Camelot: The Once and Future Nurse

"Tend to your patient!"

Writer: Alfie Shaw

Format: Audio

Released: February 2022

Series: The Lone Centurion 2.01

Featuring: Rory

Synopsis

Camelot is in trouble. Lancelot is wounded and Merlin warns that dark times are ahead. The wizard's convinced the solution lies in the mythical Pandorica. Meanwhile, Lancelot owes his life to a humble servant named Rory.

Verdict

The Once and Future Nurse was a great story to kick off the Camelot second series of the Lone Centurion! I am so glad that a second volume of Rory's spinoff has happened and taking things to the mythical realm of Camelot, which is apparently in Wales, is very fun. It's a clever way to utilise the situation of The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang with history falling apart and taking place all at once, which was evidenced with the multiple King Harold IIs at the start. I was a little surprised with how Camelot was presented here and it was definitely a good thing. Merlin was a lot more conniving and cautious than I would have imagined but that made him a great villain and someone that I imagine will pose quite the challenge to Rory over the course of the next two episodes. His desire to find The Pandorica was excellent and I like how that shows the legendary status it has acquired. Its centurion guard had also gone down in history and someone with the status of Merlin wanting to have the power it contained really highlighted its stature. I thought that was very good and Rory feigning innocence on its whereabouts and the identity of the centurion was terrific. Lancelot was a lot of fun and his falling for Rory was tremendous, but the highlight of the story was arguably the declaration of love poem that he told to Rory and our centurion innocently just took it as him presenting his symptoms for diagnosis! It was subtly brilliant humour. Rory's position as a nurse was good to incorporate and his strained relationship and differing medical opinions to Malthus was brilliant. The contemporary medic's desire to balance the humours by cutting legs and limbs off the sufferer's body was amusing and his desire to even use herbs when Lancelot was choking whereas Rory just hugged him from behind was marvellous. Rory's reaction to supposedly being tortured was also very good as he could easily withstand the apparent pressure. Guinevere was a decent character too and I hope she gets more chance to shine in the upcoming episodes, but she wasn't shy here in asserting her or the king's authority when Rory seemed to question or give instructions to them harmlessly. Merlin not enjoying being sent on a wild goose chase for the Pandorica was good and I liked how Rory then challenged him when it came to Lancelot's poisoner. The hypothetical standoff was superb and Rory giving his outburst at his current predicament and why he was protecting the Pandorica and who was inside was fantastic. He really loved Amy and it showed here in a strong way. The way the episode ended with Rory being knighted for ultimately saving Lancelot from the evils of Le Fay, a convenient thing Merlin could place blame upon, was terrific and having Rory stuck at Camelot was a fantastic set up for what is to come. Merlin seems confident he's closing on the Pandorica and his offering to personally fund the armour and extra finances required for him to stay, whilst appeasing to Rory's duty and position as protector was fantastic. The tension between the pair is palpable and I look forward to hearing where things go from here! Overall, a good and fun start to the boxset.

Rating: 8/10