In Season 3, any team reaching Merlin's Level 2 throne room were required carry out a series of three actions in order to span a large pit. These actions should have been discovered via character encounters earlier in the quest, and each one would result in a "step" or paving slab being created to form a path.

Teams learned the steps from such diverse characters as Golgarach, Velda, Brangwen, Mellisandre, the talking bird, Mrs. Grimwold, Motley, the Oracle of Confusion, Olaf and Hordriss. In other words, the majority of the cast!

A total of 25 different step clues were given out during the series (some of them twice - the HOP, the HANDSHAKE and the TREE). Only one team ever missed a step clue - Team 9 of Series 3 did not score highly enough with Golgarach to earn the first step (although Treguard later implied, somewhat dubiously, that it was Velda who failed to supply this information). Dungeoneer Scott attempted to jump the gap onto the second step, but overbalanced and fell to his death.


19 different steps were actually performed: ARCHER, BOW, CRADLE, CROWN, CRYSTAL, DANCE, GOBLIN, HANDSHAKE (twice), HOP, LAUGHTER, LION, MUSIC, ON YOUR KNEE, PRAYER, STRETCH, SWIMMER, THROWER, TREE and WAVE. Of these, CRADLE, CRYSTAL, GOBLIN (or "ghastly goblins"), LION and TREE were simply spoken rather than acted out.

6 steps were never performed (due to the teams dying before they reached Merlin's throne room): CAT, DIAMOND, DOG, SALUTE, THISTLE and WINDMILL. It has been speculated that CAT and DOG may have involved making animal noises. DIAMOND was due to follow HOP (for which there is an obvious action), so perhaps the dungeoneer would have had to draw a diamond shape in the air. THISTLE, like TREE, would presumably have been called out instead of performing an action. The same may be true of WINDMILL... or perhaps they were expected to impersonate Pete Townshend on guitar.

login to vote