From TES issue 47 (September 2007)

Series 7. Level 1/2/3.
ROMAHNA
Romahna was a dragon wardress, who had apparently been assigned to the Dungeon to protect Smirkenorff from the vengeful Lord Fear and his dragon-slaying Brollachan, intent on getting his own back for the red dragon incident at the end of the previous series. She wore a Phantom of the Opera type mask, presumably signifying some kind of scarring from being burned by a dragon, and carried a crossbow that fired fireballs.

Jacquelin Joyce was the actress responsible for bringing Romahna to life, but I don’t think she did a very good job of it. I found her unconvincing and unnecessarily unpleasant, and she can clearly be heard to stumble over her lines three or four times during the series.

In practical terms, pretty much all Romahna did was shout at and threaten dungeoneers, and tell them whether or not they were allowed to ride on Smirkenorff. This was very presumptive of her, as Smirkenorff had a mind of his own, and didn’t really need her help to avoid Lord Fear’s evil plans for revenge at all, as the Brollachan didn’t get anywhere near him in the end!

A typical meeting with Romahna would involve a lot of shouting and threatening from the wardress, a bit of smooth-talking from the dungeoneer, and finally a bit of help if the team was lucky. Even after being convinced of the dungeoneers’ allegiance to the Powers that Be, Romahna was still overly hostile towards them most of the time. Even if the dungeoneer had done her a huge favour (like saving her from Sylvester Hands in Nicola’s case, or releasing her from the pillory in Barry’s) Romahna never allowed her frosty mood to thaw very much.

Romahna was involved in a more in-depth storyline during winning dungeoneer Julie’s level one, when she was captured by Raptor (on Lord Fear’s orders) in the hopes that she could be forced to betray Smirkenorff. Julie saved her, of course, and received a free flight to level two in exchange, but Romahna’s thanks were still scant and insincere, in my opinion.

So, there we have it – a complete slating! I’m sorry if you feel differently, but I have nothing positive to say about Romahna, or Jacquelin Joyce’s portrayal of her. This is, perhaps, slightly strange, as I find Joyce’s portrayal of her other character (Marta) convincing and enjoyable, as you’ll find out in detail in an upcoming installment of this section.
Fear Factor: 6 Armed and dangerous!
Killer Instinct: 1 All mouth, but plenty of it.
Humour Rating: 2 You definitely wouldn’t want to be stuck in a lift with her!
Oscar Standard: 4 Many telling mistakes and no depth whatsoever.

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