After much speculation, SyFy announced today that it has acquired the rights to both existing seasons of the U.K. show Merlin. Episodes will begin running in prime-time on Friday, April 2 at 10 PM.

The show was a producing partnership between the BBC and NBC, which ran the first season last summer to poor ratings. But this will be a U.S. premiere for Season 2, which has never been seen on American television.

The channel will rerun Season 1 first, with Season 2 following later.

Both the NBC network and SyFy are part of the NBC Universal entertainment group.

The BBC is currently filming a third season of the show, which will likely eventually run on SyFy as well.

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Today we debut a new column that looks at fantasy and genre projects from the other side of the pond!

Nearly the whole of the UK has spent the last month covered in a blanket of snow and ice, but at least everyone has had great television to keep then entertained.

The cast of Being Human cozies up

January saw the return of the BBC breakout hit, Being Human, a supernatural Three’s Company. Being Human, which is in turns funny and terrifying, follows the lives of three twenty-somethings, John Mitchell (Aidan Turner), George Sands (Russell Tovey), and Annie Sawyer (Lenora Crichlow). It just so happens that these housemates are a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost, respectively.

Being Human premiered with nearly a million and a half viewers, well up from the second season’s finale. Perhaps this could be attributed to our apparent never-ending fascination with vampires, but I think it’s more the intriguing storylines (a vampire who doesn’t want to drink blood?), the fantastic score, and a cast that is not only talented, but so gorgeous they’re gracing the current cover of Gay Times.

In fact, Being Human has been so wildly successful, American TV has decided to do what it does best: make a remake! SyFy has chosen husband and wife team Jeremy Carver (Supernatural) and Anna Fricke (Privileged) to repackage the show for American viewers. This, combined with the announcement that Fox is developing a U.S. version of Torchwood, makes us wonder: can an Americanized Doctor Who be far off?

We hope so. We hope it’s very, very far off indeed.

Colin Morgan as Merlin

We’ve also got some news on the BBC hit show Merlin. BBC has announced that the series has been renewed for a third season. We got our first (often ham-fisted) glimpses of the Arthur (Bradley James) and Guinevere (Angel Coulby) romance in season two, as well as a new, darker Morgana (Katie McGrath) whose magic is no longer quite so secret, so it’s presumable that season three will start to look a little more like something that won’t make Arthurian scholars turn in their graves. No word yet as to when season three will begin production.

American Merlin fans have something to look forward to as well. The show was actually a co-production with the NBC network, which ran the show last summer — to disastrous ratings, alas. There’s virtually no chance that NBC will bring the show back to prime-time, but it seems likely that season two will appear on one of its sister channels — most likely, SyFy, though at this point, both NBC and SyFy have declined to comment on their plans to TheTorchOnline.com.

In more solid news, the first season will finally be available in DVD in the US starting April 20th.

David Tennant also ended his four-year run as the Doctor in Doctor Who in January, closing out with a two episode arc, “The End of Time”.

The episodes saw not only the return of the Doctor’s nemesis, the Master (John Simm), but of a whole slew of Time Lords, every companion the tenth Doctor has traveled with, even Gallifrey itself. After publicity photos of Donna (Catherine Tate), the Doctor’s previous companion (who lost her memories after a Human-Time Lord meta-crisis) surfaced, there was hope that the Doctor could restore her fuzzled brain and that together again they would save the world.

No such luck, but at least she made off with a new husband and a sackful of money which is, I suppose, someone’s idea of a happy ending.

Well, that’s it for this week. Until next week, mischief managed!

Looking to buy the first season of Merlin on DVD (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.

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Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

Q: Another version of A Christmas Carol?!? How many frickin’ A Christmas Carols does the world need!! For the record, how many have already been done? — Candy, Key West, FL

A: The Oracle could not agree with you more! If there’s one thing that turns the Oracle into a Christmas Scrooge faster than anything, it’s, well, yet another production of this sweet, but wildly-over-told tale.

By the Oracle’s count, Charles Dickens 1843 novella has been adapted at least twenty-one times for film and at least forty-eight times for television. And this doesn’t include the countless local stage and school productions we’re all subjected to every year of the at least twenty different theatrical adaptations!

These days, Xena: Warrior Princess’s “A Solstice Tale” is the only version the Oracle can endure — and even that’s pushing it.

Bah humbug indeed!

Q: Does Satan exist?– Martin, Portsmouth, NH

A: A fallen angel who is, more or less, the literal embodiment of evil? No. The ancient Hebrews, from whom the idea of Satan originated, possessed great wisdom, and their religious stories contain impressive metaphorical truths, but their literal understanding of the world was flat-out wrong in almost every respect: the world is not flat, the sun does not revolve around the Earth, a flood never covered the planet, you couldn’t live inside a whale for three days, and on and on and on.

The Oracle sees no reason to think that since their pre-scientific understanding of the physical world was so wrong that their literal understanding of the “spiritual” one wouldn’t be equally literally incorrect.

It’s also worth noting that the “Satan” of The Bible is very different from the concept that we have of him today — most of which comes from sources, like Milton’s Paradise Lost, that are obviously fictional.

That said, many religions and cultures do contain the concept of some sort of physical embodiment of evil. But the Oracle would argue that this is merely a way for humans to make sense of the concept of evil, and to instruct others on the nature of evil — not evidence that such a being really exists. After all, all these “beings” are so different from each other as to be absolutely irreconcilable.

Still, the Oracle also doesn’t rule out the possibility of the existence of advanced alien species that are malevolent — beings that, for example, might enjoy torturing human beings. It’s also possible — extremely unlikely, but possible — that such beings might have been in contact with humanity at some point in our past, and have been mistaken for “devils.” Or, if these beings are spiritual, perhaps they really do “possess” people. So in that sense, “Satan” may exist.

But that’s very different from what most people think of when they say “Satan.”

Q: What about evil? Does that exist? – Martin, Portsmouth, NH

A: Evil is a subjective, descriptive term used by humans to describe something harmful or destructive to life.

It’s impossible to deny that such a thing exists, much as it’s impossible to deny that “beauty” exists — at least from the point-of-view of the person perceiving the beauty.

Does evil (or beauty) exist apart from someone perceiving it? No. Evil, by definition, requires a judgment call — which, of course, requires someone to do the judging.

Q: You said in another question that you can order the season 1 DVD of Merlin on Amazon UK. If, hypothetically, other DVDs from Britain have played on our DVD player, and if, hypothetically, I have a cousin studying abroad in England right now, would it be a good idea to have her smuggle Merlin into the US for me? — Wynne

A: The Oracle thinks you’re taking a big hypothetical chance. It’s possible you have a multi-region or “chipped” DVD player that can play DVDs from all regions (the more expensive it was, the more likely it is to be one). But increasingly, the studios are pressing DVDs that are unplayable out-of-region even on multi-region players (although there are work-arounds).

It’s also possible that those other DVDs you played were pressed before region encoding became so widespread.

I’d do two things: (1) check to see if you have a multi-region DVD player, then (2) ask yourself: “How technically proficient am I in case the DVD has extra-encoding?” If the answer to the first question is “Yes,” and the answer to the second question is “Very!” I’d say go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t.

From ultimate evil to DVD encoding! Hey, don’t ever say that the Oracle doesn’t answer all — and all kinds of — questions!

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

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Who doesn’t love a good party? At birthday parties, you get presents. At costume parties, you get to show off your kick-ass Boba Fett mask. At office Christmas parties, you get to hook up with that intern whose last name you can never remember.

When people get together, food and drinks are served, and a little letting-your-hair-down is added to the mix, occasionally some shenanigans can go down. Put that recipe into a fantasy setting and you never know what might happen. Here’s a look at four of the most interesting parties from the world of fantasy…

Cinderella’s Ball

This one’s a classic, a party that most of us are exposed to at childhood. Cinderella is one of those timeless stories that has not only appeared in almost every major culture in the history of the world, but is constantly told over and over again in modern fiction. Just this decade has given us Ella Enchanted, A Cinderella Story, Maid in Manhattan, etc., etc…

We never get tired of hearing a tale of how true love (or intense physical attraction) can overcome economic disparities, and how for every poor girl out there, her prince will come if she just dreams hard enough. (Rarely is this story ever told with a male central character.)

But of course the centerpiece of the Cinderella story is when dirty Cindy is prettied up with the help of supernatural forces (the specifics varying with each culture that tells it) and shows up at a party looking like a killer hottie. There she catches the prince’s eye and he gets hooked on her something fierce. But beauty is fleeting, and Cinderella only has so long before she gets all grody again, and thus she takes off in a hurry, leaving, naturally, her infamous shoe.

The Tea Party in Wonderland

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, young Alice falls down the literal rabbit hole and finds herself in a world far trippier than she could have ever imagined, and perhaps one of the oddest sequences is the tea party with the Mad Hatter, the Dormouse, and the March Hare.

The Hatter, it turns out, was put on trial for killing time, which by its definition is murder — killing time — and has earned the wrath of the wicked Queen of Hearts. Perhaps as retaliation, time has halted for the Hatter and his companions so that it’s eternally 6:00, or tea time.  Their party is characterized by switching places and speaking nonsense to each other, until Alice gets frustrated and leaves. This scene, however brief in the original work, has become an iconic representation of Lewis’ masterpiece, and is often imitated in other stories.

Hogwarts’ Yule Ball

By the fourth book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the once-adorable tweens at Hogwarts are swiftly becoming victims to the throes of puberty, which means hormones are flying as fast as broomsticks in the hallowed halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The school is throwing a Christmas dance called the Yule ball. Harry wants to go with Cho, but she’s going with Cedric, natch. Hermione wants to go with Ron, but he’s too daft to realize it, so to make him jealous she goes with Viktor, and with no dates Ron and Harry go with the Patil girls. And Hagrid is so up in Madame Maxine’s grill that he even uses product in his hair!

Okay, it’s pretty soapy as far as epic fantasy adventures go, and at this point it basically becomes Harry’s Creek. But one of the fun parts of the series is seeing the characters grow and mature, and this is really the first time we get a glimpse of young love causing the kind of mayhem that it does in the real world, and for that, it’s one for the ages.

Lady Helen Sings the Partiers to Sleep

Probable the creepiest party on our list — in the BBC/NBC show Merlin’s very first episode, it’s established that King Uther really, seriously, totally hates magic and magic-doers. No, like, he really hates magic. Even if it doesn’t make much sense. He just hates it!!

Anyway, he executes a young warlock and earns the wrath of said warlock’s mother, herself a very powerful witch, who decides to go all Mrs. Voorhees on not only Uther but his entire court at a feast in which she impersonates a famous singer, Lady Helen. As she walks down the aisle between tables, she sings a haunting aria, which turns out to be a magic spell, and one by one the revelers are all put to sleep and covered in dust and cobwebs.

Fortunately, the young wizard Merlin is there to save the day, and all ends well. But that’ll teach you to think twice next time you get an invitation to a party at Camelot.

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Four Torches (Out of Five)

Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the first season of the TV series Merlin.

And so it ends.

The first season of Merlin came to an end last night with the airing of two episodes:  “To Kill the King,” in which Morgana goes postal on Uther, and “Le Morte de Arthur,” in which Arthur is critically injured by a mystical beast and Merlin learns that he can only be saved by making a deal with a practitioner of “old” magic, which requires the exchange of a life for a life.

There was a great twist in the latter episode when Merlin travels to the Island of the Blessed to seek out one of these ancient magicians, only to learn that the person he is dealing with is none other than … the witch Nimueh, his season-long nemesis.

Merlin gladly trades his life for Arthur’s — but as is usually the case when dealing with the devil, the deal doesn’t work out quite the way Merlin planned. It’s not his life the magic wants to take, but his mother’s.

The things I liked about the finale were all the things I liked about the 13-episode season:

• The magical and emotional bond between Merlin and Arthur was fresh and interesting. They are “two sides of the same coin,” the dragon said, and they often influenced each other in interesting and unexpected ways.

• The series and its other characters had what seemed to be well-planned-out plot arcs. For example, unlike in many TV shows, the characters responded to events that had come before. In addition to the deepening relationship between Merlin and Arthur, Morgana eventually became fed up with Uther (and vice-versa), and we learned interesting things about the pasts of Uther, Gaius, and Nimueh.

• I loved the moral ambiguity of the dragon. He clearly knew the future, but was he an ally or an enemy? For him, the end always seemed to justify the means — which is, of course, perfectly in keeping with a being who does know the future and always sees the big picture. After all, what’s one life when the whole world is at stake? And the series left the dragon the perfect note, with Merlin finally coming to understand that he is not to be trusted — but by spurning the dragon, Merlin also created a powerful enemy for season 2.

• Gaius was a terrific character played by a fantastic actor, Richard Wilson.

What didn’t I like about the season?

• The female characters were almost embarrassingly thin.

• The character of Uther was one-note and often over-the-top. His hatred of magic was eventually “explained,” but it was almost always boring.

• Merlin’s magical ability was infuriatingly ill-defined, expanding or contracting based on the needs of the particular episode (and sometimes the particular scene!). In the finale, Nimueh was at first able to brush aside Merlin’s magic with a shrug … and then, after getting a little angry, he proceeded to destroy her with the same magic. WTF?

• Several of the episode scripts were ridiculously bad, especially “Valiant” and “A Remedy to Cure all Ills,” and some of the plot resolutions, such as Merlin’s sudden ability to kill Nimueh with his “magic”, were contrived and disappointing.

Given the show’s low ratings on NBC, it seems very unlikely that the show will return for a second season on that network (despite the fact that they’re co-producing the show with the BBC). But a second season is currently being filmed in the U.K., so I hope that the episodes end up on the SyFy Channel (which is owned by NBC Universal).

It may not be a show for the ages, but even so, I’m looking forward to seeing more.

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Warning: This review contains plot-spoilers for “The Moment of Truth” and  “The Labyrinth of  Gedref” episodes of Merlin.

Two episodes of Merlin last night, both decent, neither extraordinary. Let’s look at each in turn, shall we?

The Moment of Truth

Four Torches (Out of Five)

Merlin’s home village is threatened by a warlord, but when his mother comes to Camelot asking Uther for help, he turns her down. So Merlin decides he must go back to the village.

What about all of Merlin’s vows in earlier episodes to protect Arthur — his answering of the dragon’s call, and that their destinies are completely intertwined, etc. etc.? Apparently, that’s completely forgotten, at least for this episode.

The most notable thing about the episode is the rather shocking amount of “hoyay” (or would-be gay subtext) in it. People have been telling me for weeks that this show can be read on two levels, and after last night’s episode, I’m never going to deny it again.

• Why did Merlin leave this village in the first place? “I just didn’t fit in anymore. I wanted to find somewhere where I do.”
• When Merlin talks to the former village bully, the bully says, “Why did you leave? I wouldn’t have told anyone.”
• Later, Merlin says, “If Arthur doesn’t accept me for who I really am, he’s not the friend I hoped he was.”

Yes, yes, Merlin is talking about his ability to do magic. But you’d have to be an idiot not to see it on another level too.

“The moment of truth” from the title is the moment when Merlin decides to use his magic to save his village — despite the fact that Arthur will then know the truth.

Basically, Merlin decides to “come out” to Arthur.

The problem is, when Merlin finally does use his magic, he conjures a wind that sort of blows the warriors away. Seriously? Wind?

Then, before Merlin can admit the truth to Arthur, the dying warlord tries to shoot him with an arrow, and the former village bully throws himself in front of it, not only saving Arthur’s life, but also declaring, in his final breath, that he, not Merlin, is the sorcerer.

Um, why doesn’t Merlin use his magic — the magic that he just used — to save him?

A series of seriously clunky plot contrivances in an otherwise enjoyable episode.

The Labyrinth of Gedref

Four Torches (Out of Five)

In the night’s second episode, Arthur and Merlin are out hunting, and Arthur, over Merlin’s objections, kills a unicorn.

Bad idea.

Gaius says that there’s a legend that anyone who kills a unicorn is cursed and will be beset by misfortune — which I actually wish was a component of the Endangered Species Act.

Anyway, sure enough, the kingdom undergoes a series of plagues. But this brings up an interesting issue: the Keeper of the Unicorn spends a lot of the episode talking about how unicorns are “pure of heart” and Arthur must prove that he is “pure” if he wants to stop the curse.

But if this all about being “pure,” how come it involves all the innocent people of the kingdom? They didn’t kill the unicorn!

(I confess it’s a pet-peeve of mine how often in fantasy the lives of the non-central characters don’t matter at all.)

Anyway, Merlin is mystified by the curse. “If it’s magic, it must be more powerful magic than I possess,” he says, which is saying something, given that he’s done some pretty amazing things so far in this series (not counting the lame “wind” spell in the previous episode).

Eventually, Arthur ends up in a labyrinth quite similar to the one in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where he must pass one final test — or the kingdom will be destroyed (again with the poor subjects of Camelot!).

The “riddle” that Arthur and Merlin must solve is a little underwhelming, but as anyone who reads this site knows, I absolutely love all manner of labyrinths and riddles, so I’m willing to go with the flow.

In addition to four torches, I give the episode an “up” unicorn arrow.

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Four and a Half Torches (Out of Five)

Warning: This review contains plot-spoilers for the “Excalibur” episode of Merlin.

Now we’re finally getting somewhere!

A mysterious and defiant Black Knight comes to Camelot wearing the coat of arms of someone Uther killed 20 years before and who, on his deathbed, vowed revenge on the king.

When one of the knights of Camelot challenges the Black Knight and the visitor easily defeats the young man, it confirms Gaius’ worst fears: the Black Knight doesn’t just wear the old knight’s coat of arms; he actually is that knight, somehow resurrected from the dead.

Problem: you can’t kill someone who’s already dead.

Sure enough, as if to prove that he’s an otherworldly being, the knight doesn’t go to sleep at night, but rather stands, motionless, in the courtyard, until the next match the following day. Very creepy.

But Arthur, who’s not big on thinking before he acts, challenges the knight. And this is what kicks the episode into high gear.

Gaius confronts Uther, telling him not to let Arthur fight the knight, even if it means telling him “who the knight really is.” But Uther can’t have that, because it would mean telling Arthur the truth about his birth.

And what is that truth? Year earlier, Uther made a wish of the witch Nimueh that he’d have a son, but it came with a price he didn’t understand (and that she claims she didn’t know) — the life of his wife.

Okay, I’m not sure why Uther can’t tell Arthur what he needs to know about the Black Knight without also telling him this, but whatever. Finally, we have an explanation for Uther’s irrational hatred of magic. The show was starting to annoy me in this respect, so this is very good.

Rather than reveal to Arthur the secret of his birth, Uther plans to fight the Black Knight himself; he knows it will mean his death, but at least the knight, and Nimueh, who resurrected the knight to begin with, will have their revenge, and Arthur will be saved.

(I have one small quibble: Uther makes Gaius promise that, when he dies, he not tell Arthur what he knows, saying that Gaius is the only other person who knows the truth. But by my count, there’s a crowd of about 50 that Uther knows also know the truth, including Nimueh, the dragon, and any number of dead people who can apparently be brought back to life by magic.)

Anyway, while Uther is plotting to take on the Black Knight, Merlin goes to see the dragon, who helps him forge a sword for Arthur so powerful that it can even kill the dead.

At one point, the dragon says to Merlin, “It may surprise you, but my knowledge of your life is not universal.”

This surprises me too! The dragons seems to know absolutely everything else about Merlin, including his and Arthur’s complete destiny, most of Merlin’s plans and machinations, and, probably, the waist size of his tight-whities.

But the dragon also gives Merlin a warning: “The sword was forged for Arthur, and him alone.”

Well, we all basically know what’s going to happen next: Uther drugs Arthur, meaning he can’t use the sword. And when Uther sees how nice it is, he insists on using it against the Black Knight, despite Merlin’s objections.

Speaking of which, when you’re warned by a magical and (despite what he says) all-seeing dragon that disaster will strike if anyone other than the intended user wields a particular sword, wouldn’t you fight a little harder to keep that sword out of someone else’s hands? It’s not like Uther is merely asking Merlin for, say, a tablet of Xanax from someone else’s prescription bottle.

Still, I guess there’d be no story if Uther didn’t eventually get his way.

And mostly, I liked the synchronicity of this episode, with some nice plot complications placed against the backdrop of the greater Arthinian legend — in this case, the creation of Excalibur, which, of course, Merlin must now hide until it comes into play later in their lives, to be given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake.

Overall, this was an excellent episode, and not to put too fine a point on it, I’ve had to sit through a fair number of crappy Merlin episodes lately, so it was extremely welcome.

Merlin is back on track! Let’s hope it lasts.

The Wisdom of the Dragon:

(1) “The dead do not return without reason.”

(2) “You do not know, you can only guess.”

(3) “What is made cannot be unmade.”

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Last week, we ran an article on the alleged “HoYoy” — or gay subtext — in the NBC show Merlin.

Not convinced? Consider this:

(Warning: There are minor spoilers if you haven’t seen the first 10 episodes.)

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Three and a Half Torches (Out of Five)

Warning: This review contains plot-spoilers for the “The Beginning of the End” episode of Merlin.

From the first episode of this show, one of the things that confused me was its central conflict — that Uther had banned magic from the kingdom.

Didn’t that put him and his kingdom at a huge disadvantage when fighting all the witches and druids that came to the kingdom who hadn’t forsworn magic? Wouldn’t a better solution be banning magic except in service to the king? Not that I approve, but Uther could then execute all the witches and druids he wanted, but he could also allow Merlin and Morgana to do their magical things.

This week, the magical visitor to the kingdom is a telepathic druid boy who Merlin and Morgana decide to hide, rather than let Uther execute. Morgana, her magic awakening at last, feels a bond so strong that she’s even willing to betray her guardian, the king.

Merlin feels a bond too, but is told, in increasingly explicit terms, that if he doesn’t let the boy die, the boy will end up killing Arthur, and Merlin’s own quest to help Arthur fulfill his destiny, fill fail.

Whether or not the episode worked for you probably depends entirely on whether or not you guessed the identity of the boy, finally revealed in the last scene.

Yup, it’s Mordred, who will, if you remember anything at all about your Arthinian legend, grow up to be Arthur’s sworn enemy.

This is the beauty of these Smallville-like retellings of famous stories: you can introduce famous characters in unusual ways, playing with your audience’s expectations along the way. Who knew Mordred would be so young?

As for me, I did see it coming, but not until after the dragon’s second warning. Which means it had an impact, but not as much as if it had been a genuine surprise at the end.

Part of me wonders if the episode didn’t do itself a disservice by portraying the boy as so creepy and Son-of-Satan-y. Did you get a load of that psychic temper tantrum he threw in order to get Merlin to come and help him and Arthur? It was like something right out of Damien. (And Merlin acquiesced to it?! Lord, let’s hope he never has kids — and if he does, let’s hope I never have to stand behind him in the grocery store!)

True, if they’d had the kid be too angelic, it might have been too obvious that he was evil. So why didn’t they have him just be a nice “normal” boy? We don’t think of Mordred of a kid, much less a normal, likable one.

What did I like about the episode? Well, one of the female characters finally got a substantial storyline.

And I liked the several scenes of humor — with Merlin first hiding Morded’s boots from Arthur, and then his hiding the keys he’s in the process of stealing. Both scenes made me smile, and Colin Morgan is a gifted comedian with a wonderfully expressive face.

The Wisdom of the Dragon: (1) “There is much written about you that you have yet to read.” Nice!

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Ah, HoYay!

What is this term exactly? It’s the smooshing together of the gleeful cry “Homoeroticism, yay!” It’s what happens when a fan perceives the possibility of homoerotic subtext in his or her fandom of choice. It can be as flagrant as two scantily clad women rolling around in the surf together, or as fleeting as a “gay look.”

It’s a highly subjective phenomenon, to be sure – much HoYay is easily brushed aside as wishful thinking, and usually not even all fans of the concept can agree on whether the HoYay is even there.

I had an eye for it very early on, before the term even existed: at age eleven I brought a copy of The Return of the King to my teacher to ask her why Sam had married Rosie Cotton, when he was clearly in love with Frodo. I had certain passages, which I felt proved their love, underlined in pen. She urged me to think of Frodo and Sam’s relationship as just “a very strong friendship,” and also not to mark up my books. Me: “Yeah, right.”

I discovered HoYay and sarcasm on the very same day!

Years passed, and the internet assured me that tons of people got the Frodo/Sam thing. I can’t remember when I first saw the term HoYay, but I certainly knew exactly how to apply it once I did: “Like Xena!”

We fantasy fans have plenty of HoYay on our hands, but none more overt, none that so skirted the border of subtext and text, as the relationship of Xena and Gabrielle. Other HoYay goldmines in fantasy television include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Smallville, and Lost.

And after seeing the first season of Merlin, it looks like we have an up-and-coming contributor on our hands.

Now, Merlin is a family show, so for those eagerly awaiting the racy or naughty moments between Merlin and Arthur (or Morgana and Gwen): not gonna happen. The subtext is not sexually charged. The most we can really hope for is innuendo, but as any fellow Doctor Who fan knows, innuendo is a little thing that makes a big difference.

I know when Merlin was writhing on the bed moaning Arthur’s name during “The Poisoned Chalice,” I wasn’t the only one in my household who tittered and blushed, despite the fact that nothing remotely sexual was really going on.

But other than the above example, featuring what I can only assume is Colin Morgan’s “sex-face,” Merlin HoYay is generally pretty tame. There is certainly nothing tremendously suggestive of either young man actually being gay. In fact, I would describe the subtext between the two leads as not so much homoerotic, but more “homo-romantic” — and nowhere near as blatant as on many of the other shows I’ve mentioned, especially early in the season. However, for the HoYay aficionado, there is plenty of subtext to spot.

For me, “The Poisoned Chalice” was the episode where I first saw the potential for some simmering HoYay, and from then on I was on alert for more subtext. But I found that for the first half of the season, it arrived on an exceedingly slow burn, and it was all highly subjective.

For example, one of my favorite little moments is in “Lancelot,” when Merlin asks Gwen to play a round of Would You Rather… Arthur or Lancelot?

Most probably see this as an innocuous, playful moment. Those who are familiar with the classical Guinevere will see her reply as ironic foreshadowing. And those who have their eyes peeled for HoYay see this as a question that has clearly been on Merlin’s mind ever since Lancelot started sharing his bedroom (which Lancelot does for the entire episode, even after being Knighted).

See how fun spotting the HoYay can be?

Much of the HoYay speculation on Merlin is generated by the relationship between Merlin and Arthur, and the somewhat suggestive ways it develops over the course of the season. Merlin devotes himself to Arthur quite early on, despite initial misgivings, yet is constantly aggrieved by his inability to be completely honest with him regarding his secret magical nature; Merlin is “in the closet,” magically speaking, and all of his angsting over this plays out very reminiscent of a young man with a forbidden love on his mind. Every time he almost tells Arthur his secret, it’s as if he’s about to proclaim his undying love, with his big earnest eyes and trembling pouty lips (one example of the many, many “gay looks” that are thrown around Camelot).

My theory is that if Arthur does not already suspect that Merlin is a warlock by the end of the season, he almost certainly suspects that Merlin has an enormous crush on him.

Arthur, for his part, is inordinately familiar with Merlin from almost the beginning — there isn’t anyone else in his life that we see him smirking at or bantering with in such a friendly way. He’s also unable to get a handle on the master/servant aspect of their relationship: he’s willing to defy his father and risk his life for Merlin as early as Episode 4, and eventually his constant commands, demands, and berating of his manservant become a strange little joke between them. Arthur insults Merlin; Merlin is overly happy about this — it’s their thing.

By the end of the season, Arthur’s unlikely devotion to his servant has become common knowledge to everyone except Merlin. Gwen, Morgana, Merlin’s mother, Gaius, the Great Dragon, even Uther – they all, at some point, will take Merlin aside to tell him how good he is for Arthur, how much Arthur obviously trusts and needs and likes Merlin, and what a totally cute couple they are.

(Okay, it was really only the Dragon that said that last one, and he said it in his vague dragon-speak that Merlin is apparently incapable of deciphering.)

If you don’t see the HoYay, far be it from me to press it upon you. As I’ve said, it’s very subjective, and there are certainly enough potential heterosexual pairings around. I enjoy Gwen’s awkward flirting with the boys as much as I enjoy the intimacy and affection between her and Morgana. But I must warn/tease you that after a point, the Merlin/Arthur HoYay stops being subtle, and I think any fan would be hard-pressed to ignore it – specifically episode 10, wherein Merlin brings Arthur home to meet his mother and ex-boyfriend.

And the boiling point is the entirety of episode 11, which I have been known to (lovingly) refer to as “the gayest gay thing I have ever seen on television.” And yes, I’ve seen Torchwood.

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