January 4th (Tuesday)
Caprica, SyFy, 6pm Final 5 episode marathon
V, ABC, 9pm Season 2 premier

January 7th (Friday)
Young Justice, Cartoon Network, 7pm Series Premier
Merlin, SyFy, 10pm Season 3 premier

January 9th (Monday)
Bob’s Burgers, FOX, 8:30pm Series premier
The Cape, NBC, 9pm Series premier

January 14th (Friday)
The Ricky Gervais Show, HBO, 9pm Season 2 premier
Funny or Die Presents, HBO, midnight Season 2 premier

January 17th (Monday)
Being Human, SyFy, 9pm Series premier

January 21st (Friday)
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Starz, 10pm (Prequel series premier)

January 27th (Thursday)
Archer, FX, 10pm Season 2 premier

February 28th (Monday)
The Event, NBC, 9pm Midseason return

April 1st (Friday)
Camelot, Starz, 10pm Series premier

April TBA
Game of Thrones, HBO Series premier

June TBA
Falling Skies, TNT Series premier

Thursday, June 4
The Listener (NBC), 10 p.m. – Paramedic Toby Logan is a telepath!

Sunday, June 14
True Blood (HBO) – Season two of the hit vampire drama.

Sunday, June 21
Merlin (NBC), 8 p.m. – A 13-part miniseries about the legend of Camelot.

Sunday, June 21
Impact (ABC) – The moon is about to crash into Earth! Can David James Elliott save us?

Wednesday, June 24
The Philanthropist (NBC), 10 p.m. – Rome star James Purefoy is a billionaire vigilante.

Friday, June 26
Virtuality (FOX), 8 p.m. – Ronald Moore’s sci-fi show about a crew headed for a habitable world who are also filmed for a reality show back on Earth.

Saturday, June 27
Doctor Who (BBC America) – The stateside showing of the 2008 Christmas special “The Next Doctor” and other specials begins here.

Sunday, July 7
Warehouse 13 (SyFy), 9 p.m. – Homeland security agents protect supernatural objects.

Wednesday, July 10
Eureka (SyFy), 9 p.m. – Ten more episodes to complete season three.

Monday, July 20
Torchwood (BBC America) – 5-part miniseries of the Torchwood crew battling aliens and government conspiracies.

Saturday, July 25
Being Human (BBC America), 9 p.m. – A vampire, werewolf, and ghost try to live normal lives and share a flat in England.

Tuesday, July 28
Angel of Death (Crackle.com) – The DVD feature-film edit of the hit web series written by Ed Brubaker and starring Zoe Bell hits store shelves.

Curious about other shows? Got more info? Let’s get a discussion going below. What do you want the podcast to cover this summer?

There is a great feast in Camelot to celebrate a peace treaty between King Uther and Prince Bayard but Nimue sneaks in as a servant of the visiting Prince. The evil witch swaps the poisoned chalice with the one Bayard gives to Arthur as a gift. She then tells Merlin that she believes Bayard is trying to poison the Prince and that Merlin must stop him. Merlin stops Arthur from drinking from the cup just in time. The boy wizard is then forced by the King to drink from the chalice to prove what he is saying is true. Arthur tries to stop him but its to late, Merlin falls unconscious and Bayard and his men are arrested.

Gaius discovers the poison is from magic means and that the only cure is from a flower only found in the darkest regions of a particular cave system that no one has ever returned from. Arthur disobeys his fathers orders as Uther believes that if Arthur dies trying to save a servant  there will be no one to rule the kingdom once he is gone. The King thinks he is doing the right thing as the good of Camelot is worth more than the life of just one man and tells him when he is King men will die under him and he just has to get used to it. Arthur disagrees and after speaking to Morgana, rides out to retrieve the flower. 

Nimueh revenge is going as planned, Merlin is virtually dead and Arthur is running right into her trap. Gaius believes the magic used for the poison was the work of Nimueh and once more he believes that Bayard’s servant girl that was speaking to Merlin was in fact her. This leads him to believe that Arthur is in danger.

The Prince finds the servant girl (Nimueh) beaten (she tells him it was her lord as punishment for revealing his plan to poison him) at the entrance to the caves. He is then attacked by what I can only describe as a sort of small stegosaurus/lizard like creature which he kills. Nimueh tells him that she knows where to find the flower of which he talks and leads him into the caves. Bit of a daft continuity error here, as we see Nimueh leading Arthur through the cave tunnels she is some how now wearing a gray cape with a hood which she didn’t have before. May be she found it at the entrance or Arthur had a Ladies cape with him! 

Anyway Arthur, like the brave but maybe a little naive (this servant girl  just so happens to know were this extremely rare flower is in this really dark deep cave that she just so happened to be at the entrance to when he found her. On top of all that she is the one that told Merlin about the poison!!!) follows her deep in to the cave where they come to a ledge over a ravine that Arthur must jump over to retrieve the petals for the cure. Nimueh destroys the walkway over the ravine leaving Arthur stranded on the ledge as she reveals herself as mastermind behind the plot and call on a large mystical spider to kill him. She tells him that its not her destiny to kill him.

To Minueh’s surprise Arthur defeats the spider. Then potentially hundreds of these spiders start to move towards him. Meanwhile Merlin starts to make enchantments in his semi-conscious and delirious state which creates a glowing blue orb near Arthur which leads him to safety after he heroically grabs some of the flowers.

On his arrival back at Camelot, Arthur is arrested and thrown into jail (actually spelled ‘gaol’ in English which I have just been informed but I will stick with the more internationally recognised spelling for ease). The young Prince pleads with his father to take the flower to Gaius to cure Merlin. Uther refused as punishment for disobeying him. Gwen delivers Arthur’s food to him in jail in the hope of getting the flower. They both pull off a clever rouse to get the cure out of the cell to Gaius.

Gaius discreetly uses magic to increase the power of the flower as he believes that as magic was used initially then magic must be used in the cure. This is the first time we see him use sorcery but we know from previous episodes that he at the very least has dabbled in magic before it was band and has a good knowledge of wizardry.

After the good doctor cures Merlin he visits Uther to tell him that he believes it was Nimueh and not Bayard so he is released but its never mentioned if the peace treaty still stands. We already know from last week that Gaius and the King have had dealings with her in the past which I think is probably why he banded magic 20 years ago. At the beginning of the episode I though it was odd that she is in the presence of the King and Gaius but they didn’t recognise her but it explained that she is very powerful and can deceive the eyes of man. Gaius asks the King if Arthur should be told the truth about Nimueh but the King refuses to comply.

In legend Merlin uses magic to make Uther appear in the form of King Mark of Cornwall at Tintagel castle to sleep with his wife, the Lady Igraine. In return for his help Merlin demands that the child that is born of there union to be his. The baby is Arthur. The lady Igraine already has a daughter called Morgana (in this interpretation she is the ward of King Uther) who, when she grows up, will seek revenge on Arthur and bring about the destruction of Camelot. I wonder if in this take on the legend, Arthur is the son of Nimueh but I may just be reading to much into Gaius’s word and he may just simply mean the truth about Nimueh being a powerful witch either way there is something of a mystery in there. Gaius reveals to Merlin that he thinks that Nimueh is after him and knows his power.

Above is a photo I found on the internet of the remains of the Castle and in the background you can see the remnants of the church. I have been several times and even though there isn’t alot left of the castle and the town is very commercial the views are breath taking.

Another good episode with some excellent action/adventure. The cast of characters are growing into there roles well. Arthur is now an excellent character who has a great bond with Merlin and is always joking about with him at every opportunity to break the tension. The scene with Arthur attempting to retrieve the flower wouldn’t have looked out of place in an Indiana Jones film except for the giant spiders. There are some leaps in logic that you have to take in the story telling but no more so than an episode of Doctor Who (Who we know was really Merlin from the Silvester McCoy episode Battlefield. The Doctor finds a note in the tomb that Ace is trapped in that reads something like “Dear Doctor, Arthur and Excalibur was real, everything else is propaganda, Your’s Sincerely The Doctor”. Its been years since I have seen that episode but it makes the point that Merlin was actually the Doctor which explains his powers of prophecy and magic or really his sonic screw driver and his big brain busting with knowledge).

I will give this episode 4 out of 5 Excaliburs.

So the episode started as usual with John Hurts voice over. There is a slow reveal of a young women in a cave molding a piece of clay whilst saying a magic spell.  She is played by the beautiful Micheal Ryan, best known here for her role as Zoe Slater but you guys may know her has the Bionic Women and is obviously up to no good. She places the clay module in to the river running through the underground system leading to Camelot.

People start falling dead in the city of a mysterious disease. As Gaius and Merlin take one of the bodies back to the good doctors room to find out what the cause of death was, they bump into Gwen who gives Merlin a single flower from a bunch she has picked for the Lady Morgana. Gaius fears the disease comes from magic but doesn’t know where to start but deducts that it may be in the water, as  rich and poor were dieing without prejudice and water would be the only thing they share. After Gaius tells King Uther that he suspects sorcery. The King starts to panic as for this very reason he band magic in the first place and orders Arthur to search ever part of Camelot for the culprit.

We see Uther making some hard decisions to protect the population at large by possibly sacrificing the few which Arthur disagrees with. Showing both Uther’s and Arthur’s compassion for the people and doing what they think is right but in different ways.

Meanwhile Gwen’s father fulls ill with the disease. Merlin wrestles with the idea of using magic to save him but is warned by Gauis not to  for if he gets caught he still face death. In the end Merlin decides to go ahead with the idea and places a magic enchantment under Gwens father pillow.

While Arthur and his men are searching Gaius’s quarters they he goes’ into Merlins’ room where he  left his magical spell book on the floor. Arthur calls for Merlin telling him he has found something, Merlin is expecting Arthur has found the book but he just teasing him for having a messy room by telling him he has found a cupboard for Merlin to put stuff in. Merlin quickly uses his Jedi powers to cover the book with a sheet. I can’t believe Arthur doesn’t see the book as it’s right in the middle of the room but there is a scene later that makes me suspect that he did but because he trusts Merlin nothing is said.

Arthur finds the enchantment in Gwens house after her father makes a miraculous recovery. He takes her to the King for using magic to which the King sentences her to death. Morgana and Arthur try and protest her innocents but when magic is involved Uther sees just evil , which Arthur thinks is not just and the punishment does not fit the crime.

Merlin turns himself in but no one believes him after Arthur and Gauis convinces the King that he is just a simple servant boy in love with Gwen. Gauis and Merlin find the source of the diseases in a clay monster that can only be created by a powerful sorcerer.

So young wizard goes to consult the Great Dragon who tells him that he can’t do it alone and that he is one side of a coin, Arthur being the other side and to trust in the elements. Gauis explains that clay is made by water and earth, two of the 4 base element so maybe wind and fire, the remaining two, will destroy it.

Arthur, Merlin and Morgana venture in to the water caves beneath Camelot where they are attacked by the clay Monster. After a bit of a scuffle between Arthur and the monster, Merlin tell him to use the torch to attack it. While the Prince is fighting the beast Merlin casts a spell out of ear shot of the others that blows wind onto the flame and kills it. At the end of the episode Gauis tells the King that he believes Nimueh was behind the whole thing to which the King is obviously scared, angry, and distressed and worryingly tells  him that “will he never be free of her”. Morgana tells Merlin that she knows that he has a secret and that it is he’s in love with Gwen. I think Gwen at least fancies Merlin but I believe he just thinks of her as a good friend.

This episode was a vast improvement on the previous one. We see the start of a bigger story ark with Nimueh and her history with Uther. Some great moments between Arthur and Merlin that doesn’t reduce the tension of the story. The acting, as usual is excellent and Arthur is becoming a great character. A good solid story made this an enjoyable and hope they keep it up.

I would give this episode 3 and a half out of 5 Excaliburs.

The King has organised  the annual tournament, which Valiant enters much like the fashion of ’A Knights Tale’. Merlin is struggling to get to grips with his new duties as Prince Arthur’s servant and bumblingly helps the Prince with his training in a funny scene. Gaius mends his bruises while Merlin complains that its not fare that he has a large list of duties to which Gauis tells him that Arthur has his own duties and that people some times expect a lot from him.

Uther opens the tournament which is being held in the large courtyard that is no where near the scale of that in A knights Tale. At the end of the first day  Arthur gives Merlin a large list of things to do including cleaning his armour. We then see Merlin lying in bed with Arthur’s armour being cleaned floating around him in a great nod to Fantasia to which Gaius remarks about Merlin using Magic all the time.By the end of second round Valiant has nearly lost but secretly uses the magic snakes to defeat Ewan. Gauis see’s to the poisoned knights ailments and notices that there are snakes bites on the knights neck. Merlin finds this suspitous that it happened during a fight,  follows Valiant he see’s him feeding the magic snakes. He informs Gauis but Gauis warns him that with out proof nothing can be done as its a Knights word against a lowly servant. They decide together that if an antidote can made from the snakes to cure Knight Ewan then he could testify against the conniving Valiant.

Merlin sneaks into Valiants room and cuts the head from one of the snakes and escapes just before being spotted by Valiant. Gauis uses it to make a cure for Ewan. Merlin then tells Arthur what he has seen and we see the trust between them grow. 

Another snake bites Ewan and kills him while the King holds court against Valiant but with out the word of another knight there is no proof and Arthur is made to look a fool. Valiant convinces Uther that it was just an excuse for Arthur not have to fight him in the final. Arthur tells Merlin that he trusted him and made him look weak in front of his father and the other knights so fires him from his duties. Merlin pleads with Arthur not to fight Valiant in the final as he will use the magic shield to kill him. Arthur explains that he must fight him as its his duty and that people will not follow him into battle if they think he is a coward.

Merlin goes to see the Great Dragon who tells him again that the young warlock and the Prince’s futures are in-twined and that its just the beginning, which seems pointless and shoe horned in just to have the dragon in the episode. So he decides to use magic to make the snakes appear to everyone and struggles all night trying the spell out on a statue of a dog.

Arthur and Valiant start their fight in the final which sees Arthur winning. Merlin finally cracks the spell and rushes to the tournament just in time and casts the spell secretly and the snakes come to life for everyone to see. Arthur defeats Valiant with a little help from Morgana and is crowned champion.

At the feast Arthur thanks Merlin for all his help, off course he still doesn’t know Merlin used magic, Merlin tells him that there is no need but he could buy him a drink to which Arthur exclaims that he cannot be seen buying drinks for his servant as he is rehiring him. This is the point where we first really see the companionship between them really start and a mutual friendship for Arthur then reels off another list of things to for Merlin to do and then smiles.

Overall this episode had some good moments mainly between Merlin and Arthur but suffers from the same thing ‘The Loin, the witch and the wardrobe’ suffers from. When you have seen the Battle of Palinar Field at the end of the Return of the King no other battle can live up to it. When you have seen the creaking tournaments in ‘A Knights Tale’ with its rocking sound track this seems a little bland. But to give them their due they try and give some scope to the fights but fall slightly short. The episode never really achieved the levels of excitement of the first and I hope this episodic “Merlin learns a  new spell each week” doesn’t become the norm.

The stand out actor as before is Will Mellor (Merlin) but we do see the character of Arthur grow in this episode from the cardboard cut out to a humorous and brave man we know he should be. There was nothing majorly wrong with the episode it’s just a bit “seen it done better”.

Over all I will give this episode 2 and a half Excaliburs. 

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.