1 - The Crystal Maze

This entry made it to the top of my list into the number 1 position for many of the reasons that the Krypton Factor made it to number 2.  The Crystal Maze saw a team of players working together to navigate the 4 areas of the Crystal Maze, they were the Aztec Zone, The Future Zone, The Medieval Zone and the Industrial Zone which was later replaced with The Ocean Zone.

The Show had side stories that involved Richard O'Brien the original host of the show, a regularly referred to character called Mumsy featured who departed with Richard when he handed the reigns over to Edward Tudor-Pole.  For me, no-one could ever replace Richard and while I think the show ultimately lost its cult nature when he left I like to think that it was meant to be.  I'd love to see the show run again but sadly I think as with the Krypton Factor its time has passed.

After Crystal Maze Richard went on to pursue other career paths during which time he wrote the Rocky Horror Picture Show which is a prime example of his eccentricity and his marvellous ability to tell a story in the most surreal yet engaging manner.

My favourite zones in the Crystal Maze where the Aztec and the Future zones.  The format of the show saw the team of players compete one at a time to complete challenges, these challenges were set in rooms found in each of the 4 zones.  Successful completion of a challenge won the player a Crystal which bought the team 5 seconds in the Crystal Dome - the ending point of the show.  The player had get out of the room in time, they could either complete the challenge then get out or abandon the challenge if they didn't think they could do it in time and get out.  Failure to reach the door in time locked the player in the room, where they would stay.  Their team could buy them out, if they gave up a Crystal to do so and many teams did as they wanted everyone to make it to the dome.

The Crystal Dome itself was a large enclosure that had a metal grid floor under which there were powerful industrial fans.  Scattered through the dome were silver and gold tickets, the fans would activate and scatter the tickets through the air.  Players had 5 seconds for every Crystal the had won and managed to take with them to the dome.  If they collected enough tickets they could win the prize of the show.

Update:

Not surprisingly, videos relating to this show are often removed from Youtube for copyright reasons, so I have updated this post to include a video that explains the history of The Crystal Maze, including the revival which happened years after this post was first written, it seems I wasn't the only one feeling nostalgic.