The Creation of Camelot (short story)
The Creation of Camelot was a short story published in Doctor Who Annual 1984, later performed by Geoffrey Beevers in The Planet of Dust & Other Stories. It featured the Fifth Doctor and Tegan. Its main enemy was the Master, posing as Merlin long before the TV story Battlefield reversed positions and had the Doctor take on the mantle of Merlin. Preempting these later contradictions, the story interestingly posited that "Merlin" was in fact a title within Camelot's court, which could be passed from one individual to another.
Summary
The Fifth Doctor and Tegan Jovanka land in the middle of a cold, forest landscape and, when they try to ask the nearby villagers for some food, immediately get themselves captured by guards who looked like Vikings, and taken to a dingy cell. Anxious, Tegan asks the Doctor when and where they are; he is unsure, as the TARDIS's time mechanism has been acting up, but speculates that they are in early medieval Britain — more exactly, during the reign of King Arthur. This is soon confirmed when they are taken by the captain of the guard to the King's chamber. On the way, the Doctor is told that he may not only meet the King, but also "the Merlin", who the captain explains is "the King's necromancer", advisor and bard.
The High King is alone when they meet him. He is a charismatic and evidently benevolent man, but, to the Doctor and Tegan's horror, is familiar with the name "TARDIS" when they mention it; as Arthur tells them more about his "Merlin", they become more and more certain that he is none other than the Master. He first "appeared" just after Arthur's coronation, following the death of the old Merlin, Blaise. Arthur even notes that he "vanishes for long stretches at a time". The Doctor lends credence to his claims that the Merlin is evil when he tells Arthur the name of Mordred, the son of Arthur's villainous half-sister Morgan, whose existence is a closely-guarded secret. Arthur thought he had had the baby killed (something he reveals with an equanimity which rather undercuts his earlier geniality), but had sent the Merlin to Lothian to deal with it. The Doctor guesses that the Master actually took the baby to safety, to grow into the Mordred who, as La Mort d'Arthur holds, will one day kill Arthur at the battle of Camlan. The Doctor further guesses that the Master's plan involves "speeding up" established history, summoning Saxons to Britain before Arthur unites it rather than after his death.
Frightened despite his bafflement at the idea of time travel, Arthur agrees to summon the Merlin to his throne room. Though shocked to see the Doctor here, the Master does not give instantly give in, trying to convince Arthur that it is the Doctor who is a seditious liar. However, Arthur reflects over the events of his reign and grows more certain than ever that it was the Merlin who egged half his court against the other to weaken his government. He orders the Merlin to return to his chamber and await judgment. The Doctor and Tegan, shocked at how easily he gives in, let him leave — until they realise, all too late, that his "room" in the east turret is in fact the disguised interior of his TARDIS. When they run after him, they find him gone, the door to "the Merlin's room" now leading to the small, bare stone cell that is actually there in the building, instead of the quarters Arthur was familiar with. With the Master's plans having already been set in motion, the Doctor concludes that his and Tegan's task must be to set "Arthurian legend" back on track to ensure that Arthur's reign endures long enough for Britain to become unified. Suddenly having an idea to cancel out the discord spread throughout the nobility and make his knights get along with each other again, the Doctor slyly begins asking Arthur if he has in his possession "any such thing as a large, round table".
Characters
Worldbuilding
- Tegan recalls that when she was at school, she "had to read history books with pictures in", though she was not very interested in her lessons. Camelot's guards remind her of illustrations of Vikings in such books. The Fifth Doctor is annoyed at this, telling her that the real Vikings looked nothing like the "huge men with helmets with horns on them" that her "ignorant teachers" told her about.
- Blaise served as the Merlin of King Arthur's father, King Uther.
- Morgan is married to Lot of Lothian. Arthur believes that she and the Master had a common teacher in magic.
Notes
- Though the prose itself would not lead anyone to suspect the Master in this story was anyone but Anthony Ainley's contemporary TV incarnation, disputes over likeness rights led to the illustrations creating a clearly distinct physical appearance for him, some way between Roger Delgado and Ainley (later dubbed a "generic Master" by The Essential Doctor Who #4). This story was read by Geoffrey Beevers for the audio anthology The Planet of Dust & Other Stories, raising the possibility that this is the Thirteenth Master prior to his disfigurement.
Continuity
- The story appears to take place at some unspecified point between Enlightenment and The King's Demons. As there was never a televised story where the Fifth Doctor travelled with Tegan alone, it can only be assumed that Turlough is having a break from the TARDIS.
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