Rory has found somewhere appropriate to stay during his long and lonely guardianship of the Pandorica – Camelot…

The continuing adventures of the Lone Centurion – charting what Rory Williams did between scenes at the end of series 5 in a world that was quite different from our own in some key respects – find Rory once more caught up in intrigue and a lot of misunderstandings. The typical triangle involving Lancelot and Guinevere has a rather different third point this time around – although I’m pleased that fundamental aspects of it are sorted out by the end of the episode, so at least two of the three people involved know what’s going on – and Hugh Skinner pushes his performance as the Knight of the Round Table just so far, but never quite over the top.

For reasons we have yet to ascertain (but probably to do with Le Fay – everything in Camelot is to do with Le Fay, it seems), Merlin is after the Pandorica (and, as far as we can tell from this first episode, this Merlin nothing to do with any incarnation of the Doctor… though I won’t be surprised if there’s a twist on this line somewhere). Alfie Shaw’s script balances the humour and peril of Rory’s position well for the most part (the torturer feels a little too Blackadder coming on top of Malthus’ patent remedies for most ailments which involve a poultice and a sharp sword), and Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo stands out as Guinevere – a role that can all too often become cliched.

Verdict: An enjoyable blend of humour and menace – and an ever-increasing number of Wyvern. 7/10

Paul Simpson

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