From TES issue 63 (May 2010)

Series 4. Level 2/3.
THE BLOCK AND TACKLE

It takes a tricky and ruthless challenge to kill off exactly half the teams to attempt it during the course of one series. Play Your Cards Right achieved this feat in series 7, as did the Block and Tackle in series 4. Six of the eight teams in this series were given this challenge, and three – for various reasons – died here. Why wasn’t this challenge presented to Alistair or Dickon? Well, I guess we’ll never know for sure…
Helen’s team made pretty heavy weather of the Block and Tackle, although Helen eventually made it through unscathed. There is a distinctly iffy moment when the advisors are yelling at their dungeoneer to walk in front of a block that turns out to be on the verge of moving, and she doesn’t walk forward until it has trundled across her path – was someone upstairs whispering a few tips into Helen’s ear, perhaps? This was the first of three successful attempts at the challenge, but it was a bit of a dodgy one.

Somewhat surprisingly, Nicky’s otherwise shaky team coped with the Block and Tackle superbly. This was the picture perfect way to complete the challenge – calm, clear yet quick instructions, allowing Nicky to walk safely across the room in plenty of time to avoid the collapsing floor and sliding blocks. Well done, team!
Simon’s encounter with the Block and Tackle is probably the most famous Knightmare death ever, and the fact that he sidestepped into a hole as soon as it appeared is due entirely to advisor error. As Treguard pointed out, that Andrew in the red jumper didn’t really know left from right, and clearly this challenge caused him to panic sufficiently to lose any grip on the situation which he might have possessed in his more lucid moments. A classic and well remembered scene, this one, and rightly so!
Despite Treguard’s attempts to convince us otherwise, it was always obvious to me (even back when I was seven) that Vicky was killed off early at the Block and Tackle because the team had failed to earn Merlin’s magic, and were therefore doomed to die at the hands (or between the jaws) of Ariadne. The production team found it all too easy to kill Vicky off here, I think – they just waited until she was in line with a block and then squashed her with it! The advisors seemed to be panicking badly, so perhaps the quest would have ended here anyway, but the fact is that we were never going get the chance to find out!
The Block and Tackle’s final victim was Jeremy, and the skeptically minded might be of the opinion that his death here was very unfair. Encountering the obstacle unusually early in level two, Jeremy entered the room at an incredibly inconvenient angle, facing the collapsing side! Treguard urged the team to get him moving, and they did, right onto the collapsing floor! Despite their bags of pluck, Jeremy and the three “A”s stood very little chance of emerging from this challenge intact, I feel.
The Block and Tackle’s final appearance in the latter stages of level three was somewhat unexpected, but I am convinced that it was stuck in here purely to kill off Giles just before the end of the season. Like Jeremy, Giles entered the room at a horrible angle, but thanks to Brett’s skilful (if chaotic) guidance, Giles foiled the production team and emerged from the challenge unscathed, meaning that the team earned the hollow consolation of ending up undefeated rather than dead. Giles at the Block and Tackle is one of my favourite Knightmare scenes ever – it’s hilarious!

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From TES issue 1 (December 1995)

SERIES 4 : LEVEL 2/3 : THE BLOCK AND TACKLE
Surely this room is the most infamous of all challenges to face any dungeoneer ! Although this trap was only featured in series four, I have lost count of the number of hapless teams to reach a grim end in this chamber - so much so, that by the end of the series it had been moved from level 2 to level 3!

In fact, the challenge faced was fairly simple. The team had to merely avoid he collapsing floor on the far left, whilst dodging the odd flying brick which became increasingly dangerous as more and more blocks slid from left to right - and back again!

Undoubtedly, total calmness was required from all concerned, whilst so many teams seemed to die in a fit of blind panic ! As a reminder, I shall leave you with a final example. Remember Simon and friends from Wales? As an enormous hole appeared on Simon's left, he was guided quite expertly.

"Simon, sidestep to your left.....". Says it all really!

DIFFICULTY: 9 Danger from all angles!
KILLER INSTINCT: 10 The ultimate dungeoneer killer
GORE FACTOR: 8 Squashed by a block, or stumbling down a pit.
FAIRNESS: 6 Perhaps too much for level two!

Written by and submitted with the kind permission of Paul McIntosh.

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A room commonly used in Level 2 of Series 4. This room would appear stable for the first few seconds, until it would scare the team pantsless when it started to break up.
First the wall blocks would move from side to side overhead, and then the floor would start collapsing from the left. One team even guided their dungeoneer straight into one of these holes.

Used in Level 3 once for Giles' team at the end. Presumably, the production team wanted to try and kill the team off to finish the series without a cliffhanger. This backfired, however, seeing as the team successfully survived this puzzle.

The Block and Tackle claimed 3 teams in this series, 2 times where the dungeoneer fell down a hole, and once where the dungeoneer was hit by a lower flying block.

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Series: 4/5
Level: 2/3

This is a most Dangerous and Unstable room, when you move or walk foward the blocks at the top starts to move and the floor on the left side starts to fall away. It was mostly used in Level 2, but at the final episode of Series 4 it was moved to Level 3. In Series 5 it was still in Level 3 when Team 4 of Series 5 met Aesandre appeared "There is an uncomfortable warmth in here" then Team 4 of Series 5 Spell cast the word FREEZE which was given by Hordriss.

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The block and tackle is a room that was mainly used in series 4, but did appear in an adapted form in series 5. The block and tackle room was a high unstable room where the floor would fall away and the blocks on the side wall would swing across.

The way of surviving this room was to get out of it as quickly as possibile before it became too unstable. The only door to exit by is the one on the right as the floor on the left usually starts disappearing quickly.

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