That's an Earth Joke, Uni

The Eleventh of August Two Thousand and Eleven. Thursday.

EDIT: Twenty-Fifth of August

I should really keep up to date with my own tags. The D&D Cartoon was my Second Telly Recommendation, way back when. Let's change that...

Let's just dive straight (back) in to my Second Telly Recommendation the fabulous Dungeons and Dragons cartoon from the 1980s.

Blimey, was it that long ago?

I used to play D&D regularly in the 80s and 90s - still got a lot of the rule books, supplements and stuff that I haven't used in ages and should really get rid of. Would do too if they weren't so cool. So when I saw the cartoon listed on broom cupboard era BBC children's telly I poo-pooed it thinking it was just a cheap commercial cash-in. There was a cute unicorn character, for flip's sake. It must be rubbish.

I could not have been more wrong.

I can't remember exactly when I got into it. I remember seeing several episodes from the first series. But I remember loving the first episode from the second: The Girl Who Dreamed Tomorrow. The titles had been changed, as if to reflect that, like in the game itself, the characters had become more experienced and more powerful.

Oddly though, repeats of episodes from the second series and the DVD releases use only the one title sequence - the one from the earliest episodes. It's a shame as this one's pretty cool.

In fact the whole thing's pretty cool. Back then it was fun to spot specific monsters or other direct references to the game. Now it's recognising some of the writers' names - people like Michael Reaves and Paul Dini who would go on to contribute to the brilliant DC superhero cartoons of the nineties or Steve Gerber and Mark Evanier who were better known for their work in comics. And for a series with fairly basic animation it was surprisingly cinematic - shots would be framed in inventive ways, the action was always edited really tightly. A particular treat was the different ways the arch-villain, Venger, would regularly meet his demise. I think the coolest was at the end of Day of the Dungeon Master when as Venger is trapped in the collapsing remains of the city of Darkhaven a huge dust cloud, rising as if to form the familiar mushroom shape, instead takes on the shape of the demon-like creature. The ghostly cloud then looms threateningly over our heroes only to dissipate as it reaches out toward them. There's loads of great stuff like that throughout the series - most of the episodes are on You Tube - check it out, either as a nostalgia kick or just for some really good fantasy stories.

The boxed set is pretty cheap on Amazon too if you want a few extras added in including the script for the never made 'final' episode. All good stuff.

If all that wasn't enough though, there is one reason why this cartoon is more than a footnote on one of those 'I Remember...' programmes. Two reasons really. There were lots of great characters in this show, from Eric the Cowardly Cavalier to the mysterious Dungeon Master himself. But what really made an impression on my 15 year old mind as a boy was the sight of a redhead in thighboots and an athletic young woman in a fur bikini.

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Sheila (and Diana) take a bow. Fortunately, at the tender age of 42 such things don't bother me any more. Yeah, I watch cartoons from a much more mature standpoint now. Or something.

More soonliest.