Cyclotron (Gladiators)

Cyclotron

Year Introduced	Never Introduced
Country of Origin	United Kingdom
Number of Contenders	2
Number of Gladiators	2

Cyclotron was an event created for the initial UK run of the television series Gladiators.

Rules

In this event, contenders and Gladiators were sat on bicycles situated on two circular steel tracks angled at ninety degrees. The bicycles were attached by a long pole to a central spinner. Contenders would be given a head start in the event, akin to Skytrack and on the whistle would begin cycling round the circular track. Contenders would gain points for staying out of capture of the Gladiator.

International differences

The event was only intended for the UK and never appeared in any of the other international incarnations. There are no current plans to introduce it into any of the 2008 revivals.

Event history

Cyclotron was intended to debut during the sixth (1997) series of Gladiators along with Tightrope however mechanical problems occurred during training for the event.

The event underwent modifications and had still been planned to appear during the 1997 series upon commencement of filming, with the event being listed in the 1997 programme. Notably, upon introducing Tightrope, host Ulrika Jonsson mentioned that Tightrope was "one of this season's brand new events." In addition, a computer generated image of Cyclotron was added to the starting credits of the 1997 series.

The problems persisted and Cyclotron had to be pulled from the event roster. The event remained on the starting credits for the full 1997 series. The event concept was dropped completely for the 1998 series, with producers opting to bring in three different events, Dogfight, Catapult and Vertigo.

To this date, Cyclotron is the only known event to have been created for a Gladiators series not to be televised.

References

• Gladiators Zone