From TES issue 58 (July 2009)

Series 6. Level 3.
CAPTAIN NEMANOR
This facsimile of Sinbad the Sailor was captain of the galleon Cloudwalker, which provided an occasional ferry service between levels two and three during series 6. Nemanor reminds me of Sinbad because of his outfit, which looked to be fairly Middle-Eastern, although his ship was undoubtedly made in the western style, and his accent was more Italian than Arabian. Perhaps this is not surprising, as the actor responsible for bringing Nemanor to life – Adrian Neil – spent most of his time on Knightmare playing Ridolfo, a self-confessed Venetian. Does Adrian Neil speak with a slightly dodgy Italian accent in real life? I can’t help but wonder…

Anyway, perhaps Nemanor has more in common with the Flying Dutchman than with Sinbad, as he and his ship were apparently doomed to sail the Great Ocean forever: ”This ship is cursed never to find land, and I am cursed never to leave it.” – Captain Nemanor. The Great Ocean is perhaps one of the most intriguing locations ever to fall within Dungeon dimensions – Pickle mentioned that only elves ever crossed it, and never returned once they’d done so. Where on Earth did they all end up, then?

There were two things that Captain Nemanor could not abide – stowaways and Lord Fear. Nemanor’s first appearance was within the waters of Lord Fear’s Pool of Veracity, while dungeoneer Alan was travelling on the ship. Nemanor was obviously none too pleased to receive a call from Lord Fear, yet it appeared from their conversation that the pair of them had entered into some kind of agreement that involved Nemanor not allowing dungeoneers to travel on his ship. On this occasion, Nemanor seemed quite willing to kill Alan if he came across him, if only to get Lord Fear off his back. Alan managed to sneak off the ship unnoticed, of course.

Circumstances were slightly different for winning dungeoneer Ben. Arriving on board the Cloudwalker, Ben met Nemanor in person, and had to persuade him that he was not a stowaway. Once Ben had paid the fare for his journey (a bar of gold, of course) Nemanor stopped threatening to kill him, despite the terms of his treaty with Lord Fear. Nemanor and Ben went on to do each other a mutual service (Ben retrieved an astrolabe in return for a trip to the Caverns of Gore) and although Nemanor continued to act in a fairly hostile manner, he was grateful to Ben for what he had done (although he jokingly made it seem as though he wasn’t for a moment) and kept his own side of the bargain.
Further evidence of Nemanor’s hatred of Lord Fear came to light in the final episode of the series, when the short-tempered mariner donated his Lightning Rod to the cause of sending Red Death crashing out of the sky. Dungeoneer Chris IV managed to win Nemanor over by mentioning his allegiance to Treguard – obviously that treaty with Lord Fear wasn’t worth the paper it was written on!
With only three appearances, Captain Nemanor was never likely to become a classic character, but I quite like him. You could write a lot of back-story about him if you had the time and the inclination – there must be a lot to say about how he and the Cloudwalker ended up sailing the Great Ocean for all time. In terms of Knightmare, his role was very small, but then perhaps Knightmare was only a very small part of his own story, the incalculable parameters of which we could never hope to comprehend fully…

Fear Factor: 6 You wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him.
Killer Instinct: 1 Ready and willing to slay stowaways.
Humour Rating: 2 Always deadly serious, except when teasing Ben.
Oscar Standard: 8 Adrian Neil did a good job of saving Nemanor from becoming a nautical nonentity.

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