science

Quest of the Delta Knights

Quest of the Delta Knights is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Quest of the Delta Knights rather than just read about it. In short: Quest of the Delta Knights is a 1993 fantasy/adventure sword and sorcery film that was featured in a September 1998 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). It is one of only a few movies shown on MST3K that were made in the 1990s.

Key takeaways

Quest of the Delta Knights belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Quest of the Delta Knights to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Quest of the Delta Knights from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Quest of the Delta Knights is a 1993 fantasy/adventure sword and sorcery film that was featured in a September 1998 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). It is one of only a few movies shown on MST3K that were made in the 1990s.

Plot The plot revolves around a young boy named Travis (nicknamed "Tee") who learns from his master that he is the key to saving the world from an evil plot. Tee joins the secret organization of the Delta Knights and embarks on a quest to attempt to recover the lost treasures inside the fabled Lost Storehouse of Archimedes.

Anachronisms The film displays extreme confusion with regard to setting, both in terms of time period and location. The story seems to take place in medieval England, although a number of plot elements contradict this. Vultare's henchmen wear headgear strongly resembling (stereotypical) Viking helmets. Baydool states that they are in the Dark Ages, yet firearms are inexplicably used. Leonardo da Vinci, a figure from Renaissance Italy, appears as a major character in the plot. Finally, Leonardo and Tee are searching for the lost storehouse of Archimedes, a figure from ancient Syracuse, Sicily, whose storehouse one might reasonably think unlikely to be found in England. A document held by Archimedes seen in a flashback is also clearly held together by staples. These anachronisms served as fodder for the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Mike Nelson riffing "Sultans! Pirates! After them!" as the protagonists are fleeing from questionably dressed guards, Tom Servo has a choir that sings about the Delta Knights who "live in Europe somewhere" and "they don't get historical facts just right", and Leonardo da Vinci (played by Bill Corbett) ridicules the "bad movie" and pointing out that the film's depiction of him is a "mook" who is nothing like him.

Filming locations A large portion of this movie was filmed at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Black Point, Novato, California. Performers from the Faire were employed as extras in various scenes throughout. Exterior scenes of Archimedes' storehouse were filmed at the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, California. Exterior scenes of the prison were filmed at Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park, Petaluma, California. Some interior scenes of the Mannerjay's palace were filmed at the Scottish Rite Temple, Oakland, California.

Cast David Warner as Baydool / Lord Vultare / Narrator Corbin Allred as Tee Olivia Hussey as The Mannerjay David Kriegel as Leonardo Brigid Brannagh as Thena Sarah Douglas as Madam Maaydeed Richard Kind as Wamthool

Production David Warner was originally intended to play only one character in the movie but suggested that he could play two roles for the same cost.

Reception Jim Craddock, author of VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever, gave the movie two and half stars. In a 2017 interview with The A.V. Club, David Warner expressed his enjoyment in being in Quest of the Delta Knights, followed by his amusement at the film being featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Quest of the Delta Knights was featured as episode #913 of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The episode debuted September 26, 1998, on the Sci-Fi Channel. The episode is notable for series antagonist Pearl Forrester replacing series host Mike Nelson in watching and mocking the movie for one segment. In his rankings of the first twelve seasons of MST3K, Paste writer Jim Vorel placed the episode in the top third, at #59. Vorel calls the movie "a strange fantasy adventure" that "inexplicably" features David Warner in three roles. He also notes the "scattershot" historical settings, which can't agree where or when the movie is set. In Vorel's opinion, the episode is not quite as good as the similar Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell. The MST3K version of Quest of the Delta Knights has not been released on DVD. The segments of the episode that take place outside of the movie theater were included in the "Satellite Dishes" disc in Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXXIX, which was released October 31, 2017. The episode has been officially licensed and re-released on streaming since August 1, 2020.

See also Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci

References

Notes

Citations

External links Quest of the Delta Knights at IMDb

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Quest of the Delta Knights

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Quest of the Delta Knights claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Quest of the Delta Knights before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Quest of the Delta Knights ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Quest of the Delta Knights

In research: Quest of the Delta Knights appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Quest of the Delta Knights in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Quest of the Delta Knights is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1990s action adventure films, 1990s science fantasy films, 1993 American films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Quest of the Delta Knights outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Quest of the Delta Knights in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Quest of the Delta Knights means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Quest of the Delta Knights out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Quest of the Delta Knights in simple terms?

Why does Quest of the Delta Knights matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Quest of the Delta Knights?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Quest of the Delta Knights.