The Krypton Factor

The obstacles themselves may have looked like they were produced on a 5p budget, but without a doubt there was still a huge improvement on the obstacle course this year, which was their weakest part in the last series. Everything looked spaced out, without stupid attempts at arty camera angles all the time, and running everyone together seemed to work much better!

Well the assault course was an improvement but I didn't like the setting.

How hard can it be to create a linear assault course in a straight line ?

Indeed, much better assault course this year than last year.
Quite why it can't be in a straight line (uphill?) as noted by another poster does indeed remain a mystery.
Only four rounds this time, with the time limit on Mental Agility upped to 45 seconds and the final round upped to 90 seconds.
On the whole it still rather works quite well, though it really still could do with a fifth round.
I still fail to not quite see the entire concept of "the Kube" though, or why heartbeats are measured, or why the presenter just effectively hangs around like a spare part.
The "Tron" effect, for whatever reason, seems to just look better this time round.

Shame about no Intelligence round. It could have easily been slotted in - the show started at around 7.33pm and finished at around 7.56pm. There were a few mins of ITV trailers in between. And there was a bit of chat about how hard they found the assault course and uneccessary chat at the end of the programme. Without these chats and without ITV trailers/or with a prompt start and slightly later end time, they could have easily put it in. They did last year, so why have they decided to get rid of it this year? Is it due to budget constraints?

If its back next year, it should return - then it would be a top notch show! Otherwise, all in all, a very enjoyable show tonight and excellent assault course. What was that country house shown right at the start of the assault course?

Not sure but would imagine that's the round that costs the most to make. If they had to ditch one round I would have picked observation but I guess that is the cheapest one.

Having read that they replaced the round with extra chat I was prepared for a lot of banter but it didn't seem too bad really. The assault course felt more like the old one and the General Knowledge round seemed better too.

Yesterday afternoon I saw the repeat of heat 1 (shown 23:30 Thursday night). Hopefully I'll see the first showings off-air Tuesday evenings from now on.

Anyway, I noticed that the assault course can now take all 4 contestants at once, just like in the Gordon Burns era. Back to the way it should be. I didn't like the 2-player version of last year, which necessitated 2 separate races over the assault course, thus coverage alternated between bits of each.

However I noticed the missing Intelligence round. It went Mental Agility, Observation, commercial break, Physical Ability, and finally General Knowledge. At that point, I suddenly thought "What happened to the Intelligence round?". Bring back Intelligence, I say, they managed to fit it in last year, even with the middle commercial break in place.

Really - funnily enough I never noticed that. I wish someone had mentioned it!

Sorry, I forgot to mention the assault course can take all 4 contestants at once now!

For me, the series still feels more sterile and detatched compared to the original run. And Ben always looks awkwardly out of place stood in the middle of nowhere. At least Gordon had a desk to sit behind.

As for the course, much improvement this year... with no Saving Private Ryan camera work thankfully... but it's still not presented that wonderfully. The coloured poles look like something from a Playmobile set!

When? 19919?

Nineteen Ninety is 1990 plus Nineteen equals 2009!

That is a jokey way of saying 2009... They always used to say United Kingdom Superperson of 19... something... they decided on Nineteen Ninety Nineteen as a gag only true fans might like...

Well, I say might...