Raven (game show)

Infobox Television
show_name = Raven


caption = Series 7/8 opening title card
genre = Children's
Game Show
developer =
presenter =
starring = James Mackenzie
theme_music_composer = David Brockett
opentheme =
endtheme =
country = SCO
language = English
num_seasons = 8
num_episodes = 160
list_episodes = List of Raven series
producer = Colin Nobbs (Series 1)
Matthew Napier (Series 2-7)
Dougie Napier (Series 8)
executive_producer =
location = SCO

camera =
runtime = 25 minutes
network = CBBC
picture_format = 16:9 widescreen
audio_format =
first run =
first_aired = 2002
last_aired = Present
preceded_by =
followed_by =
related = ,
website = http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/raven/
imdb_id = 1197596
tv_com_id =

"Raven" is a BBC Scotland children's adventure game show, currently showing on CBBC in the UK and on BBC Kids in Canada, with seven series so far and an eighth currently airing. It is hosted by James Mackenzie in the title role, who conducts a group of children, known as "warriors", over five days through a series of tasks and feats. At various stages in the adventure, the group loses the least successful warrior, until two go through to the final week to compete for the title of "Ultimate Warrior".

Format

The show consists of six warriors who compete in various challenges, set over five shows in one week, and three groups per series; as such, each week brings a new set of six warriors. One warrior is lost each day except for the first, until there are two warriors left at the end of the week. These two go through to the fourth and final week to compete against the winners of the other two heats.

At the start of their quest, each warrior is granted a number of lives, represented by raven feathers on a standard, and a particular element or feature (such as a mountain or the sun) which appears on their standard and outfits. Warriors then compete in challenges in which lives may be lost by failing, and regained by collecting rings during the challenge, which are placed on the warrior's standard until enough rings are collected. In the first three series, each warrior was granted seven lives, and from the second series, winning seven treasure rings would win back a life. Since then, this number has changed to nine lives and nine rings.

Should all lives be lost, that warrior is eliminated. If no-one has been eliminated by the end of the day, the warrior with the fewest lives and rings must face "The Way of the Warrior". If they complete this difficult task, they continue their quest, and the warrior in second-to-last place must take up the challenge. If two warriors have an equal number of lives and rings, a black feather is drawn from a bag to decide who must face elimination.

Characters

Raven (James Mackenzie): Originally from the Island of Alaunus, Raven is an ancient, immortal Scottish warlord and the warriors' guide throughout the quest; his name refers to his ability to shape-shift into a raven at will. His mortal enemy is Nevar, who he fights to prevent darkness from afflicting the land.

Both serious and dryly humorous, he urges and pushes the warriors to do their best in all challenges, quick to both praise their success and point out their failures, but always with a kind word for the warriors who are eliminated. He carries his Staff of Power with him at all times, topped with a carving of a raven's head, which allows him to bring warriors back when they lose a game, reveal the warriors' thoughts, recap what has happened previously, and both give and take away the warriors' lives from their standards. He has an elaborate style of speech, which has generated some catchphrases, including, "Are you ready? Then let the challenge... begin", and "may the luck of the Raven's Eye be with you".

Nevar: A mysterious figure who wears a black-hooded cloak and an iron mask, introduced in the second series and whose name is the reverse of Raven. The forging of the six symbols long ago, which brought sorcery back to Raven's land, also brought the scourge of Nevar who attempts to spread darkness once more.

All that can be seen of Nevar's true form is his eyes, which have red irises and red-pink, scorched skin around them. Nevar is described as "the enemy of all that is good and true" by his arch-enemy Raven, and is responsible for the demons featuring heavily in the warrior's tasks in an attempt to impede their progress. He is often seen watching the warriors' progress in his castle and only appears in person at "The Last Stand" as Guardian of the Portal, where he does his best to stop the remaining warriors from winning.

In "", Nevar's story was relayed by Princess Erina to Haryad. At that time, he had ruled the Island of Alaunus with his dark magic for four years, making Staffs of Power from the Enchanted Oak to arm his demons, in order to stop the warriors from reaching his fortress. Nevar was once a normal human, no more than an upstart baron with a band of brigands as his followers, and considered no more than an irritation on Alaunus. However, he became twisted and corrupt when he stole the Enchanted Oak and used it to create a Staff of Power for himself; as a result, each time he uses his Staff for evil, half of his remaining life-force is taken away, taking its toll on his mind and his body. His iron mask and his cloak hides his scarred, burnt face, marks given to him from a battle with Raven. Until the third series his mask resembled many small pieces of metal covering his face, before becoming a full metal mask in series four.

In "", Nevar is thought to have been slain, until the last ten seconds of the show, where he is shown to have survived the temple falling on him.

The Warriors

Warriors are given four, five or six-letter names composed from letters selected from their real surnames and first names. Each warrior is given a standard with their lives and treasure rings on it. There are six different designs and colours to differentiate the contestants: a red outfit containing a sun; a beige outfit containing a cloud; a yellow outfit containing a mountain; a green outfit containing a tree; a blue outfit containing a wave; and a dark grey outfit containing a moon. The emblem designs have become bolder through the series, and in the seventh series, the emblems feature more prominently. It is explained that the symbols were forged long ago from gold in order to vanquish the darkness that once shadowed the land, and on completion of the final symbol, light and sorcery returned to the land, before the evil Nevar appeared to try to return the land to darkness once more.

Ultimate Warriors

The winners from each series are known as an "Ultimate Warrior". Their prize is the warrior's "heart's desire" - a holiday - and from series two, the Ultimate Warrior was also presented with a Staff of Power. In reality, they do not get to keep this: instead, the three finalists each win a trophy. The winner receives the holiday and a trophy bearing a raven's head, whilst the trophies for the second and third warriors bear a silver and bronze ring, respectively, fashioned in the shape of the rings used in challenges. [As can be seen in the first photograph. cite web|url=http://www.starimage.co.uk/ravenindia/stills/index.htm|title=Production Stills: Series 1 to 6 and Raven Island] From series 7, rather than a holiday, the ultimate warrior won a cash prize.

"* Emblems not used in this series."

Interviews were shown on CBBC for Grema, Jaddo and Arnor, all of whom won holidays, to Tunisia, Barbados, and France respectively, as well as a Staff of Power; Linma went on a holiday to Cuba as his prize. [cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A5404231|title=BBC - h2g2 - 'Raven' - the children's TV gameshow|author=summerbayexile] Rather than a holiday, Versad won £500. No interview with Lamar, Kenat or Versad has been shown.

The Challenges

The many tasks and feats in which the warriors have to compete vary from series to series, some having been tweaked over time, and some only used in certain series. They test a variety of virtues, such as strength, agility, and teamwork, depending on the challenge. Warriors play games to win treasure rings, and should they fail the challenge, they will forfeit any rings gained playing the challenge, as well as lose one of their lives.

The Last Stand

In series 1, the Dark Pools wisdom challenge was played to decide the two who would go through to the final, and a similar game was used as the final challenge of the series to select a winner. However, the second series introduced the Last Stand as the final challenge. Played at the end of each week, it is used to determine which warrior will go through to the final, and in the final week, to determine who wins the whole series. Like many challenges, it has changed over the course of the series.

In series 2 and 3, the two warriors in first and second position play against each other to collect and assemble four components of a key from the battlefield without being blasted by Nevar's lightning. Each warrior has the same number of lives as are remaining on their standard, and being blasted will make them lose a life; they are eliminated if they lose all their lives. The winner is the first to use their constructed key to open the portal and go through to the next stage of the quest. A second round is then played against the loser of the first round and the warrior in third place to decide the second winner.

From series 4 onwards, the Last Stand was changed into an assault course for the three remaining warriors, their remaining lives and rings determining the relative time they are released from their starting cages. In its current configuration, they must drag a key across an overhead maze to unlock a cage containing puzzle pieces, which are assembled to vanquish the demon in their path. Retrieving a lever, they must scale a wall and crawl under a net to engage the lever in the slot, vanquishing a second demon. This will allow them to pick up a cylinder containing symbols, which they must attach to rope; after climbing up a waterfall and sliding down with the cylinder, it must be placed correctly in the slot to activate the portal to escape. After one warrior has taken out all their demons, Nevar attempts to attack the two remaining warriors; when two warriors have gone through the portal, his next shot causes instant elimination to the sole, losing warrior. In the final, the first warrior through the portal wins and the other two are blasted by Nevar. The final Last Stand of series 7 had only two warriors, so the first person to reach the portal won, while the losing warrior was blasted.

The Way of The Warrior

The Way of the Warrior is a difficult challenge played at the end of most days, used to test a warrior to the limits. The heavily-padded warrior must cross the golden path without falling at any point. It consists of many obstacles designed to knock the warrior off the path, and the configuration up to series 7 was largely as follows, with various subtle changes made over the years:

* A short tunnel, with two swinging rubber scarecrows, and a row of blocks on the path that rise and fall; a trapdoor half-way opens above, releasing falling rocks.
* A gate that swings left-to-right, followed by a carousel of heavy rocks that swing round at speed.
* An elevating boulder and spiked barrel above a zig-zag balance beam path; at the end, the warrior uses a stone attached to a rope to aim for a target, opening the drawbridge in front.

From this point, a warrior must not touch any of the mechanical devices or they will lose the challenge; the shields may be touched, but they must not be pushed from the path.

* Four swinging blades, followed by a large swinging spiked barrel that the warrior must cross underneath on ropes.
* Three shields that push in and out from the walls at different angles, followed by three metal jaws that open and close vertically.

After the walls, the portal may then be accessed. The move to Aviemore in series 8 necessitated a change to the challenge, which saw most elements altered:

* Three hanging horizontal logs to cross, followed by a platform, and another hanging log placed lengthways, before another short platform with two large skulls that move up and down.
* The left-to-right swinging gate returns, followed by a balance beam section and two shields that push out.
* A set of blades attached to rotating horizontal poles to navigate through, followed by the returning barrel section.
* The three shields, followed by the swinging axes.

Victors

The challenge is considered very difficult, with many warriors mistiming the three shields that push in and out from the walls. Only four warriors have completed the challenge so far, though none of these won the series to become the Ultimate Warrior. From series 7, these warriors are listed on a board outside the entrance to the challenge. They are:

* Ishal and Varna (Series 2), leading Dyasa and Kinia to attempt the challenge. Ishal repeated the challenge in the final week, but failed.
* Worjo (Series 3), leading Brena to attempt the challenge.
* Kinsa (Series 4), leading Wenra to attempt the challenge.

No-one since series 4 has completed the challenge. The closest to do so is Danil of series 7 who, whilst crossing the final metal jaw just before the portal, grazed his leg against the side, and was eliminated from the final week, coming third.

Production and Awards

The series was first produced by BBC Scotland in 2002. It is shot in the grounds of Castle Toward 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Dunoon, near Toward Point and the village of Toward. The production includes many CGI effects throughout, including the appearance and disappearance of objects and characters (including contestants), rapidly encroaching lava flows, burning targets and fizzing gases, and the zoomorphism of Raven in the title sequence. The show has won two BAFTAs for Best Children's Programme, in 2003 and 2006 for Series 1 and 4. [Detailed under "Any other information". cite web|url=http://uk.castingcallpro.com/view.php?uid=77302|title=James Mackenzie, actor, Casting Call Pro]

The first series in 2002 was produced by Colin Nobbs, and Series 2 through to Series 7 were produced by Matthew Napier. [cite web|url=http://imdb.com/title/tt1197596/fullcredits#directors|title=Raven (2002)|author=IMDb] Series 8 was produced by Dougie Napier, who directed the previous two series. The set and games designers are Tom Barker and Liz Baron, who created the look for the series as well as devising many of the challenges. The directors have changed between series:

Series 8, which introduced a number of changes to the programme, was produced under a largely different production crew, including executive producer, director, and editors.

pin-Off Series

Two spin-off series have been produced. The first, , takes place on the Island of Alaunus, Raven's homeland, taken over by Nevar and his demons. His trusted friend, Princess Erina, guides the warriors on their path. The series differs in that three teams of four warriors compete, and if a warrior is eliminated, they cannot return.

The second, , features Raven taking four teams of four warriors to an Eastern land (actually filmed in India, but never mentioned on the show as such) after his home was frozen by Nevar. He and Satyarani, a friend fashioned from the earth itself, guide the young warriors in the hopes that they will reach the Secret Temple to retrieve an elixir that will allow his homeland to return to its former glory. Unfortunately, Nevar has followed him there and is determined to stop his warriors from completing their quest.

A third spin-off series will be made, with filming set to commence in October.

References

ee also

* List of Raven challenges
* List of Raven series
*
*

External links

*
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/raven/ Official CBBC Raven Website]
* [http://www.ravencbbc.proboards101.com Discussion Forum: The Force of Raven]
* [http://www.freewebs.com/ravenseyemag The Raven's Eye Magazine - Online Raven Magazine]