. Some really wonderfully creative and evil games. It’s frustrating the same level wasn’t applied to this new series. Especially with over 20 years in advancements in technology.
The final series of original Crystal Maze in 1995 had some interesting on screen gags inserted in. Like Ed watching himself in a silent movie in Ocean Zone and an a tribe having a feast in Aztec before running away as the team arrive. Little things like this could be incorporated. But the new series just gives this feeling of “Hey, it’s just me and a few people strolling through an obvious set in Bristol made out of plywood and polystyrene”. There’s no attempt at all to make the show in any way fun.
I know the sets aren’t connected but some clever editing would remedy that. But they seem to make no effort in making anything look connected. My biggest niggle being when people are brought back after locks in. They’re just brought in as if they were stood around the corner the whole time.
I will admit Richard appears to have settled in a bit better this series. He talks to the camera a lot more. Not a fan of his overused gags though.
Oh yeah, I’ve always been of the opinion that the only thing stopping the Ed seasons from being perfect is that he’s too self-consciously wacky in a way that Richard the First wasn’t. There’s a couple of terrible games in there, but they’re mostly in the Ocean Zone, where they hadn’t had a chance to work out the kinks the way they had in the other zones. I’ll cut them a pass on that.
Meanwhile they had so much time to plan this season, and we ended up with a game involving pushing buttons on the cell walls that got put in a cell where they forgot to reinforce the walls so they didn’t wobble when players knocked them by accident.
I don’t think anyone thinks S5 and 6 are shit do they? Only that Ed isn’t as good as Richard.
What annoys me is that the people involved suggest they are fans of the show and are happy with what they’ve made.
Oh, the parallels I could make with Amazing Race Canada.
Am I the only one who thinks the Celebrity Editions are the things that are causing viewer drop off? Keep it to the Civilian Editions only.
No, the production is just not good enough, celebrities or no. Otherwise they’d have come flocking back with the civilian eps. The interest was there.
As a contestant in the very first series, and occasional game designer for later series, I have to say that the reboot has been pretty poor, not so much because of the games, but because of Richard Ayoyade.
Richard O’Brien will always be the best host for me. A great mix of friendly banter with the teams, asides to the viewers, and that ‘oh come on, get on with it!’ shout out during game play. And a really REALLY nice guy when off set too! Ed T-P did his best and wasn’t THAT bad, but was always going to be second-best to Richard. But Richard A is just unfathomable. No real banter, no real humour, and continually asking the contestants to ‘just believe in it even though it’s not real.’ Pretty much the opposite to Richard O’B, in other words.
Others have said the games are sub-par too. No wonder, when you have basically on woman dreaming up all the games! Even the original series had several game creators, with even more in later series of the original, and to me that is what made the games in those seris good to watch and get to know. There wasn’t just ONE mind behind them all, so many of them games in those first series were unique or at least way different from the other games. Oh, and as the current game creator has also created games for shows like The Cube and The Generation Game, there’s bound to be some “formulaic” stuff in there. On a personal note, I see that Anna has ‘nicked’ the air-blower basketball game I devised and changed it into an air-based maze.
But really, they do need to find a MUCH better host than Richard Ayoyade. I think Alex ‘Taskmaster’ Horne could be absolutely ideal!
Hey Cad! I remember you from first time round, great stuff.
Alex Horne’s Crystal Maze is something I could get behind.
Although also I imagine “blowing X with an air gun” is too generic an idea (indeed one CM has used multiple times in the past) to claim have been nicked, unless there’s something more specific about it. Even Fort Boyard has used blowing things with headholes to guide A Thing to A Thing.
I must admit i did think back to Fort Boyard 2006 with the blowing game when i saw it on The crystal Maze a few weeks ago.
I *think* it might also have been done on Desert Forges.
Indeed my “I cracked The Crystal Maze 1990” crystal is still a treasured possession, as is the original production drawing of the original CM set, masuring about 2m×1m, which was quite unexpectedly given to me by David J. on a visit to Chatsworth’s offices in London, with the words “I think you’re the sort of guy who would like this.” I was speechless! I did also keep my prize card.
For anyone not familiar with my show, I won two crystals out of three games played; though I am much better known for the YouTube video of me failing to climb down the wall from Futuristic to Aztec, with Richard’s epic line “Is that Chris Bonnington coming down there?!!”
There was a point where the “new” CM hadn’t happened yet, when I was phoned out of the blue by a production company, asking who I would reclon woould be a good host (!). Not as easy as you’d think. The plan then was to shoot it in Argentina (like Total Wipeout, because even with the air travel, production costs would have been a fraction of making it in the UK, apparently.
I didn’t come up with any great suggestions back then, but Alex would be brilliant. Either him, or possibly Tim Allen? Tim doesn’t have long-term commitments to any other shows, and (IMHO) has that slight air of innate eccentricity about him that RO’B and ET-P both shared. RO does too, but I’m so not a fan of his style, in terms of presenting CM that is.
So, Brig Bother, are you the sort of Internet-savvy fellow who could organise an “(insert name here) for CM host” online petition once the Mazerati here have come to an agreement? And drum up support for same, both here and perhaps on Twatter and Farcebook (neither of which I am a user of)?
And the more I think about it, the more I can SEE and HEAR Tim Allen doing a great job. “Oh what a SHAME!” and with that twinkle in his eye, “And it was SUCH an easy game!” (beat) “Never mind, whom would you like to nominate to fail next, captain?”
ARGH! I meant TOM Allen!
Also is it RA not RO (Ayoade). I had problems spelling it to begin with.
I’m not sure I can get on with Tom Allen hosting if I’m honest. As a TV personality he’s just sort of… there. Lots of people were suggesting Noel Fielding and pre-Taskmaster and Bake Off I’d have been ‘hell no’, but I’ve warmed to the idea since.
Your name basically jumped out at me when you turned up as a game designer in the credits and I suspected it was the same guy as the name’s quite unusual.
I don’t tend to do petitions except as a joke, I’m not nearly nerd enough, besides everyone in TV reads here so you’ve got a good platform. Or at least that’s what they all tell me immediately before asking for a favour.
I’m surprised they haven’t contacted Alex Horne as I bet he has some ideas for cell games which fit the essence of CM.
Actually, since he’s already around, I wonder what Adam Buxton would have been like in the role?
Judy Murray has a claim to be one of the worst contestants ever. She got locked in on a mental game in a small room.
The Industrial game with the drainpipes was a good one.
Putting some coloured sticks in order, frankly not so.
I’m trying to see how this can be made difficult as this must of been the limit. (10 buttons maybe.
Make it so you can only press one button at a time? Some of those traps are rather close to each other, and not being able to press the upcoming button in advance would ramp up the difficulty quite a lot.
Also, I note that’s another appearance of the Red Crystal. I wonder if that’s going to be an ongoing widget when they want something that behaves like a crystal without being one.
Yeah. They have taken the ruby crystal idea onboard but not used it for the original suggested idea. (One game equals 10 secs of time) maybe if season 3 is commissioned they can use it as they will have a lot of wasted materials if not. Maybe a viewer giveaway at the end of series for a prop giveaway.
I think you just have to make the order harder to memorise. Rachel’s correct order was 12534678, with 5 being the only one that was out of sequence. The game is very solid on its own (though visually too similar to last year’s ‘line up the gutters’ disaster), but it’s too easy.
With only eight different colours I’m inclined to agree, but if there had been more graduation in the colour still, so that you had to separate your red-orange from your orange from your orange-yellow, I think it would have been quite meaty and still pleasantly visual. (The game may get kid glove treatment from me because I really did like the effect upon getting the sequence correct.) That said, I’d be curious to know how it looked from the perspective of those with atypical colour vision – it may well have been practically unwatchable.
On balance I actually really enjoyed that episode, even after all the justifiable criticisms of the hosting. Rachel Riley was great and I enjoyed her impromptu delve into utility theory for buyout decisions.
With acute colour blindless I can tell you that the colours near the end of that spectrum were distinguishable but at the same time would’ve been a nightmare for me doing that room. Nice pleasant feeling when seeing the completion though but a far far too easy game, I agree with Chris the difficulty needed to be blended in with split pieces.
Almost makes me think they were wanting a high scoring team by having Rachel Riley in with a Words game and a Numbers game in the mix (yes they failed the numbers but it almost felt like the team wasn’t allowed to do anything for the first minute or so, no camera shots to them or anything).
Interesting use of the Basket for the Red Balls, which helped limit the difficulty, the speed on that exit was insane.
Rachel’s Memory Gutter was a sort of easy sequence and for 3 minutes is far too much time, alot of these games felt a bit too generous on time.
Jar Head has a flannel… interesting….
Coin Game has just reverted to using left over puzzle questions from the Jailer in season 1.
Light Beams I really enjoy the concept and the visuals are great.
Anagrams, 3 Minutes? Really? 2 Minute Game surely when it’s only 2 letters, and to have Arrow in Jarheads puzzle sort of makes that a bit silly.
Drink the God still seems like 3 minutes was far too much, I wonder if any team failed this.
Skulls…Will anyone ever learn?
I wonder if more time was given on Rainbow Lights due to the wheelchair use? I wonder if they also told him that was the only game he could do of the 5 that was there? Or do you reckon other ramps wouldve been placed in necessity?
Charlotte’s impressive showing after an almost why the hell is she going so slow? ??
Good team to watch.
How many people are on the current game design team for the Maze? Do you think they’ve taken any input at all from other people?
Well there was ramps built in Medieval so I presume they had plan B in place if he was selected earlier than that scheduled Futuristic game. However spring planets was clearly a no go. The selection was kind of staged however. Out of the ten preselected he was able to do all but 3. The skulls due to the step & staging, spring planets (pretty obvious why) & the bolder log.
A viewer giveaway of the ruby crystal would be an excellent gesture from the “new boys.”
One concept which was rejected in original CM was the “gamble game.” At, or just before, the Crystal Dome, the team would be offered a final gamble game. This involved building a wireframe crystal from something similar to K-Nex; part of the crystal was built and the player (or team, I wasn’t told which) would have to complete it using the parts provided, againast the clock. Winning would gain crystals or time; not sure whether losing would LOSE time or not …
It was decided though that it rather grated against the spirit of the programme — ot to mention being difficult to
film! — and it was definitely the right decision.
Well it nice to hear fresh information I did not know about generation 1 CM. However with the new generation doing quite bad in viewership ratings they need to think fresh before it’s too late & the show is rested indefinitely. If anyone from the Fizz media production crew read this forum please consider scouting other broadcasters if channel 4 decline further commission orders as the lack of breaks will increase the probability of 12+ games per episode production cycles.
It’s definitely a itv2 or watch type or show if it doesn’t make series 3. Hell get amazon or Netflix involved for good things.
Yeah either Netflix or Amazon. The international market sell will be more easier too. No breaks will equal a perfect opportunity of true transitions to return & 12+ games. In a way I’m hoping for the cancellation to occur but at the same time afraid due to the no guarantees marker.
The only problem is the Bristol base. Is it owned by C4 or is it an independent studio. If it’s sold to another supplier would they still have access to the studio.
To my knowledge the studio is part owned by the council, so the set could generally go anywhere.
When we were trying to interest CiTV in a kids-only version (this was in the death throes of the Carlton era), we discussed something similar whereby the final game could be worth 2 or 3 crystals but it was an automatic lock-in. So it was a possible catch-up for poor teams but probably avoided by good teams.
Ah-ha! Then may one assume you are the esteemed Mr. Bodycombe? If so, it’s an honour to make your acquaintance here.
Must have been a bit annoying for you all when “Jungle Run” appeared, then? Though to be fair, that was a fun show and (generally) well-worked IMHO.
Hi again, Cad. I think we’ve swapped messages before back in the day, on topics like Pro Pinball.
According to UKGS, the period I’m referring to is circa 2002-3, so it was probably a choice between TCM and recommissioning Jungle Run which had already been around for three years. But they went with Underwood-era Jungle Run instead.
Ep 2 consolidated to 1.4m, which doesn’t sound impressive, but was C4’s 6th highest programme of the week so make of that what you will.
39th in the TV landscape for A16-34.
I thought the see-saw game was OK but as ever felt a bit easy. Playing the tonally similar drainpipe memory game afterwards seemed like a bit of a strange decision.
The Aztec symbols game probably quite an interesting challenge if you’re there, less so as a viewer.
Who could have predicted the actual challenge of the key maze game was prising the crystal out of the skeleton’s hand?
It’s almost the games team is thinking of very old ideas and making bad remakes. The see saw only being one axis and not like the surfboard game in Fort Boyard just makes it too simple. Plus location should’ve been 90 degrees more from the door.
The mismatch symbols is one of those games which is great for the viewer if you can get a chance to see the whole grid which wasn’t always the case. Also think 100 symbols wasn’t enough.
The vine climb is a weird one because I feel it’s so similar to planets 2.0, will have to see how other teams fare.
Crystal maze back on 20th July accordingly said by Giffgaff. 8pm I presume unless they are returning with repeats of Celebrity S1. It means that the final 3 of S1 will hopefully be done by 3rd August.
Nice to see the light swing in full action. As with some of the games appearing this series, ‘the cube’ element doesn’t always work. Some teams doing this in one go while others spend 3 minutes isn’t the point of a 3 minute game. A luck element shouldn’t be influential in winning a game but nice use of making the wheel an anagram, although it then makes it very close to the Aztec game again.
Looking especially forward to the next civilian episode 🙂
Agreed re: Cube comment, also not sure it needed to be an ALIS really, I think just resetting would have been fine.
I quite liked the fossil game.
I note the Knight has disappeared.
Apparently Jessica was not available for recording so the knight will be missing
Forgot about the fossil game, gives me flashbacks of the Dino game where the crystal came out of the eye. Nice presentation may have been little easy but certainly failable if there is time constraints
That’s exactly what I said when that game came up while I was watching.
Since Channel 4 have now made it public….
IM ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF THE CRYSTAL MAZE! 😀
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-crystal-maze/episode-guide
Are you a series 1 or 2 team? Once again C4 have called your episode series 5.
We filmed ours couple months back, second to last civ recording.
So they are choosing to ignore the final 3 of S1 still. Were these 3 rubbish?
Having watched them using the Australia trick, I actually thoroughly enjoyed them compared to some of the other ones, so I have no idea.
I would love to know who in Australia is showing them as there could be methods of downloading them if the website is supported
Also do you know if its doing well in australia & do you think they may attempt a production of it?
It was on a no-budget multichannel run by a niche broadcaster (I think the closest UK equivalent is E4, maybe, except E4 is more mainstream than SBSViceland?), and was pulled from the schedule before finishing the season even though the celebrity episodes weren’t included as part of the broadcast deal. There is no danger at all of us being subjected to an Australian version.
Well the celebrity editions are currently being broadcasted over there but on a Sunday. Either way two of the three missing episodes have been broadcasted and is on their site. Therefore it shows how C4 are treating a UK based programme. Fizz need to start scouting over broadcasters.
All three have aired.
Something I was meaning to ask: What’s the nuance behind Richard’s pre-Dome boilerplate “This isn’t a celebrity special for Stand Up To Cancer but it’s a special with celebrities which will culminate in us giving some money to Stand Up To Cancer”? I’m assuming there’s some subtlety in the terminology that I’m missing.
I heard suggestion that it’s so people can’t complain that the celebs are getting paid, or somesuch. Don’t know how true it is.
Episode four did 1.03m (6.2%) after seven days all-in. Amazingly this puts it 9th for C4 for the week. I would say how it did A16-34, but it doesn’t show up in the top 50.
The Crystal Maze, OFFICIALLY half as compelling as Jane McDonald on a cruise.
So going by those stats it’s likely to get a second recommision notice meaning a third season.
The last celeb special was 0.97m all-in, coincidentally. Not in any of the demographic Top 50s.
This years xmas special lineup has been revealed by Channel 4 and includes:
Christopher Biggins
Deborah Meaden
Jamie Laing
Frankie Bridge
Chris Kamara
My prediction is telling me it will be broadcast on 21st December however it went out quite early for it to be truly classed as a xmas special.