I've had this post in me for the last several months, but obviously it's not been the time to talk about season 5. It still isn't, really, but since all the episodes now have at least a rough draft lined up, I thought I'd post some of my ideas for the next season for a change of pace.
Season 4 as we know is very internal and concentrates a lot on the personal demons of the characters, and their struggle between the right thing and the easy thing. I suggest broadening season 5 out a little. The central quest might not be as formal as the first four seasons, but it would be about finding allies and learning about the world. If a recurring theme of season 4 is `the ends don't justify the means', season 5 might be more about `knowledge is power', and dealing a lot more with relationships and acquiring (or reacquiring) wisdom.
I'd suggesting starting the season the June after "Carbonek", at high summer. In the intervening months, a lot has happened but it hasn't exactly been story worthy so we pick up with Arthur having got a lot of the slog out of the way and ready for new adventures. Jennifer has taken the money from the sale of her business and what she received from her father's will (assuming he does in fact die in the season 4 finale of course) to buy a country house in Somerset isolated enough so that the `unusual' members of Arthur's entourage aren't treated as suspicious, but obviously accessible enough to get around.
Arthur and company are renovating the house in accordance with their needs. Merlin is finishing his GCSE exams at Mons Carbi, after which his compulsory schooling is over and he couldn't be happier. Mary is also doing her GCSEs, but is having to stay under supervised conditions overseen by Jane Nelson. Effectively, she's unable to communicate to anyone for three weeks because of the need for exam security. Nigel has gone to a lot of trouble making sure that she can sit her exams at night.
At some point in the opening episode, we'd have Arthur's knights gathering to see the official opening of Camelot House (or whatever it's to be called). As well as places for many knights to sleep, it has training facilities, some form of security system, the conference room with the Round Table and most surprisingly for Merlin and Mary, who have been in London for the last several months and haven't followed the development a classroom.
The idea here is that Arthur needs to be educated again for his new life, and this time Merlin can't do it all for him. He's going to need to explore the world and be educated about it. To this end, he's hiring a number of people as teachers. Jane Nelson would be the regular teacher organising things but there'd also be other teachers, some visiting, others doing lessons by videophone from another part of the world. These might include: Brock (on literature), Lydia Duane (on history), Peter Morwood-Smythe (on modern warfare), Jennifer (on economics and world politics), Arthur and Griff (on traditional warfare), Merlin (on magical problems the knights are likely to face), Leba (on technology) Quetzalcoatl (on science), Brianna (on plant care) Dulcinea (on animal care and horse-riding), Kevin (the driving instructor). There may be others depending on who Jane can schedule obviously Brock would be available more often than Quetzalcoatl, for example. These lessons would mostly go on in the background: the idea isn't to turn `Pendragon' into a school drama, but to show Arthur and company equipping themselves with the tools they need to face the world.
The classes would also be one stream of revenue once satisfied of Arthur's respectability, the local council agrees to pay for the troubled kids that the government has more or less washed their hands of to attend Camelot. Many would flourish and become squires to the knights (I had an idea that Aidan from "Ride the Wild Winds" might become Rory's squire). A few wouldn't. Obviously Arthur would be careful that the kids wouldn't know about the gargoyles et al until they become trusted. Maybe Tanaburs has been employed to create a kind of `secret chamber' for Mary and the gargoyles.
Another stream of revenue would be the books that Brock is writing, using information from Arthur and Merlin, about the truth behind the Arthurian legend. With Arthuriana sweeping the country after the Buckingham Palace incident, they'd quickly become bestsellers, and would provide a chance to `set the record straight' on some issues to boot. Yet another source of income would be the archaeologists: Fenn, Duane and Morwood-Smythe. Arthur and Merlin know a lot about where Arthur's major battles took place and where key settlements were. He'd direct the archaeologists to fruitful areas of investigation in return for a cut of the profits. This would also allow Arthur to be increasingly treated as a historical rather than merely a legendary figure.
There would be a map in the room with the Round Table with pointers showing the location of the various knights. So far they'd have Rory stationed in Northern Ireland and Eire, Dulcinea in Spain and Portugal, and perhaps Arthur might knight Cervus, Faulconbridge and Imogen knighted to watch over London and the south-east. Leba would be the person keeping track of the knights, an extension of her current role, and keeping an eye on world news to spot potential emergencies of the sort that only Arthur can deal with.
The regular `away team' would be Arthur, his squire Mary, his advisor Merlin, his knight Griff and his partner Jennifer. Leba would be the contact `at base'. Their aims would be to learn about the world, help do good and battle evil, and to recruit new and worthy allies to the cause. Some obvious ones would be Natsilane in Canada and Max in Prague. I had an idea that Regina Fitzwalter's investigative journalism might make her a recurring antagonist this season but eventually she'd become so swayed by Arthur's cause after seeing him in action that she'd quit her job and work as Arthur's public relations consultant.
Merlin's life would have been restored but the year he spent ill would have had a permanent impact on him: his hair would still have streaks of grey. I'd also suggest that he'd subconsciously begin shutting himself off from Mary, knowing that she deserves better. He'd also become less important in Arthur's life as Arthur takes new counsel for the new time. Merlin wouldn't really mind this, and would be quite proud of it. But it would be interesting to see Arthur overruling Merlin every now and then.
Mary would be concerned with building bridges with her father, but Nigel might find himself in a kind of state of denial following Morgana's death and perhaps more to the point, feeling sure that Mary is responsible as a result of some rudimentary detective work. Unable to continue his job effectively, he might finally be forced out of the cabinet. His only interest in Mary might become business- like ensuring that she takes her exams and so on. We'd also see Mary's support for wolves, of course. She'd slowly realise that she's losing Merlin, but won't understand why.
Griff would find himself feeling vaguely jealous despite himself because the advice Arthur once sought from him on moral matters and so on, Arthur would now seek increasingly from Jennifer. This is a pretty standard kind of bind with a `best friend' and a `girlfriend' (a way of recreating the tension between Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot without doing adultery again, in a way) but it's heightened by the fact that Arthur is going to be making important decisions. It's not that Griff dislikes Jennifer: he does. He just may find that his highly principled approach to life would clash with Jennifer's highly practical approach. Griff is a fighter but he's not a soldier: I think if he disagreed with orders, he'd have great difficulty in following them. He'd be concerned with being relegated to `just the muscle'. For a long time, Griff has been a bit flat and all-round likeable, but next season I can see a lot of ways to make the character a lot more interesting.
Jennifer would feel like she's finally found her purpose, and has her father's blessing. While sad, his death is almost a relief. She'd have allies and contacts from her business days so she'd be a definite help to the travellers. She'd be concerned about getting too involved with Arthur romantically though, because of the scale of his mission and she might become increasingly paranoid as time goes by about Guinevere comparisons.
Arthur would be buzzing, since he's finally found his mission. We'd finally see real leadership and tactical skills that haven't really surfaced since he awakened, and as he grows confidence he might become more decisive, even if that means overruling his companions at times. He'd also be concerned with meeting the world and announcing his place in it though, so he risks being gulled since he's still a bit naοve to it.
The major villains would be Lucius (wanting to take over the Camelot project to bring back a Roman Empire under his rule), Sybil (trying to apply her might is right philosophy to the modern age by gathering every force she can get together to obliterate Camelot while it's still developing), Montrose (now regretting that the deal he offered Jennifer is going towards Camelot, and eager to bankrupt it however he can), and of course the Illuminati notably Duval and Powell. I guess others like Sekhmet would return.
Obviously to make up for the lack of a clearer objective (clear Arthur's name, find the Grail etc.) there'd need to be some ongoing plots, but perhaps it might be a bit more complicated this time out. Rather than having the stories bound together by a quest (the Grail, the Connection, the SUW) perhaps the link could be more internal, with the relationships between the core five in a constant state of flux. Similarly, the villains would all have separate plans, which would sometimes come together with each other. It would be a bit closer to the way `Gargoyles' was organised, but there'd be a definite end to the quest when Arthur has built a network of allies and feels that his education, while not complete, is sufficient to truly make a difference.
Anyway, that was an even longer ramble than I had planned and since we aren't starting season 5 for a while I won't say any more for now.
