I know that what I'm going to write is highly polemical, and, in a way, it is intended to be so. Now that the show is over and everyone easily stated that Arthur, Merlin, nor Morgana had fullfilled their destiny, I can make my point : Uther was strong, determined, fair and just. He had all the qualities to make a great king and he was a great one, the once and future king. (It must be clear that in my analysis, I take The Death Song of Uther Pendragon as he had never existed).
The Conqueror
In The Sorcerer's Shadow, he told his son that, when he was his age, he didn't inherit a kingdom, he conquered it, earned it and made it his legacy. It's not my fault if the writers didn't make Arthur the builder of Camelot, as he was in the legend and made him just an heir to the throne of Camelot. Uther was a conqueror and a builder, a pioneer, Arthur was not.
A combat for peace and properity
According to Gaius, in The Dragon's Call, Camelot was anything but chaos, sorcerers used magic for the wrong end, threatening the natural order itself. One question, by the way, Uther chose to keep a Dragon prisoner for example, said Gaius. Example of what exactly ? We never know. Obviously, Uther did whatever it took to get rid of all those nasty sorcerers making of Camelot a kingdom of peace and prosperity, as Gaius said in To Kill The King. The physician even admitted that, in the war against magic, there is some side-effects, like executing people who passes a sorcerer on the street. It's the kind of harsh decisions that a king has to make to protect his realm. What decision would take a government, if he learns that some people harboured a terrorist ? As far as we know, magic was only a source of disorder, often led by people who craved only power (Edwin Murden's parents, Cornelius Sigan, etc). After the Great Purge, we heard about magic people who were looking only for revenge on Uther and wanting his kingdom upside down. Chaos again. Uther had every right to keep away from his kingdom all these dark forces which could only cause pain, misery and destruction. If the sorcerers wanted to be respected once again and left in peace, they had to act otherwise. It always seems that the sorcerers acted in their own interest and only in their selfish interest. We never heard of a sorcerer (it could have been Merlin, but it was not) who could have wanted to reunite other powerful sorcerers and try to make peace with Camelot, showing that, in good hands, the magic could be a good addition to the realm (thinking of the healing's skill of Alice, the power of a Dragon, etc.). After all these events, it was up to magic people to show that magic deserved to be reinstated in the kingdom.
A modern King
One of the most interesting aspect of King Uther was his modernity. In fact, baning the magic was a very huge step to get out of the obscurity of the Dark Ages. He claimed in many circumstances that, if he can't deny the existence of the magic (how could he ?), he didn't believe in superstitions. He didn't believe in mythical creatures like the Griffin and the Licorn, and above all, he knows that his work was to eradicate all these foolish (in his point of view) beliefs from his people. He stated it clearly in The Mark of Nimueh : while the Afanc polluted seriously the water of Camelot, he told his son that they had to find the sorcerer quickly if they didn't want the people to turn to magic for a cure.
To keep fighting against magic and superstition he has two weapons : the knights and Gaius, an army and the science, the power and the knowledge. He's got the power to fight against the sorcerers who infiltrate Camelot and the knowledge to fight against the disease and the beliefs of people. That's why Gaius' responsability is a really huge one. In many circumstances, Uther turned to Gaius to find a solution. And Gaius had for imperative to find a rational solution, the answer of the science, in any disease. In conclusion, the science had to make constant progress to prevent any resurgence of superstitions. The challenge is quite thrilling, daring and risky, since Uther refused to use magic, even when the magic is involved. To sum up, magic is the darkness and science is the light. Uther, the so-called old school, in the heart of the Middle-Age, led the combat of the Enlightment philosophy of the glorified Reason.
In this configuration, the challenge for Merlin was quite interesting too, since he had to imagine a sort of syncretism between the kingdom built by Uther, which had faith in science, and a kingdom harbouring magic again. It's amazing how Merlin never questioned this side of the prophecy ; he never asked himself about the fact that he was intended to get magic ban lifted : How this would happen ? He never asked himself what means he could use to reach his goal ; it semeed that it was never his concern. He showed that he was never interested in bringing the magic back in Camelot.
Nevertheless, for me, the show gave up on this problem in the end of the second season.
TO BE CONTINUED