Battlefield – Discussions

In a similar vein to the topic I just posted about the Undying, this is to have some discussions about the Battlefield storyline without it clogging up the outline. More so, because atm I don’t know what said outline will entail. These are some of the ideas/problems I’ve had about this story, and I’d really like people’s ideas on them. I haven’t seen battlefield in a while so I may be wrong on a few points, or have more to add later.

For those who haven’t seen battlefield (seriously, watch it!), the premise is that there is an alternate reality where King Arthur, Camelot and magic are real, but also with sci-fi technology (spaceships and laser-guns). By the looks of things, the culture and style is mostly medevil-ish, just professions are somewhat different. And in this world the Doctor is known as Merlin.

Given how much background is given in the episodes, I really think this should be a series of adventures rather than just one.

Magic. Merlin is known as a powerful wizard, but the Doctor doesn’t do magic. So…
1) he can in this world, possibly needing to learn
2) He acquires some plot macguffin that allows he to cast magic (magic staff)
3) Through a series of cleaver bluffs he fakes his mastery of magic. Difficult to pull of in a world with real magic, and they would suspect the ‘faking with tech’ line.
Other thoughts: anyone else want to do magic?
Also: Jamie “I though you said magic wasne real Doctor?”

Regeneration: The inhabitants of the Battlefield world know the Doctor can change his appearance, not a problem in our storyline as the Dr will be swapping through regenerations. A fun idea, if I recall correctly in some legends Merlin is said to start as an old man and grow younger? So we could have the 1st Doc in the early stories and say 5 or 11 in the final.

But moving onto time, the Battlefield story is implied to take place over decades. Not a problem for the Doc and the Bach, but what about the others? Do they take the TARDIS from one point to another, do they age normally, or for some reason perhaps they don’t age?

At the start Arthur and Morgaine are friends (possibly lovers, can’t remember exactly) but then end up going to war. Why? Perhaps a war between magic and technology. And might this split the party, with some joining on Morgaine’s side. Of course, I doubt the Bach or Jamie would leave the Dr… hmm, this might lead to a boy’s vs girls fight!

And for the final battle, this one will take place in both the Battlefield and normal worlds. King Arthur will be mortally wounded and will sink his ship in the normal world, while the Doctor will be frozen inside a series of ice caves. We better come up with a plan to get him out and home.

And, needless to say, how do each of our charries fit into the Arthur myth?

Right, that’s enough waffling from me, what does everyone else think?

Having watched Battlefield again…

Morgaine is a fey. Is that a title, or is she actually not human?

A chalk circle prevents magic and magic users from passing (or maybe just stopping Morgaine if she is an actual Fey.), but not subtle mind controlling magic. Implied it could be due to the presence of Excalibur inside the circle. We’ll probably need to work out how magic work here.

Ancelyn and Mordred both recognise Merlin while Morgaine has been waiting 12 centuries for revenge? Wow, these humans have long lives, assuming both universes run at the same speed of time. Though what might work better is Morgaine ends up trapped in the past, as she is explicitly stated to be immortal.

Why wield swords when you have laser guns capable of felling a tee in a single shot? Aside from the whole chivalric reason, the armour worn by the knights seems to absorb most of the force of the lasers, as well as being bullet proof. So it’s probably be a case of whatever metal the armour is made from can only be penetrated by itself i.e. a sword made from it. If the metal is also rare, that would explain why there are now bows or crossbows on display, and why only important knights have a full set of armour.

Morgaine and Merlin have to continually play each other at chess. ;-p And Merlin needs to be present with Arthur sinks his ship, setting up events for the Battlefield serial.

Battlefield could take part on an interstellar scale if we wish, as Morgaine claims to be in control of several systems. Hmm, do Dalek, Sontarins, Cybermen, Ice Warriors etc exist in Battlefield?

Celadon? That’s a place mentioned in battlefield, any relation to the King Arthur myth?

I put far too much thought into these things.

Yes, we really do want to have the first Doc show up in the early episodes of battlefield:

Awesome pic. I'd be down with using the 1st Doctor for that epi! He's a dick, I love him.

Morgaine is a fey. Is that a title, or is she actually not human?

I think not human. Maybe it's an alien race? From the planet Faerie? LOL dunno.

Ancelyn and Mordred both recognise Merlin while Morgaine has been waiting 12 centuries for revenge? Wow, these humans have long lives, assuming both universes run at the same speed of time. Though what might work better is Morgaine ends up trapped in the past, as she is explicitly stated to be immortal.

Long lives sound reasonable to me? Also, Ancelyn is the son of Gwalchmai (AKA Gawain!)--so you KNOW I want to use that somehow! Perhaps a tragic death for Gwalchmai in this epi? Along with Arthur, of course. We have to kill Arthur. "Le Morte D'Arthur"?

Celadon? That’s a place mentioned in battlefield, any relation to the King Arthur myth?

The "final battle" (usually where Mordred and Arthur both bite the dust) is traditionally the Battle of Camlann, so it could be the same thing...?

Correction: *puts on professor/massive nerd/this is what I'm going to school for hat* Celidon is Arthur's 7th battle in the Historia Brittonum (of 12). It is probably the Caledonian Wood, so someplace in Scotland somewhere, probably fighting Picts (since it was unlikely to be Angles or Saxons that far north, unless it was an Anglo-Pictish alliance vs. Arthur). Also Celidon is where the "half-mad Lailoken" (the Scottish version of Merlin) is said to wander, you know, doing mad things, apparently.

Sound like someone we know?

Maeglin wrote:

Celadon? That’s a place mentioned in battlefield, any relation to the King Arthur myth?

The "final battle" (usually where Mordred and Arthur both bite the dust) is traditionally the Battle of Camlann, so it could be the same thing...?

Camlann is actually mentioned seperatly in the Episode, when Mordred is taunting Ancelyn. As for Celadon being Celidon, that's pretty likley, the most obvious explination that the subitles misspelt it! It's described as being a forest, so it fits. As an aside, might these places be separate planets in the Battlefield verse?

Maeglin wrote:Also Celidon is where the "half-mad Lailoken" (the Scottish version of Merlin) is said to wander, you know, doing mad things, apparently.

Sound like someone we know?

Either Sylvester McCoy , or we need a Scottish actor to play another Time Lord... tap-tap-tap-tap....... tap-tap-tap-tap

Either Sylvester McCoy , or we need a Scottish actor to play another Time Lord... tap-tap-tap-tap....... tap-tap-tap-tap

Or another reason to use the "Scottish" Doctor...Tennant!

Ahh, I'll add him to the list of possible Doc's to use.

What are your thoughts on the other points maeg, and what does everyone else think?

Camlann is actually mentioned seperatly in the Episode, when Mordred is taunting Ancelyn. As for Celadon being Celidon, that's pretty likley, the most obvious explination that the subitles misspelt it! It's described as being a forest, so it fits. As an aside, might these places be separate planets in the Battlefield verse?

Planets sounds grand!

Battlefield could take part on an interstellar scale if we wish, as Morgaine claims to be in control of several systems. Hmm, do Dalek, Sontarins, Cybermen, Ice Warriors etc exist in Battlefield?

I think we could keep it simple with laser-wielding knights. I think any of these guys could be mentioned, but maybe not actually show up.

Also, all the rest about the magic and space-armor and stuff sounds good. I agree with you.

Magic. Merlin is known as a powerful wizard, but the Doctor doesn’t do magic. So…
1) he can in this world, possibly needing to learn
2) He acquires some plot macguffin that allows he to cast magic (magic staff)
3) Through a series of cleaver bluffs he fakes his mastery of magic. Difficult to pull of in a world with real magic, and they would suspect the ‘faking with tech’ line.

Hmm. I really feel that the Doctor would "bluff" and use tech that looked like magic. How no one would know is that the Doctor is just that good.

Regeneration: The inhabitants of the Battlefield world know the Doctor can change his appearance, not a problem in our storyline as the Dr will be swapping through regenerations. A fun idea, if I recall correctly in some legends Merlin is said to start as an old man and grow younger? So we could have the 1st Doc in the early stories and say 5 or 11 in the final.

I like going One to Ten.

But moving onto time, the Battlefield story is implied to take place over decades. Not a problem for the Doc and the Bach, but what about the others? Do they take the TARDIS from one point to another, do they age normally, or for some reason perhaps they don’t age?

Maybe the humans (and even the time lords) could be trapped in ice/stasis for a while? Like it's one of the villains ploys to keep them trapped there forever, but they get out after 10 years or something? That could be interesting.

At the start Arthur and Morgaine are friends (possibly lovers, can’t remember exactly) but then end up going to war. Why? Perhaps a war between magic and technology. And might this split the party, with some joining on Morgaine’s side. Of course, I doubt the Bach or Jamie would leave the Dr… hmm, this might lead to a boy’s vs girls fight!

Tennant-Doctor snogs everything else under the sun(s), so I don't see why he can't have a thing with Morgaine. (Jamie will cry, though, because the Doctor loves him.) I think a boys vs. girls thing might be funny.

And for the final battle, this one will take place in both the Battlefield and normal worlds. King Arthur will be mortally wounded and will sink his ship in the normal world, while the Doctor will be frozen inside a series of ice caves. We better come up with a plan to get him out and home.

I don't have any ideas about the ending.

As for who we could all "be" in Arthurian myth, Jamie could be......oh, I dunno, fight a Green Knight or something. I'll think more on it. Maybe I want Jamie to be Gawain/Gwalchmai? That might be cool. So he's actually Ancelyn's dad? (If we do some time-skip that's less weird.) LOL, dunno. Like maybe all the companions should be various knights/ladies?

Maeglin wrote:

Hmm. I really feel that the Doctor would "bluff" and use tech that looked like magic. How no one would know is that the Doctor is just that good.

The only reason i'm not sure about this one is that we are in a world with high magic AND high tech. It's difficult to bluff when you are using toys people already know about. On the other and, battlefields operates according to the inverse of Clark's law. Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

I like going One to Ten.

The trouble with this is we can't use 7 for starters, because no one recognises this Doc's aspect.

Maybe the humans (and even the time lords) could be trapped in ice/stasis for a while? Like it's one of the villains ploys to keep them trapped there forever, but they get out after 10 years or something? That could be interesting.

That could cover part of it, but there will be some more time to cover. Having watched battlefield though, it seems that the Doc did use the Tardis to travel, so this point might become moot unless people have a reason to stay behind.

Tennant-Doctor snogs everything else under the sun(s), so I don't see why he can't have a thing with Morgaine. (Jamie will cry, though, because the Doctor loves him.) I think a boys vs. girls thing might be funny.

Doc and Morgaine have a thing... hmm, i like this. Made slightly tragic as the Doc knows what will happen in the end. Would explain why Morgaine has such a thing against Merlin though

. Like maybe all the companions should be various knights/ladies?

If we can pull that off, it would be cool!


edit. p.s. sorry for being so pedantic.

Doctor Choices:
I like One and Ten for this (since he's wacking out can't we just have him jump from one Doctor aspect to the next, so we don't have to see 7 at all?)

Time jumps:
I like the idea of using the TARDIS a lot, though stasis could work, or time works differently in the Battlefield universe. The Bach's fridge can also come into play if needed/desired.

Planets:
I like the idea of lots of different planets for different regions.

Normal Universe Baddies:
I would kind of prefer no daleks/cybermen/etc in this alternative universe but that's just my opinion. No need to overcomplicate the story by throwing them in.

The Doctor and Chess:
I think it would be interesting to have the Doctor get caught in a chess game with Morgaine and the companions can run around and try to rescue him while he's doing that for a while. This would make it so that we don't have to "deal with" the Doctor for so long and we can make the story more companion focused. I would prefer something like this.

Technology:
I like the idea that swords are the only thing that can cut through the super laser armor, that would explain why there are guns and swords!

The Doctor and Magic:
maybe the thing that gives the Doctor away as magical is his time travel ability. So using the TARDIS to make time jumps in this universe might work well. Jumping several times into different points in the timeline could be fun, too. Thus maybe the Bachelor could be considered "magical" too, but on a much smaller scale.

Our adventures in the Battlefield universe as a series:
I'm not sure what this means...like several short adventures involving different people?

boy’s vs girls fight:
are we saying Arthur and Morgaine sleep together, or Merlin and Morgaine sleep together, or both? Not sure, I don't think people would get on Morgaine's side because she's crazy. The Bach might because he's easily misled.

Final Battle:
what if the Doctor got caught in ice and the companions had to limp the TARDIS/the fridge forward in time to get him out? This goes along with the idea I mentioned above, i.e. that the Doctor gets removed from the situation and the companions have to deal with the situation on their own. Not that I don't like the Doctor, its just more difficult to be like "so wait, what's the Doctor telling people to do?" rather than "so the Jamie is doing this, how does Nikki react to that?" Ask me to clarify if that doesn't make sense

The Bach in Arthurian Myth:
I could see him accidentally falling in love with Arthur's wife (who got jilted when Arthur slept with Morgaine) and then getting some crap for that, and saving Arthur's wife when she's about to be burned? That could be fun. Thus the Bach could be Lancelot! Another crack idea: Sara could be Guinevere, or work with the Bachelor to save her.

Morgaine the fey:
love the idea that she's from the planet Faerie

Chalk:
Chalk could be a substance that prevents time travel. Or the Faerie people could be allergic to it or something.

Ancelyn and Mordred recognizing the Doctor:
With the time jumps that I propose this shouldn't be an issue.

Morgaine trapped in the past:
Not sure why she would need to be trapped in the past. Couldn't she just age?

Rare metal for armor and weapons:
This could tie into the plot somehow. The TARDIS may have some parts composed of this metal.

Some very nice ideas there, especially re the chess game, and the companions limping the Tardis forward.

To cover some points.

Battlefield as a series. What I meant here was it should be several smaller adventures, rather than one big long one. Otherwise we may end up with something that dwarves even MoM.


Boy's vs Girl's. As in the companions. The boy's stick with the Doc, while the girls go with Morgaine. And to conter one of your points, Morgaine isn't crazy. Yes, she's evil, but she's honourable evil. She shouldn't be after the throne just for power, there should be some genuine grievance against Arther. She's a complex villain in Battlefield, it would be a real shame if we turned her into a 'haha i shall rule the universe' carboard cutout.

Bach as Lancealot! that's so amusing it just might work!

Magic and chalk. From watching the episode, it seems to imply that it isn't so much the chalk, as the magic sword inside the circle. Therefore any circle with a powerful artefact or magic user inside could be used for defence. But in addition, it could be chalk is this universe cold iron!

I agree with Bethy's nonsense. Especially:

Time jumps:
I like the idea of using the TARDIS a lot, though stasis could work, or time works differently in the Battlefield universe. The Bach's fridge can also come into play if needed/desired.

Yeah, Stasis was just kinda, whatever, an idea.

The Doctor and Chess:
I think it would be interesting to have the Doctor get caught in a chess game with Morgaine and the companions can run around and try to rescue him while he's doing that for a while. This would make it so that we don't have to "deal with" the Doctor for so long and we can make the story more companion focused. I would prefer something like this.

Also, this will make storytelling a lot smoother.

The Doctor and Magic:
maybe the thing that gives the Doctor away as magical is his time travel ability. So using the TARDIS to make time jumps in this universe might work well. Jumping several times into different points in the timeline could be fun, too. Thus maybe the Bachelor could be considered "magical" too, but on a much smaller scale.

For this to work, these knights & etc can't have time travel technology, so they don't know what it is and think it's magic?

OR we take Thor's approach to this. "Your ancestors called it Magic, you call it Science. I come from a land where they are one and the same."

The Bach in Arthurian Myth:
I could see him accidentally falling in love with Arthur's wife (who got jilted when Arthur slept with Morgaine) and then getting some crap for that, and saving Arthur's wife when she's about to be burned? That could be fun. Thus the Bach could be Lancelot!

YES. THIS.

Ancelyn and Mordred recognizing the Doctor:
With the time jumps that I propose this shouldn't be an issue.

Also, if they see him regenerate, they know he can do it, and know he can change his face, and learn to recognize him some other way...


Also, chalk and rare metals, yay!

yeah, you're right about Morgaine. She has the potential to be a good villain. I dunno if it'll devolve into a boys vs. girls thing, because if Morgaine can convince anyone to be on her side it would be the Bach.

Opening titles for Battlefield???