Merlin the Magician

In the 6th Century UK, Merlin The Magician requests that Tony and Doug help Arthur - the future King - rid the UK of Vikings.

This was the 4th last episode of Time Tunnel and from this point on all common sense and reality is thrown out the window and is replaced by comic strip spaced out thrills, or in this case, total fantasy. Is total fantasy bad? No, it can be fun if Chris Cary is playing Merlin The Magician and if William Welch is doing his lines.

Frankly, I have no interest in the 6th century, so almost this whole show is about waiting for Merlin the wizard, dressed in black, to come out with the next bitchy arrogant line (for example, he looks at the Tunnel's blinking light computers and says "toys").

Whit Bissell as General Kirk attempts to bring reality to the tale - "Could this be one of those miracles you said we needed?" - but is brought down by his co-worker - "This is no time for romantic non-sense, General".

More humour is found when a gentleman says "America? Does such a place exist?". To which Doug responds "We're beginning to wonder".

William Welch really had a way with words, and in this case, even if the storyline is crap, Welch can dress up the story with clever lines, and actors like Whit Bissell and Chris Cary can bring life to such lines.

In a nutshell, I am saying that Merlin The Magician is just a clever bit of showmanship, and since Irwin was a master showman, we can only guess that Mr Allen was on deck during the making of this outrageous, flamboyant hour.

Please note, the music used here is often stock music from Tunnel's The Death Merchant episode (that score is on the Fantasy Worlds Of Irwin Allen CD set). The score is also vital to Merlin The Magician. Not everyone will like Merlin The Magician, but as a bit of screen showmanship, it works rather well.

I know the Time Tunnel had a small budget, but that is no excuse for such appalling, inaccurate writing. King Arthur lived in the 6th century and fought the Saxons. The Viking raids didn't start until the late 8th century. Could the writers and producers not have come up with a plausible storyline lifted from something like Mallory's Le Mort d'Arthur? This was embarrassing.

The writer William Welch should be searching more to developed this not accurate story as follow, the Arthur's kingdom which in just a fair tale, supposedly was in west of Britain near of Walles, according to the story the Vikings attacked the kingdoms on the east side of the coast, not to mention about the first Vikings invasions were around 700 A.D. and Arthur's tale was 100/200 years before, so a little mistake from Irwin Allen's writer, but it's Time Tunnel's fantasy everything is possible!!

Resume:

First watch: 1971 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 7

Doug and Tony are transported to Cornwall, England, in 544 AD by Merlin the Magician to help King Arthur against an invasion of Vikings. Doug is stabbed by one warrior while Tony and Arthur are imprisoned in the dungeon by Wogan and his warriors. However, Merlin revives Doug and together with Guinevere they try to break in the castle to save Tony and Arthur.

"Merlin the Magician" is a funny episode where Doug and Tony meet a young King Arthur, Merlin and Guinevere. This show is silly but entertaining and uses stock footage as usual .My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Túnel do Tempo" ("The Time Tunnel")