Why NBC's Merlin is the Smallville of Camelot

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Why NBC's Merlin is the Smallville of Camelot

Anthony Stewart Head, who plays King Uther in the BBC/NBC retelling of Merlin, told SCI FI Wire that the series is like a Smallville version of the King Arthur story. Head plays the monarch in the story of Merlin and Arthur when they are teenagers.

"It's what would have happened if Merlin actually met Arthur when they were both young," Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) said in an exclusive interview last month in Pasadena, Calif. "[He has] all this extraordinary talent as a young sorcerer in a Camelot that's ruled over by pretty much a fascist who has outlawed sorcery, has outlawed magic, has basically ethnically cleansed all sorcerers and anybody who has anything to do with magic. It is the king's hypothesis that magic always leads people to the dark side. Whatever way you want to look at it, it ultimately is evil, so it should be wiped out."

The BBC production is already in production for a second season; season one premieres June 21 at 8 p.m. on NBC.

Merlin is a 13-part drama series that updates the story of the sorcerer of Arthurian legend for a new audience. Merlin is a young man with extraordinary magical powers who arrives in the kingdom and quickly makes enemies, including the heir to Uther's crown, the headstrong Prince Arthur. But guided by Uther's wise physician, Gaius, Merlin is soon using his talents not just to survive but also to unlock Camelot's mystical secrets.

The series also stars Colin Morgan as Merlin, Bradley James as Prince Arthur, Richard Wilson as Gaius, Katie McGrath as Morgana and Angel Coulby as Gwen. The following Q&A features edited excerpts of SCI FI Wire's interview with Head. (Spoilers ahead!)

Is there humor or is it a straight historical drama?

Head: The writing is light. They've managed to find a modern style, which doesn't intrude. Having said that, it's not been easy. There have been times when there have been a few sort of anachronisms that just jarred, and we've lost them. The humor comes from the relationship between Merlin and Arthur, because there's a lot of banter and a lot of stuff that teenagers will identify with and youngsters, and also adults understand it because they watch their own teenagers. There's a relationship between Merlin and Gaius, who's played by Richard Wilson, which also has a lot of humor in it. There's a lot of humor in it, and, at the same time, there's a bit of darkness, there's a big of angst, bit of mystery, a lot of suspense. It's one of those gigs that you just go, "Why didn't somebody make this before?"

But you're not speaking old English?

Head: No, not at all, and it's difficult. Uther is a little bit wordier than the others, but that's because he represents the old school and the old way of doing things. He rules with an iron fist or whatever it is. Consequently, that works. Gaius I guess speaks a little bit more modernistically. I'm not sure but it's light enough to be palatable, but it's not so light that you dismiss. You believe the world.

And this is the BBC model of a short 13 episodes?

Head: To us, 13 episodes ain't short. To us, nowadays, there's a director friend of mine who pitched a story to the BBC, they did it in threes. They did two episodes together, and then they did a third, and he's still waiting to find out if they're picking it up for another three. For God's sake, commit yourself, will you? For me, for the BBC to make the commitment of 13 eps was a big thumbs up, right at the beginning. The fact that [producer] Julie Gardner was involved in it is somebody that I'm very fond of, and I think she's one of the leading lights that we have, and she's coming here. I think she's going to set up a lot of stuff. She's coming in to work with BBC worldwide, and I think they'll start to do a lot more co-production.

Is this designed to be ongoing or are two seasons the limit?

Head: They've always talked about at least five, the story arcs. The bottom line is, if it's not successful, it won't go, but judging from the success so far, it's straight out of the box. It's been sold worldwide. There are only three territories, I think, that haven't picked it up. One's Iceland, one's Ireland for some strange reason, and somewhere like Uzbekistan. They're obviously not turned on by Arthur and Merlin.

We know the history, so what's the journey of Uther until Arthur ascends the throne?

Head: There's a couple of episodes early on in the season two when I was going, "Oh, is this the line we're going down?" It's basically, "No, don't go after the servant." Stuff that we've heard from him before, but it's very brief. Then I start to get some meat. They're very open. For instance, in the first episode of season two—we're doing that now—and there's a couple of things that should be addressed. I said, "We should address them," and they've gone, "OK." They're open to stuff.

But where does Uther go? I don't know. We've talked about a couple of ideas. I've pitched something, which I think they might go with, which would be fun to play and would be interesting. He only is useful in as much as while he is around, Arthur can't be king. But, as I say, I only want to do it as long as it's challenging and interesting. So there will be some sort of crossover point where it'll be like, "OK, I've done it now. I've had enough." Where that will be, I don't know.

How does the visual spectacle compare to the ones you saw on Buffy? [The series shot on location in France, England and Wales.]

Head: Amazingly well. It's a place called The Mill that cut their teeth on stuff like Harry Potter, Doctor Who. ... What used to be true was if you threw a lot of money at it, you had good CGI. Then you look at dodgy effects in things that had a lot of money thrown at them. Then you look at something like this, which hasn't got a huge budget, but it's obviously got enough because I think the CGI is brilliant. From the composite shots, a lot of people think the castle is CGI. It ain't. It's real. They only think it's CGI because these days, you're just not used to that kind of production value. You're not used to something being that big, because if it is that big, it's got to be CGI. It can't be real.

You don't have a throne room that's the length of a football pitch. There's a shot in the first ep, you'll see it. It's only a tiny little [thing], but I saw the whole shot. Eve Myles is a witch, and she turns herself into something rather attractive, obviously. She goes from a very good prosthetic makeup into this. She's with this beautiful silk dress, and [we] go down on a tracking shot with her down this corridor, this throne room, with me at the end and all these guards along the windows and shafts of light.
I said to the director, "No one's going to believe that's real because you just don't see it these days." You don't see it unless it's on a huge film, and even then, it's probably going to be CGI because it's easier. But it's a stunning, stunning environment. It's just an amazing location, and we never fail to find bits and pieces. Even returning to the same corridors, we've got corridors everywhere that are, like, 20-30 yards long, which you couldn't build in an interior. You'd have to put a green screen, or it used to be a mirror. You'd put a mirror on one end so it looks like a long corridor. These are real, and the light coming in is just gorgeous. It's better light than we have in England. It's that sort of really clean light that you're very used to in L.A., but it's lovely.

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Enjoy The Prologue From My Upcoming Book.. "Strolok"............by R.Goldberg

"WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOUR RACE WAS TARGETED FOR EXTINCTION?"

The Sun is a powerful force in our Universe. It brings us light, warmth and a promise of a galaxy beyond the stars. Often we associate massive flashes of light with the reflection of our Sun's light bouncing off of another surface.

This is not always the case though, especially if you believe that we are truly not alone in the Universe. When we witness things that we can't readily explain we sometimes turn our heads and shrug our shoulders in a display of apathy.

A display such as this occurred on Friday January 29, 1982 at the Crater Lake National Park just outside of Chemult, Oregon. The snow had been falling steadily for a period of four days. The winds had been whisking about at 40 miles per hour.
Then there was one of those unnatural flashes of light. This created an eerie silence as a lanky boy, just nine years old, seemed to appear from out of that flash. If he had walked to this point there would have been a distinct trail in the newly fallen snow.
There was no trail and as a matter of fact the only tracks in the snow were the ones that outlined his feet where he was standing.

He began to trudge through the snow wearing what could only be described as dark brown long johns. He seemed dazed yet, at the same time, very clear about the direction that he was travelling. This boy with no identity or name seemed to be on a mission that would take him to places he had never been before.
His main goal was to reach Chemult, Oregon and he had no intention of stopping until he accomplished this. As strange as it seems the extreme cold seemed to have little or no effect on him at all.

Why Chemult? What was so special about this town located at an elevation of 4,758 feet above sea level in a frozen winter wilderness in Oregon?

The town of Chemult was first opened to the local traffic in 1926 and here in 1982, with its population of only 241, offered little in the way of comfort for a nine year old boy who was all alone. This journey, although prompted by something deep inside of him, did not provide a feeling of comfort and yet he had hoped that he would at least experience a feeling of accomplishment once he reached the town.

The wind was getting stronger and he noticed a small piece of yellow paper tattered and torn from whipping about in the snow. He only stopped long enough to
pick up this paper..........it read:

.....With the winter season here there was a lot of fun to have. Travelling miles of open trails on snow mobiles skiing or simply hiking, but there are dangers of doing so. Please remember safety first. Do not travel alone and be sure someone knows where you are and where you are going before travelling our trails, and please read the safety rules and codes of ethics before hiking the trails...

Nightfall was near and he had already walked 38 of the 40 miles needed to reach Chemult. He was just off of Route 97 when he spotted an old barn just about 200 feet NE of his present location. Making his way to the barn he went in and found it to be totally deserted, it was a perfect place to rest for the night.

Morning had arrived and once awake the boy started to look around the barn in the daylight light to see if there was anything that was lying in the barn that he could use to assist him on his trek.

Over in the far corner of the barn he found an old metal locked box that had long been forgotten. It was all rusted out and the key was nowhere to be found. After several failed attempts to open the box the young boy closed his eyes, sat back on his tired limbs and placed the palm of his right hand on top of the box. All of a sudden a dull red glow appeared from his right palm and the box lid flew open. Strangely enough once the red glow disappeared all that remained was a faint thin black outline where the outside of the red mark had appeared on his palm. Inside of the box he found several items all of which were unfamiliar to him and it was obvious that they had been there
for a very long time.

The contents included a tattered passport with the picture missing, a pocket knife, a compass, an antique pocket watch with a broken crystal, a time-worn souvenir porcelain coffee mug with the words; "Atlanta, Georgia, The Peach State, A Perfect Place to Live", on it and a frayed map of the Metro Atlanta Area It was difficult to make out the name on the passport but with a couple of light brushes with his fingers he saw the name Jason Tredmore. This is now who this boy would become.

Sci-Fi Blast

Tuesday, May 26, 2009