From TES issue 65 (September 2010)

Series 4/5/6/7/8. Level 2/3.
THE CORRIDOR OF BLADES

Although this obstacle has by far the longest tenure of any Dungeon threat, it does not have anything like the greatest number of appearances or victims as it was used somewhat sporadically, unlike the (somewhat overused) causeways. However, when the Corridor of Blades did put in an appearance, we always knew we were in for an exciting time!


Series 4 was the only series in which it actually featured as a regular challenge. Who could forget that first moment when a buzzing circular saw started thundering down the corridor towards Alistair (which came as a complete surprise and a jarring shock, as the blade-free version of the corridor had already appeared twice in the series) to the sound of Pickle’s urgent tones telling the advisors to take action, only for Alistair to be sawn in half a few seconds later as the entire team fell to pieces.

Perhaps going some way towards proving their worth as the series champions, Dickon’s team later showed us how the Corridor of Blades should be done, while Giles had a very near miss with one of the blades and had to endure (perhaps as a consequence of this) the entire blade sequence running through twice! There was a strange but brief appearance of the blades during Simon’s quest too, this time in level two rather than level three, but Gundrada was on hand to guide him safely, and they only had to move once anyway!

The Corridor of Blades appeared twice during series 5, but both teams were undoubtedly in losing status at the time, and I very much suspect that the obstacle was only included as a quick and interesting way of killing them off. This is undoubtedly the case with Duncan’s team, who had trundled gaily past level two in the Descender, while Sarah’s team – having dithered too long with their ruby and failed to gain Elita’s help – didn’t stand much of a chance either!
The Corridor made one appearance each in series 6 and 7, and it is during its series 6 appearance that the phrase “the Corridor of Blades” is first uttered, by Pickle in a suitably nervous tone. On this occasion, Sofia’s generally brilliant team managed to complete the challenge successfully (just one of the many reasons why their quest was much harder than that of Ben’s “winning” team that year) while during the final episode of series 7, Barry’s team completed the tricky obstacle (albeit with an incredibly close shave) as part of their distinctly lengthy level three.

The Corridor of Blades returned for series 8, apparently residing in Marblehead now, and claimed its fourth victim in the shape of Daniel. Although this was quite a satisfying death, the fact that it happened at all is a tremendous shame in many ways and for many multifaceted reasons, but let’s not go into that now. Similarly, let’s not go into the travesty that is the Short Cut, which facilitated the Corridor’s final two appearances, with Dunstan and Oliver. For reasons I’d rather not remember, they both entered the Corridor of Blades in level one (this was a so-called “second entrance” if you can believe that) and they both made it through to level three, although (like Giles and Barry before him) Dunstan had a very close shave and still managed to get through… and I think it’s best not to say any more about that!

[See also: Gatwick]

login to vote