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Into the Labyrinth (1980-82)

A review of the forgotten British children's fantasy show

By Tom BakerPublished about a year ago 8 min read
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L to R: Ron Moody, Lisa Turner, Simon Henderson and Simon Beal. "Into the Labyrinth"

Back when I was a wee tot, around the Good Year 1982 or 83, Nickelodeon, which was and is a children's television network on cable that, at the time, required an ungainly yellow box with a sliding clicker on it, featured a more "adult-themed" fantasy and horror-themed show that was a collection of BBC programs that ran for short periods of time Over There. The show was called "The Third Eye," and the opener was super creepy actually, and was probably a part of some Illuminati mind control programming to get kids to sell their souls, dress in black, snort butane, and WORSHIP THE INFERNAL ONE.

"The Third Eye" opened with a few rows of "just-average" folks standing in a dark, limbo-like place, separated by what seemed to be glowing neon bars. An eerie, ominous, horror-movie "Tales from the Darkside" voice came on and said: "Sometimes within the crowd, you find someone special, someone, who understands the mystery [...] Sometimes, you find someone who sees...with the Third Eye!"

The camera would focus on one pale, frail innocent boy, and his eyes would flash and glow (surprised they didn't put a cyclops eye on his forehead, but that probably would have been too much), and then we see images of exploding suns and psychedelic cosmic stuff for a few seconds, and then the logo of the show, which is an Illuminati "Eye in the Triangle" like on our possessed old-fashioned paper currency; and undoubtedly this is all a part of the grand scheme to get young kids to become possessed by the infernal spirit of Lucifuge Rofocale, wafter of the ghastly fumes of the Bottomless Pit, and blood brother to Exterminanz.

But putting that aside, the shows--"The Witches and the Grinnygog," "Children of the Stones," "The Haunting of Cassie Palmer," "Under the Mountain", and, most especially, "Into the Labyrinth," featured British kids doing psychic things in fantasy worlds near neolithic stone monuments that suggest arcane Earth powers and pre-Christian pagan beliefs; or my name isn't Beelzebub der Golem Ashtoroth.

I've not seen any of these shows (well, partly, "The Haunting of Cassie Palmer," which features a very creepy ghost from the Sixteen Hundreds) but I HAVE seen ALL of "Into the Labyrinth," which is one of my fondest childhood memories.

Series 1

It starts off with eerie singing by some woman borrowed from a recording session off of a Pink Floyd album during their psychedelic phase, and very harsh video images of spookily-lighted caverns at some place in England called "Cheddar." Helen and Terry (Lisa Turner and Simon Henderson) are running around near some psychic megaliths exuding powerful Earth energies. Who the hell these kids belong to is a mystery but they go into a cavern to escape a downpour, and meet up with Phil (Simon Beal, who went on to act under the name "Charley Caine") who is a know-it-all but is genuinely really smart and rather a handsome young fellow.

They quickly discover they have been called by Rothgo (Ron Moody, who would be a hundred years old if alive today), who is trapped under a rock. They use the old "light as a feather, stiff as a bored" trick from The Craft to lift the stone off of poor Rothgo, and he then enlists them in his fight against the evil sorceress and Wicked Queen superbitch Belor (Pamela Salem), whose maniacal over-the-top performances are legendary (at least in this time cycle). She appears as a superimposed face over a cavern rock that looks like a skull, and the cheapjack and primitive video effects of 1980 only add a strangely surreal charm to the whole affair. The three kids are drafted by Rothgo to go "into the labyrinth" wearing old medieval monk garb, go through various time periods and scenarios (all of which, curiously and most claustrophobically, take place within the caverns), and retrieve the "Nidus," a powerful amulet or something Belor the Bad has stolen from bald-pated Rothgo the Good.

(The Labyrinth itself is not that impressive, only coming up about ankle-high)

The kids visit pre-Christian Britain and defeat an evil Druid king. They visit the French Revolution, Elizabethan times, and Guy Fawkes, ancient Arabia, etc. I can't remember it all. In each episode, Rothgo appears but doesn't know who he is (he is Guy Fawkes in one episode) until the kids remind him, and then they find the hidden Nidus by looking in something that reflects it, and then the maniacal Belor (who puts her hands to the side of her head and screams a lot) appears (she is usually disguised in these time periods herself, but has big hair, heavy make-up and wears a lot of sheer black stuff and a leotard). She then screams, "I DENY you the Nidus!" and then it goes flying off into space and we have the set-up for the next episode. Finally, Rothgo gets the Nidus back, after the occasional comic book-style cosmic battle with Belor where they leave their bodies and shoot weird, psychedelic Dr. Strange magic power lightning bolts and rays at each other. One must really commend the excellent performances of Pamela Salem and Ron Moody in their respective roles as off-brand Marvel superheroes and villains come to life.

Series 2

Terry and Helen are brought back by Rothgo, along with Phil (via a set of weird New Age crystals he gave them before blanking out their memories at the end of Series 1), and, lo and behold, Belor is back from the murky depths of the hideous pool, emerging as a skull but slowly reanimating in a weirdly gory scene calculated to turn some young viewers into future violent psychopaths (oh, come on, I'm only kidding), and she now has this thing that cancels out the Nidus called the "Albedo," and the kids go through time, but the Albedo has divided the Nidus and Helen has to go around and collect the pieces of it on a necklace. Here they visit Victorian England (there, Rothgo is an off-brand Sherlock Holmes), ancient India, and even the Alamo, and get all pieces of the Nidus back before having it cast away again. They, or rather Phil reclaims it, and casts it down some sort of "pool of eternity," but Rothgo is okay with this because he can dip in there along with everyone else and utilize the Power of the Nidus anytime he wants. (But, then, can't Belor do the same?)

Series 3

Now it's only Phil at the start of Series 3, running up a steep hill as if in a dream, to some sort of ancient temple, wherein he finds some sort of dead body dripping green stuff (an image calculated to permanently emotionally scar whatever child happens to be watching), and meets the wizard Laszlo (the late actor Chris Harris) who is a wonderful comic twist on the dour Rothgo that preceded him. Laszlo has an amulet called the "Scarabeus" that Belor, that bitch that just never gives up, has sent through time or a bunch of different fantasy scenarios, rather, and young Phil has to go it alone through the worlds of Jekyll and Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, and Xanadu. Luckily for him (and Phil must be so grateful for this) Laszlo has infected him with the green rotting disease that Belor gave Laszlo so that he would die and she could control the Scarabeus, and she could be Wicked Queen of the Universe. Or some such.

Luckily, Laszlo has some sort of armband he calls (somewhat incorrectly) a "bracelet," which is in the shape of two intertwined snakes eating each other like the ancient mystic Ourobourous symbol, because this show is actually a mind-control plot devised by reptilian shape-shifters and blood-drinkers from the Lower Fourth Dimension. (David Icke could explain it all better, but I wonder: are those kids shown in the dark, foggy place separated by the bright, multi-colored 1980s neon bars at the beginning of the Third Eye really MK-Ultra mind-controlled slaves? One wonders.)

At any rate, Laszlo and the bracelet and what it can do is a little confusing, because he seems to have it and not have it, and the disguised Belor (Laszlo also is disguised, or has split personalities, or something) is always looking for it so she can get the Scarabeus, and I'm not sure how this all ends, because I have yet to see the last two episodes. (There were 21 episodes in two years.)

The special visual effects for the third series are more dynamic, and Belor goes flying her merry way through blue-screened flashy backgrounds, shooting sparks and bolts of power from her hands, and transforming people into mice and flutes and things. So Series 3 is mostly played for laughs, although young Simon Beal (aka, "Charley Caine") does a valiant job at being charming and heroic. Laszlo grates the nerves a bit, but the performances are still up to snuff.

But "Into the Labyrinth," as charming as it was for fourteen episodes, runs out of steam around episode sixteen or so, becoming a little too absurd, and a little too redundant. And why is everyone always living out their existence in some sort of alternate universe that is like a spelunker's daydream?

At any rate, "Into the Labyrinth" with its spooky, deep cavern imagery, harsh lighting during the intro, (not to mention the weird music that suddenly hits an ominous, deep tone right at the end), and the cheapjack special effects and occult themes, really, really influenced the aitch-e-double-hockey sticks out of me when I was a youngun, just discovering the strange, strange world of the mystical. I might not be in a literal labyrinth at 46, but, damn if it doesn't feel just as creepy and dark.

Note: As of now, ALL of "Into the Labyrinth" can be seen for free on YouTube. Below is a playlist of episodes (each broken into three equal parts).

"Into the Labyrinth" complete series playlist:

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About the Creator

Tom Baker

Author of Haunted Indianapolis, Indiana Ghost Folklore, Midwest Maniacs, Midwest UFOs and Beyond, Scary Urban Legends, 50 Famous Fables and Folk Tales, and Notorious Crimes of the Upper Midwest.: http://tombakerbooks.weebly.com

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