From TES issue 41 (September 2006)

Series 7/8. Level 1/2.
RAPTOR
Raptor was introduced into series 7 to take over the role of Goblin Master from the absent Skarkill. As I have mentioned previously in this section, Skarkill was replaced by two different characters, each filling one element of his role. Lissard took over as Lord Fear's confidante and foil, while Raptor looked after the goblins, Grippa and Rhark. Like Lissard, Raptor was played by Clifford Barry.

To sum Raptor up in his simplest terms, he was a pirate. He wore a red pirate's bandana, carried a cutlass, and spoke in a traditional shiver-me-timbers accent. Lord Fear often alluded to Raptor's nautical background, citing the fact that he was superstitious, as well as his affinity for "making off with maidens" as evidence of his pirate nature. However, Fear was also ready to use Raptor's background as a basis for insulting him, which was something he did quite a lot to all of his underlings: "I think being on dry land has addled your brains. The sooner you're back on your ship the better." - Lord Fear. However, Raptor never did go back to his ship, so perhaps Fear changed his mind about him in the end.

Interestingly enough, Raptor was never actually described as a Goblin Master, even though that's clearly what he was. He was described on occasion as "the brigand" by Lord Fear and Romahna, and as "Lord Fear's captain" by Treguard. Despite this, however, Raptor did in series 7 exactly what Skarkill had done in series 5 and 6, in that he came into a chamber with Grippa and Rhark, promised the dungeoneer death, and had to be seen off in some way in order for the quest to continue. Ways of defeating Raptor included squashing him with a magic boot, shooting fireballs at him with a magic crossbow, transforming into a large black cat in order to bring him bad luck, and having Smirkenorff burn his backside with a fireball.

Unlike Skarkill, Raptor never caught any dungeoneers, and was something of an incidental character. We didn't even see his face in close-up until series 8, during his one and only appearance in the final series. Raptor had seemingly abandoned his goblins in favour of a pair of miremen, which was a bit strange. However, it was a fun scene, in which dungeoneer Daniel [Team 2 of Series 8] used a magic bone to make Raptor laugh uncontrollably until he had to wander off and have a lie down. And we never saw him again after that, with or without miremen or goblins. His final scene was undoubtedly his longest and probably his most satisfying.

Raptor has never been one of my favourite characters, but that's because I don't really have any strong feelings about him, which is probably due to the fact that he was something of a supporting character to say the least. With more appearances (particularly in series 8) and more character development, Raptor could have become a classic character, particularly if he'd managed to bag himself a victim. As it is, he will remain forever in the shadows, ousted and outclassed by his far more striking, memorable counterpart, Lissard.

Fear Factor: 5 A real threat, but often more comic than scary.
Killer Instinct: 2 More than capable of killing under the right conditions.
Humour Rating: 7 Okay, he was under a spell, but he laughed a lot!
Oscar Standard: 6 A fairly unremarkable performance of a fairly unremarkable character.

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