HIGHLA-L Digest - 8 Dec 2003 to 9 Dec 2003 (#2003-24)
Automatic digest processor (LISTSERV@lists.psu.edu)
Tue, 9 Dec 2003 22:00:01 -0500
There are 6 messages totalling 284 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. I wonder who is still around
2. Is Anyone Still Around? (4)
3. Season Two: Studies in Light
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Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 12:10:15 -0500
From: "sueamanda@alltel.net" <sueamanda@alltel.net>
Subject: Re: I wonder who is still around
I too am a lurker. I have been a fan since the first season had aired. I remember
waiting up late to watch the show. I made 5 conventions and many new friends.
Have been busy moving but I am still on line. Hope to catch up when I get my house
unpacked. Best
Sueamanda
Dotiran@aol.com wrote:
> IMO, if you have seen all of the first two seasons by now, there is nothing
> quite like starting in season three and going sequentially. By this time
> David A. is head writer and the storyline begins to have some continuity. Key
> characters recurr, eventually we even get story arcs. Ah the joy of Duncan angst
> the first time around. I almost envy you.
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Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 11:43:04 -0800
From: FKMel <sgt_buck_frobisher@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Is Anyone Still Around?
I'm here, just haven't seen a whole lot to reply to
lately. It was fun watching all the eps for the first
time, but, still, it's a pain in the butt that Spike
keeps editing out parts in most of the eps. And the
skipping...I haven't even got to tape Til Death yet,
let alone see it. The only other ep I haven't seen is
The Blitz, and that's probably because I don't feel
like sitting through Anne again just yet LOL.
Mel
=====
The trouble with immortality is that it tends to go on forever-Herb Cain
NNPacker, Natpacker, Knight of the Cross, Knightie /Duncan flag waver, Tessa flag waver
Highlander-FK-Buffyverse group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/highlander-fk-Buffyverse
__________________________________
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 14:10:05 -0600
From: "Spear, Kathy--SJA" <Kathy.Spear@hood.army.mil>
Subject: Re: Is Anyone Still Around?
i am rather new to this. are you talking about season 1?
-----Original Message-----
From: FKMel [mailto:sgt_buck_frobisher@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 1:43 PM
To: HIGHLA-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU
Subject: Re: Is Anyone Still Around?
I'm here, just haven't seen a whole lot to reply to
lately. It was fun watching all the eps for the first
time, but, still, it's a pain in the butt that Spike
keeps editing out parts in most of the eps. And the
skipping...I haven't even got to tape Til Death yet,
let alone see it. The only other ep I haven't seen is
The Blitz, and that's probably because I don't feel
like sitting through Anne again just yet LOL.
Mel
=====
The trouble with immortality is that it tends to go on forever-Herb Cain
NNPacker, Natpacker, Knight of the Cross, Knightie /Duncan flag waver, Tessa
flag waver
Highlander-FK-Buffyverse group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/highlander-fk-Buffyverse
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing.
http://photos.yahoo.com/
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 12:35:23 -0800
From: FKMel <sgt_buck_frobisher@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Is Anyone Still Around?
All the seasons. Spike TV edits everything it seems. I
want DVD's but don't have the money right now, so I
have to tape them from Spike if I want them.
Mel
--- "Spear, Kathy--SJA" <Kathy.Spear@hood.army.mil>
wrote:
> i am rather new to this. are you talking about
> season 1?
>
=====
The trouble with immortality is that it tends to go on forever-Herb Cain
NNPacker, Natpacker, Knight of the Cross, Knightie /Duncan flag waver, Tessa flag waver
Highlander-FK-Buffyverse group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/highlander-fk-Buffyverse
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing.
http://photos.yahoo.com/
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 14:44:58 -0600
From: "Spear, Kathy--SJA" <Kathy.Spear@hood.army.mil>
Subject: Re: Is Anyone Still Around?
Highlander, the series, used to come on Spike TV at 3 and 6 pm on my cable.
Now it only comes on at 3, while i m at work. am going to start taping it,
cause i havent seen them & dont have the money for DVDs.
any more on another Highlander movie??
-----Original Message-----
From: FKMel [mailto:sgt_buck_frobisher@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 2:35 PM
To: HIGHLA-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU
Subject: Re: Is Anyone Still Around?
All the seasons. Spike TV edits everything it seems. I
want DVD's but don't have the money right now, so I
have to tape them from Spike if I want them.
Mel
--- "Spear, Kathy--SJA" <Kathy.Spear@hood.army.mil>
wrote:
> i am rather new to this. are you talking about
> season 1?
>
=====
The trouble with immortality is that it tends to go on forever-Herb Cain
NNPacker, Natpacker, Knight of the Cross, Knightie /Duncan flag waver, Tessa
flag waver
Highlander-FK-Buffyverse group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/highlander-fk-Buffyverse
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing.
http://photos.yahoo.com/
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 16:28:43 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Two: Studies in Light
Until the recent postings, I had forgotten that I had made a commitment
to post my commentary on the Season Two dvd episodes. My apologies to
the list for getting distracted. The second in the series follows:
Commentary: David Abramowitz said "Studies in Light" was particularly
interesting because rather than being about events or bad guys doing bad
things, it was about personalities, characters that would "pop off the
screen with a particular perspective on life." DA felt it was a break
through episode. The "bad guy" character didn't want an object or
vengeance, he was an Immortal who could no longer deal with the pain of
life, and wanted MacLeod to end it for him. Gregor was the first of
many "gray" characters who weren't inherently evil, where an almost
Talmudic question could be posed. DA said it was also interesting to be
able to have a handsome leading man play opposite an elderly woman as a
true love interest. He said he enjoyed the episode a lot and called it
a great "caption on what Immortality was and what it could be. That
living forever had its upsides and its downsides."
Episode Comments: Studies in Light is one of my favorite episodes,
probably in the top twenty. Every character gets some lovely, revealing
moments as Gregor, Duncan's old friend who used to be a sensitive,
caring doctor, appears in the present day as a photographer, sort of an
Immortal Goth obsessed with the darkness in life. He pushes Richie
until he dares a motorcycle jump, almost killing him. He callously asks
Tessa what it is like to know she will grow old while Duncan stays young
forever. But the best part of the show are the scenes between Duncan
and the present-day Linda Plager - a free-lance tabloid photographer he
had loved a half-century before when she caught him on camera carrying a
small child out of a burning building. They became lovers, and Duncan
urged her then to take pictures that captured the beauty in life, rather
than its ugliness. She left him to pursue her art, going on to become
famous for her work.
In the present day, she is old and ill, but is sharing a last show of
her photographs with Gregor. Duncan visits the exhibit and she
recognizes him, but Duncan cannot acknowledge the truth. The stark
difference between Linda, hanging so desperately onto life as Gregor is
running after death, is well portrayed, and Duncan's guilt and tender
care of her when she ends up in a hospital, dying, seems very real.
Gregor and Duncan end up fighting in the stairs and on the roof of the
hospital, with Duncan urging Gregor to stop, that he can get help, that
he needs to learn to live again. But Gregor is too desperate, and begs
Duncan to finish it, so Duncan raises the sword (Gregor's) and strikes -
hitting the rooftop next to Gregor's neck. At that point, Gregor is
hyperventilating, his eyes wide with fear - truly feeling pain for the
first time in a long time. Duncan helps him up, and leads him away.
The best scene, though, is the last, as Linda is dying but still
present, "like an old photograph, faded around the edges but the essence
of the person is still there." Duncan gives her the original framed
version of the news article where her photo of him saving the child
appeared, and tells her she doesn't need to understand, but that he *is*
her Duncan, and that he has always loved her and been very proud of
her. She dies, knowing she was loved. It is gently done, actually, for
all the tear-jerkiness of it, and well played by both actors.
General Comments:
In the flashback, Duncan is a kind of gopher, delivering medicines and
shuttling things and people around during a cholera epidemic. Gregor is
the doctor, trying hard but unable to save a lot of his patients. I
think it is interesting that this is a consistent role for DM - medic,
ambulance driver, resistance fighter. Did he not feel sophisticated or
smart enough in his "book knowledge" to become a doctor, or was the more
active role of physically moving people and things more suited to his
personality? I personally think it was the latter. Given his
persistent pursuit of physical activity of all kinds, it seems
consistent that he feels most in control when he is moving in the
physical world. While he certainly works at intellectual pursuits,
those things that are most ingrained in his psyche as being "useful" are
related to movement and action. Those are his strongest innate skills
and the ones he relies on to prove his worth.
Tessa was lovely in this episode. She came face to face with one of
Duncan's former lovers, now grown old, just as she would, someday. Yet
she let him go to her without a word of reproach. How could she, after
all, since if she did, she would be condemning Duncan for loving someone
without reservation or regard to time or appearance - and that is what
she wanted for herself, as well.
I also note that Duncan didn't carry a sword a lot the time in these
Season Two episodes. He seemed frequently without one, and didn't carry
one when he went to see Linda in the hospital. Intellestink.
MacG
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 8 Dec 2003 to 9 Dec 2003 (#2003-24)
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