A bit of Back story

So after the success of the new Doctor Who over 4 years ago, the BBC have been trying to produce another ratings winner. Nearly 3 years ago the Beep unveiled its new Robin Hood which takes a bit of a campy impression of the legendary bowman. If you can take it for what it is, it’s entertaining enough but is never going to win any awards for quality, now they are trying there hand at another British legend, Merlin.

This was brilliant news for me as I find the whole Arthurian legend fascinating and have read tons on the subject. Before I go any further I must stress that the Tale of King Arthur and his chivalric Knights of the Round Table is largely fictional. The first major works about Arthur was by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his epic semi historical, but largely made up based on folk lore, book ‘The history of the Kings of Briton’ in 1138. It chronicled his version of the history of Briton up to the 7th century taking Uther and Arthurs reigns as Kings as fact (poetic license).

Our current version of the legend comes from Thomas Malory who wrote Le Morte d’Arthur (The Death of Arthur) in 1634. He introduced allot of the recognisable aspects of the legend like the sword in the stone (sword through an anvil attached to a stone in Malory’s work) the round table and some of the more Christain aspects to the tale. During the following years a lot of European writers added the romance and the now legendary Lancelot, Guinevere, Arthur love triangle.

So basically the whole legend is just that…a legend! with very little grounding in history, although there is some record of a Arthur like figure living around 4-500 AD but would more likely have been a war lord, as early versions of his name in old literature may have been a title not a name. Because of this the producers have the luxury of playing with the tale, which they do. They seem to have taken characters from throughout the legend of Merlin and placed them into one time frame, for example Uther has a grown son Arthur where in legend Uther is dead long before Arthur was an adult.

Now I have bored you rigid with the Arthur part I will bore you some more with Merlins History which is way more complicated. Basically there is allot more evidence for Merlin having lived then Arthur. Merlin derives from the old welsh name Myrddin, his legend stems from several  poems ,and documentation which was written in and after the dark ages (Arthurian time) by welsh and other Britons and folk law stretching back through out time, about an important drewyd priest and prophet that goes insane and becomes a hermit for much of his life. These tales take place over several hundred years leading later writers and Bards to believe he was immortal and once more that his uncanny ability to see into the future was because he lived backwards through time in the opposite direction to us.

Right, the show

I must say I have been looking forward to this since I heard about it earlier in the year, but once the show started and John Hurt narrates the beginning “no young man, no mater how great can know his own destiny…” I got very excited.

Merlin enters Camelot a stranger and his first experience is the execution of a peasant, ordered by King Uther for practicing magic. He is sent by his mother to live with the city’s doctor Gauis, played excellently by Richard Wilson (and not a “I don’t believe it” in sight) who quickly finds out that Merlin is no ordinary boy but possesses the impossible power of magic without the use of spells. When they first meet Gauis falls from the second floor of his room but Merlin saves him by freezing time and moving the bed to catch his fall.  The next day a suspicious Gauis tests Merlin by pushing a pale of water off the table to which Merlin again freezes time to stop it. The good doctor now knows for sure that magic was used to save him the previous night and asks him how he did it without casting a spell, Merlin tells him he doesn’t know any spells and that its kind of instinctive.

Merlin sees Prince Arthur bullying a servant and intervenes but quickly finds himself on the wrong side of the heir to the throne. He is then thrown into a cell for fighting with King Uther’ (Giles, sorry Anthony Stewart Head) son, but luckily for him Gauis being the doctor, has plenty of people that owe him favours. Instead of a stint at His Majesties pleasure he has to spend a short time in the stocks while children throw rotten fruit and veg at him, much to the amusement of Gauis. Guinevere, Lady Igrayne (Uther adopted daughter) hand maiden takes notice of Merlin’s bravery for standing up against Prince Arthur, which she tells so him while he’s in the stocks, which leads to an amusing little scene.

While this is all happening an evil witch kills a famous singer on her way to Camelot to preform for the King and takes her appearance. The old lady is played by Eve Myles from torchwood (there is, what I assume and hope is a nice nod to Torchwood in the episode. When Gauis asks Merlin to deliver some medicine to an old man he says to “tell him not to take it all at once as he is as blind as a Weavel”) The evil witch hopes to destroy Uther and his friends for outlawing magic and killing all of the dragons 20 years before except for one which he has imprisoned in a massive cave under the castle.Arthur and Merlin continue to butt heads through out the rest of the episode. We find out that Gauis used to practise magic before it was made a crime punishable by death.

Merlin hears someone calling him several times throughout the episode. When he finally decides to follow the sound, it leads him to the cave which imprisons The Great Dragon, (John Hurt) using his power to trick the Guards so he can enter. The dragon tells him that his future is going to be intwined with that of ‘the once and future king’ the current Prince Arthur. Merlin isn’t to happy about the prospect as he can’t stand him.

The time comes for the concert by the singer which is really the witch in disguise (the witch’s reflection is that of her real self and betrays her to a servant who she kills). Its held in the feasting hall infront of the royals and there dignitaries. When she starts to sing she is really casting a spell that sends them to sleep and will finally kill them. Luckily Merlin sees this and uses his telekinetic powers to force the chandelier from the ceiling to crush her where she reverts back to her ugly old witch self (still played by Eve Myles).

Uther is delighted with Merlin for jumping in and saving Arthur from the witch’s knife that she throws at the prince in her dying breath. He is awarded the honour of Arthur’s man servant.

At the end of the episode Gauis gives Merlin his old spell book and tells him that from the moment he saw him he new he was destined for greatness.

This was excellent, the special effects were second to none. It’s a proper old fashioned serial show brought bang up to date with high production values. The whole castle has scope and they seem to use as much of it as possible unlike Robin Hood were they use a couple of tiny sets. You really feel like Camelot is massive. I think that most of it was filmed on location in a large castle, very little seems as though they may have been shot on sets.

The acting was first rate, which you would expect from the great actors they use. The only person I thought that could have improved was Prince Arthur. If they had placed the character into an American teen drama he wouldn’t have seemed out of place as the head jock. Collin Morgan plays Merlin wonderfully, young, naive but confident in his power. This is one of the best Arthurian adaptations I have seen, second only to the 1981 Excalibur film and of course Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but that stands to reason. I can’t wait till next week, I only hope they can keep the quality up for the next 12 episodes.

I would give this episode 4 out 5 Excaliburs.