Relic

By | January 21, 2010

It’s Information Thursday, and this afternoon I’ll come back and edit this entry with some opinion on the exciting Relic: Guardians of the Museum which starts at 4:35pm on BBC1 this afternoon.

Here we go then:

  • Three kids go to the British Museum in the dead of night where they’re met by ghostly tour guide Agatha, played by Gemma Arrowsmith in rather whatever the aunt equivilent of ‘avuncular’ fashion.
  • The kids are up against the Dark Lord who goes uncredited and is rather less successful in terms of characterisation. Rather unoriginal and uninteresting.
  • Lots of Scooby Doo running around the museum running away from people dressed in robes = Good. Kids poorly acting as if they are scared = bad.
  •  Agatha leads the team round various exhibits, gives a quick description and then they are whisked away to a point in history where they perform a challenge. Challenges are basically exactly the sort of thing you got in Trapped but with a historical twist (answering true/false questions set by Cleopatra, trying to avoid “scorpions” on a historical dig, hunting for turquiose in an egyptian tomb). None of these challenges are going to set the world alight, but they’ve at least put a little bit of effort into the set-ups and, indeed, the sets.
  • Completing a task means that all the kids get to see a “vision” – a piece of film about one of the objects in the museum. If they fail the task then only one of the kids gets to see it, and will need to try and remember and communicate as much of it as possible to their teammates.
  • After three challenges, the Dark Lord is summoned to the Great Court and asks the kids questions individually about the three visions they have seen. If they get three right before they get three wrong then the Dark Lord is defeated, the kids become guardians of the museum and win themselves a golden scarab. If they get three wrong then they become a new exhibit themselves forever.
  • Not bad as edutainment goes, really. It’s a pity the challenges aren’t a bit more interesting, though.

And later: Poll results and Bothersop information and Fun Thing Found on Youtube Thursday. Oh yes!

22 thoughts on “Relic

  1. Chris M. Dickson

    Questions inadvertently posed by Pyramid Game: what’s the difference between a fruit machine and a slot machine? Apparently there is one, or at least the two are not acceptable synonyms for each other when it’s the Mystery 7 round.

    Harsh. Exceedingly harsh.

    Reply
    1. Gizensha

      Technically?

      IIRC, a slot machine is any gaming machine that accepts money through a slot. I’ve never heard the term used when not referring to fruit machines, however.

      Reply
  2. Chris M. Dickson

    Oh, and Rowland Rivron takes the game incredibly seriously, playing the game at very high speed and considerable volume. It’s delightful!

    Reply
      1. Chris M. Dickson

        And Paul Ross may have been even better still.

        What a good show Pyramid Game was! Pity that VIrgin 1 is going back to showing Bullseye at 7am instead next week. D’oh!

        Reply
  3. NJ

    Shocking discovery of the day, my little sister is obsessed with Only Connect as is my Dad.

    Reply
    1. David B

      If BARB could get their finger out and update their audience figures more than once a month, we’d see exactly how many brains we’re taking over.

      Reply
      1. Gizensha

        I believe they’re having some issues with the new system. Or I assume so, anyway, they used to release every week, I think. (Whether they updated the site with that frequence is another matter entirely)

        Reply
  4. Chris M. Dickson

    Challenge has just repeated the “ITV to remake The Crystal Maze hosted by Amanda Holden” rumour, immediately after an episode of said show had concluded, and invited people to discuss it on their forums.

    They must be so jealous of the bar…

    Reply
  5. David

    Speaking of Children’s BBC shows- didn’t I hear someplace that the Raven producers are working on a sci-fi themed show for late this year/early next?

    Reply
  6. rhythmnative

    Re: Relic. I couldn’t work out what The Dark Lord’s motivation was. What did he do and why was he so annoyed with the children? The host was hammy and patronising. It’s such a big gig for an unknown to get – it’s hard to believe she was the best they auditioned.

    The rhymes/spells and general ‘names for things’ were lazy.

    Otherwise a tyight format. The remembering things business is simple and intuitive. Great sets and graphics. I didn’t mind the challenges at all really.

    And you know what – I did learn some stuff I previously didn’t know.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Oh I quite liked Agatha, I thought she had a quite good Mary Poppins vibe going.

      The Dark Lord is a bit rubbish.

      Reply
  7. Andrew Warren

    played by Gemma Arrowsmith in rather whatever the aunt equivilent of ‘avuncular’ fashion.

    That made me laugh, because just last week I used the word ‘avuncular’ in conversation, and then when I had to explain it to my cousin his immediate response was, “Is ‘avauntular’ a word?”

    Reply

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