From TES issue 16 (July 2002)

Series 3/4/5. Level 1/2/3.
SKULL GHOSTS
  Although they spent only a relatively short period of time in the Dungeon, the floating skulls represent to me a lot of what made Knightmare such an excellent programme: their lingering sense of threat - despite being unqualified by details of exactly what danger they presented - was very disconcerting, and seemed to personify the obscure and clearly supernatural challenge that the Dungeon offered. The grinning translucent skulls would slip in and out of chambers all through the three levels, chattering their teeth menacingly and emitting ghostly wailing noises. The only clue we were given as to their origin came from Hordriss in series 4:
 
"One does so despise those lingering traces of violent death" - Hordriss.
 
I suppose that is partly why these particular creatures were so unnerving: with such scant information about them, it was up to us to speculate what kind of violent deaths might leave such a lingering trace, and just what these shades wanted from dungeoneers. As far as I can tell, their mission was to feed on life force, presumably as they had none of their own, being dead. These creatures were therefore not intended to be fatal to dungeoneers, but as a hint to the advisors that the time was right to leave the chamber, in order to avoid the threatening presence looming overhead. This does not mean that skull ghosts were not lethal, however, as prolonged contact caused extreme damage to life force.
 
Remember poor Scott from series 3, blundering about level two on the wrong path and having missed the first step? The general confusion and tension of the situation were exacerbated by Scott's dangerously low life force as he entered Merlin's room, having been touched by a large green skull ghost on the bridge. While we are on the subject of colours, the vast majority of skull ghosts were white, but some in series 3 were green or even blue! Anyway, moving on to series 5, Sarah had a brush with a shade while trying to open Merlin's Magic Box, wherein lay a vital spell. Having just restored her energy in the inn with Sylvester Hands, her life force was healthy, but had practically run out in the next room thanks to the ghost. Thank goodness there was a pineapple there to put things right. So, I guess the skull ghosts were mainly a scare device, but woe betide the foolish dungeoneer who stuck around with one for too long.
  Fear Factor: 8 I found them very unnerving, yet excitingly so.
Killer Instinct: 2 I blame one partly for the confused rush leading up to Scott's tragic leap into oblivion.
Humanity: 7 It was certainly a human skull; maybe even a previous dungeoneer.
Gore Factor: 4 Just how violent were those deaths? We'll never know.

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Skull ghosts appear as adversaries in Mindscape's Knightmare computer game. The white floating skulls' eye sockets glow red at times, and they appear both individually and in packs of 2-4.

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One of the most appealing characteristics of Knightmare fans is their ability to draw particular inspiration from unlikely areas. A fine example of this is surely the member who took his cue from KM's early hauntings: The White Floating Skull.

Real name Robert, The White Floating Skull appeared on the Knightmare Discussion Forum in January 2003, prompted by the Challenge TV repeats. His passion for Knightmare was clear from his first post:

'For years, I've hummed the theme to myself, just kinda missing the overall 'Fear' of the show that was SOOO very prominent when it was on ... TV's intelligence downward spiral has baffled me for years, as I progressively watch dumb shows like Tellytubbies and Tweenies eat up ratings, time slots, and merchandise undeservedly. Knightmare had 8 Series, a devoted fanbase, a fan club, BOOKS, a board game, heck, even an old C64 game...

NOW it can come back, and it's plain ignorance of ANY TV exec to assume it's gonna fail BECAUSE of the demographics ... Knightmare was a multi-age program, and had some SERIOUS moral lessons hidden away in there somewhere.

Teamwork, Politeness and to NEVER trust anybody called 'Sly Hands'... ;D

So, WHOOOO, I say, Bring the damned show back - It's a win-win situation.'

In addition to articulate discussion of Knightmare, The White Floating Skull wittily personified a skull ghost (see above definition) within many of his posts, talking about how the skulls had been out of work since Knightmare ended, and occasionally bouncing on other members' heads to reduce their Life Force to Red by way of a greeting. In his own words, he is 'just a guy who loved the skulls FAR too much when watching the show. I always grinned evilly when one appeared onscreen, because they were just Badass...'

One of The White Floating Skull's most noteworthy traits was the way in which he gave an individual title to almost every one of his posts, an act of matchless diligence. As evidence of The White Floating Skull's popularity, several forum users wished him Happy Birthday when he turned 21 in 2003, with two (Emii (a.k.a. Kully) and Redmage/KaM) even marking the occasion with limericks about him.

As well as contributing to the main forum, The White Floating Skull was a member of Knightmare Back-Up, though he posted there only once. He was also involved in the Knightmare Boarding School, where he played Sephiroth the Skull Master, a teacher of the ways of mythical creatures.

The White Floating Skull made no Knightmare.com forum posts between October 2003 and March 2004. Following a comment on Knightmare VR in June of that year, he stopped posting again for a long time, but restarted in February 2007. A small, impromptu gathering in Knightmare Chat marked his welcome return. And he has marked Valentine's Day 2007 with a change of screen name partly suggested by this author: The Pink Flirting Skull. After another long interval, he resumed posting on the Knightmare.com Forum in December 2010. Following another gap in posting, Knightmare's Geek Week revival wafted him back to the forum in August 2013.

In March 2007, The White Floating Skull joined the Knightmare Roleplay forum, using his familiar screen name for the character of a sentient skull ghost.

Below is the fanart that The White Floating Skull created to honour Knightmare's 20th anniverary in 2007.


[Earlier version: 2007-02-14 19:49:16]

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