The Nightmare Begins (16 Apr. 2010)

When Morgana sets her room on fire in her sleep she realizes she has magic powers and Merlin, against the advice of Gaius and the dragon, sends her to seek advice from the Druids. Pendragon... See full summary »

Director:

Jeremy Webb

Writers:

Julian Jones (creator), Jake Michie (creator),

Stars:

John Hurt, Katie McGrath, Angel Coulby

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
John Hurt	...	The Dragon (voice)
Katie McGrath	...	Morgana
Angel Coulby	...	Gwen
Colin Morgan	...	Merlin
Anthony Head	...	Uther Pendragon
Bradley James	...	Arthur
Richard Wilson	...	Gaius
Rupert Young	...	Sir Leon
Beth Cordingly	...	Forridel
Colin Salmon	...	Aglain
Asa Butterfield	...	Mordred

Storyline

When Morgana sets her room on fire in her sleep she realizes she has magic powers and Merlin, against the advice of Gaius and the dragon, sends her to seek advice from the Druids. Pendragon, believing she has been abducted, orders the deaths of all suspected magicians unless she is returned so Merlin goes after her, locating her in the Druid village, where chieftain Aglain tells her the truth but gives her confidence that magic can be used for good. However, Merlin must get her back to Camelot before Arthur and a vengeful search party catch up with them.

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Plot Keywords:

fire | explosion | telepathy | monster | kidnapping

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Fantasy

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 April 2010 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shine, BBC Wales

Technical Specs

Runtime:

45 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Merlin is hiding the flowers behind his back, there are white, pink and purple flowers. When he gives them to Gwen to give to Morgana, there are only white and pink flowers.

User Reviews

What kind of Merlin Ep is this?!!

Ughh! This episode was a huge disappointment. I really like the Merlin BBC Series overall -- Season 1 was AWESOME, but this episode was just plain bad. What kind of writer wrote this!? It was sloppily written, had no plot, and no had funny parts.

There was no point to the episode -- it was some wild-goose chase with Morgana running around in a forest looking for druids and a bunch of good people getting killed because her selfishness and Merlin's stupidity.

I mean why couldn't Merlin just tell her he was magical instead of sending her to a scorpion-ridden forest in search of druids which were obviously outlawed by Luther? Morgana used to be one of my favorite characters in the first season, but this totally made her a spoiled, incredibly useless bimbo. She let hundreds of innocent people in Camelot just die to save her own skin? -- It seems really uncharacteristic if judging by her actions in Season 1. She stood up for the guy who was being executed by Luther in the episode of the first season, and protected Gwen when she was accused of sorcery.

It changed the whole story line from the first season. It really bugs me how the characters have different personalities now. Arthur likes Gwen and Merlin likes Morgana? o__O (What is that?? It's complete opposite from season 1 and makes no sense.) This episode was the worst! :(