Daibhid's Journal

Merlin's big finale isn't draggin'

2009-12-13T21:23:50Z

Whoah.

That was an episode and a half. Almost literally, the ending cliffhanger had very little to do with the action up til then. And it certainly seems that the status quo is going to be well and truly shaken up for Season Three.

First off, Morguase returns, and Morgana makes her choice. Well, almost, she sides with her sister, and says she wants to kill Uther, but despite having several opportunities to do so once Morgana's sent the entire castle to sleep, she can't quite do it.

The dragon, meanwhile, tells Merlin that the only way to end the sleep spell is to kill Morgana, since it's centred on her. Merlin is able to dodge round that by almost killing Morgana, and telling Morguase that he'll tell her how to save her if she releases the spell. Morguase does so and disappears, taking Morgana with her, and presumably setting things up for Morgana to return as a fully-fledged villain[1] in Season Three.

And then Merlin gets handed the IdiotBall, as we get a conversation that basically goes like this:

MERLIN: Before I release you, you need to promise you won't attack the city.

DRAGON: No.

MERLIN: Okay, fair enough. I've already promised to release you, so I'll just have to hope.

Next week, unsurprisingly, Merlin deals with the fact the dragon is attacking the city...

[1]Assuming you accept that being opposed to Uther is the side of wrong, which I'm decidedly not, and the scriptwriters don't seem entirely certain about themselves. Grey And Grey Morality, perhaps?

It Disney make sense.

2009-12-13T21:09:31Z

Yeah.

So apparently Disneyland is twinned with ... Swindon.

HIGNFY and The Now Show both aimed their satirical barbs at the idea Swindon is an extremely dull place. But for those of us who know how far this is from the truth, this is even more bizarre.

Disney is a huge monolithic corporation. And we all know that all huge monolithic corporations are secretly the huge monolithic corporation. Clearly, this is the beginning of some evil scheme by Goliath™, the true ramifications of which can only be guessed at, but which are unlikely to be good news for a certain ex-SpecOps-27 officer.

Name's the Same...

2009-12-11T16:25:12Z

So, apparently there's a woman called Lisa Williams who has a show somewhere in the distant depths of the Sky TV menu. She sees dead people.

I'm used to the fact David Kennedy isn't a terribly uncommon name (there were three that I know of at my school, one of whom lived in my street). And having briefly had a boss who shared my Mum's name[1], I've got used to that as well. But, innocently flicking through the channels for something worth watching, this is the first time I've seen the name of an online friend in a context where it clearly isn't the online friend, and it's a bit of a surprise.

[1]Which didn't help me remember it, at all. In fact I'd think "No, it's something like that, but I've got it confused with Mum's maiden name..."

daibhid_c @ 2009-12-07T15:45:00

2009-12-07T15:45:16Z

Hey, a snowflake! Thanks, cat63!

Mordred III: This Time It's Personal

2009-12-05T19:47:08Z

Well, after last week's fairly dull love-potion story, which only served to remind us "Gwen/Arthur: OTP" and completely waste the character of Vivian, this week's kicks things into high gear. It looks like Merlin is taking a leaf from Doctor Who's book; a two-part finale with a semi-detached story leading into it.

Firstly, Mordred's back. And, as suggested at the end of his last appearance, he's graduated from Creepy Child to full-blown Enfant Terrible. Merlin may start out thinking Alvarr is using Mordred, but there's every reason to believe it's the other way round.

Alvarr himself is an interesting character. He's a ruthless killer, but he's got a point; usually the fact that sorcerers are being persecuted is overshadowed by the ones we see being total nutters, but Alvarr has a code of honour, and refuses to betray Morgana.

Ah, yes, Morgana. Another subplot that's been ramped up a notch, obviously, is Morgana's defiance of Uther ("obviously" because it's a Mordred story). There's no question in Uther's mind now that Morgana is in league with sorcery, and it looks like her alliance of evil with Mordred, as prophecised by the dragon, is getting steadily closer.

That is, if you want to believe the dragon. Currently, he seems more concerned with when Merlin's going to release him than helping Arthur fulfill his destiny. Merlin's vision of the future shows the dragon destroying Camelot, which makes it all the more worrying that the "Next week" trailer shows him hacking away at that chain...

"Who says I'm not? Red bicycle when you were twelve."

2009-12-05T12:32:55Z

You know how last Christmas, the Beeb were making a big deal out of A Matter of Loaf and Death (which I missed!), so we got Wallace And Grommit Christmas idents between the programmes?

Well, this year, we're getting this:

Awesome.

daibhid_c @ 2009-11-30T10:47:00

2009-11-30T10:47:41Z

Happy birthday, gipsy_dreamer!

It's been a very half-asleep sort of day...

2009-11-29T20:45:30Z

...So when, shortly after dinner, Mum asked me a question about where the wires went that connected the phone to the computer, I think I can be excused for not realising she was trying to download photos from her mobile, and muttering something about the back of the modem...

daibhid_c @ 2009-11-29T20:43:00

2009-11-29T20:43:07Z

Happy birthday, heliflower!

Just in case anyone hasn't seen this yet...

2009-11-27T14:09:55Z

Since I know there's lots of Muppet fans on my f'list...

Merlin: The Lady Of The Lake

2009-11-23T12:44:19Z

Last week I speculated that Morguase was meant to be the Lady of the Lake in this version.

Well, that turned out to be as accurate as my conclusion that Morgana and Morguase couldn't be sisters. Because the Lady of the Lake is apparently Freya[1], a cursed druid-girl who appears in this episode.

Then again, nothing about this episode remotely suggests the Lady of the Lake, beyond a mention that Freya used to live near a lake, before she was cursed. Beyond that it's Our Hero Meets A Girl He Has An Instant Deep Connection To, But She Has A Secret And Then She Dies[2]. Oh, and Arthur now thinks he's a cross-dresser, but I don't expect that to come up again.

To be fair, she says something about repaying Merlin just before she dies, and she's then cremated on the lake outside Camelot[3]. So it's entirely possible her spirit will remain around the lake waiting for an opportunity to do so (which will possibly involve retrieving that sword Merlin threw in the lake last season).

Next week, of course, having (kind of) dealt with the Lady of the Lake, they're introducing an enchantress called Vivian...

[1]Well, if you have Saxons with Scottish accents, why not Druids named after Norse gods? And there is a certain amount of relevance, since the goddess Freya drove a chariot pulled by cats, and the druidess Freya turns into a bat-winged panther called a Bastet (yes, it's the mythology mashup that just keeps going...) She also gets a viking burial.

[2]Probably in TV Tropes, somewhere; probably under a slightly shorter name...

[3]Fridge Logic: All that sneaking around Melin had to do to get food and clothing into the tunnels, but he can wander out of the city carrying a dying woman?

"End of Time" preview on Children In Need.

2009-11-20T23:34:02Z

Well ... that didn't really tell us much we didn't already know, did it?

I was obviously completely wrong in speculating the Doctor had decided to face what was coming with a stiff-upper lip; he's still trying to dodge it, and maintining a flip attitude to pretend it's not really a problem. (Obviously, my theory that he would head straight from Adelaide's house to the Oodsphere failed to consider that he's going to spend the next few weeks in Area 51...)

Beyond that the revelations the Ood have given him are that he's going to die (yes, we know), and the Master's involved (yes, we know). Still, it succeeded in whetting my appetite, which is what it was intended to do.

Cool thought: It'd be a nice touch if, as the seance-thing progresses the Doctor got steadily more annoyed with the Oods' failure to provide straight answers, culminating with the traditional "What? What? WHAT??" being played for drama rather than comedy...

Writer's Block: Book review

2009-11-18T12:15:22Z

What (if any) books would you ban from a high school library? Are there certain subjects that you feel are inappropriate for teenagers regardless of literary merit?

View 1451 Answers

I don't believe in censorship, but if I did...

The Discworld series. Because that's how you get teenagers interested in something.

2012

2009-11-18T12:04:27Z

Saw a programme about The 2012 Thing on the National Geographic channel when I was at my sister's last night. So far as I can tell, the key points are as follows.

1) The Mayan calender ends on December 21st 2012. Some people think this means the world is due to end. The new movie 2012 suggests this will be due to the Earth's magnetic field flipping, but scientists who've studied previous shifts say this is not a catalysimic event.

2)It's possible the Mayans may have predicted that the sun will be alligned with the middle of the Milky Way at dawn on that day. A Mayan descendent claims her ancestors predicted that this will unleash a beam of energy that will scour the earth.

2) The Dresden Codex does seem to predict the end of the world. It involves a deluge initiated by a giant crocodile, not pole shift or Death Rays From Galactic Centre. Also, there's nothing in the Codex about it happening in 2012.

3) A climatologist suggested that the Mayans might have experienced climate change in the distant past, which corresponded to the end of a previous cycle of the Mayan calender, and adds that it's "ironic" the world is being affected by climate change today. He stresses this is probably a coincidence, though. The fact that the world didn't end then is glossed over by the narrator.

4)It doesn't matter how sensible the scientists on a NatGeo documentary seem to be, the narrator will more than make up for it. This one seemed positively disappointed every time research suggested the world wasn't going to end.

5) On balance, I prefer this theory.

I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue

2009-11-16T19:09:15Z

Darnit, forgot this was on! Only tuned in halfway through One Song To The Tune Of Another.

Excellent stuff, although I still think His Majestic Fryness, the King of Twitter should have been the new presenter.

Waters of Mars again

2009-11-16T19:07:05Z

jblum has an intepretation of [SPOILER REDACTED] that hadn't occured to me before.

[Edit: Warning, spoiler now detailed in comments. Read on at own risk.]

Waters of Mars

2009-11-15T21:33:58Z

Wow.

I mean, wow.

That ... was something.

Firstly, it was a good, old-fashioned "base under siege" story. I can't remember the last time I saw a base under siege story (which, since their heyday was ten years before I was born, isn't surprising[1]).

Secondly, it was a "The Virus" story, which managed to use the horror-movie aspects of this much more effectively than, say, your typical Cyberman story (being on a par with "The Empty Child" for creepiness in this regard).

But the scariest thing in it wasn't the Flood, or the claustrophobia of being trapped in a confined space with the Flood breaking their way in. It was the Doctor.

I knew this episode involved a moral dilemmia, and had heard hints the Doctor was going to make a "dark" decision. And for a moment, I thought this meant he was going to let the Web of Time stand, and the last quarter hour would consist of everyone dying while he walked slowly back to the TARDIS.

Instead we get a Doctor who has taken it upon himself not just to tear up the rulebook, but rewrite it; his survivor's guilt having been transformed into a conviction that he's the only winner of the Time War, and there's nothing he can't do. When he says "I own the Laws of Time, and they will obey me!" David seems to be channelling Tom's "There is only my will, because I control the Key to Time!", except that Fourth was putting it on to make a point, and Tenth means it. (It's also hard not to notice that he's paraphrasing another Time Lord who thinks he's above the rules.) He's clearly going too far, and those he saves knows it. He prompts them for thanks (also uncharacteristic), but gets terror from those who have just seen a glimpse of what he's become, and horrified understanding from the one who saw it happening.

Even then, I really didn't expect that bit at the end. It doesn't get mentioned in Confidential, but I suspect part of the reason the Doctor was so manically determined to screw destiny was a belief that he could avoid what's waiting for him at Christmas 2010.[2] But following Adelaide's example, he's going to face what's coming -- although that "No!" indicates he's still got no intention of accepting it.

Roll on Christmas...

[1]Yes, okay, BBC Books' The Deviant Strain is a base under siege story. And so is Big Finish's The Apocalypse Element, and BBC 7's "Horror of Glam Rock". But they were books and audio dramas, so I didn't see a base under siege.

Yeah, okay, "Dalek". And again in "The Parting Of The Ways". Shut up.

[2]I think. Maybe now that they've skipped a year (since last year's special was in the Victorian era) it can be Christmas 2009, and that annoying artifact of a funny bit in "Aliens of London"[3] can finally be put to rest.

[3]Which, yes, had Number 10 under siege. Shut up.

Merlin again.

2009-11-14T21:16:56Z

Interesting.

I think I said last week that Morguase wouldn't be Morgana's sister, because if she was, she'd have been mentioned before now.

[Checks]

Yes, I did. Shows what I know. Curse you, Merlin writers, you're one step ahead of me again! 8-)

Another thing I've been complaining about recently, with trolls and witchfinders and so forth, is a lack of Arthuriana. Well, this episode delivers that in spades. Not only does it introduce Morguase, sorceress and swordswoman (and apparently Morgana's Half-Sister What Was Handed Over To The Old Religion And Never Mentioned Again[1]), but she gets Arthur to agree to a vow without his knowing what it is (which combined with her castle being behind an enchanted waterfall makes me wonder if in this version, she's the Lady of the Lake), and then asks him to put his head on the block to prove hinself (which is a major Arthurian concept that I'm pretty sure predates Gawain and the Green Knight).

And there's some heavy Merlin-specific continuity stuff as well, because she summons Ygraine's spirit. And Ygraine tells him about Nimueh and the pact that led to his birth. Arthur, who has already begun questioning his father's wisdom since Morguase doesn't seem to be evil, is naturally unhappy about this. He blames Uther for his mother's death, and he realises all the man's ranting about the evils of sorcery is a displacement to blame someone else for what happened to Ygraine. So he challenges his father to a duel to the death.

And then, well, Merlin has to stop Arthur killing Uther, of course, which he does by ... saying Morguase deceived him (which she may have), it wasn't the ghost of his mother (which it probably was), and everything she said was a lie (which it definitely was not)[2]. So Arthur goes back to believing all sorcerers are evil, and everything goes back to normal. (Although the ending strongly suggests Morguase will return.)

[1]We don't get told why. Come to think of it, we also don't get told which parent they share, but I assume it's Gorlois because 1) Morguase has has a braclet with the Gorlois crest and 2) In the absence of the Gorlois-Ygraine-Uther triangle, Morgana, like Red Arrow, "do[es]n't even have a story about having a mother".

[2]Although there's a nice use of Exact Words: Uther swears on his life that he loved Ygraine (true) and would never have done anything to harm her (kind of true; he didn't know the spell would kill her, but he didn't ask a lot of questions either).

I don't know much about sport but...

2009-11-13T17:16:07Z

...is the fact Scottish football teams aren't allowed to play in the English leagues really headline news?

The Daily Record thinks so, since I noticed this front page story while I was buying stamps...

(On a sidenote, I'm amused that the Record's description on Google is "Read latest Scottish news, sport, UK and world news. Breaking news on Scottish football teams including Rangers, Celtic FC, Hibs FC and more", with the subsection "Football" coming before "News".)

daibhid_c @ 2009-11-12T13:47:00

2009-11-12T13:47:42Z

Happy birthday, rob_t_firefly!

daibhid_c @ 2009-11-11T14:54:00

2009-11-11T14:58:12Z

Happy birthday loveandgarbage!

Merlin:

2009-11-07T20:05:56Z

Still haven't seen part two of "Beauty And The Beast". But I have seen this week's, "The Witchfinder ~~Pursuivant~~"[1].

To start off with, Merlin is an idiot who forgets he's not supposed to do magic in broad daylight where anyone might see him. And some woman saying she saw smoke that looked a bit like a horse is enough for the king to call in the Witchfinder[2]. The fact even Uther is taken aback by the Witchfinder's zeal is quite cool, as is Gaius finally calling Uther on his obsession.

The revelation that the Witchfinder frames his suspects isn't a surprising one, but does raise the interesting question of whether he did actually realise Merlin was a sorcerer, or just saw a dim young man who had already contradicted himself in giving evidence, and would be fairly easy to get a confession from.

And next week Morguase, apparently. It'll be interesting to see where they go with that, since if Morgana had a sister, they'd probably have mentioned it sooner...

(Oh, and another thing I noticed about "Once And Future Queen", but forgot to mention when writing about it: Isn't the jousting lance with a fist at the end, which in the killer's case conceals an actual point, a straight lift from A Knight's Tale?)

[1]Sorry, but I was reminded of that The Black Adder episode at several points.

[2] Call in from where, exactly? He's apparently been abroad for years, but he arrives pretty sharpish. Does Uther have his mobile number?

daibhid_c @ 2009-11-04T10:25:00

2009-11-04T10:25:42Z

Happy birthday, pedanther!

Belated Merlin post

2009-11-03T12:23:55Z

Because I was in Edinburgh last week, I didn't see Merlin until the Friday repeat[1], and because I was at my sister's for Hallowe'en, I still haven't seen this week's. (My neice missed the Friday repeat, so wasn't watching Part Two until she'd seen Part One on iPlayer.)

The reason I still haven't commented on Part One is because it's so utterly preposterous I honestly couldn't think where to begin. Of the two two-part BBC telefantasies last week in which a character has a whirlwind engagement with sinister overtones, this is by far the sillier[2]. The most interesting thing about Part One is that Arthur has chosen the absolute worst time to grow up a bit; deciding the fact he doesn't like Lady Catrina isn't the point as long as his father's happy, while Merlin is trying to persuade him to stop her.

Tregor, incidentally, is a region of Brittany with a tangenital connection to the Arthur legend. Beyond that, this does not appear to be based on Arthurian myth, unless it's the Loathly Lady written backwards...

[1]My sister has Sky Plus, and before we left she set up its record feature to store Merlin, Sarah Jane Adventures, Life, and numerous other things (mostly Disney Channel things my neice wanted). Then she switched the box off at the wall to save power...

[2]Although even if it weren't, the other one would still score higher due to its guest star.

daibhid_c @ 2009-10-31T13:20:00

2009-10-31T13:20:17Z

Happy birthday, songster!