The Crystal Maze - The Zones

The Zones

The four Zones featured in the maze varied in terms of both games and setting —

• Aztec (Series 1–6) Set in the past. The Zone housed 22 tons of sand, and over half the plants were real. After Series 1, the move of studios meant that Aztec had more 'breathing space' and the zone could expand giving it more open space and the painted 'rainforest' diorama more distance from the main set. It was also accompanied by the Forest River (not shown on the map — see 'Entering the Maze').

• Industrial (Series 1–3) Set in the 20th/21st century. The majority of the set was constructed from corrugated iron/aluminium and gave cameramen much more freedom compared to other zones, as a slip with a camera could result in seeing the roof of the hangar in other zones, yet in Industrial it didn't matter, and fitted in with the theme of the zone. The sweeping camera jib was also greatly used in this zone, predominantly for the scenes of running upstairs (to or from Medieval Zone). The zone changed slightly from Series 1 to Series 2 with the greater 'spread', due to more available space, and the painted skyline Diorama, and also Industrial was, at the time, the only zone to have two proper floors.

• Ocean (Series 4–6) Set also in the 20th century and apparently sunken. Replaced Industrial from Series 4 onwards, the Zone had three mini-zones within itself, the Boiler Room section (usually the reused materials from Industrial zone), the Main Saloon (brand new Bird's Eye Maple interior with fish tanks behind porthole windows) and the Front of the Ship section (with the Cave game, and an extra set of stairs on the outside of the maze). In Series 5, the illuminated chandeliers were scrapped to make the ship look more abandoned, however it seemed to make the Saloon appear much more dull.

• Medieval (Series 1–6) Also set in the past. The Zone is notable in that it was the place of residence for both O'Brien and Tudor-Pole. It went through many slight changes through the six series, including the addition of O'Brien's dining table. One episode included fictitious portraits of the O'Brien family, 'Daddy's' armour also featured, as a way of releasing the crystal from the Excalibur game. A live bird of prey was introduced for Tudor-Pole's time in the maze and the entrance to the maze was also changed greatly, with the addition of gravestones, statues and a rarely seen painted diorama, glimpsed in a few episodes of Series 3.

• Futuristic (Series 1–6) Set in the future, after the events of 2245. Despite having a seemingly poor entrance (see 'Entering the Maze') the zone was quite exciting and very well laid out, with two sections, the main Computer Room, and then the longer Observatory corridor at the back end of the zone; both were originally connected by one corridor and then during Series 2 and 3 a secondary corridor was introduced from the Aztec Lift back to the Computer Room (however this was not shown until the map was renewed in Series 4). The zone had few changes, other than the bright blue floor in the Console Room in Series 3, and the loss of 'half of planet Earth' as a section of the painted diorama was removed from the outer wall (often showing up badly in many episodes after Series 2).

Teams began their game in one of the Zones and progressed either clockwise or anti-clockwise around the maze; this meant that a team would alternate between the past and modern zones.