Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130214143847/@comment-5102537-20130217110335

"The Dragon's Call" was a wonderful and clever introduction of all the main characters that would be key to the story.

First time I saw Uther's speech, I was impressed how much they put into it already, giving the viewer a big piece of a background story already.

I liked Merlin walking the hills towards Camelot when he sees the town and the palace for the first time. Arthur fits perfectly as a bully and Merlin's bravery was impressive. Standing up to Arthur was great to see, and I was sure Merlin would soon be on an equal level with him. Not in regard to status or rank but in regard to their relationship. I think that was what the show had intended at first indeed.

Morgana's introduction showed already what conflict she was in when discussing with Uther about sentencing sorcerers to death. She showed compassion and desperation and soon it was clear that she could speak to Uther like no-one else could. I liked her in this episode.

Gwen's appearance was awesome too. Bringing her into the story by showing a rather humorous scene was a good contrast to Morgana and Uther. Gwen was companionable and had a good sense of humour. Her opinion about Arthur was very interesting and also amusing.

The best scenes to me were the ones between Merlin and Gaius. Their friendship and father-son-relationship that was showing here already. But how come that one time Merlin needs to use spells in order to use magic/move things, and another time he just has to look at things to move them?

Despite the strict rules of Camelot and the execution in the beginning, Uther showed his strong connection to Arthur and also his fairness when showing gratitude to Merlin who had saved Arthur. He was actually very quick in making Merlin Arthur's manservant without knowing anything about Merlin. I think it demonstrated Uther's emotionality and that a lot of things and decisions were based on his emotions.

The dragon then introduced us to Merlin's destiny and gave a round up to what happened before, making it all so clear why Merlin was in Camelot and what was yet to come.

All in all the epsiode was cleverly done with great introductions and a very promising storyline. Everything was connected to each other, it all made sense and even one of the central themes - vengeance - was introduced and established already when Mary Collins seeked revenge on Uther for her son Thomas.