From TES issue 25 (January 2004)

Series 8. Level 1.
SNAPDRAGONS

These nasty little creatures were small red dragons that lurked in the new-look dwarf tunnels of series 8. As the dungeoneer walked along the tunnel, snapdragons would burst out from the wall and snap their jaws in the centre of the tunnel. If anyone had been caught in these jaws, that would have been an end to the quest. However, like so many Knightmare creatures, snapdragons were only ever intended to scare the teams, and stop them from wasting time by loitering in the tunnels. It probably took most viewers by surprise when a snapdragon first popped out of the wall, but they soon became just another part of the background. I think that, although snapdragons were a novel new idea, they soon lost their verve.

Some teams found the snapdragons scarier than others did, and we need look no further than the first episode of series 8 for proof of this. At the beginning of the episode, Richard [Team 1 of Series 8] became the first dungeoneer to meet up with the snapdragons. His advisors were very cool and calm and did not panic. Richard was told to walk along the middle of the tunnel, avoiding the walls, as the advisors watched for snapdragons. Later in that episode, Daniel [Team 2 of Series 8]met the snapdragons, and Gideon – the most famous and infamous advisor of all time – went absolutely bananas! He was shouting, panicking and overreacting (just like he did with everything he saw in the Dungeon, really) which resulted in Daniel dashing blindly down the corridor at top speed. This did no particular harm or good to the quest overall, but I do find it interesting how Richard’s team (one of the worst teams ever) dealt with the snapdragons much better than Daniel’s team (one of the best teams ever) did.

Although most of the snapdragons were nameless entities, we did get to know one particular snapdragon quite well. He was called Snapper, and he lived on Snapper-Jack's hand. Snapper has been described in a previous Remember Him? as a sock with eyes, in Paul McIntosh’s scathing review of Snapper-Jack. It’s true that Snapper wasn’t all that convincing, but I never hated him that much!

Fear Factor: 4 They didn’t look particularly scary, but were very sudden.
Killer Instinct: 0 Never even got close.
Gore Factor: 2 They were just miniature dragons, really.
Humanity: 1 I guess we’re all vertebrates, aren’t we?

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