De kerstprogrammering van de BBC is bekend gemaakt, en is teveel om hier te noemen. Ik wil hier een paar toppertjes noemen waar ik zelf naar uitkijk, of waarvan ik weet dat anderen naar uitkijken. In deze blogpost noem ik de series waarvan de laatste aflevering gepland is, de films die uitgezonden gaan worden en de kerstspecials.

Laatste aflevering

Tijdens de kerstdagen kunnen we genieten van de laatste aflevering van Spooks, Merlin en een laatste dubbelaflevering van Dr Who met de tiende Time Lord David Tennant.

In de dubbelaflevering The End of Time komt de Doctor zijn oude rivaal The Master weer tegen naast zijn oude kameraad Donna (gespeeld door Catherine Tate – die elders tijdens de kerstdagen als Nan ook nog een eigen Christmas Carol speelt).

De achtste serie van Spooks komt, op 23 december, samen met de rode draad van de serie tot een einde. Zullen de spanningen tussen India en Pakistan leiden tot de eerste nucleaire confrontatie sinds de Tweede Wereldoorlog?

In het slot van de dertiendelige serie Merlin wordt Camelot aangevallen door the Great Dragon, met de stem van John Hurt.  Alleen een Dragonlord kan de draak tegen houden. Merlin (Colin Morgan) en Arthur moeten dus op zoek naar de laatste Dragonlord.

Films

Filmpremieres kom je vaak op meerdere zenders tegelijk tegen. Zo zal de film The Santa Clause 3 zowel bij de BBC als bij SBS6 te zien zijn, zie mijn eerdere post. Andere films die de BBC tijdens de kerstdagen gaat uitzenden zijn The Incredibles, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End, Over The Hedge, en Flushed Away.

Kerstspecials

En wat zijn de feestdagen zonder specials, en ze zijn er in alle soorten en maten. Eerder postte ik al over twee Total Wipeout – Celebrity Specials. Maar ook Top of the Pops komt met zowel een kerst als een oudjaarsspecial. Top Gear viert de kerst met een special uit Bolivia. Ieder jaar hebben ook de comedy series speciale afleveringen, zoals dit jaar The Royle Family, the Catherine Tate Show (zie hierboven), Outnumbered, My Family en Gavin and Stacey. De Britse danswedstrijd Stricly Come Dancing, die de strijd op de zaterdag van ITV’s X-factor verloor,  heeft zijn finale tijdens deze dagen.

Het jaar wordt voor het 17e jaar al weer traditioneel afgesloten door Jools’s Annual Hootenanny op BBC2. Zoals inmiddels bekend wordt dit programma vooraf opgenomen, maar voor ons in Nederland (waar het dan toch al een uur na middernacht is) maakt dat natuurlijk niets uit. Het jaar 2010 wordt binnengehaald door de doedelzakken en drums van de 1st Battalion of The Scots Guards.

Van de hierboven genoemde programma’s worden de volgende ook door BBC HD uitgezonden: Gavin And Stacey, Doctor Who – The End Of Time, Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special, The Royle Family – The Golden Egg Cup, Jools Holland’s Hootenanny en enkele van de films.

John (Jack) Potter, the Postmaster General, opened up last week’s Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee meetings with a choice for the industry: improve address and barcode quality or lower expectations on service performance and measurement. A 30 percent tolerance for Intelligent Mail barcodes cannot support a 96% on-time delivery.

Jack also noted that for the third year in a row, the Business Mail Entry Units have been found non-compliant with Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), particularly in the area of postage statements and payments. In response, the USPS is tightening acceptance requirements, including use of the MERLIN devices.

On a brighter note, Jack reaffirmed that there will be no price increases for market dominant products in 2010. While the possibility had existed that rates might still be increased under an exigency case, Jack noted that it would be wrong to do so. Thus, the biggest issue facing USPS next year is not rates, but changing the law to correct the mistakes in over-funding the retiree health care benefits. The USPS is once again projecting a nearly $8 billion loss in 2010.

Intelligent Mail – The USPS will implement support for the Full-Service IM BC rates on November 29, 2009. Along with the price incentives ($0.001 and $0.003 per piece for Standard and First-Class Mail, respectively) comes a much tighter acceptance process.

The BMEU and DMUs now have hand-held scanning devices which can determine IM barcode quality, validate the Mailer ID, validate the Service Type Identifier, and ensure unique serial numbers for both the mailpiece barcode and the Intelligent Container Tag. A sampling of 10 pieces will be performed, taken from three bundles, out of five trays/sacks, on three containers. If two of the container tags fail, or if three pieces fail to pass the Full Service requirements, the entire mailing will lose its Full Service piece discounts as well as the Start The Clock information and the Full Service ACS information. As harsh as this sounds (and is), MTAC members were assured that the USPS will be willing to work with mailers through this process.

The readability tolerance for Intelligent Mail barcodes will increase to 80 percent on November 29, and rise again to a 90 percent threshhold on March 15, 2010. The USPS acknowledged that the industry still has concerns about MERLIN; thus, the USPS will post on RIBBS information about the MERLIN devices, including whether the devices are up and running and that the software is current. The USPS will begin to treat the MERLIN devices just like any of their automation equipment and work to achieve a 96% “up time.” The goal is to have this regularly updated information live on RIBBS (under the Intelligent Mail Latest News heading) by the end of this month.

Move Update – January 4, 2010 is when penalties for non-compliance with Move Update requirements will go into effect. First-Class or Standard mailings that are less than 70 percent compliant will have a 7-cent-per-piece penalty assessed to a prorated portion of the mailing. The prorated amount will be calculated as the sampling error minus the 30 percent threshold. For example, a 100,000 piece mailing with a failure of 40 percent will have 10 percent of the entire mailing (40 minus 30) assessed an additional 7 cents.

Tom Day, USPS Senior Vice President of Intelligent Mail and Address Quality, responded to industry raised concerns about the Inspection Service using Intelligent Mail data to determine non-compliance with Move Update. Tom stated that there were absolutely no direct ties between Move Update and Intelligent Mail. The Inspection Service is looking for patterns of mailing behavior over a long period of time and not a single mailing basis. 

If you are interested in MTAC, or better yet would like your industry association to consider joining MTAC as a contributing member, please check out the MTAC section on RIBBS (http://ribbs.usps.gov). MTAC is a great way to actively direct the future of the mailing industry.

Merlin rescues a druid girl, Freya, from a bounty hunter only to find out that she is not what she seems.

I suppose the good had to come to an end eventually. Things could have gotten terribly boring with me only writing good reviews of “Merlin” so thank you to the writers for not putting me in that position. Plot holes and poor characterization were the name of the game this week sadly.

This is the first time we’ve really had a love interest for Merlin (Gwen had a crush on him back in season 1 but I don’t think he really ever had any interest). He falls in love after what seems to be about five minutes and in even less time than that he’s openly doing magic in front of Freya. Yes, Gaius suspected her of being a druid but I think I’d want a little more proof than that if the possibility of execution was around. After all of an hour of talking to each other Merlin’s already prepared to leave Camelot and move somewhere else with her?

The characterization of Merlin throughout most of the episode puts him at the maturity level of a 13 year old. Merlin even tells Gaius how he can’t possibly understand what he is going through. Typical teenager. Arthur too, wasn’t done particularly well this week. His character seemed to be all over the place.

Now I present to you, the list of things that didn’t make sense to me. Firstly, how does Merlin even identify the bounty hunter in the pub? I can only assume its because the guy looks like a bounty hunter. He could have made an awfully big mistake there if he picked the wrong person though. If you can create a flower with magic than why not create food? Merlin went through an awful lot of trouble stealing food only to create a flower out of nowhere later on. And I’d expect that stealing food from the kitchens or something would have been a lot easier than taking it from Arthur’s plate. Finally, does Merlin really not realize that boiling water is really hot? I kind of thought that was common sense but obviously not.

I found the romantic dialogue in this episode rather irritating. The show has proven they can do it well in the past but not this time around. Perhaps because Howard Overman has written all the romance related scripts to date this season (“The Once and Future Queen” and “Lancelot and Guinevere”) and this time we had Julian Jones writing the script. Of course Mr. Jones has written good episodes in the past (“Excalibur” and “Le Morte D’Arthur” for instance) but maybe romance isn’t his thing.

Colin Morgan still deserves praise this week for his performance despite the writing. His scene by the side of the lake was quite moving and well acted. Laura Donnelly was strong as Freya as well. None of the other actors had much to do this week with just a few scenes for Arthur, Gaius and Uther, one for Gwen and none at all (not even a cameo) for Morgana.

Despite the ending of “The Lady of the Lake”, it’s quite clear from the title that we’ll be seeing Freya again. I can only hope that her next appearance won’t be so grating.

Andrea

Just thought I’d post a few clips that I really enjoyed seeing on Children In Need 2009.

This year’s amazing official CiN single, masterminded by the ever fantastic Peter Kay:

Great to see Mrs Goggins and some of the old Watch With Mother characters back on the telly!

Paddington as a Rock Diva was amazing heh.

It’s released on hard copy DVD single on Monday (though you can download it now) – either way, if you like it too, make sure you buy a copy!

Walk On The Wild Side

“George… George Alagiah!!!” (I love this bit, made me roar with laughter!).

Eastenders

Was fun, but why no special appearance by Babs and June Brown?! Boo!

Merlin

And of course, the absolute highlight was the Doctor Who preview!!

Oh, and going back to the single, I absolutely love the artwork that comes with it (taking inspiration from The Beatles’ album cover for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band):

Well this week I’ve been treated to 2 different episodes of Merlin. 1 was the short clip that was produced for Children in need and the other was the proper episode.

The CIN episode was rather funny. Merlin and Gaius eating microwave ready meals, Morgana using products on her hair to keep it glossy and Gwen using the hairdryer (whilst in typical hairdresser style asking where she was going on her holiday this year. apparently a valid question since she was completely missing from the proper episode!), Arthur was tucked into bed (shirtless of course – yay!) with a pudsy bear and Uther was using his iphone. Great taste in phones Uther We even got Gaius saying “I don’t believe it” at the end which was Richard Wilson’s old catchphrase from his Victor Meldrew days. Yay!

For everyone's enjoyment

Now for this week’s episode.
I wasn’t too certain what to expect from the episode today. I certainly wasn’t expecting as much Arthur in it as there was. Form the title I’d deduced that our guest of the week (Freya the druid) would turn out to be the lady of the lake from legend and that she’d probably end up dead by the end of the episode. All the talk of them running away together obviously wasn’t going to happen.
The episode was rather focused on Merlin, Freya, Arthur and Gaius this week. King Uther was barely in it (except to declare as usual that Magic is evil and that all bad things that happen in Camelot are down to magic), Gwen put in a brief appearance just as Merlin was stealing one of Morgana’s dresses which lead to a funny conversation about moths taking over the castle) but poor Morgana was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she was on holiday somewhere nice?
Basic plot of the episode was that Merlin spots the druid girl in a cage being held by a bounty hunter and resues her. He then keeps her under the castle and steals food for her from Arthur. Merlin falls in love with Freya and they decide to run away together (although in all fairness he decides and she decides to run away from Merlin). Whilst all this is happening a beat (or something magical for Uther’s sake) is busy killing people in the lower town. Gaius puts 2 and 2 together to deduce that Freya is actually cursed and is killing people at night. Oops. Merlin then discovers she run away and sulks for a bit.
We then get warning bells and find Arthur and his band of men in red all chasing after poor Freya as she runs through the town to escape. Unfortantly it’s midnight and she turns into a giant winged cat and attacks them. Bit of a fight and our bounty hunter is killed. Freya the cat is then cornered by Arthur and his gang and he managed to stab her. It’s OK because Merlin has arrived and makes a statue almost fall on Arthur (has he forgotten who he’s meant to be looking after?) and Freya the cat escapes back to under the castle.
Merlin finds her bleeding to death (and without her clothes – how did she keep them every other time she changed and not this one?) and he sweetly stays with her as she dies. He carries her body to the lake (yes, same lake as always) and pops it into a boat that magically appears then floats her off into the lake where he magically sets fire to her body. Back in the castle Gaius is relieved to see Merlin is back and safe and then we see a sad Merlin cleaning Arthur’s boots. Even Arthur has noticed Merlin is sad but thinks it’s because he threw a bucket of water over him. Luckily a quick chat with Arthur and Merlin’s looking happier again. Phew!
The Merlin and Arthur scenes this week were cute. Merlin takes Arthur’s food for Freya and tells Arthur he’s feeding him less because he’s fat. He even magics away a chicken leg and 3 sausages when Arthur is sat in front of them. Dunno how he missed that one. Arthur defends Merlin when the bounty hunter is interrogating him about Freya which is kinda cute, especially when he notices his missing sausages!
The two best Merlin and Arthur scenes and when Merlin is running Arthur a bath and boils the water which poor Arthur then steps into and burns himself. To get revenge Arthur throws cold water over Merlin (Arthur in just a towel – yay!). The other good scene was when Arthur spots Merlin walking around the castle with a dress and tells him he doesn’t mind what he gets up to in his own time so long as he does a good days work. Very funny!
Next week reminds me of a previous episode. Poor Arthur is enchanted again and falls in love with a princess (now this series we’ve already had an enchanted Uther and last series we had enchanted Arthur…). Yet again poor Merlin will have to save the day. It looks quite good though.

Sir Terry Wogan, Tess Daly and Alesha Dixon host a spectacular party for Pudsey. Highlights include:

7.00pm-7.30pm

Alesha and the stars of Strictly Come Dancing get the party started with a dazzling show-opener. The magic is back as Merlin conjures up some wizard ideas for this year’s appeal, and get ready for a world exclusive as the official Children in Need single is launched.

7.30pm-8.00pm

A very important patient checks into Holby General, raising the temperature for the cast of Casualty, while Britain’s favourite boy band JLS get pulses racing with a special live performance. Plus, watch out for a unique bite-sized episode of Walk on the Wild Side.

8.00pm-8.30pm

The stars of Hollyoaks rock TV Centre with their tribute to Queen, there is an exclusive sneak-peek of the Doctor Who Christmas special, and music from American superstar Taylor Swift.

8.30pm-9.00pm

The One Show team roll on their leg-warmers to re-enact the iconic street dance from Fame, the stars of Dragons Den roll up their sleeves to restore an activity centre for disadvantaged children and the four balladeers, Westlife, are live in the studio.

9.00pm-9.30pm

Sir Terry Wogan causes a stir when he turns up as the new squire in Lark Rise to Candleford, Sun Hill songsters The Bill perform a Rat Pack classic, and Gary Barlow, who rocked the Royal Albert Hall in aid of Children in Need, is sure to raise the roof and the total when he brings on the big cheque.

9.30pm-10.00pm

The cast of EastEnders celebrate the Magic of Motown in Albert Square, and the BBC newsreaders are joined by surprise guests to create a headline-grabbing music and dance spectacular.

via BBC – BBC One Programmes – Children in Need, 2009, Part 1.

Arthur is determined to win the annual jousting tournament on his own merit and not because of his title. Meanwhile an assassin is in Camelot and is looking dispose of him.

While I understand why this episode couldn’t be the season premiere it was significantly better than last week! The jousting, acting and writing were great.  Things are looking up!

For an episode with a title clearly referring to Gwen, this is really an episode focusing on Arthur’s development. He grows up a little (something he clearly needed after his character was regressed to the beginning of season 1 levels) and learns how the people live (something that any future king should really know).

I think “The Once and Future Queen” may have given Gwen more screen time than she’s ever had in one episode. She was underdeveloped last season and I hope this marks a turning point for the writers portrayal of her character. Guinevere is usually a fairly important character in the legends after all and Angel Coulby shows herself to be a talented actress this week. At some points she managed to say more with her face than with her words.

On that note I’d say that the acting and facial expressions in particular were very strong this week. I was impressed by Angel Coulby as I mentioned before but Bradley James and Colin Morgan did a great job too. As a sample, my personal favourite, Merlin’s “Gwen says you’re cooking.” face.

Sir William of Daira. I wish you could be on the show all the time. He brings a good deal of humour to this episode with his portrayal of the farmer turned knight standing in for Arthur in the tournament. I notice Merlin and Gwen are getting quite good at turning regular people into knights. Maybe they should start a business.

Adrian Lester is the guest star of this week portraying Myror, an assassin sent to kill Arthur. For a fairly well known British actor, he’s rather underused in this episode.

Some people are going to say that the development of the relationship between Arthur and Gwen is going to quickly after this week but I disagree. After all, its quite obvious that they aren’t going to continue at this pace for the rest of the season and with obstacles such as Uther and Lancelot I’m sure the writer’s will be able to get plenty of good stories out of this relationship even if their kiss was in an early episode.  The two characters have been written for each other since even before they had scenes together.  Arthur needs Gwen to be honest with him for better or worse (I mean everyone else seems to be lying to him about something) and she brings him a sense of the people.  Gwen needs Arthur for the boost in self confidence he gives her by actually listening by to what she has to say.  I’m curious to see whether Guinevere’s affair with Lancelot will appear in this show. It would seem rather out of character for this Guinevere but I suppose a lot of things could change for the character between now and the later seasons.

One thing I appreciate about the Merlin writing team is that they don’t take themselves to seriously. I almost felt as though they were making a joke at their own expense when Arthur described a beast with “the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle and the head of a … bear”. All he had to do was use the buzzword “sorcery” and Uther immediately responded by telling him to kill it.

With this week’s episode my hope for season 2 of Merlin is quickly increasing. Until next time, always remember to remove leeches before you clean the leech tank.

Andrea

Goodrich Castle near Ross-on-Wye

It has long been described as a castle worthy of myth and legends, but last Saturday (14 November), viewers of the BBC1 drama Merlin will have seen part of Goodrich Castle, near Ross-on-Wye being used as a setting for Prince Arthur meeting his dearly-departed mother!

The cast of the worldwide hit fantasy drama descended on Goodrich Castle earlier this year, spending a day filming in the moat and the solar room for one of the pivotal scenes of the series!  Walking through a waterfall, Arthur and Merlin arrived in a magical castle, where a the sorceress, Morgause, gave him the chance to meet his mother, who died when he was born.  Arthur discovered that his father had used magic to help bring him into the world, and was told that his father knew that the price he would have to pay would be his wife’s life!

 “This was a great scene, and the solar room at Goodrich provided a fantastically atmospheric background,” says Head of Visitor Operations for Goodrich Castle, Mark Badger.  “Visitors always comment that Goodrich is a ‘proper’ castle, where they can imagine knights and princesses wandering around – I guess we can now add warlocks to that list!”

 Around 45 crew descended on the site for a day in July, and the shoot lasted from 7.00am until 8.00pm.  The actors who feature in the scene were Colin Morgan (Merlin), Bradley James (Arthur), Emilia Fox as Morgause and Alice Patten as Ygraine, Arthur’s mother.

Viewers wanting to see where the filming took place can visit Goodrich Castle for themselves.  The castle is open throughout the winter from Wednesday to Sunday, 10.00am to 4.00pm.  Admission prices are £5.20 for adults, £4.40 for concessions and £2.60 for children, with a family ticket (two adults and up to three children) available for £13.00.  For more information, please call 01600 890538 or visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/goodrich

At the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference I had the fortune to catch a presentation that turned out to be much more interesting than I gave it credit for upone reading the title: “Inbox Zero.”

Merlin Mann is an interesting character. He’s sharp and funny. He chuckles and makes others chuckle with his insightful skewering of the quotidian noise of modern life.

“Inbox Zero” sounds like a book about email, but it’s actually much more. Mann was originally going to give his regular speech, describing key points of his book, which describe how to minimize the role of email in daily life, ways to stay focused on the most important tasks and why these are virtues.

Instead, Mann led a meandering conversation with the crowd. He talked more about the deeper implications of — the larger picture that his prescriptions paint.

I’ll skip to a few pillars of what Mann had to say.

“Attention is existential currency.”

This statement struck me. If we choose to see life as a the sum of our experiences, than we must value our attention above all else. Now, not everyone will agree with these premises, but for those who do this has serious implications.

If our attention is the most valuable thing we have, then deep, prolonged attention that produces satisfying experiences is most desirable. Multitasking is nearly antithetical and the cheapest form of attention.

Once accepted, this means we must make some serious observations about our attention habits. And if we want to truly achieve that greatest form of existential currency, most of likely need to make some adjustments to the way we conduct ourselves.

For most people reading this, there’s a device about the size of a pack of baseball cards within arms reach that can send and receive audio and video, stills images and textual information to and from millions of people all over the planet in the blink of an eye. It’s within reach at almost any moment, and they’re becoming  What a revolution in communicative ability. But what a detriment to our ability to create high-value attention.

See also:

• Productivity and Time Wasters in Social Media (altitudebranding.com)
• How to achieve complete focus to listen to a podcast (jurecuhalev.com)

I love when pop culture references come up in a reading.

For the magician card, my favorite reference is the Disney movie “Halloweentown”. I love the line that “Magic is just wishing for something, then letting yourself have it”

If you want to get all intellectual about it, this could speak to psychology, and “self-sabotage” , how and why we don’t let ourselves succeed. But I don’t want to do that today. Today, let’s soar and fly, because we let ourselves.

The Magician card is fun, powerful, evocative. In my eye it brings forward images of Merlin, Dumbledor, Gandalf. Wisdom, humor and above all…magic.

What is magic? The ability to move things around without physical effort? The ability to make what we want appear out of thin air? If you could have magical powers like a legendary wizard, what would you do with it? What would the things you do with your magic say about you?

While we could talk all day about magic, the wizard archetype, and making life magical, let’s focus just on the balance aspects of the card.

Think of labor-saving and thing-making stereotypes of magic we’ve always seen in books, movies and tv. Underneath that is simply desire and fulfillment. We desire ease…and magic fullfills that. Over centuries this desire has shown itself culturally. Times of rest in the agrarian culture, labor saving devices in the modern industrial one. We desire certain things…some attainable, some more fantastic. Again these have been symbolically fulfilled on a cultural scale. Man wants to fly, so in time we invent airplanes, balloons, hang gliders, helicopters and more.

So magic has to do with the balance of desire…the wish for something…and our ability to have it fulfilled.

The magician is often associated with the Alchemist…changing one thing into another that is more desired. There are consequences. We might get gold from lead, but the lead is lost in the process. We may find sudden wealth, but at what price of contentment…and taxes? Again…balance is the key. You may desire love or a relationship with a person…but at what price? Is the cost of fullfillment make the desire worth it? When does harm to others negate our wish? If you knew the consequences, would you keep the same wish? Genies are magic too…of a trickier sort, often with hard lessons in tow with the magic.

Magic, manifestation…the law of attraction. It’s all related. If we wish for something, we have a choice…

We can set our intention…but then put on the brakes and not allow ourselves to have our wish made real

We can make a wish, then do nothing…nothing but be disappointed when the wish goes unfulfilled, ultimately rejecting the magic at our fingertips

Or we can wish for something and allow it so aggressively and excessively that we also allow all the imbalances and lessons that come with it.

Magic is a double edged sword. I wonder if that is why a knife or anthame is part of magic lore and tradition.

Yes, we can allow ourselves to have our wishes. It is ok to allow our happiness. Yet the balance of that is doing the work needed, and having the compassion to not harm others in the rush of attainment.

Desire and fulfillment, attraction and repulsion, self and others. These are the dichotomies of the magician.

May you make a good wish…and let yourself have it. May your life be magic.

Do you remenber this song? I do, and really good! This is my favourite Disney cartoon and I searched for the original version of this song after I found myself singing it while having a shower! (please don’t imagine me doing that…) English version, as always, is better then our dubbed version, if it can be. What probably you don’t know is that it has been composed by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, two brothers that wrote more motion-picture musical song scores than any other songwriting team in film history. They even won two Accademy Awards, most famous is the one for “Chim Chim Cher-ee” from Mary Poppins. What a beautiful discovery to accident find this duo! I would invite you to visit their Wikipedia page, you’ll find a lot of song you probably love and you didn’t know that are made by them! Sherman Brothers

Finally, “That’s what makes the world go round” original lyric:

Left and right
Like day and night
That’s what makes the world go round
In and out
Thin and stout
That’s what makes the world go round

For every up there is a down
For every square there is a round
For every high there is a low
For every to there is a fro
To and fro
Stop and go
That’s what makes the world go round

You must set your sights upon the heights
Don’t be a mediocrity
Don’t just wait and trust to fate
And say, that’s how it’s meant to be
It’s up to you how far you go
If you don’t try you’ll never know
And so my lad as I’ve explained
Nothing ventured, nothing gained

You see my boy it’s nature’s way
Upon the weak the strong ones prey
The human life it’s also true
The strong will try to conquer you
And that is what you must expect
Unless you use your intellect
Brains and brawn, weak and strong
That’s what makes the world go round

Title: Clarke’s Law
Author: Netgirl_y2k
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 970
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Gwen, Morgana

This is, first, more than a little cracky, but it’s by one of the best fan fic writers around for that sort of thing – and has an explanation for the existence of this show in the Doctor’s universe that ought to be used in any and all crossovers. And the ref to Battlefield and Morgana’s response is particularly amusing. (AU; Warning for Gwen/Morgana, although implicit only.)

Merlin Regency Kolkata

Welcome to the very first twins of its kind in Kolkata Merlin Regency. Built on 120 cottahs, Merlin regency comprises of two G + 12 storied towers identical in ever way. With flats and facilities to match and complete your lifestyle. Merlin Regency will be a unique landmark located in the city of joy. Having a home in this luxuries twin towers, you will be proud to own and make a part of your life.

Merlin Regency Location:

Merlin Regency is located at 25, Dr. Suresh Sarkar Road, Kolkata. Close connected to the EM Bypass.

Merlin Regency Amenities:

Landscaped greenery, children s play area, swimming pool, multi-gym, A/C community hall, Indoor Games, Children s Park, 24- Hours security system, Modern Fire Prevention & Security System, 24 X 7 filtered water supply, Roof Top Garden, 24 X 7 Power back up, Separate Service/ Goods Lift.

Merlin Regency Option:

Type——————–Size (Sq. ft)

2BR-3T————————1025

3BR-2T————————1207

2BR-2T-1SR——————1280

3BR-2T-1SR——————1467

3BR-2T-1SR——————1540

3BR-3T————————1787

4BR-3T-1SR——————2000

3BR-3T————————2253

4BR-4T————————2553

4BR-4T————————2706

About Developer:

Merlin Group, is one of the leading and premium real estate developers in India, having to its credit, over the past three decades, number of prestigious Residential & Commercial Complexes, Office Buildings and Township in Kolkata, Raipur, Jaipur, Siliguri, Ahmedabad and has now also extended its activities to Shopping Malls, Townships, Clubs, Hospitality sector etc.

Contact: 9999998663

allcheckdeals.com (A naukri.com Venture)

209, AJC Bose Road, Karnani Estates Building, ROOM # 112B, 3^rd Floor, Kolkata – 7000 17

9999998663  (INDIA) +1- 646- 367-2921(USA) +44-208-819-3959(UK)

Merlin Regency Kolkata

Welcome to the very first twins of its kind in Kolkata Merlin Regency. Built on 120 cottahs, Merlin regency comprises of two G + 12 storied towers identical in ever way. With flats and facilities to match and complete your lifestyle. Merlin Regency will be a unique landmark located in the city of joy. Having a home in this luxuries twin towers, you will be proud to own and make a part of your life.

Merlin Regency Location:

Merlin Regency is located at 25, Dr. Suresh Sarkar Road, Kolkata. Close connected to the EM Bypass.

Merlin Regency Amenities:

Landscaped greenery, children s play area, swimming pool, multi-gym, A/C community hall, Indoor Games, Children s Park, 24- Hours security system, Modern Fire Prevention & Security System, 24 X 7 filtered water supply, Roof Top Garden, 24 X 7 Power back up, Separate Service/ Goods Lift.

Merlin Regency Option:

Type——————–Size (Sq. ft)

2BR-3T————————1025

3BR-2T————————1207

2BR-2T-1SR——————1280

3BR-2T-1SR——————1467

3BR-2T-1SR——————1540

3BR-3T————————1787

4BR-3T-1SR——————2000

3BR-3T————————2253

4BR-4T————————2553

4BR-4T————————2706

About Developer:

Merlin Group, is one of the leading and premium real estate developers in India, having to its credit, over the past three decades, number of prestigious Residential & Commercial Complexes, Office Buildings and Township in Kolkata, Raipur, Jaipur, Siliguri, Ahmedabad and has now also extended its activities to Shopping Malls, Townships, Clubs, Hospitality sector etc.

Contact: 9999998663

allcheckdeals.com (A naukri.com Venture)

209, AJC Bose Road, Karnani Estates Building, ROOM # 112B, 3^rd Floor, Kolkata – 7000 17

1860-500-5559 (INDIA) +1- 646- 367-2921(USA) +44-208-819-3959(UK)

When a mysterious warrior appears in Camelot and challenges Arthur to a duel, he learns about his mother and a dark secret from the past.

Yet again “Merlin” proves itself worthy of being my favourite show currently on television. As the episodes get more and more emotionally intense I’m beginning to understand the need for the lightness of that troll two parter after all.

The acting all around was a pleasure to watch. It’s been a difficult season for Arthur in particular and Bradley James continues to portray it well. The fight between Arthur and Uther was very well done though if Uther wanted to lie a little more convincingly he should have acted a little more surprised about Arthur’s accusations. As it was he looked as though he had heard it all before. We as the audience know that he has, seeing as they are true, but Arthur doesn’t.

The sword fighting was quite well done in this episode. Both the fights involving the actors and the stunt men were action packed and entertaining to watch.

With the introduction of Morgause it seems we finally have a replacement for Nimueh in terms of a reoccurring villain. That is, if she is a villain. She’s an intriguing character so far and I’m curious to know more about her motives. We know now that she’s Morgana’s half sister but is she also related to Arthur? (She does have blond hair after all) How did she know Ygraine? At any rate, I’m sure she’ll be back and maybe some of my questions will be answered.

My one reservation about this episode came in the ending. Colin Morgan (Merlin) did a beautiful job when he told Arthur that Morgause had tricked him because she was a sorcerer but I was hoping to avoid a reset this time around. I was looking forward to a more permanent change in the relationship between Uther and Arthur and Arthur’s views on magic in particular.

For an episode I expected to answer some questions, I found it just posed more. Was that really Ygraine that Arthur saw or was she created by Morgause? I was surprised to see Ygraine say that Uther had sacrificed her when I was quite convinced by his statements to Nimueh that he didn’t know that it would be Ygraine who would die (last season’s “Excalibur”). What does Morgause want Arthur for? It seems she wants Uther gone but I’m sure there would have been easier ways to go about doing that considering she’s a sorceress. Are all the guards in the castle so hard of hearing that they can’t hear Merlin yelling about running out of rope as he breaks Arthur out of his room? Will Morgana learn that entering someone’s room without knocking counts as intruding? Okay maybe those last ones are less important but I’m still curious.

Until next time remember to “Use the Horse”. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Andrea