''Dark Knight'' is a 2000 TV series, based on

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

's novel ''

Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...

''. This joint New Zealand/England production attempted to capitalize on the same sword and sorcery market successfully mined by '' Xena: Warrior Princess''.

Plot

In the year of 1193, Richard the "Lionheart", King of England, led the third Great Crusade to reclaim the Holy Land from the Turks. After the battle, on their return home to England, Richard and his Knights are captured by the forces of Austria's Emperor, and held prisoners of war in the castle of Austria. In the castle dungeon, the knights are being tortured to tell the Austrians the location of King Richard's treasure. But the knights reply "there is no treasure". The guards don't believe them. Then one of the English knights, Tancred, tells the head-guard that they do have one treasure that all of England will pay for - "King Richard" himself! The head-guard understands what he means - "a ransom.” Tancred agrees to return to England, to collect the ransom, telling the guard that Richard's brother Prince John will pay dearly for the king's freedom. The guard orders Tancred to tell the prince to raise "100,000 gold crowns.” He tells him when the Austrians have the money, King Richard and his Knights will be free and have their passage home. He gives Tancred three months; if he doesn't get the ransom in time, the Austrians will start killing his fellow knights. Of course, the knight chained close to Tancred believes the part about Prince John paying for King Richard's ransom to be false. The knight's name is Ivanhoe. As the guards release Tancred to return to England, looking the other way, Ivanhoe sees a sword close to him, kicks it into the air, and grabs it. The head-guard looks back and rushed over to Ivanhoe, but he stabs him, and freed himself. One of the other knights asks Ivanhoe release him, too, but the other knights warn Ivanhoe of the guards coming. As the two knights fight their way out, they say that Prince John will never pay Richard's ransom, and that Tancred will betray them all. Then one of the guards shoots the brave knight in the chest with a crossbow. He tells Ivanhoe, "King Richard must be ransomed! England must be saved! Go, Ivanhoe! Go!" Ivanhoe kills the guard, and runs out the door. He escapes on a horse, and rides off west, towards England. Ivanhoe returns home a month later, planning to return to his family home to make peace with his father, raise the ransom, and restore King Richard to the throne of England.

Cast

* Ben Pullen as

* Charlotte Comer as Rebecca * Peter O'Farrell as Odo * Jeffrey Thomas as Mordour * Cameron Rhodes as Prince John * Todd Rippon as Falco * Michael Wilson as Friar Bacon * Desmond Kelly as Fingal * Adam Brookfield as Tancred *

Dwayne Cameron Dwayne Cameron (born 28 October 1981) is a New Zealand actor, writer, director and producer. Cameron is best known internationally for playing the lead roles of Bray on the teen drama series '' The Tribe'' and Tyzonn in ''Power Rangers Operat ...

as Mordred

Episodes

Season 1

*E1 - Dark Knight, Pt. 1 - 2000-07-01 *E2 - Dark Knight, Pt. 2 - 2000-07-01 *E3 - Marjan the Magnificent - 2000-07-08 *E4 - King of the Woods - 2000-07-15 *E5 - Ultimate Sword - 2000-07-22 *E6 - Spellbound - 2000-07-29 *E7 - Games Master - 2000-08-05 *E8 - Possessor - 2000-08-12 *E9 - Deadly Assassin - 2000-08-19 *E10 - Golden Bird - 2000-08-26 *E11 - Dragon Singer - 2000-09-09 *E12 - High Elf - 2000-09-16 *E13 - Stolen Souls - 2000-09-23

Season 2

*E1 - Boneman - 2001-11-17 *E2 - Puppet Master - 2001-11-24 *E3 - Damned - 2001-12-01 *E4 - The Claw - 2001-12-08 *E5 - Black Tree - 2001-12-15 *E6 - Kha - 2001-12-22 *E7 - Stormguard - 2001-12-29 *E8 - Shadowraiths - 2002-01-06 *E9 - Streng - 2002-01-13 *E10 - Thunderknight - 2002-01-20 *E11 - Scorpion - 2002-01-27 *E12 - Stonegod *E13 - Shameer

Released as DVD

While originally set to be released as a television series, the episodes were instead edited together and released as a 91-minute DVD in 2002, distributed by

MTI Home Video MTI Home Video is a United States-based movie distributor in the direct-to-video market. MTI most often purchases the distribution rights to independent films and televised films that did not see a theatrical run in the U.S., for direct release to ...

and

20th century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

... as ''Darkest Knight'' in the United Kingdom and as ''Fantasy Quest'' in the United States.

AllRovi RhythmOne , previously known as Blinkx, and also known as RhythmOne Group, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went publi ...

offered that series star, "humorless Ben Pullen, who looks like a young, underdeveloped Arnold Schwarzenegger, and CGI monsters that look like they were shot from a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

screen, no doubt were the potential TV series' downfall.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0251504, Dark Knight

Movies

*Darkest Knight (2002 film) *Darkest Knight 2 (2003 film) *Darkest Knight 3: The Ultimate Sword (2003 film) 2000 British television series debuts 2002 British television series endings British action television series British fantasy television series