Dungeons & Dragons TV Series

A group of kids were at an amusement park when they spotted a roller coaster named Dungeons & Dragons.  They climbed into the cart and were soon rolling among fantastical beasts.  Then something went wrong.  They were flung into another world and chased by a multi-headed dragon, none other than Tiamat!  Luckily, a diminutive figure appeared and provided each of them with a powerful magical item to aid their escape.  They also met Venger, the essence of evil in this land and their ongoing nemesis.  Can the kids find a way back to earth or are they doomed to live out their lives in this fantasy world?

Hank the Ranger.  Armed with a magical bow, Hank was the leader of the group.  As this is a kids' show, the energy arrows from his bow were generally harmless, merely knocking out enemies rather than killing them.  He could also create a fireworks display.

Eric the Cavalier.  Armed with a magic shield, Eric was the complainer.  He was a rich kid who was always the voice of opposition.  Whatever the plan, he didn't like it and let everyone know.  Despite being a cavalier, he did not have a horse.  Or a lance.  Or a sword.  However, his shield could reflect spells back at the caster, which was his most effective attack.

Presto the Magician.  Provided a conical wizard's hat from which he could pull random spells, Presto was mostly hapless.  His spells were just as often comically inept as useful.  Nonetheless, the party always looked to him to bail them out of the latest crisis.

Sheila the Thief.  Provided a cloak of invisibility, Sheila was the older sister of Bobby.  She was always worried about her reckless brother, always warning him against rushing into danger.  Her mode of attack was to lure someone into charging her and then go invisible; inevitably, the attacker would collide with someone else or a wall.

Diana the Acrobat.  Provided a staff, Diana was actually a monk though that was changed to acrobat for the show.  Yeah, it is pretty obvious she is supposed to be a monk too, though her outfit is peculiar.  Dressed in a bearskin bikini with Wonder Woman accoutrements, she jumps, runs, and uses her staff to pole vault.

Bobby the Barbarian.  Armed with a magic club, Bobby was always eager to run up and engage in battle with the latest monster.  His club was wielded against the environment, causing earthquakes that knocked down opponents or toppling trees that fell on enemies.  Again, this is a kids' show.  Where the rest of the kids are teens, Bobby is 9.

Uni the Unicorn.  The kids have hardly arrived in the world when a unicorn joined them, having fled from Tiamat.  It immediately bonds with Bobby and becomes a source of bleating.  However, like Lassie, Uni is often sent to go get help.

The allies and monsters changed from episode to episode, but some were regulars.

Venger.  A bat winged and horned villain, he often arrived riding a nightmare and blasted away at the heroes with unidentifiable spells.  His goal is to acquire the magic items that the kids possess and thus become all powerful.  He frequently polymorphs into different forms, convincing the kids that he is an ally before revealing himself.  Of particular note is that Peter Cullen - none other than Optimus Prime of Transformers fame - voiced Venger.

Tiamat.  Somehow, the chromatic dragon is a regular for this low-level party.  Despite the fact that both Venger and Tiamat are evil, they are enemies who will attack one another instantly, which always provides an opportunity for the kids to escape.

Dungeon Master.  A diminutive bald fellow with a fringe of long white hair and a red robe, he provides cryptic clues as to what they need to do.  He typically appears early in the episode to explain the basic plot and at the end to congratulate them on their success.  He always vanishes before Eric can ask additional questions.

Back in the day, I had only watched a few episodes before abandoning the show.  It was too much the kids show.  Watching it today, it is fun and provides some background for the AI reboot.

Dungeons & Dragons: Hank

A group of teens stand at a grave under a tree.  One leaves a red garment near the headstone.  "What now, Hank?" one asks the ranger.  He does not answer.  Instead, they five leave.  Time passes.  The grave is covered with snow.  The grave is overgrown with brush.  A much older Hank leaves his cabin in the woods and goes hunting.  Something on a nearby mountain catches his interest.  He climbs it, noting a mountain goat on his way up.  He finds clear signs of a summoning circle.  The goat, which is an avatar of Presto the Magician, explains that something terrible has been summoned.  Sure enough, a beast climbs out of the lava of a nearby volcano and battle commence.

Meanwhile, two teens are wondering around an abandoned amusement park.  It closed 30-years ago because some kids disappeared.  They discover that an old rollercoaster still works.  Despite warnings not to do it, Gary jumps in and rides it.  He finds himself in another world, within a D&D campaign world.  He is rescued from an owlbear by the arrival of Hank.  "Come with me if you want to live!"  Nice.

This promises to be the first of a 10-episode series that will carry on the 1980s cartoon series, perhaps to a final return home.  The 20-minute short was generated with AI, but proves to be quite good nonetheless.  It is a much more serious take on the material than the original cartoon.  One expects that future episodes will cover Eric the Cavalier, Diana the Acrobat, Shiela the Thief, and Bobby the Barbarian, most of whom were gathered at the grave at the beginning of the episode.

There is a trailer that opens with an extended exploration of the amusement park by Gary and his girlfriend before jumping into previews of future episodes which show the other classic characters fighting a variety of D&D monsters.

Highly recommended.

Fires of Azeroth

Morgaine and Vanye had escaped through the Well of Shiuan, but Roh followed and brought an army with him.  In this world, there are a people who are more akin to Morgaine and live in the forests of Azeroth.  Though not as knowledgeable of the gate technology as her, they do make use of it and have trinkets that have seemingly magical powers.  Once again, Morgaine and Vanye are separated and Vanye, as usual, finds himself at the mercy of an enemy.  Sigh.  However, it turns out that the enemy may have inhabited Roh's body, but Roh himself is still in there too.  There is a clash within him, one seeking to protect his cousin and another seeking to defeat Morgaine once and for all.  Can Morgaine and Vanye close the gate to this world or will they be forever trapped?  Will they even survive the army that Roh assembled?

The conclusion of the trilogy, Vanye is still mostly a pawn.  Throughout the series, he has been the focal character, leaving Morgaine as an inscrutable figure who often seems little concerned with Vanye's welfare.  She is quite aloof and entirely willing to sacrifice Vanye in service to her quest.  Or does it just seem that way from his perspective?  Is he misreading her?

Though the trilogy resolves the fight that left Morgaine as the sole survivor of her party in the first book, it ends with untold gates yet to close.  Future books could be merely episodic, detailing the latest world and Morgaine's means of closing it.

A very different fantasy series.  Recommended.

Well of Shiuan

The broken moons streak across the sky and cause crazy tides that are drowning the lands.  Jherun is a peasant woman who sometimes raids old tombs for money.  After one such, she was chased by a strange man.  It was Roh, a fugitive through the Gate of Ivrel.  He queried of Morgaine and his cousin, Vanye.  Jherun did not know or see them.  However, when Roh left, Jherun followed.  She hoped to avoid marriage to Fwar.  Instead of Roh, she stumbled upon Morgaine and Vanye!  They wanted to know about the gates, here called "wells."  Jherun guided them to the Well of Shiuan.

At the end of Gate of Ivrel, Roh's body was taken over by the very enemy who had wiped out Morgaine's companions a century before.  It was yet another feature of the gates to inhabit new bodies and thus extend one's age.  Now Roh was determined to get to Shiuan and close it behind him, thus trapping Morgaine on this dying world.

This world is beset by constant rain and floods, making it quite bleak and all the folk hope to somehow escape the impending doom.  By promises of travel to new worlds through the Well of Shiuan, both Roh and Morgaine recruit armies to secure the well from the other.  Also, some of the clans were the same as from the last book, showing that the ancient race had planted people on different worlds.

Vanye is once again conflicted, never quite sure what to do.  He is a hard character to like and too often feels like a victim of circumstance who rarely overcomes his troubles himself.

Entertaining and interesting.

Gate of Ivrel

Our story opens with the information dump to end all information dumps.  There was a race that became so advanced that they created a interstellar gate system.  Not only did it allow transportation to any planet in the galaxy - provided there was a gate, it also allowed for time travel.  These ancient folk would tinker with the people on these planets, perhaps having been deposited there by them.  Indeed, the universe seems very human through the books.  They would change something and then jump forward in time a hundred years or so to see how that impacted the culture.  Of course, they never traveled back in time, as that was clearly a path to ruin.  However, eventually, they got close to the end of the galaxy and the only choice was to travel back and ruin befell.  Now, onto the next info dump!

A mixed race of people, who were a fusion of the ancient race and humans, built a new civilization among the ruins but the gates were a danger.  A team was assembled who would spend eternity shuttering the gates so that the disaster would not repeat.  Morgaine was just one of these.  While trying to close the Gate of Ivrel, the team was wiped out with the exception of Morgaine.  She fled through another gate that jumped her a century forward on the timeline.  To her, it has only been a minute.  To everyone else, she was some mythic figure from a long ago battle.

Now, our story begins.  Vanye was the son of a noble of one clan, but his mother had been a captive taken from a rival clan.  As such, he was viewed as a lesser son, a half-breed.  When he killed one of his half-brothers and maimed another, he was banished.  This was essentially a death sentence.  As luck would have it, he encountered Morgaine as she emerged from the gate.  By custom, he became her indentured servant.  The pair then set about closing the gate.  The same man who had wiped out Morgaine's compatriots a century before was still in control.  Could she overcome him this time?

The setting is truly outstanding and well-realized.  Here is a variation on Stargate long before Stargate ever aired.  Not only are the workings of this gate system gamed out in the opening chapter, the worlds that result have a mix of tribal people that repeat, showing how the ancient civilization mixed and matched to experiment.  Vanye's mixed heritage plays heavily in the first book, as he and Morgaine are able to recruit assistance from his mother's clan.  In fact, his cousin, Chya Roh, proves to be a recurring character in the first three books.  Though the founding race was clearly high tech, this world is Medieval.  Battles are fought with swords, spears, and bows.

Though armed with a dimension-ripping sword called Changeling, Morgaine is not some great warrior.  In fact, she is more of a planner and manipulator.  Her talents lie in recruiting aid to the cause, not in combat.  She is also one of the few who understands the workings of the gates.  By contrast, Vanye is a fighter, but he comes across as wishy washy.  Always his honor prevents him from doing this or doing that.  He has a lot of crises of conscience.

Back to Changeling, the sword creates a portable gate extending from its tip when drawn.  Enemies can be swept away to who knows where?  It is very effective but extremely dangerous.  How does one sheath such a weapon?  Not only can it sweep away enemies, it can function as an impenetrable shield as arrows and such will vanish into the void.

Highly entertaining and recommended.

The Ash Lad: In Search of the Golden Castle (2019)

Thanks to having rescued Princess Kristin (Eili Harboe) from the troll king, Espen (Vebjorn Enger) and his family are invited to a celebration at the royal mansion.  However, because they are common folk, Espen's brothers, Per & Pal, are mistaken for servants.  Given a tray with drinks, they are dispatched to King Erik, Queen Victoria, and the princess.  No sooner has the king and queen tasted the drinks than they fall into comas.  Assassins!  Per and Pal are imprisoned and sentenced to death.  Can Espen save the day again?

There is a legend that tells of a curative elixir that can be found at the Golden Castle.  However, the story further states that only one person has ever escaped the castle to tell the tale.  Epsen and Princess Kristin set out to find that mysterious survivor and learn where to find the golden castle and recover the healing potion.  Furthermore, they have only a couple of days in which to do it!  Worse still, the true villain behind the poisoning has sent his minions, led by Oholmann (Sidse Babett Knudsen) to stop them.  The long-nosed hag once again provides help and Espen recovers random bits and bobs along the way that prove helpful.  His long-striding boots were quite humorous.

Not quite as good as the previous entry, it did have one stand out bit.  When Espen challenged the Fossegrim (Tomas Lesmarquis) to a fiddle-playing duel, his unexpected victory was quite funny.

This is campy fun, a light-hearted fantasy epic that plays the brothers' imprisonment and forthcoming execution for laughs.  Good popcorn fun.

The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King (2017)

Princess Kristin (Eili Harboe) was nearing her 18th birthday and her parents insisted that she get married lest the troll king carry her off.  As the saying went, a princess who did not marry by 18 would be abducted by a troll who would marry her.  Kristin thought that was nonsense.  Besides, she did not want to marry the odious Prins Fredrik (Allan Hyde).  Thus, she ran away.

Espen (Vebjorn Enger) was the youngest of three brothers who lived with their father.  He was not a practical young man, usually distracted by unimportant things.  In fact, given the task of getting food for the family, he lost most of it during a chance encounter with a strange girl (i.e., Princess Kristin) who ate much of the food as she was famished.  Left to guard the house while his father and brothers went hunting, he managed to burn the house down.

Meanwhile, Kristin discovered, to her great surprise, that the tale was true.  The mountain king awoke from his slumber, stomped through the forest, snatched her from the woods, and returned her to his mountain cave.

Determined to reclaim his bride, Prins Fredrik and his entourage happened upon the burned ruins and asked about Princess Kristin.  There was a reward.  The three brothers were soon trekking into the woods to find the princess.  Strangely enough, the sober and hard-working brothers were more often foiled in their efforts while Espen had a knack for solving each trouble they faced.  He would collect junk along the trail, junk that would later prove invaluable in overcoming the latest obstacle.

Can Espen and his brothers rescue Princess Kristin before the Mountain King marries her?  Can they get there before Prins Fredrik?  Can they get the reward that would allow for the rebuilding of the house?

Light and fun.  Recommended.