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Post by Morgan le Fay on Jul 2, 2018 18:25:02 GMT
I recently purchased a script of Merlin from the Prop Store's website. I debated buying it for quite some time, worried that it would turn out to be a duplicate of The Shooting Script. Thankfully that wasn't the case. In many places is it word for word the same as The Shooting Script, but there are a few scenes that were previously omitted and some that are alternative approaches.   My biggest disappointment with the newly purchased script is that the first half, Part One, seems to be from an earlier version of the script than Part Two. Part One ends at page 96, with Part Two resuming at page 200. Part One goes by The Final Shooting Script and Part Two, simply The Shooting Script. The fonts are slightly different as well. However, the second part titled The Shooting Script is not the same as the version published in book form. The script for Part One is dated 24th October 1997. Part Two, with typo, 23th October 1997. There is no griffin attack scene in this version of the script. Subsequently, there are no mentions of griffins in the script whatsoever. (Which brings to mind that in Merlin's credits the CGI effects for the griffins were made by a different team than those for the dragon.) Most changes are subtle and not really worth mentioning. For example; (Published Shooting Script)
MERLIN:
"Arthur, don't charge around like that, the horses don't like it! Don't dismount ... We're leaving immediately."
(Final Shooting Script)
MERLIN:
"Arthur, don't charge around like that, the horses don't like it!"
I read The Shooting Script in tandem with the earlier script, page by page, word by word, and made note of every change I could detect, no matter how small, documenting the changes in a notebook. I'll list the most substantial changes in the same order as they appear within The Shooting Script/Unpublished Final Shooting Script. |
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Post by Morgan le Fay on Jul 2, 2018 18:36:20 GMT
Final Shooting Script Version:
25. EXT. SACRED STONES. DUSK.
The moon shines down on the sacred circle of stones. DEAD BODIES litter the ground and lay spread-eagled on top of the stones themselves. It is the aftermath of a massacre. OLD MERLIN'S VOICE:
There was no distinction between Christian or Pagan ... we were drowning in blood ... and so I was created.
GUDRUN, a dying woman, crawls to the alter stone. GUDRUN:
Mab ... Queen Mab ... help us ... help us ...
Moonbeams dance across the alter stone. The wind sighs in nearby trees as clouds race across the sky. A FIGURE forms out of the great stone - it is QUEEN MAB. She is a darkly beautiful woman. Powerful and charismatic, she is dressed sleekly in glittering robes. GUDRUN:
Lady ... lady ... I beg you ... we are in hell ... stop the killing ... save us ...
Mab comes down and cradles the WOMAN in her arms. MAB:
I can't. Too many people have forsaken the Old Ways and become Christian ... I no longer have the power ...
GUDRUN:
Save us ... and the people will come back to you ... and the peace they lost when they forsook you ... save us ... GUDRUN dies. MAB stares round at the BODIES heaped up amongst the stones. MAB: I will save them ... and the Old Ways ... I swear it!
The Shooting Script version
25. EXT. SACRED STONES. DUSK.GUDRUN, a dying HIGH PRIESTESS of the Old Ways, crawls in front of the alter stone and props herself up against another broken stone. * GUDRUN: *
Mab! ... Queen Mab! ... Queen Mab! ...
A FIGURE forms out of the great rock - it is QUEEN MAB. She is a darkly beautiful woman. Powerful and charismatic, she is dressed sleekly in glittering robes and has a ruby ring on her finger which we have seen before with the GRIFFINS. * GUDRUN:
Ah, Lady ... why didn't you come before? ... I've followed you all my life and now it's ending. We are in Hell! ... you must stop the killings?
QUEEN MAB comes down and crouches beside her. * MAB: *
I no longer have the power, Gudrun ... too many of my followers have forsaken the Old Ways and become Christian.
GUNDRUN: *
(fiercely)
Fight! ... come out of the land of magic and fight for what we once had ... then people will come back to the Old Ways as if new-born ... fight, Lady!
She holds out a bloodstained hand. QUEEN MAB takes it. * QUEEN MAB: *
I swear to bring back the Old Ways!
GUDRUN: *
Raise me up ... I want to see the sun go down for the last time before I die.
MAB helps GUDRUN stand upright, painfully, and the TWO WOMEN watch the sun sink below the horizon and the DARKNESS descend. |
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Post by sleepyqueenie on Jul 4, 2018 7:27:16 GMT
Wow, wonderful!
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Post by Morgan le Fay on Jul 6, 2018 23:33:47 GMT
Final Shooting Script Version.
49. INT. INNER LAKE. DAY.YOUNG MERLIN is deeply unhappy. As he stares at the lake in his frustration, he sees another lake beneath the surface. It is as if he is looking down through a glass bottom boat. Crystals glitter in the "second lake" and then the LADY OF THE LAKE appears floating between them. LADY OF THE LAKE: Why did you call me, Merlin? YOUNG MERLIN: I didn't. LADY OF THE LAKE: (smiling) You did... YOUNG MERLIN: Who are you? LADY OF THE LAKE: The Lady of the Lake ... how are you getting on with my sister Mab? YOUNG MERLIN: I don't know ... I mean she's very remote isn't she? LADY OF THE LAKE: She has difficulty expressing her feelings ... she can't communicate with people ... it's natural, she's a Queen after all ... but it's getting worse ... we two don't get on. YOUNG MERLIN: Why? LADY OF THE LAKE: I don't approve of what she's doing ... creating you and letting your mother die like that ... YOUNG MERLIN: (slowly) She let my mother die? LADY OF THE LAKE: Oh dear, I shouldn't have told you but it all slipped out ... Mab will be very angry ... The trouble is all this is just the start. She doesn't see she's turning into a monster. YOUNG MERLIN: I've had enough ... I'm going home. LADY OF THE LAKE: You should, your Auntie Ambrosia is very ill. YOUNG MERLIN is appalled.
YOUNG MERLIN: I didn't know ... I must be with her ... Even as he speaks the LADY OF THE LAKE makes a SMALL SUNKEN BOAT rise out of the water. Without even thanking her, YOUNG MERLIN wades out to it.
The Shooting Script Version.
INT. INNER CAVE. DAY.YOUNG MERLIN is deeply unhappy. As he stares at the lake in his frustration, he sees another lake beneath the surface. It is as if he is looking down through a glass bottom boat. Crystals glitter in the "second lake" and then the LADY OF THE LAKE appears floating between them. LADY OF THE LAKE: Why did you call me, Merlin? YOUNG MERLIN: I didn't. LADY OF THE LAKE: (smiling) You did. YOUNG MERLIN: Who are you? LADY OF THE LAKE: * The Lady of the Lake ... How are you getting on with my sister Mab? We two don't get on. YOUNG MERLIN: Why? LADY OF THE LAKE: I don't approve of what she's been doing ... creating you and letting your mother die like that ... YOUNG MERLIN: (slowly) She let my mother die? LADY OF THE LAKE: * Oh dear, I shouldn't have told you but it just slipped out ... YOUNG MERLIN: * I want to go home! LADY OF THE LAKE: You should, your Auntie Ambrosia is very ill ... YOUNG MERLIN is appalled.
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Post by sleepyqueenie on Jul 7, 2018 20:10:29 GMT
Ye gods, Lady! You were quick to judge your sister "evil". You just about planted the idea in young Merlin's head. This affirms our suspicion of her being the villain. :-P And here I thought she would have needed time to consider telling Merlin how to kill her turned-considerably-crueler-throughout-the-film-in-trying-to-save-her-people sister.
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Post by Morgan le Fay on Jul 10, 2018 3:44:24 GMT
The members of the Chambers of Merlin came to mind while first reading that section of the script. I knew I had to post it as you would see the Lady being shown in a darker light.
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Post by sleepyqueenie on Jul 10, 2018 8:11:42 GMT
Right you are! We do love our darkLady. :-D
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Post by himiko on Jul 29, 2018 21:39:33 GMT
This is very cool! Thanks for comparing and sharing!
I think it's interesting, not only that we have the Lady of the Lake explicitly sowing the "Mab-is-evil" seeds in this, but also it seems like both scenes otherwise give us a slightly more... sympathetic view of Mab, might be the wrong word. But the implication seems to be that Merlin is struggling to bond with Mab not because she is an unfeeling monster, but because she isn't very good at expressing her feelings and communicating with people. And that she might not be aware of how dark the path she is going down is. The other scene is, I would argue, fairly sympathetic to Mab in both guises, as it shows that her fight isn't just triggered by her own survival, but by a vow she makes to one of her own people. The final shooting script version does explicitly link Merlin's creation to Mab's vow to Gudrun, though, and it does have Mab explicitly vow to save the people as well as the Old Ways.
I have often wondered if the reason that the Gudrun scene was ultimately removed (or at least, very much shortened, we do see her calling for Mab), is because they didn't want to make Mab too sympathetic as a villain, given that this was aimed at being prime time family entertainment, aired at Easter - both from the religious aspect and the moral ambiguity aspect. It's a lot harder to root against Mab when she's trying to fulfill a promise made to a dying woman.
I mean, ultimately I think that the reason for the cuts was probably length. It's more whether, in deciding what to be cut to make the final playtime, they decided to remove some of that aspect from the series. To make it a more straightforward "Good vs. Evil" tale.
I do also like that Merlin fandom (small though mighty as we are) has basically spent the last 20 years writing fanfic on the basis that Mab is fighting for her people, and is just really bad at showing her feelings and communicating with people but she DOES care about Merlin/ Mordred etc. really, for all the prickliness. She's like a magical hedgehog full of feels. And whilst there is other evidence for this in the film/ shooting script/ novelisations, these pages still made me go all:
Full Disclaimer: I am suffering from some sort of headache/ stomach bug combo today and am full of medication so the amount of sense this post makes may be minimal, or I may have slipped into my "Himiko: Druken Media Enthusiast" persona. That's the one where I go on a night out with my workmates and end up giving a long and enthusiastic lecture to my actual boss on the many, many merits of Star Trek (TNG through Voyager), which culminates some 30 minutes later with me yelling at him across the table (in enthusiasm, not anger) "AND THAT IS WHY BENJAMIN SISKO HAS THE SEXIEST VOICE IN ALL OF STARFLEET!". But about Merlin, rather than Trek.
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Post by sleepyqueenie on Aug 1, 2018 17:42:05 GMT
Oh do talk about anything you like. :-) Trek is allowed.
"How to brainwash your nephew with minimal effort" a simple daycourse by the Lady of the Lake.
I like the Gudrun scene very much. Mab is just as much in her right to start fighting without us witnessing that heartbreaking scene. The whole "to save her people because they are dying" is strong enough and immediately made me just as sympathetic towards her. -really Merlin couldn't you at least try to study magic and save some people? Even if not in the way Mab wanted you to?-
You phrase it all perfectly himiko!
"is just really bad at showing her feelings and communicating..." Absolutely, I believe that is what makes her so relatable.
This is slightly a different topic... I was talking with a friend about how at the start of the film you still see magical creatures in the woods and by the end only some in Mab's cave. How Merlin is all rueful about magic being much more common place in his day, but then he killed it. And about Mab taking away Frik's magic for him to live as a mortal. Now suppose she had not done that, would Frik have died sooner because of magic dying? Sir Rupert still lived, but we must assume many creatures died "offscreen" with the loss of Mab.
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Post by sleepyqueenie on Aug 2, 2018 14:40:44 GMT
With Mab, as with Ellie, I love her as much for her strenghts as for her weakenesses. Which is wonderful. :-) Both start out rightfully displeased and motivated and I just want to see them happy, consequently they both start going about things the wrong way, which actually makes me care for them even more. Mab by her poor social/emotional skils and Queen Elspeth by her insecurities.
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Post by himiko on Aug 5, 2018 22:15:18 GMT
I like the Gudrun scene very much. Mab is just as much in her right to start fighting without us witnessing that heartbreaking scene. The whole "to save her people because they are dying" is strong enough and immediately made me just as sympathetic towards her. -really Merlin couldn't you at least try to study magic and save some people? Even if not in the way Mab wanted you to?- You phrase it all perfectly himiko! "is just really bad at showing her feelings and communicating..." Absolutely, I believe that is what makes her so relatable. Oh yeah, I mean, "I am fighting to save the Old Ways because I will literally die if I don't" is definitely still sympathetic motivation IMO, not to mention all the rest of the magical creatures around her. When I first saw the miniseries as a kid, I assumed that we (and Merlin) were meant to be sympathetic towards Mab, until the point that Ambrosia died. But because we don't really see her interact with her followers at all* except for Lailoken/ the soothsayer (and she only does that as part of her plan for Merlin), the film seems to put some distance between Mab/ the Old Ways/ the magical creatures that are part of the Old Ways, and the actual human inhabitants of Britain. Whereas the scene with Gudrun actually shows her genuinely interacting with one of her followers, and emphasises that there ARE humans out there that do want Mab fighting, giving even more weight to Mab's cause in the eyes of the average viewer. And yeah, that's a point, you would have thought that Merlin would at least try and save some of the other parts of the Old Ways. Or even tried to ensure that their human followers won't be persecuted, but it's just never addressed. Arthur doesn't really seem the type to run around persecuting Pagans, but that doesn't mean that none of the Christians who follow him will - a lot of them aren't particularly comfortable with Merlin, and he's part of the court. Are we to assume Merlin and Arthur discussed this off-screen? Does Merlin not believe that this is a problem, despite the way he is sometimes treated even as a powerful friend of the king? Is the implication that literally all of the pagans have just converted to Christianity or gone into hiding by Arthur's rule. Does he just not care, or believes that the end justifies the means? He doesn't seem comfortable with letting Gorlois die, so it seems unlikely. I mean, it gives a lot of weight to the idea that Merlin's motivations (at least early on) are much more about revenge than about what's genuinely right for Britain, but in a meta/ "Doylist" sense, I suspect that the writers probably didn't want to address that level of moral and religious ambiguity by discussing the fate of the British pagan followers, so that's all just kind of swept under the rug by the second half. Haha, I know what you mean with Mab/ Elspeth etc., it's like "The motivation is understandable, the execution is flawed." * There's Ambrosia, who is no longer part of the Old Ways and doesn't really get on with Mab any more, and there's the women who are riding with her when she comes to meet with Vortigern, who I assume are meant to be priestesses of the Old Ways? Or perhaps they're just an illusion to make a more impressive entrance. Either way, we don't see them interact at all. |
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Post by sleepyqueenie on Aug 6, 2018 6:57:19 GMT
Quick reply: All of this YES.
Those fairy? women who ride with Mab are one of the greatest mysteries. Does the script or book say anything on them?
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Post by Arwen17 on Sept 3, 2018 2:15:13 GMT
Quick reply: All of this YES. Those fairy? women who ride with Mab are one of the greatest mysteries. Does the script or book say anything on them? Thanks so much for sharing those two new pieces of information, morganlefay! From the book: And one morning, when the sun was only a few hours high, Vortigern’s outriders rode for Pendragon with an incredible tale. It was amazing enough to bring the king from a conference with his generals to stand upon the wooden stairway that led down into the castle courtyard. Vortigern stood and watched as the wooden gates of Pendragon swung inward to admit a woman like no woman he had ever seen.
She wore strange silver armor and shining black robes, and she rode a magnificent white horse whose silken tail brushed the ground. Her hair was braided with jewels, and her lips were a glistening inhuman violet. Nine maidens in hooded black gowns, crowned with golden diadems, rode behind her, each horse as spotlessly white as their queen’s. No one moved to stop her; soldiers and peasants alike were struck spell-bound by this strange apparition. At a majestic walk, she rode forward until she was directly beneath the stairway.
“Hail, Vortigern, King of Britain. I am Mab, Queen of the Old ways,” she said, raising her hand in salute.
Vortigern stared at her with narrowed eyes. As if he had always remembered it, a moment more than half his life ago came vividly into his mind. A landless Saxon raider had dreamed of seizing the throne of Britain. Though she had clouded his mind afterward, Mab had been with him that night, urging him forward for her own purposes.It next talks about him not giving two shits that he slaughtered her priestesses or destroyed her shrines. “What brings you here, Madame?” he said slowly.
Vortigern was determined not to be impressed. If Mab had truly possessed the power to stop him, he told himself, she would have done it years before.I have the standard script book, not the special copy morganlefay has: The great castle gates swing open and MAB enters on horseback. She has on a glittering black dress. She is followed by a TROOP of black-hooded PRIESTESSES, riding WHITE HORSES.
Based on the book’s description and the way they always make it sound like Mab has few human followers left after years of King Constant's and Vortigern's slaughter, I think they’re fae-woman, or even more likely a complete illusion since the fae are “diminished” at this point to tiny, fluttering things except for a few like Mab and Frik etc. A complete illusion would have probably used up far less magic than trying to turn some of the fluttering-fae back into human-size-fae for a day. I also think human followers would be too terrified to dress up and enter Vortigern's camp so openly since he's been slaughtering them for years. Whatever human followers she has left, they're in permanent hiding until an Old Ways king is on the throne. Some of the nobility in the book like Guinevere, didn't seem to be in physical hiding, but they were definitely growing quieter and quieter about what religion they practiced because they didn't want to attract the ire of a crazy Christian king, and they had converted to Christianity completely by the time Arthur was made king. So I can't see any humans, peasant or nobility, who would want to waltz into Vortigern's camp and proclaim their religion so openly, even with Mab at the front, because she's shown for years she doesn't have the power to protect any of them. But there's no doubt, whoever they are, human priestesses, fae-woman or illusion, she did it to impress Vortigern and "be mysterious and dramatic" for everyone else. Mab is trying her best to make an impression and get people to remember her and ask about who she is. XD I just wonder what the "appear in the human world" rules are. Is it easier for her to "manifest" in our world when someone specifically calls for her or believes in her? Whereas if she pranced around in front of unbelievers all the time, they might well not be able to see her at all... or their unbelief would injure her further? She seems to sneak around in the human world a lot, but she's usually invisible and doesn't want anyone to see her because she's up to faery mischief. |
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Post by sleepyqueenie on Sept 4, 2018 16:22:34 GMT
Excellent points! :-D
I love the illusion theory and Mab being set on making an impression.
Awfully clever.
I am higly in favour of her prancing about in the human world and sneaking in fairy mischief. Come to us, we have cookies. ^^
PS huge thank you for all the excerpts!
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Post by Arwen17 on Sept 6, 2018 4:22:48 GMT
Another thing to ponder is, if she wasn't running out of magic and followers, and she had to visit someone, would she surround herself with fae lords&ladies or human followers? Which is more impressive?
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