“Merlin’s Trap” was the big draw for this Halloween set as it’s the debut of Jon Culshaw’s Twelfth Doctor impersonation, and thankfully while not as perfect as his Brig it’s miles better than Jacob Dudman’s attempt, so I’ll happily take it given the Twelfth Doctor era is a personal favourite of mine. Ignoring that aspect though, is the story any good? It’s… fine, doesn’t break any new ground etc but I will say at least they got the horror aspect a bit more involved here. Let’s take a look!
The story focuses on a group of four explorers in romantic couple Flo (Kymberley Cochrane) and Lainey (Lucy-Jane Quinlan) along with rich girl Alice (Robyn Cooper) and nice but extremely naïve male Ezra (Antony Jardine). Together they’re exploring a cave system that is supposedly cursed by an evil being that was sealed away by Merlin himself. Obviously nobody buys it until they break through a wall and find a hidden chamber with ghostly warnings telling them to turn back filling their ears. They of course ignore the warning and press on, soon finding a large bronze statue of Merlin who has set some seemingly deadly traps. We soon get into a couple of scenes of everyone, Alice especially, pressing forward despite the traps doing things like sending them back to the entrance like a teleporter, all while Flo wants to go back but Lainey’s willingness to continue motivates her to stay. Eventually a ghostly figure that looks like an old version of Flo appears and tries to grab Alice and pull her away but even THAT doesn’t deter them, but the last trap only snares Flo and Lainey while Alice and Ezra vanish.
They’re greeted by a hologram message of The Doctor (Jon Culshaw) who informs them that he set all the traps to stop humans from getting too close to a deadly creature that’s trapped down there, but he’s not surprised some people have pushed on anyway and that he’ll be there soon to save them so long as they stay right where they are. Sadly though Lainey spots a terrified Alice on a nearby ledge and decides to go and help her…
It’s a good claustrophobic story with that classic “curious friends being picked off mysteriously” trope running through it. As mentioned, Jon Culshaw’s Twelfth Doctor is good, but it’s one of those “so accurate in places that when it slips it’s really noticeable” impressions, which is why I prefer the Tim Treloar style of using one voice that may not be a 1-to-1 impression but does the job while being consistent. Again though, I’ll happily take it over Dudman’s Twelve, which was consistent…ly bad (for the record his Eleventh Doctor was amazing, not hating on Dudman in general!)
The Continuity:
Last time looking at the haunted TARDIS, I promise!
Nothing to say here, it doesn’t connect to anything, directly or thematically to any major degree.
Overall Thoughts:
“Merlin’s Trap” was a fun little claustrophobic story with a good central character surrounded by some stereotypes to get picked off. Jon Culshaw’s Doctor is a mix of 100%-on-point and “sounding a bit like the Brigadier because his Scottish accent part dropped” but for the most part it worked, which bodes well for future stories…
Flo and Lainey find the scared-witless Alice and then Ezra, who has seemingly aged by many years and then dies in front of them. The three of them then find a massive open chamber with a colossal eye in one of the walls, an eye that causes Alice to walk up to it in a daze and die. Lainey is the next to feel the effects, seemingly sounding like she’s talking in slow motion but actually she was on a different time track to Flo and also ages to death. The Doctor finally arrives and manages to talk to the interdimensional creature and get it to close its giant… self and cut off the effects, but Flo has already aged by a fair amount. On the way back through the cave she sees a past version of the group due to time shenanigans and tries to grab Alice to tell her to turn back, becoming the ghostly thing from earlier. Flo survives, but she’s lost more than time (though she has lost a lot of that as well…)
So yeah, it’s essentially a “Doctor Lite” episode, but as a testing ground for Culshaw that makes sense, you don’t want to go all-in right off the bat.
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