From TES issue 56 (March 2009)

Series 7/8. Level 1/2.
GIANT CATS

We all know how much the Knightmare production team enjoyed blowing up animals (not literally, obviously) with their sophisticated camera-tricks. Several times during the final two series, they did exactly that with a black cat, which was probably the beloved family pet of one of the runners or something! Yes, it was just a normal pet cat, but in the Knightmare Dungeon and in its enlarged state, it was so many other things as well.

The cat first appeared in episode 4 of series 7, playing the part of Marta, thereby giving Jacquelin Joyce the day off. Sidriss had accidentally morphed Marta into feline form while the pair were having an argument, and was having trouble changing her back. Thankfully, dungeoneer Nicola was on hand to return Sidriss’s wand to her, allowing her to turn Marta from a cat into… a large black Labrador. Oh, dear.

The cat next appeared in episode 9, playing the part she was born to play – Bethsemane, Sidriss’s Cheshire Cat! Sidriss had mentioned her feline familiar as far back as the fifth episode of series 6, but it was not until this point that we discovered Bethsemane was about ten times the size of a normal cat! During the closing credits of this episode, Bethsemane could be seen sitting in front of a castle. She peered inquisitively at the camera a few times, before slinking off at the end. Cute!

The cat’s final appearance in series 7 was as winning dungeoneer Julie in episode 11, after she had swallowed a Catnip potion. The magic lasted just long enough to scare off Raptor, who was holding Romahna prisoner in the final chamber of level one. Lord Fear had earlier revealed that Raptor was superstitious, and did not like black cats crossing his path. Clearly, then, Raptor is part of the half of the world’s population that considers black cats to be unlucky, rather than the half that considers them lucky.

Knightmare’s feline thespian was back for one last appearance in the fifth episode of series 8, playing the part of Hordriss in disguise… as a giant cat, obviously. After some heavy hints from Treguard and Majida, the team worked out that they had to coax Hordriss to return to his human form by providing him with information about the murderous Sidriss-clone that was on its way to kill him. Unsurprisingly, this had the desired effect. It is worth noting that Clifford Norgate provided some very nice cat noises in his voice-over for the first bit of this scene – it was certainly a lot more convincing than his tortoise impression!

Fear Factor: 2 Only Raptor was scared of them.
Killer Instinct: 0 Purely plot devices, not threats.
Gore Factor: 0 I love cats!
Humanity: 8 Three of the four of them were humans in disguise!

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Also known as a feline, and possibly the finest animal in the world, especially in its popular domesticated form. While not creatures of fantasy per se, the millennia of mystical and magical associations that have surrounded cats were likely what led them to be included in Knightmare.
Level 3 of Series 3 featured a striking feline chamber. Two black cats (presumably statues), either side of a pit, would periodically shoot fiery blasts into it, and the pit in turn would be covered intermittently by a floor. This was obviously the moment for the dungeoneers to cross, and the teams (4 and 11) had to time their actions accordingly. The cats' collars followed a traffic-light system to help with this. While Egyptian mythology had no explicit presence in the Dungeon, the chamber paid homage to Ancient Egyptian design and reverence towards cats. The chamber also featured in the French version of Knightmare, Le Chevalier Du Labyrinthe, with at least one contestant meeting his doom there. (See Feline Fire for TES' profile of this room. A scan by David Rowe of his 'Egyptian room' artwork can be seen here.)

The answer to Merlin's first question to Team 10 of Series 3 was "cat". The same question appears as Riddle 44 of Section 3 of the Knightmare board game's riddle book, with 'Tabby Cat' accepted as an alternative answer. Team 3 of Series 3 were told by Velda that the first step was "the cat".

According to Motley in Series 4, the Dungeon had a resident, free-roaming cat, which he saw from time to time (though the Watchers did not). His use of Grow-Me-Quick saved dungeoneer Nicky of Team 3 of Series 4 from being small enough to fall victim to the Dungeon cat. In Series 5, Elita suggested to dungeoneer Christopher (Team 7 of Series 5) that his name was better suited to a cat or pet mouse.

During Series 6, Sidriss revealed that she owned a cat, Bethsemane. Due to being a Cheshire cat, Bethsemane had the power of invisibility, making her hard for Sidriss to find (as shown during Team 3 of Series 6's quest), though she could still be heard. During Team 4 of Series 6's quest, a MOUSE-spellbound Motley feared that Bethsemane would prey upon him. Bethsemane was seen by Team 5 of Series 7. Where fanfiction is concerned, the cat has since been found (or not) in the Crazed Heifer area of the KM fan community's Knightmare Roleplay Forum.
Also in Series 7, Julie of Team 6 of Series 7 became a giant black cat herself, by means of a Catnip potion. This was sufficient to scare off the superstitious Raptor. During the quest of Team 3 of Series 8, Hordriss had taken the form of a big black cat in a failed attempt to go incognito.

The presence of the feline in the Dungeon was revived through Ruke and Toddy's roles in Knightmare RPG Season 6 and Season 7 respectively. Ruke and Toddy are part-feline and part-human (reminiscent of the humanoid Cat in sci-fi series Red Dwarf). In addition, a few cats were featured in the Knightmare books: Pussillanimous in The Quest For The Dragon's Egg and Malkin in Lord Fear's Domain, both witches' familiars, and Snuggles in The Labyrinths Of Fear, a black cat owned by an unnamed hunchback.
Among the characters drawn by Lucy a.k.a. Sidriss Starshine for Knightare RPG Season 2 was Bastet, a cat belonging to Ixia. Twice during the season a giant cat was seen: in Session 12 it was summoned with Catnip to deal with the Snakeman (pictured), and in Session 13 it was itself neutralised through use of a Dog Substitute potion. Mentioned but not seen in during RPG2 was Fluffy, a cat that had belonged to the Unholy King before falling prey to hungry goblins.

[Earlier version: 2006-07-31 18:43:57]

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