This was a 1980 offering from HTV about the adventures of three time travelling kids.
The kids, Phil, Helen and Terry have been recruited by sorcerer Rothgo (grumpy but good) to help him in his quest for the magical 'Nidus' stone. Unfortunately, Rothgo has a nemesis, in the form of the witch Belor (fearsome but foxy) who will stop at nothing to get her hands on the Nidus.
Following the spooky theme tune, the kids would arrive in a different time zone (Dark Ages etc). Rothgo (delightfully played by Ron Moody) would be in disguise ( as a dotty druid or something) and be able to help the kids in their search. The downside being that Belor (a sultry Pamela Salem) was also in the zone (normally disguised as a cunning - but cute courtesan) and out to nail those pesky kids.
The Nidus would be hidden as an everyday object and once the kids had found it, Belor would appear cackling maniacally as her witchy self, to scream out her famous line "I deny you the Nydus!" Kids and Nydus would be flung into a different time zone and the quest would continue...
As with Dr Who, time travel is always a good theme for a story. Unfortunately the show was made on a very shoestring budget - Dr Who was almost Star Wars in comparison. The way to get round this was to use the same polystyrene cave set every week, with different costumes and period decorations. Surprisingly, this worked quite well and gave an eerie background to the adventures.
What made the series, was the on-screen chemistry between Salem and Moody, who seemed to enjoy playing the feuding wizards, squaring up to fight 'astral duels' with lightning bolts.
Even for the time, the special effects were a little limp, and are fairly comical compared to today's CGI magic. However, 'Into the Labyrinth' was certainly entertaining (better than watching Blue Peter) and definite nostalgia for a child of the 80s .
No comments:
Post a Comment