However, Geoffrey is too afraid to open the records because they know the king would forbid it. A suspicious Gaius asks the court genealogist, Geoffrey of Monmouth, for records of the "Great Purge" when Uther removed magic from the kingdom. When questioned by Gaius, Edwin again says they have never met. Uther is delighted at her miraculous recovery. When she leaves, he uses a spell to remove the beetle.Įdwin tells the king that Morgana has, in fact, had a cerebral hemorrhage and indirectly accused Gaius of incompetence in treating her. While examining Morgana, he asks for privacy Gwen enters the room unawares, but he angrily confronts her and orders her to bring water. Gaius believes he and Edwin have met before, but Edwin denies this. King Uther orders Edwin to be summoned at once. Arthur becomes so afraid for her that he tells his father about the mysterious Edwin. Morgana is now only hours away from death. Arthur turns him away, but Edwin promises to be at the inn should he be needed. He is Edwin Muirden, a physician who claims to have "a remedy to cure all ills". The scarred man arrives at the castle and introduces himself to Prince Arthur. Merlin offers to try and help her using magic, but Gaius reminds him that his previous use of a magical cure led to Gwen nearly being executed. Gaius cannot find the cause and does not know what to do for her. Two days later, Morgana has become dangerously ill with an inflammation of the brain. As she sleeps that night, the beetle comes out of the flower and goes into her ear. The man, whose face is heavily scarred, watches her window from the ground below. A bunch of these flowers is anonymously left for Morgana. It's hard to understand what the BBC was thinking in scheduling its biggest new show of the autumn up against The X Factor.A man is seen enchanting a beetle which then crawls inside a flower he is holding. As does whether they can improve the mainly awful dialogue sufficiently to keep the grown-ups interested. Though they're talking, cockily, about Merlin running for five seasons, whether the kids will take to what is basically a costume drama with dragons remains to be seen. The mystic opposite of Victor Meldrew, he looks set to be the soul of the series, while Kate McGrath's Young Morgana will act as its (dark) heart. The dragon, meanwhile, gets upstaged by Richard Wilson as Merlin's bumbling mentor Gauis. So they're going to have to become "frenemies". Merlin knows he shares his special destiny with Arthur because a kindly dragon with the voice of John Hurt told him so. Merlin's magic doesn't seem so much more powerful than moving objects with his mind at this stage, but it does get handy in the many fight scenes with dumb jock Prince Arthur. Merlin, as played by the confused-looking Colin Morgan, is essentially an Emo character (or perhaps a teenage gay one), tortured by a secret he can't tell anyone and an ability he can't use because magic is outlawed on the grounds that people used to do bad things with it. It's really about setting up the universe. And it just might work.īeing a first episode, the plot, so much as there is one, is a flimsy caper memorable only for centring around the wonderful big-eyed Eve Myles. We know the ending to this story, but the BBC want to show us how they get there. Merlin adjusts to life as a wizard with a special destiny while navigating the minefield of puberty. Or Buffy with boys (Slayer star Anthony Head even plays nasty King Uther Pendragon). This new Saturday-night reboot is basically Camelot 90210. And boy wizards have, apparently, been popular among kids in recent years. But Young Merlin's name alone just sounds cool. Robin Hood did OK, but with so many other Robin Hoods clattering about in recent memory it just felt too "meh". It's a well-known legend of completely British origin that nobody's touched in aeons. So with the benefit of having seen episode one, The Dragon's Call, we should begin discussion on the next big Dr Who successor.
The sort of thing you imagine will be good. Merlin is the sort of thing that they advertise on bus sides and trail in cinemas.
Not long now until the BBC's next big new blockbusting telefantasy behemoth beginneth.