Merlin

The BBC’s other Saturday teatime genre show has ended (pretty conclusively) after five years, finishing up with a final scene I’d have happily seen used as a plot hook.

In game terms, it’s very much a Smallville-y soap (using Pendragon as a sourcebook, naturally) with four PCs (one of whom goes full-time antagonist) and a friendly exposition NPC and initially a quest-giver / antagonist NPC, and some knights who might be troupe-style-play temporary PCs.

The last year very much felt like “so, Morgana, what’s your evil plan this week?”

Not the most thorough examination of the legend, not the wonkiest, somewhere in the middle. I’d have loved to have seen...

(Spoilers for the final year and especially the final episode ahead...)

Arthur dealing with accepting sorcery a bit more.
Morgana being a bit more conflicted.
Mordred being less look-at-me-I’m-so-shifty.
Lancelot coming back, and that be the Gwen plot of the final year.
A Christmas special reworking Gawain And The Green Knight. Because it is effectively a Christmas special for the Arthur cycle.
More fighting skeletons. Because More Fighting Skeletons.

And run with the final scene - following up on the Once And Future King bit with Merlin passing Glastonbury Tor in the present. A flash-forward episode of Arthur reviving now could be great.

(Yes, it’s an Arthurian idea I’ve had before. And so has Tim Powers, who started a series of Arthur coming back in various different “time of greatest need” points in history, like the Second World War. See also Camelot 3000!)