The Black Adder "The Black Adder" is the title that Edmund adopts during the first episode (after first considering "The Black Vegetable"). Presumably one of his descendants adopted it as a surname before "Blackadder II", in which the title character becomes "Edmund Blackadder". Furthermore, Baldrick is shown in more favourable and intelligent light here - his 'cunning plans' are typically superior and more workable than Edmund's own. Starting from the second series, the characters' relative intelligence and naivety clearly switch. Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis developed the idea for the sitcom while working on "Not the Nine O'Clock News". Eager to avoid comparisons
Blackadder: Back & Forth finds it has actually worked. They are now in the Cretaceous Period, where they are attacked by a "Tyrannosaurus". They throw away their wager items but are eventually able to knock it out using the underpants. Blackadder comments that one of lifes mystery has been solved and that the dinosaurs were actually wiped out by Baldrick's underpants. Baldrick admits that, as he never got round to writing the dates on the dials, they cannot return to the present. Blackadder and Baldrick return to Blackadder Hall but during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (Miranda Richardson) who, mistaking him for his