4.10: A Herald for the New Age

[ctg]

The Camelot Knights stumble across an eerie shrine deep in the forest, its chilling atmosphere betraying a dark history best left undisturbed. But when Elyan ignores Merlin’s warning, his actions spark a chain of events more frightening than anyone could possibly have imagined… Can a grievous wrong be put right? Or will past demons change the future forever?

I open up this thread for the speculation as I feel that BBC has a do or die moment going with the series. It will either fall flat or propel in the new Era of story-telling - I hope that it's not filled with the fillers.

But I also feel that this point could easily be a mid-season breakpoint, where Merlin will return from the spring break with newly edited episodes.

Will BBC do it, I don't know.

Expectations are quite high, and I hope that their gamble made it. Merlin could be really good, instead of falling flat as a fair show.

So please speculate before it airs.

 

[Dave]

...I feel that BBC has a do or die moment going with the series. It will either fall flat or propel in the new Era of story-telling - I hope that it's not filled with the fillers.

But I also feel that this point could easily be a mid-season breakpoint, where Merlin will return from the spring break with newly edited episodes.

Merlin was badly served by the decision to split the Dr Who season into two halves. And that was something I think was neither necessary nor actually worked very well.

 

[ctg]

Well, to me this feels like a natural break, as a cliff-hanger episode that could well serve as a breaking point for two half's of one season, but then again, it would mean that BBC would fine money to do additional three to five episodes on top of what they have now, extending the season to 16 to 18 episodes.

But they won't do it as they haven't done that for Dr Who.

 

[Dave]

But I also feel that this point could easily be a mid-season breakpoint, where Merlin will return from the spring break with newly edited episodes.

My TV guide says this is episode 10/13. There are three weeks left until Christmas so my guess is that there won't be a break.

As for the episode itself I was very disappointed. The Knights return to the same river valley they visit weekly to discover someone has hung out their washing this week.

I think everyone assumed that the young boy was going to be the return of Mordred, but instead he was something to prick Arthur's conscience. From what I have seen of Arthur before, I don't believe he would ever have taken part in a massacre. If he did as we are lead to believe then he got off too lightly by being forgiven.

Yet again the idea of making this a very dark episode was rather obscured by the silly knock-about humour. And it seems that Merlin is now able to explain his knowledge of all things magical by blaming it on Gaius. It is a good job 'uncle' wasn't around to hear him or we'd have Gaius strung up again. At least we had a break from Morgana's seething, but not for long from the trailer.

 

[TL Rese]

The Knights return to the same river valley they visit weekly to discover someone has hung out their washing this week.

haha! so true! you'd think they'd have spent more of their special effects budget on making the shrine look better.

i admittedly thought the ghost boy was scary at first, but then again, i don't stomach horror well at all. overall, it was just another filler episode. nxt wk, it looks like the main plot moves along again, which would be more interesting.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have to admit to quite enjoying it, whether it was the break from little miss hissy in the woods, I don't know. I do worry how much time Arthur spends gallivanting around in the woods with his mates instead of, you know, running a pretty substantial city. And the lack of magic is getting silly now; Arthur's becoming a king, he needs his true advisor to rise to the challenge and stop polishing armour in the background.
I know the concept is the magic's to be secret, but if it's weakening the whole, perhaps the concept needs revisiting.

 

[HareBrain]

I thought it was pretty effective at first, though any scariness was thrown away in the schmalzy ending. I too didn't really believe the backstory of the massacre, nor the supposedly vengeful spirit's willingness to forgive. (I noticed that the unquiet dead, when released from the portal in the first episode, weren't so amenable to reconciliation, though perhaps this one's bloodlust had been sated with the deaths of all those redshirt -- sorry, red-tabard -- guards.)

And am I the only one who finds the knights' blokey matiness really annoying? They remind me exactly of the kind of morons I'd quite happily have taken a machine-gun to at school. And "move out"??? Come on!

The water-thing was good though.

 

[Mouse]

I thought it was all right. Ghost kids are always creepy.

Liking that Percival never feels the need to protect his arms (that's not even sarcasm!).

Still not keen on the meanness to Merlin all the time, I want him to show his magic and reveal he's not as stupid and pathetic as they all seem to think he is. Didn't Arthur wonder how Merlin got those doors open?

 

[HareBrain]

Merlin is pretty stupid though. Apart from (I think) the episode where Uther died, every time Merlin tries to get closer to Arthur he does it in such a crass, sarcastic manner (perhaps trying to learn from the Dark-Ages equivalent of the First XV rugger team that passes for the cream of their chivalry) that he scuppers any chance of being taken into his confidence.

 

[ctg]

But I also feel that this point could easily be a mid-season breakpoint, where Merlin will return from the spring break with newly edited episodes.

My TV guide says this is episode 10/13. There are three weeks left until Christmas so my guess is that there won't be a break.

Yes, of course there won't be a break, and to be honest, the episode didn't deliver the kind of 'magic' I wanted to see. But I'm afraid that the end of the series isn't going to be any different. There's not going to be massive surprises, and certainly not the stuff we have been talking here quite often.

As for the episode itself I was very disappointed. The Knights return to the same river valley they visit weekly to discover someone has hung out their washing this week.

I think everyone assumed that the young boy was going to be the return of Mordred, but instead he was something to prick Arthur's conscience. From what I have seen of Arthur before, I don't believe he would ever have taken part in a massacre.

Having watched the first season again, I can say that Arthur shows one quite arrogant person that is completely different to the one we've seen here. I could believe that he could had done such deeds in the path, but them coming to haunt now, no.

The people would have talked about that one place in the woods, and the word would have reached the Camelot, and when the 'king's patrol' arrived at the place, they would have recognised it from the stories, rather than walking through the cursed grounds like tourists.

I still wonder did the little people find the episode scary or even believable.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Quite frankly, my 6 year old watched it without being scared; in fact she kept laughing at the poor little soaked boy. So certainly not scary.

 

[ctg]

Merlin is pretty stupid though. Apart from (I think) the episode where Uther died, every time Merlin tries to get closer to Arthur he does it in such a crass, sarcastic manner (perhaps trying to learn from the Dark-Ages equivalent of the First XV rugger team that passes for the cream of their chivalry) that he scuppers any chance of being taken into his confidence.

You could not had said it better. What does it take for him to take in more serious approach, or even showing same kind of thoughtfulness as what we saw possessing Arthur, when he was thinking about his deeds.

 

[ctg]

Quite frankly, my 6 year old watched it without being scared; in fact she kept laughing at the poor little soaked boy. So certainly not scary.

So they failed completely.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Well, we thought it was quite funny, but I'm not sure that was the intent.