The Crystal Maze

The Crystal Maze
File:Crystal Maze Series 3.jpg Series 3-6 title card
Genre	Adventure game show
Created by	Jacques Antoine
Directed by	David G. Croft
Presented by	Richard O'Brien (1990–93) Ed Tudor-Pole (1993–95)
Starring	Sandra Caron
Theme music composer	Zack Lawrence
Opening theme	"Force Field"
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	6 (inc. 5 Christmas specials)
No. of episodes	83
Production
Production locations	Lee International Studios Shepperton Studios Aces High Studio, North Weald
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	50 minutes (approx.)
Production company	Chatsworth Television
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	15 February 1990 (1990-02-15) – 10 August 1995 (1995-08-10)
Related
Interceptor Fort Boyard

The Crystal Maze was a British game show, produced by Chatsworth Television and shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom between 15 February 1990 and 10 August 1995. There was one series per year, with the first four series presented by Richard O'Brien and the final two by Ed Tudor-Pole. Each show was one hour long, including adverts.

The show was originally intended to be a British remake of the French programme Fort Boyard, devised by Jacques Antoine. However, the unavailability of the French show's set led British producer Malcolm Heyworth to reinvent the show, using themed zones as a means to keep the show visually fresh.

The series is set in "The Crystal Maze", which features four different "zones" set in various periods of time and space. A team of six contestants take part in a series of challenges in order to win "time crystals". Each crystal gives the team five seconds of time inside "The Crystal Dome", the centrepiece of the maze where the contestants take part in their final challenge.

The maze cost £250,000 to build and was the size of two football pitches. At its height the show was the most watched on Channel 4, regularly attracting between 4 and 6 million viewers. In 2006 and again in 2010, the show was voted "greatest UK game show of all time" by readers of UKGameshows.com. This site describes the programme as "a highly-ambitious, high-risk show that paid off handsomely."

Origins

Originally Chatsworth Television intended to make a British version of the French show Fort Boyard. A pilot show of Fort Boyard was filmed, hosted by Richard O'Brien, which Channel 4 duly commissioned for a Thursday night primetime series. However, it then became clear that the fort would not be available for filming at the time it would be needed for the series. Fort Boyard's creator Jacques Antoine was therefore consulted about developing an alternative format that could be shot elsewhere, and a concept was then developed by the producers "in two days". The Crystal Maze used a concept similar to Fort Boyard, but was substantially different in presentation and style.

The Crystal Maze was filmed on a very large set, originally at H Stage in Shepperton Studios, but after the first series at an adapted aircraft hangar named Aces High Studios at North Weald Airfield in Essex.

O'Brien has revealed that the producers' original concept for the show was "kind of like Dungeons and Dragons to some extent". Therefore when it came to selecting the show's host, their thinking was "what we need is a dungeon master", and O'Brien's name "was thrown into the hat at that point". He also commented that he found The Crystal Maze "the better programme" compared to Fort Boyard.

Channel 5 later bought the rights to Fort Boyard and made their own version, using the original set, running from 1998 to 2001.

Format

The maze

The set was divided into four "zones" set in different periods of time and space. For the first three series, the zones were Aztec, Futuristic, Medieval and Industrial. From series four onwards Industrial was replaced by Ocean. At the centre of the maze was the Crystal Dome, a giant geometric acrylic glass 'crystal' where the teams play their final challenge after playing games in each of the four zones. As h2g2 says, the 'Maze' itself "was not really a maze: it was more a circuit of interconnecting zones."

The objective of the show was to amass as many 'time crystals' (golf ball-sized Swarovski glass crystals) as possible by playing the games in each zone. Winning a game secured a crystal, worth five seconds of time for the team in the Crystal Dome. When the team reached the Crystal Dome, they had to collect as many gold "tokens" as possible in order to win a prize.

Teams

In each episode, a team consisting of three men and three women (including a team captain and vice-captain), always aged between 16 and 40 during the regular series, would enter the 'maze'. The teams were put together by Chatsworth from individual applicants, only meeting each other for the first time on the day before filming their episode. 38,000 contestant applications were received for the show's final series.

Gameplay was co-operative throughout. Starting from a pre-determined zone, the team played three or four games of various types in each zone, travelling through the four zones in either a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction. At the end of the show after playing all four zones, they entered the Crystal Dome.

The games

Before each game in a zone, the team captain (or vice captain should the team captain be locked in) would choose which contestant would play and which type of challenge the game would involve. There were four categories of game:

• Physical (tests of speed and strength)
• Mental (tests of brainpower)
• Skill (tests of dexterity and accuracy), or
• Mystery ("practically anything which didn't fall into the previous three categories").

The chosen team member would be sent into a chamber to play a game. Their team-mates could advise them from outside (except for occasional specific mental games with a 'no conferring' rule). Successfully solving the puzzle would release a crystal.

Lock-ins

A major hazard for contestants on the show was the risk of being 'locked in' a game room. There were two ways a contestant could be locked in:

• Exceeding the time limit: Each game had a time limit of two, two-and-a-half, or three minutes. If the contestant failed to exit the chamber within this time limit, before the timer hit zero, the host would keep the door firmly closed and the contestant would be 'locked in'. A timer was almost never provided inside the game room itself, so the contestant was reliant on timecheck information shouted in by the host and/or their teammates outside. Therefore anxious shouts from teammates of "Come out!" or the contestant shouting "I'm coming out!" or "Should I come out?" were regular catchphrases throughout the show.

• Automatic lock-in games: In a minority of games, known as automatic lock-in games, the contestant could also be locked in by committing a foul. Most typically this meant either setting off an 'alarm' three times (e.g. by touching an obstacle in a physical or skill game, or making an incorrect guess in a mental or mystery game), or by touching the floor if this was forbidden for that game. Automatic lock-in games appeared quasi-randomly, not under any control of the contestants. If the contestant triggered the condition for 'automatic lock-in', they would be locked in instantly, irrespective of whether or not they had obtained the crystal, and regardless of how much time they had left.

Any contestant who was 'locked in' forfeited the crystal from that game, and was unable to take any further part in proceedings unless and until the team captain chose to buy the contestant's freedom at the cost of a previously earned crystal. As the episode progressed the host would occasionally refer to any contestants left languishing in cells, and viewers would be shown brief clips of them incarcerated in their cell.

Buying out a contestant could be done at any time. If not done immediately, it required another team member to physically take a crystal to the chamber where the contestant was locked in, leaving the crystal there in exchange for their team-mate. If the team had since moved one or more zones further in their journey around the maze, this buying-out was represented as a lengthy trip back through the maze that effectively took a second contestant out of action for at least one game.

The Crystal Dome

After competing in all four zones, the contestants - excluding any still 'locked in' and never 'bought out' - entered the Crystal Dome. This was a 16-foot-high (4.9 m) giant replica of one of the show's 'time crystals', surrounded by a seven-foot circular moat and entered by a 3-foot-wide (0.91 m) 'drawbridge' which was hydraulically retracted once the team were inside. One of the Dome's triangular panels acted as a door, hydraulically opened and closed to let the team enter and then to shut them inside. After sending the team inside and closing the door behind them, the host would call for the fans to be switched on. (O'Brien always used the same catchphrase, delivered in an American accent: "Will you start the fans, please!" Tudor-Pole used varying catchphrases such as "Let the mighty winds blow!")

Six huge fans, mounted on a slowly rotating giant turntable, were situated beneath the wire mesh floor of the Dome, to blow around gold and silver banknote-sized 'tokens' made of foil. Once the fans and turntable were up to speed with all the tokens swirling around, the host blew a whistle to start the clock. The team's aim was to grab the flying gold tokens and post them into a clear plastic container, roughly the size of a house brick, mounted at waist height on the outside of one of the dome's panels. O'Brien termed it The Letterbox, while Tudor-Pole called it The Cosmic Pyramid. The container had a pneumatically-operated door on the inside, marked with a red saltire-shaped cross, which opened when the collection time started and closed when time was up.

Winning the show

The team had to collect at least 100 gold tokens in the Crystal Dome to win, but each silver token accidentally posted would cancel out a gold token. Hence the team had to collect 100 more gold tokens than silver ones. Each team reassembled in front of the Dome after their time was up, for the final scene of each show in which they were informed of their result by the host.

In the first series, a final balance of 50–99 gold tokens entitled team members to a 'runner-up' prize, but this was dropped in later series. In the case of the Christmas specials, featuring a team of children, they were awarded the prize regardless of their performance in the Dome.

Originally, prizes consisted of individual adventure days out, such as a flight in a Tiger Moth or a day spent mud-plugging, and contestants chose their own gold and silver grade prizes off set, just in advance of filming the Crystal Dome part of the show. From series four onwards, the contestants would choose a single prize (usually once-in-a-lifetime adventure holidays) shared by the whole team.

The prizes on the show have been described as "shoddy", and Richard O'Brien frequently mocked them gently in his introduction to each show, referring to them variously as 'inconsequential', 'mediocre', 'ordinary', 'underwhelming' and so on. However, the prizes were comparable to other British TV game show prizes of the era.

All players that participated won a commemorative crystal saying "I Cracked the Crystal Maze, 199x". This acted as a consolation prize for the vast majority of teams who failed to win the grand prize.

Christmas specials

The Christmas specials featured teams of children instead of adults. These were recorded shortly before each main series with a broadcast date several months before the start of the new series. Most of the games featured would also be played by adult contestants in the new main series, but a small number of easier challenges were also devised and made specifically for the Christmas specials which were not used in the main series.

The zones

Main article: Design and Production of The Crystal Maze

The four zones featured in the maze used varied settings from different eras. The zones were:

• Aztec (Series 1–6) Set in a small village in 1518, the year before Hernán Cortés destroyed the Aztec empire. The Zone housed 22 tons of sand and 10,000 gallons of water, and over half the plants were real. The only 'outdoor' zone, it was usually styled as hot and sunny, and birdsong could be heard in the background. We are told that the zone's wildlife includes crocodiles and mosquitoes; once a team was ambushed on screen by a real lizard slithering past. Starting with O'Brien's last-ever episode, the zone was occasionally visited at night (illuminated by bonfires and flaming torches, with insects as the main background noise) and once at daybreak. The zone also featured a section of 'river' to be traversed in rowing boats by teams entering The Crystal Maze through Aztec Zone, and only seen in these episodes.

• Industrial (Series 1–3) Set in the present day, in an industrial chemical plant. The majority of the set was constructed from corrugated iron/aluminium, with added use of barbed wire, industrial-style warning signage, and an open chemical storage tank containing noxious-looking liquid. Richard O'Brien claimed that all the games on the show were manufactured here. Rumbling mechanical noises could be heard in the background.

• Ocean (Series 4–6) Set also in the 20th century, on a sunken ship, the S.S. Atlantis, trapped in an air bubble on the edge of an abyss in the Pacific Ocean. Ocean Zone replaced Industrial Zone from Series 4 onwards. The Zone had three mini-zones within itself - the Boiler Room section, the Main Saloon and the Front of the Ship section. In the show, Richard O'Brien claimed he found the ship when he was unblocking a drain in Medieval Zone. He said that it was located underneath Industrial and that he was trying to restore the ship. Ed Tudor-Pole added to the story that in 1947 the captain got drunk and the ship hit a mine. There is gold in the cargo, but it cannot be removed as it is responsible for balancing the ship over an abyss. Creaking nautical noises could be heard in the background.

• Medieval (Series 1–6) Set in a castle where the host lived in 1302. Decorations used in this zone included cobwebs, a dining table, burning torches, gravestones, statues, a suit of armour and (in the final series) a live bird of prey. Eerie wind sound effects were used.

• Futuristic (Series 1–6) Set in the future, on board a space station far away from Earth in 2494, abandoned after the Second Galactic War of 2245. The zone contained two sections, the main Computer Room, and then the longer Observatory corridor at the back end of the zone, originally connected by one corridor. The zone featured metallic fittings and copious wiring and computer equipment. The Earth and the Moon could be seen through a large glass window. A quiet hum of engines and soft electronic noises could be heard in the background.

Navigating the maze

Entering the maze

When a team started the Crystal Maze, they had to "gain entry" to enter their first zone - a different zone from show to show. In every case, the entire group would reconvene in the centre of the zone they had just entered. These challenges were:

• Aztec: Row across a river in two canoes. The host would ask the captain and vice captain to travel in separate boats. The teams were expected to untie the boats from one jetty, and then tie them to the jetty at the other end.
• Medieval: Open the large doors and then open or climb over a portcullis. Originally the portcullis could be lifted by pulling chains - there were many chains to try pulling, of which only one worked. Regularly after series 1 and 2 the team had to climb instead.
• Futuristic: Answer a question set by the computer. The question was usually a mathematical equation, but could sometimes be about historical events or general knowledge.
• Industrial (series 1–3): Climb over oil barrels and wire mesh into a gap above a door, and/or open the gates or door with a key.
• Ocean (series 4–6): Tie up (or in later series, remove) a metal grille and climb down a net ladder into the engine room.

Each episode hosted by Richard O'Brien started with him blowing his whistle. Replacement host Ed Tudor Pole used a different whistle, but the episode would sometimes start with a distinct sound; he would ring a bell in Medieval, blow a conch in Aztec, set off an alarm in Futuristic (after the question was answered), and sound a foghorn in Ocean.

File:Map zone 2 379x229.jpg

Map used during series 4–6

A computerised diagram of the Crystal Maze was displayed as the team travelled around the maze. The diagram was a copy of the actual production design and floor plan of the set. A new version was used for series 4–6 due to the new Ocean Zone. The map zoomed in to a close-up of the zone the contestants had reached (or, at the end, the Crystal Dome).

Moving from one zone to another

When a team finished their games in a zone, they had to climb, crawl and/or balance their way across a mildly awkward transition path, guided by the host, to travel to their next zone. This was normally accompanied by a remix of the main theme music. Advert breaks were slotted in during the first and third zone transitions. Teams could progress either clockwise or anti-clockwise around the maze; this meant that a team would alternate between the past and modern zones.

The transitions were:

• Aztec to/from Industrial (series 1-3): Crawl through a long and winding Z shaped tunnel. The tunnel forked into two at one point, with the other fork leading to a dead end, occasionally catching the contestants out. Short arched segments of the tunnel forced contestants to climb up then slide back down.
• Aztec to Ocean (series 4-6): Walk across stepping stones, up a cave tunnel, down a short ladder into what seemed to be a room full of SS Atlantis equipment, crawl through a tunnel then push out the grille under the stairs in the main salon.
• Industrial to Medieval (series 1-3): Climb up a ladder or ascend stairs, then cross a chasm (in series 1 by walking across either a thin 'plank' or a revolving beam; in series 2–3 by swinging across) then descend stairs.
• Ocean to Medieval (series 4-6): Climb a ladder, crawl through a small hatch, then through a tunnel, then descend stairs.
• Medieval to/from Futuristic: Cross a bubbling swamp (series 1-2) or a pool of water (series 3-6), using either a spider web-type bridge or a balance beam.
• Futuristic to/from Aztec: Go up in a scissor lift (or a ladder in one episode when the lift was not functioning), then climb down a stepped wall (using vines from series 2 onwards).

In series 1-4, the total number of games that a team 'had time' to play across the four zones of the maze could vary between 14 and 16. As a result, Richard O'Brien often encouraged teams to keep transitions as quick as possible with comments such as "It's your time". For series 5 and 6 the number of games per episode was reduced to a standardised 13, despite no significant change in show running time.

Moving to the Crystal Dome

After the games were completed in the fourth and final zone, teams are briefly shown being led by the host towards the Crystal Dome in the middle of the Maze for the show's finalé. This transition was never shown in full. As host Richard O'Brien usually greeted this journey with a loud and excited shout of "To the Crystal Dome!"

Gameplay

Starting a game

Each game involved a contestant venturing into a room on their own. The nominated contestant would be led to the room by the host. The host would advise the contestant on the time limit or special rules (e.g. automatic lock-in stipulation) before allowing them to enter. As soon as he had closed the door, he would lock it and start the timer. The rest of the team was always able to see what was going on inside the room - in Industrial, Ocean and Futuristic (the modern zones) a TV monitor was always provided for viewing, while in Aztec and Medieval (the 'past' zones) there were glassless windows in the walls and the doors of every game room.

One of the show's best known catchphrases was "Where's the crystal?" This was often shouted by contestants inside or outside the cell in the first seconds of a game, sometimes encouraged by the host, as part of the process of understanding what the challenge involved.

Game design

Each series of the show featured its own portfolio of games - 37 different game designs in series 1 (which had no Christmas special), and then between 46 and 49 games in each subsequent series. Therefore the same games became familiar to regular viewers over the course of a series, but did not appear on every show.

The design and rules for each individual game usually remained the same during each series of the show, except for occasional small refinements. However for word-based games, clue-based games and question-based games, the words, clues and/or questions used in the game often changed entirely each time the game appeared in an episode. There was never any officially designated variation in difficulty of games on the show, although the host sometimes implicitly acknowledged that some games were considerably easier to win than others.

Familiar game themes

The games on the show were very varied. While there was originality in the design of many games throughout the show's run, some games in later series were always 'variations on a theme' of games from earlier series. Several games on the show were derived from familiar commercially available children's games and/or fairground games, including KerPlunk and Downfall, shaky hand testers and sliding puzzles. Game designs tended to become more elaborate in later series.

Familiar types of skill game included:

• Target-shooting: These games featured a wide variety of weapons, from air rifles, crossbows, a musket and a water cannon through to a paintball gun, a slingshot, a peashooter, a catapult, bow and arrows, quoits (to throw onto hooks), ramps for bowling cannonballs,, a model 'torpedo' to hit passing model ships, and a model 'jouster' with a miniature lance to hit shields. Typically hitting a handful of targets would release the crystal. The number of shots available was sometimes limited. The paintball gun game featured an added twist that the contestant was required to mount a mechanical bull whose gyrations severely impacted the contestant's aim, while the 'model torpedo' version had the extra difficulty that shots took several seconds after firing to reach their target.
• Driving a miniature vehicle: The contestant would have to maneouvre the controls of a radio-controlled vehicle such as a buggy, ship, JCB, model train (with points), amphibious truck, helicopter or submarine. Most commonly the vehicle was carrying the crystal and the aim was for the contestant to maneouvre it to the one place in the room where they could reach it and grab the crystal. One variation on this game concept had the contestant's view of their vehicle obstructed, with only a 'worm's eye view' provided from a camera in the vehicle itself plus a static map of the terrain.
• Steady hand tests: The contestant needed to use steadiness of hand to avoid obstacles, on pain of automatic lock-in. Depending on the game the equipment to be used was either a fairground-style 'steady hand tester' (not touching the wire with a metal loop), a wheel-and-pulley system to move a statue (avoiding rotating bells), a metal pole and hook (avoiding rotating metal bars), a spirit level or a mechanical grabber (avoiding rotating blades). Two games in later series combined this concept with the vehicle-driving concept, where hitting three mines with the vehicle would result in automatic-lock in.
• Manoeuvre the crystal out of the maze: Other skill games had the crystal trapped inside a miniature maze, with the contestant required to manoeuvre the crystal out of the maze. Different variations of this game used different methods for the contestant to manipulate the crystal; these included either tilting or revolving the maze box, manipulating it with levers and pulleys, with a rotating cylinder, with their own bodyweight, manipulating a magnet underneath the crystal, or using a fishing rod or pole. One version required ball bearings to be rolled through the maze using motorised levers, instead of the crystal itself.
• Get balls into the correct holes: Numerous games required the contestant to manoeuvre balls into holes to win the crystal. Different games required the contestant either to tilt a container to move the balls around, or cause the balls to drop into the holes from a correctly judged position above, or to use pinball flippers, a mechanical lever,, a moveable tube system, or to score 'baskets' with their vision impeded.
• Tests of timing: Two different skill games primarily tested the contestant's timing ability - to swing a pendulum with good rhythm, or to release the crystal at the right moment onto asymmetrical rotating wheels.

Common themes in physical games included:

• Demolish the targets: Requiring targets to be physically demolished, using a battering ram, a wrecking ball, or a large hammer.
• Climb without touching the floor: The contestant would have to physically climb around or across the room to recover the crystal from the far side. This involved either building scaffolding, navigating a miniature assault course, using climbing hooks or a plank,, climbing into a wooden barrel on rails and rolling across,, or using awkward bouncy stepping stones. The difficulty in these games was that touching the floor of the cell was forbidden, most commonly on pain of instant automatic-lock in.
• Use a zip-wire: Other games also required the contestant not to touch the floor at any stage, but by using a zip wire to traverse across a void in the room. The contestant's task was to use the zip-wire to carry a series of objects from one side of the void to the other.
• Avoid the obstacles: Other 'physical games' which required climbing and/or crawling to physically retrieve the crystal did not prevent contestants from touching the floor, but did prohibit them from touching a specified type of obstacle in the room, such as trip wires. These games were often automatic lock-ins where touching one of these obstacles was deemed a 'mistake', and three mistakes would cause lock-in.
• Cross the water: One Aztec Zone game room was almost completely filled by a pool of deep water. Usually the crystal was on the other side of the water, and an intentionally awkward and/or precarious means of crossing the water was provided, such as a rotating cylindrical pole, a small raft, a rickety and incomplete rope bridge, a series of unconnected steps each swinging from ropes, a narrow beam, one short narrow plank to be used between a series of stepping stones, or a pontoon bridge for the contestant to build from pieces. The main challenge was to successfully complete the journey there and back within the time limit.
• Heft the chest: The contestant would need to physically shift a heavy chest containing the crystal, to a different place in the room where it could be unlocked with a key. Depending on the game the chest had to be slid with logs, floated across water with floats, guided on rails (which the contestant first had to build correctly), pushed around while the contestant lifted poles out of its way, or navigated correctly through a maze of immovable objects.

Familiar types of mental game included:

• Build the picture/shape: A common mental challenge was to require either a 2D picture or a 3D shape to be reassembled from tiles or pieces provided.
• Assemble a logical pattern: Many mental games required some kind of logical pattern to be correctly constructed, most commonly from either tiles, pieces, cubes or sliding disks provided. The difference here was that these games required the correct pattern to be deduced logically rather than just visually. A rule was often provided to be observed in placing the pieces of the pattern correctly, such as "like to like colours only", or "no adjacent colours or symbols".
• Assemble the correct words: Other mental games on the show required contestants to build a jumble of lettered tiles into correct words. One version had the twist of being in '3D' with correct words having to be created on two different crosswords either side of the board.
• Mumsey's brain-teasers: Each series presented by Richard O'Brien featured a mental game in the Medieval Zone where the contestant would be asked up to three brain-teaser questions by Mumsey (or Auntie Sabrina in series 3). Answering one question correctly would win the crystal from Mumsey. (This was the only game in the show kept exactly the same from series to series.)
• Word association: Most series of the show featured a word association game. Either words, or pictures representing specific words, would be provided on a board, and the task of the contestant was to correctly 'link together' those words which made familiar phrases.
• Maths equations: Several mental games on the show were entirely mathematical in nature, requiring a series of numerical equations to be answered correctly in order to release the crystal.
• Release the rope: The goal would be to retrieve the crystal from a locked safe or similar device. However the key was on the end of a rope which was firmly entangled around an intricately shaped object fixed to the floor, and the rope would not stretch to the safe. The contestant needed to fully disentangle the rope, by passing it through and/or over the fixed object in logical steps.

Common types of mystery game included:

• 'Treasure hunt' mystery games: Every series of the show except the last series featured a 'murder mystery' game. The game concept moved around all five zones which appeared in the Maze, using a game room styled as a cluttered office, study or inhabited cave, featuring a dead body which would be holding the first written 'clue'. This clue would direct the contestant to another of the many objects in the room where a further clue would be found, and so on until a final clue revealed the location of the crystal. Variations on this game concept, in addition to the customary 'murder mystery' version each series, included the use of a scale model village on a table in place of a lifesize room, and the use of a giant sandpit with a marked grid and directional clues buried in specific grid cells.
• Sliding puzzles: Several games, most commonly categorised as Mystery, were versions of a traditional sliding puzzle, which had to be completed to release the crystal. In later series variations on the traditional 'grid' puzzle were employed, such as different non-rectangular shaped areas for sliding the tiles around, and a version in which only certain specific marked tiles had to be slid into place instead of a complete picture having to be formed.
• Deduce the location of the crystal: The final series of the show featured three different Mystery games with a main task of logically deducing the exact location of the crystal from a large number of possibilities. In one of these games a single incorrect guess of location led to the game being lost, while in another game it led to automatic lock-in.

The following themes recurred in several different games which were not consistently assigned to any one of the four game categories:

• Balance the weight: Weights needed to be placed correctly so as to balance - for example to balance two sides of a scale or a see-saw, or to balance against the weight of the crystal itself or the contestant's bodyweight.
• Maze navigation: The contestant needed to physically navigate a life-size maze inside the game room. Several of these mazes featured a large series of doors opening in different directions; sometimes these required the contestant to find one or more hidden keys to access the crystal, and sometimes mirrors and/or hidden doors were used to disorient the contestant. Variations included a game with gates which had to be slid instead of pushed, and crawling mazes (without doors) in both two dimensions and three dimensions.
• Complete the electrical wiring: The contestant would need to correctly 'wire' oversized mock electrical equipment - a plug, a battery or a circuit board - in order to complete an electrical circuit which would release the crystal.
• Transport a volume of water: A quantity of water (either a flow or from a filled container) would need to be successfully transported from a starting place in order to cause the crystal to be released. Depending on the game this could require the use of a hand-operated water pump, deployment of a series of taps, rubber tubing, correct placement of pieces of guttering of different lengths,, the diverting of valves in pipes or the use of a bucket or giant funnel. Variations on this concept required, instead of water, the transportation of smoke (by completing a plumbing system), and grain (by transporting it between a series of buckets).
• Complete the cog/pulley system: Several games required a system of interlocking cogs or 'belts and pulleys' to be assembled from pieces provided. The completed mechanism then had to be successfully operated in order to physically release the crystal or lift an obstacle.
• Identify the correct sequence of keys: The contestant needed to unlock a sequence of locks. Either a large number of keys or a large number of locks would be provided, together with a sequence of clues directing the contestant to the next correct key or lock. Unlocking the final lock at the end of the correct sequence would reveal the crystal.

Mould-breaking games

A small number of games on the show 'broke the mould' of what viewers would have come to consider the 'normal' features of a game:

• Only one game ever featured a humanoid 'opponent'. This was a quasar game in Futuristic Zone in series 2 where both the contestant and a robot inside the cell were armed with laser guns to shoot at each other, and given four 'lives' each.
• Usually the game's task had to be completed before the crystal could be obtained, but the contestant was not directly obstructed from coming out of the game cell within the time limit if they had failed to complete the task. A rare 'twist' was for the crystal to be freely accessible as soon as the contestant entered the room; however taking the crystal triggered a 'trap' preventing the contestant's exit from the room until the puzzle was completed. For example in series 3, a Medieval Zone game allowed the crystal to be grabbed straight away, but doing so caused a portcullis to fall and trap the contestant in the room. The contestant would then have to build a mechanism to raise the portcullis and escape.
• Normally the contestant in the game room was primarily responsible for their own success or failure in the game. One 'virtual reality' game in Futuristic Zone in series 3 turned this principle on its head. The game room was entirely empty except for the crystal, and the contestant wore a helmet with a white cross on the top. Their teammates were given a top-down view on the monitor, depicting the contestant as a white cross in a computer-generated maze. They had to carefully guide the contestant in the room to the crystal without touching the walls of the maze (three 'mistakes' would lead to automatic lock-in). The contestant in the empty room was entirely dependent on the instructions from their teammates outside.
• Commonly a given number of 'wins' (e.g. three hits on a target, three balls caught etc.) was required in a game in order to release the crystal. An occasional twist to this principle was that 'misses' during a game could cancel out 'successes'. For example, balls 'missed' in a pinball game in series 3 and again in a 'plinko' game in series 4 would drain off into a 'lose' basket which acted as a counterweight against those balls successfully caught in the 'win' basket. The requirement for the crystal to be released in these games was for the 'win basket' to contain four more balls at any one time than the 'lose basket'.

Contestants' woes

Contestants could sometimes be obviously nervous while playing games and sometimes, as h2g2 describes it, "the ridiculously easy suddenly became fiendishly taxing" under the pressure. It was not uncommon for a contestant playing a game to appear somewhat confused, and to rely heavily on shouted help from their teammates outside. A contestant's inability to understand something which was painfully obvious to their teammates occasionally proved particularly entertaining to TV viewers. However, on other occasions teammates' loud shouts could disrupt the contestant's concentration, and their 'help' or questions were not always accurate or relevant. A considerable number of the 'lock-ins' of contestants on the show were caused by nothing more than their sheer greed under pressure - they would choose to stay playing the game for a few fatal extra seconds because they were enticingly close to claiming the crystal.

Website Den Of Geek describes it as "watching people who are out of their element (i.e. in a TV set) confronted with simple tests, and entirely failing to understand them. What's more, they were encouraged by their team members with shouts of 'you have plenty of time', just seconds before they got locked in." It adds that a viewer might well watch most of the proceedings through their fingers, "not actually believing that some contestants could be so stupid or clumsy, or both", and that "screaming at the TV... was a national angst" for the millions of viewers.

The perceived stupidity of the contestants was the central target of a parody sketch of The Crystal Maze on comedy programme The Mary Whitehouse Experience. The sketch showed an over-excited team having no idea who wanted to play a game next or what type of game they wanted to play. The 'host' offers one of the contestants an "extremely easy game" called the "Making a Cup of Tea game" featuring a teapot and two teacups. The bewildered 'contestant' utterly fails to complete the game, 'trying' absurd moves such as putting a teacup on top of the teapot, and pouring the teapot straight into his mouth, before freezing entirely, panicking and yelling "I'm coming out!"

Show statistics

Overall success rates in games: 48% of all attempts at games were successful. The zone with the highest overall success rate was Aztec at 52%, and the lowest was Futuristic Zone at 41%.
Highest and lowest success rates at a game: There were 277 different games played across the six series of the show. 29 of them were won every time they were played; three of these were played on five occasions. 46 games were never won on-screen, two of them after six attempts. (14 games were only ever played once, all bar two by child contestants in Christmas specials.)
Fastest completion of a game: The fastest-ever successful completion of a game took 18 seconds, by contestant Mark Wynn, of a "cross the water" game featuring a revolving cylindrical beam in series 1 of the show. Wynn's team was the only team which ever had time to play 16 games in the Maze.
Lock-ins: Lock-ins were a prominent feature of the show. A grand total of 74 lock-ins occurred, with 48 of the 83 teams that attempted the maze suffering at least one lock-in. The most lock-ins in a single show was three, something that happened on six separate occasions. The Futuristic Zone had the highest number of lock-ins at 27. The same contestant was never locked in twice.
Most and fewest crystals won: The most crystals ever won by a team was ten; this number was achieved (without any lock-ins) on five occasions during the show's history. Taking an exceptionally high number of crystals to the Dome did not guarantee success there - two of the five teams with ten crystals failed to win the prize. The lowest winning number of crystals was seven, on two occasions. The fewest crystals ever taken to the Crystal Dome was one, which happened twice. Both however were after multiple 'buy-outs' of locked-in teammates. The fewest crystals ever actually won by a team, disregarding forfeited crystals, was three.
Best and worst in The Crystal Dome: The highest net total of gold ever achieved in the Crystal Dome was 154. On eleven separate occasions, teams achieved a net total of gold tokens in the Crystal Dome below zero - they inadvertently collected more silver than gold tokens. The record low total, achieved on two separate occasions, was -66.
Winning the grand prize: The show was known for its difficulty. Only 17 of the show's 83 teams (20%) were successful in winning the grand prize.

Hosts

The centre of attention on The Crystal Maze was never away from the show's host for very long. It was for the host to guide the team between the zones and game rooms in each zone, to act as timekeeper for every game and for the Crystal Dome, and to reveal the final result. The host also quite often provided specific genuine assistance to the team during a game, in order to keep the crystal attempt moving for viewers, after the contestant had spent some time failing to understand an element of the game or persistently making a mistake.

During each game, the teammates would always crowd closely around the game room's windows or viewing monitors and concentrate on the game. This allowed the host to wander a short distance away from the team and deliver a monologue into a spare camera, which the contestants would probably not hear. Typically the view would switch from the game room to the host for short periods, and then back to the game room with the host's comments continuing as a voiceover. This did not happen in every game but the technique was used extensively throughout the show's run. This also allowed the host to be more disparaging about a contestant's attempt at a game 'privately' to camera than in their remarks to the contestants' faces - an opportunity both of the show's hosts sometimes utilised. Props were occasionally left around the maze which the host could talk about and/or use, and fictional 'side stories' relating to the maze's zones and its other 'inhabitants' were developed.

Richard O'Brien

The original host Richard O'Brien brought a very individual and distinctive style. This started with his physical appearance - he always wore a long fur coat (leopardskin in series 1 and 2; black and white in series 3 and 4), paired with a brightly coloured shirt, skinny fit trousers and long, sleek leather boots, while his head was always shaved completely bald.

O'Brien was always broadly welcoming and encouraging to teams, and congratulatory on their successes. As a guide around the maze he displayed what has been described as an "infectious... enthusiasm and manic energy", often shouting at teams to hurry or catch up. From series 2 onwards he showed a real keenness to encourage contestants to use every second of their time effectively - often giving harsh-sounding rebukes to any contestant he perceived to be dawdling or hesitating, or to be worrying about 'coming out' of the cell prematurely, or to any watching teammate who shouted that there was lots of time left. On occasion he would show visible frustration with a contestant for a particularly sub-standard attempt at a game. However, O'Brien also "often appeared detached from proceedings, bordering on deadpan". Many of his comments were comic "light-hearted quips at contestants". He also sometimes made subtle jokes related to the show itself and its production (e.g. amusing attempts at concealing that timechecks and other information came through his earpiece). According to h2g2, "his improvised jokes and little wisecracks on the contestants' stupidity were enough to keep the Maze going. He hammed it up marvelously and introduced a certain amount of campness into the show."

Once or twice in many shows O'Brien would produce a harmonica from his pocket during a game, often announcing that he was going to provide "excitement music". He only ever played one short and repetitive tune, of dubious quality. (Much more rarely he would 'find' another musical instrument in the maze which he used to provide a more authentic showcase for his musical talents, and on rare occasions he would briefly burst into song.)

O'Brien's departure

O'Brien announced his departure from The Crystal Maze after the broadcast of series 4. At the beginning of the 1993 Christmas special (preceding series 5), O'Brien appeared for the final time in a short 1min 30sec minute cameo appearance, in which he and "Mumsey" leave the maze for a new life with Mumsey's boyfriend Dwayne.

O'Brien has volunteered in subsequent interviews that his time doing the show was "good" and "a lot of fun". However in a 1998 BBC interview he stressed that he "never imagined I'd go down that particular byway" and it was only a "diversionary kind of sideline". He explained that after four years as host he was thinking, "If I stay here much longer I'm not going to be able to do anything else", suggesting that the film work he was doing at that time would not have come his way if he had remained on The Crystal Maze. He has also said of his departure: "I didn’t want to get to the point where they said goodbye before I did. The show went on for 2 or 3 more years and it began to dip, and my credibility goes down doesn’t it? So I left."

In a subsequent article for The Independent newspaper, O'Brien wrote that he had been frustrated with Channel 4's attitude towards the show and towards him as its talismanic host. Despite The Crystal Maze being Channel 4's top-ranked programme, O'Brien claimed that "they never waved the flag for the show or tried to woo me as a Channel 4 person in the same crazy manner as they wooed Jonathan Ross" despite the ratings for Ross's show at the time being vastly lower than The Crystal Maze's. According to O'Brien, "Channel 4 people... should have taken me on board as a viable Channel 4 personality. And when... I'd had enough of Crystal Maze they should have asked if there was anything else they could have found me."

Ed Tudor-Pole

Following O'Brien's on-screen departure from the Maze, Ed Tudor-Pole from the rock band Tenpole Tudor was then introduced and became the host for the final two series.

Tudor-Pole sported a look that has been described as "Georgian" - an elaborate tunic in predominantly blue (series 5) or red (series 6), together with a waistcoast, off-white sleeves and trousers, and long black boots similar to O'Brien's. He has acknowledged that the producers "bent over backwards to accommodate" him and this included allowing him to design his own costumes, as well as write his own on-screen material.

His style hosting the show was similarly energetic to O'Brien's. His air was somewhat less detached and more sympathetic towards contestants than O'Brien, commonly commiserating them on their failures. He often employed very short interviews with contestants immediately after they came out of game cells - one or two questions about their success or difficulty with the game. Tudor-Pole talked up the 'time travel' element of the show, often using nonsense words such as "trignification" and "osmification" to describe the "process" of travelling between time zones in the show. He frequently pretended not to be able to calculate the maths of how many seconds teams had won in the Crystal Dome, waiting for the team themselves to shout out the correct answer. According to h2g2, "pale and looking a little emaciated, Ed Tudor-Pole gave The Crystal Maze a dark and intimidating feeling".

Since leaving the show, Tudor-Pole has shown less keenness than O'Brien to talk about his time on the show. Responding to questions about the show during a 2009 interview for DemonFM, he commented: "You've got to bear in mind I did it for five weeks about twelve years ago," and revealed that he only ever watched one and a half episodes of the completed show, "so I'm not an expert on it". Shortly afterwards he tersely moved the topic of conversation back to his music career with the comment, "Frankly I wasn't sent to this world to present game shows."

In-show characters

Mumsey

During O'Brien's period as host of The Crystal Maze, the most prominent recurring 'character' besides the host was "Mumsey", a genial fortune teller played by Sandra Caron. She appeared only in the Medieval Zone, said to be Richard's "home". A recurring Mental game in Medieval Zone involved receiving 'brain teaser' questions from Mumsey in her sitting room. At the end of the game O'Brien would usually talk to her briefly before moving on, sometimes continuing a conversation which was presented as starting between episodes. In series 3 we are told that Mumsey is away in Bratislava, to O'Brien's distress, but he is being "helped out" by the temporary residence in the Maze of Auntie Sabrina - an ageing hippy also played by Sandra Caron in a broadly similar way to Mumsey. Mumsey 'returned' for series 4.

O'Brien confirmed in a 2013 interview that he "invented Mumsey" himself. A fortune teller asking brain teaser questions had been an ordinary game concept by the production team for the first series, and O'Brien "built up the image" of the character from there, with Mumsey becoming a regular throughout his four series as host. O'Brien felt this "just added silliness and intrigue" to the show.

The Computer

In Futuristic Zone O'Brien tried to develop an interpersonal relationship with the computer. In the first series, the computer's voice was male and acted antagonistically toward Richard. In the second series, the computer's voice was female and very flirtatious. For the third and fourth series, the computer's voice reverted to male. Tudor-Pole also flirted with the computer, which reverted to female and he called Barbara. He and Barbara had been together for 45 years in 2250 when she died. Barbara had been a scientist, and as part of her work, her soul was inputted into the computer.

Other characters

In series 1 of the show, male contestants playing one 'maze' game had to kiss the princess at the centre of the maze in order for her to wake up and release the crystal. In series 5, a 'guard' called Lance in a Medieval Zone game instructed the contestant to build "the king's seal", and released a crystal on successful completion. In series 6, three 'guardians' inhabited a 'maze' game in Aztec Zone in which the contestant needed to ask each of them for a verbal clue to the crystal's location.

There were also a number of unseen characters at different points in the show's run. Mumsey's affair with someone known only as Ralph, who is never seen on screen, is an ongoing source of conversation during series 1 and 2. When Mumsey "returns" in series 4, Ralph's place in her affections has been taken over by a New Age Hollywood film director from California named Dwayne - also never seen on screen. As series 4 progresses O'Brien makes it increasingly clear to viewers that he disapproves of Dwayne. This culminates in O'Brien's final episode with an on-screen argument between him and Mumsey about Dwayne, followed later in the show by 'tears' from O'Brien. Tudor-Pole often referred to unseen companions in the maze, such as his horse Bert in Medieval Zone, and Starbuck the cat, who survived the sinking of the SS Atlantis (Ocean Zone) and still lived on the vessel.

Theme tune

The theme tune for The Crystal Maze was composed by Zack Laurence and is entitled Force Field. It was used through all six series. The original track is 1:05 long; however it was shortened to roughly 50 seconds for the opening titles and varied between 40 and 1:40 seconds for closing credits. The "Underscore" remix of the theme tune played during the show itself was also composed by Zack Laurence.

Popularity

The show's was regularly Channel 4's highest watched programme. At its most popular, viewing figures regularly ranged between 4 million and 6 million. They peaked at 7 million for the 1993 Christmas special.

40% of the show's viewers were children aged 16 or younger. O'Brien has said that this popularity among children was a great surprise to him and the producers, but once they became aware of it, he adapted his performance on the show to "think like the kids and I'd invent treasure in the sand for no particular reason".

The show was nominated three times for a BAFTA award. The first nomination was in 1992 for Graphics. Further nominations followed in 1993 and again in 1994 for "Best Children's Programme - Fiction or Entertainment", specifically for the Christmas special show. The show was also once nominated for a Royal Television Society award, for series 5.

Contemporary commentary on the show has sometimes suggested that O'Brien's performance was the show's biggest single attraction for many viewers. Scottish cultural website The Skinny has claimed that O'Brien "shattered the bland stereotype of the presenter". According to popular culture website Popshifter, he "managed to transform a good concept into something more. He was your genial guide, a fearless adventurer with a wink and a smile and a verbal knife in the back of those poor saps [contestants]... His style and wit was sardonic, yet never exclusionary, and pointed, yet never bitter."

The same commentary has sometimes suggested that although Tudor-Pole's performance as the replacement host was considered good, he had an almost impossible task in living up to O'Brien's popularity.

Ending of the show and thereafter

When Channel 4's contract with producers Chatsworth TV expired, they did not renew it and the show ended in 1995. The large set remained up in Aces High hangar until 1999, when it was dismantled.

Eventually, Challenge (a digital satellite channel, then known as Challenge TV) bought the rights for all six series in 1998 and has frequently showed all the episodes throughout the following years. It quickly became one of the most popular game shows on the channel. As of 1 July 2013, The Crystal Maze continues to air on Challenge.

The makers of the children's TV show Jungle Run openly acknowledge The Crystal Maze as an influence, particularly the current host, Michael Underwood, who was the team captain in the first Christmas special.

The Crystal Maze was named "Greatest UK Game Show of All Time" in a 2006 poll by the UKGameshows.com website and again in 2010. Due to its popularity, it was featured in the Channel 4 at 25 celebration season which showed popular shows from Channel 4's 25 year history. It has retained a cult following over the years.

Cultural references

A striking cultural reference to The Crystal Maze was made in the 2000 movie Dungeons & Dragons. This featured a maze with similar puzzles, where the movie's protagonists attempt to obtain a red ruby - with the maze's owner Xilus played by Richard O'Brien.

At least four separate British TV sketch shows ran parodies of The Crystal Maze:

• Various elements of the show were parodied by Punt and Dennis in a sketch on The Mary Whitehouse Experience, most prominently the perceived stupidity of the contestants. Their pathetic efforts in the sketch provoke the Richard O'Brien lookalike "host" to express an exaggerated detached frustration, and to compare his role on the show unfavourably with the life of another writer of hit West End musicals, Andrew Lloyd Webber.
• In 1994 an episode of the children's sitcom Maid Marian and her Merry Men (series 4, episode 1), had the Robin Hood character acting as the part of O'Brien.
• Comedy duo Adam and Joe also parodied The Crystal Maze on Channel 4's The Adam and Joe Show using their well known style of using toys. This time, the Crystal Maze was hosted by Yoda. The team was led by Emperor Palpatine and consisted of Jabba the Hutt, Princess Leia, C-3P0 and a drunken Obi-Wan Kenobi. The game culminated in the team only collecting one crystal. The Emperor was so frustrated with his team's terrible performance that he destroyed the Crystal Dome with his Force powers and declared, "The pony trekking holiday in Ullswater will be mine!"
• On 18 February 2006, a parody called The Crystal Muck appeared on Dick and Dom in da Bungalow, featuring a character called Richard O'Muck. The character played the harmonica at moments where the contestants needed to concentrate the most - a parody of O'Brien's antics.

Other British TV and radio references to The Crystal Maze included:

• In an episode of the third series of Absolutely Fabulous first broadcast in April 1995, the character Christopher, Edina Monsoon's hairdresser, calls out enthusiastically, "This is just like The Crystal Maze!" as he and others run through university hallways looking for a videotape.
• In 2007, the Sony Award nominated pilot for the BBC Radio 7 sketch show A Series of Psychotic Episodes, one sketch featured a traumatised daughter whose father had been locked in the Aztec Zone of The Crystal Maze in 1994 and never released from the maze.

At least two notable computer games have also referenced the show:

• The December 1992 video game "Crystal Kingdom Dizzy" featured in the final level of the game an obstacle course of moving platforms beneath water, where Dizzy had to collect a crystal and make his way out, in a parody of the programme itself. During this course a Richard O'Brien look-alike says in a caption "Quick!, quick!, get the crystal!", one of O'Brien's most well-known phrases on the TV show.
• The 2001 online multiplayer game RuneScape features a maze of puzzles, traps and other obstacles known as the Rogues' Den, operated by a character called "Brian O'Richard". When spoken to, Brian O'Richard claims the maze belongs to "mummsie".

Additionally, the 1992 Larry Niven and Steven Barnes book The California Voodoo Game features a Crystal Maze competition which is used to introduce two of the teams competing in the larger game around which the plot is based.

The Half Man Half Biscuit song Paintball's Coming Home about a couple, features lyrics that they were due to appear on The Crystal Maze, but were unable to do so as they were mugged in Florida.

Commercial replicas and merchandise

Commercial replicas

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze was an attraction usually found in larger bowling alleys and video arcades in the UK. It allowed fans an opportunity to "play" the Crystal Maze for themselves in a computerised format. There were a few differences from the show itself, e.g. there is no player choice of game category, and there is no locking in (instead, failing to quit a game would immediately cost the team a crystal). Five of the first six locations were in Britain, while the sixth was in Japan. All of the Cyberdrome Crystal Mazes have since closed. The locations of the Cyberdromes were Sandcastle Water Park (Blackpool), Oakwood Theme Park (Wales), Southampton Megabowl, Coventry Megabowl and next to Magnet Leisure Centre in Maidenhead, (Berkshire). The last one, at Canaston Bowl, Pembrokeshire, ceased operations in June 2010.

Encounter Zone, a small, indoor theme park found at Wafi Mall in Dubai, formerly had a similar attraction called "The Crystal Maze", which was inspired by the original television series. Opened with the rest of the theme park, the attraction was built due to the popularity of the television series in the U.A.E. after having been run and re-run several times on the now-defunct, local television Channel 33.

Currently many companies offer team building sessions to other companies in the style of The Crystal Maze. Some companies have developed an inflatable crystal dome which can fit a full team inside. Also a children's Crystal Maze for aged 5 to 12 is run by Angel Centre in Kent.

Books

Release name	UK release date	Author	Publisher	Notes	Ref
The Crystal Maze	15 February 1990	Peter Arnold and Gill Brown	Time Warner Paperbacks	Re-released 1 October 1990
Crystal Maze Adventure Gamebook	7 February 1991	Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson	Mammoth	New edition
Crystal Maze Challenge!	21 May 1992	Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson	Mammoth	1st Edition 21 May 1992
The Crystal Thief	15 April 1993	Peter Arnold	Mammoth	Puzzle Books
Tea at Rick's	15 April 1993	Peter Arnold	Mammoth	Puzzle Books
The Sacred Necklace	16 December 1993	Peter Arnold	Mammoth, London	Puzzle Book
Phantom in the Tower	16 December 1993	Peter Arnold	Mammoth, London	Puzzle Book
The Crystal Maze	1994	Unknown	Mammoth
Crystal Maze Mystery Pack	25 February 1994	Peter Arnold	Heinemann Library
The Crystal Maze Puzzle Book	13 June 1994	Peter Arnold	Mammoth
The Crystal Maze Puzzle Book: Bk. 2	30 October 1995	Peter Arnold	Mammoth	Puzzle Book
Crystal Maze A1 Poster	13 June 1996	None	Mammoth	Hardcover

Quiz machines

Chatsworth Television licensed a number of popular SWP gambling machines based on the TV series, originally produced by Barcrest, but now made by JPM. A quiz machine based on the show was also produced. In 2009, Cool Games created a 3D video version for the UK SWP market. Remaining true to the original show, using touch screen technology, the game achieved widespread coverage in the UK and remains one of the most popular SWP games launched.

Video games

A computer game based on The Crystal Maze was released in 1993 by Sherston Software for RISC OS on the Acorn Archimedes, and subsequently for the PC. There was also a hand-held version that contained 12 simple levels, each the same but a bit faster and with added killer statues. It was a platform based game that mainly involved jumping on to different levels (out of 4) as they passed by. On the end of each level the player has to jump across three moving platforms and over a wall to obtain the crystal.

Release name	UK release date	Publisher	Platform	Notes
The Crystal Maze	1994	Sherston Software	RISC OS, DOS	Developed by Digital Jellyfish Design. Contains some games later used for the mobile versions.
The Crystal Maze	2008	[[Dynamo Games]	Mobile
The Crystal Maze	2010	[[Dynamo Games]	IOS

Board game

A board game was also produced based upon the show, but based on the concept of players competing against each other as opposed to the co-operative style of the TV show.

VHS releases

In 1993, a video cassette, The Best of The Crystal Maze was released by Wienerworld Presentation. The video included three episodes: the 1991 and 1992 Christmas specials, and an episode from Series 4. It also featured the clip of O'Brien and Mumsey leaving the maze.

Release name	UK release date	Notes
The Best of Crystal Maze	16 May 1994	No announcements of any future releases.

Transmissions

Original series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes	Recorded	Presenter
1	15 February 1990	10 May 1990	13	November – December 1989	Richard O'Brien
2	21 March 1991	13 June 1991	13	December 1990 – January 1991
3	23 April 1992	16 July 1992	13	January – February 1992
4	1 April 1993	24 June 1993	13	January – February 1993
5	12 May 1994	4 August 1994	13	January – February 1994	Ed Tudor-Pole
6	18 May 1995	10 August 1995	13	January – February 1995

Christmas specials

Date	Recorded	Presenter
1 January 1991	November 1990	Richard O'Brien
24 December 1991	November 1991
27 December 1992	November 1992
24 December 1993	November 1993	Ed Tudor-Pole
24 December 1994	November 1994

See also

• Design and Production of The Crystal Maze

External links

• Episode Guide
• The Crystal Maze at UKGameshows.com
• The Crystal Maze at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Challenge TV - Show support page
• iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad game by Dynamo Games