Fantastic news and glad it's getting a decent run - the original series usually had 13 episodes plus the Christmas special so 20 is great - just hope they don'the go celeb special mad.
The dedicated set also gives the show a chance to sell the rights around the world and then film on the UK set.
I wonder if Little Lion Entertainment were rubbing their hands hoping they'd get a deal with them.
I think Little Lion Entertainment is rubbing their hands at the news that the show their attractions are based on is returning for a 20 part series without having to put up with a camera crew disrupting their operation.
Not filming on the attraction brings three clear benefits to me -
1) not taking time up at the attraction
2) allowing money to be spent on making it look good on TV rather than in person - the attraction looked good enough for the special, but it doesn't come close to the quality and scale of the original - even things like having real sand in the Aztec zone can't really be done in the attraction, but won't be a problem on a studio set.
3) enabling games which work will only work on TV [they only need to work the once, and it doesn't matter if they need a couple of stage hands behind the scenes to work properly]
Not filming on the attraction brings three clear benefits to me -
1) not taking time up at the attraction
2) allowing money to be spent on making it look good on TV rather than in person - the attraction looked good enough for the special, but it doesn't come close to the quality and scale of the original - even things like having real sand in the Aztec zone can't really be done in the attraction, but won't be a problem on a studio set.
3) enabling games which work will only work on TV [they only need to work the once, and it doesn't matter if they need a couple of stage hands behind the scenes to work properly]
Agreed on all this, however I was at the attraction yesterday and there's definitely real sand all over Aztec! It's also warm there whilst it's freezing in Medieval. The attention to detail is impressive, but good news about the TV-specific set as the needs are very different to a self contained attraction. I was worried they might try to push it through cheaply using the Manchester set.
Also loving the choice of Maze Master. No, he's not Richard O'Brian or Ed Tudor Pole, but it needed someone who will play it differently rather than a pale imitation. Merchant was a real turn-off for me as he played it all very tongue in cheek. I really hope Ayoade buys into the magic of these weird worlds.
It's not beyond possibility that Little Lion team will run their live experience on the Bristol set it's a bit out of the way of the city unlike the other two but I think demand would be high enough. Of course that depends that depends on a lot of other factors too.
I agree with Brekkie that Richard will be either an inspired choice or it will go completely the other way.
The man who filmed that video, David Murphy, was a contestant on Series 4 and was a member of the first team to go to the dome with just 1 crystal (they won more but bought out several locked in members before going to the dome). I remember speaking to him ages ago for my old Crystal Maze fansite and he told me lots of information about the show. Very nice guy. (On a side note, he also told me about when he was working in New York on Sept. 11th and was in a building opposite the first tower to be hit and saw the whole thing happen up close. Horrifying.)
Yes, the old studio was the size of 2 football pitches, but not all of it was actually used for the sets. The zones were laid out in the exact way we see on the map with the dome in the centre.
It's not beyond possibility that Little Lion team will run their live experience on the Bristol set
I'd think the differing requirements between running it as an attraction and as a set for a TV show would make that impractical. They've got something like 40-50. On a fully sold out day the attractions look like they have about 700 people traipsing through them. I expect the health and safety implications of that alone rule out quite a few of the games from TV, and the rest will all have to be quickly reset. I assume the teams go through the games in a set order and are practically on each other's tails.
It's not beyond possibility that Little Lion team will run their live experience on the Bristol set
I'd think the differing requirements between running it as an attraction and as a set for a TV show would make that impractical. They've got something like 40-50. On a fully sold out day the attractions look like they have about 700 people traipsing through them. I expect the health and safety implications of that alone rule out quite a few of the games from TV, and the rest will all have to be quickly reset. I assume the teams go through the games in a set order and are practically on each other's tails.
Agreed, a studio set will be a lot different to the attraction. For starters if it's like the original set the different zones won't be connected together anything like the map implies. Rooms for different games would be built as and when needed, and I'd imagine the overall set will be struck for filming and dismantled once the series is over.
I actually preferred the Industrial Zone to Ocean, so I'm glad that it's being brought back. I think the reason Industrial's returning is, simply taking the show back to its roots.
The original industrial zone suffered from having basically the same theme for games as the future zone. Future will need to be redesigned anyway, so perfect opportunity to bring back an also redesigned industrial zone. Future can then have more space/computer themed games, while industrial takes over the mechanical/electrical themed ones.
Ocean was good, and certainly benefited from being designed/built after the programme became a success, but its games were always quite weakly themed.