HIGHLA-L Digest - 12 Jan 2004 to 13 Jan 2004 (#2004-15)
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Tue, 13 Jan 2004 22:00:02 -0500
There is one message totalling 71 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Two dvd Commentaries: The Zone
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Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 10:15:26 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Two dvd Commentaries: The Zone
COMMENTARY: BP recalls a conversation he had with one of their French
producers when he first started doing HL: The Series, and was fresh out
of the movie business. She told him that he had to understand that in 22
episodes a season, "some will be better than others." DA says that in 6
years he did HL, The Zone was his least favorite episode. They had been
pushed to do episodes that didn't involve Immortals (as always being the
bad guys). DA said he fought it because he just didn't think any mortal
could stand up to DMotCM. He blames some unconscious resistance to that
which resulted in an episode that "wasn't quite up to snuff." Then he
makes a bemused public apology for "The Zone."
BP said the production team was very stretched and stressed, and the
paint "got too thin." He said the scenes creep along because they didn't
have the luxury of adding a whole extra scene and, then kind of paused
and shook his head, ending with, "And I wish we'd never have made it."
Frankly, the notion of them both mea culpa'ing is rather remarkable as
both of these men have rather considerable egos.
THE EPISODE: A young Watcher has been killed in a ghetto area called The
Zone while trying to figure out if some bad guy there is an Immortal,
and Joe Dawson goes to MacLeod to ask him to "do something" about it.
Charlie, who says he was raised in the Zone (somewhat contradicting a
conversation he had in a Eurominute with Richie during "Eye for an
Eye"), insists on accompanying DM there, and while the bad guy turns out
not to be Immortal, DM is disturbed enough at what he sees the guy doing
to people there that he and Charlie join forces to get rid of him. There
is a side story about a young woman who runs a clinic there, but the
upshot of it is that the bad guy loses (gasp!).
OPINIONS AND OBSERVATIONS: This episode is not among the greatest (well,
duh!), but there is a mildly amusing scene at the beginning where DM
'teaches' Charlie DeSalvo about the history of hand-to-hand combat,
ending with some moves inspired by the Three Stooges. He appears to
enjoy the exchange, and it's the first time we've seen Duncan really
smile since Tessa died.
Joe's request that Duncan stop the bad guy Canaan is the second time Joe
has come to him and directed him towards someone he thought Duncan ought
to whack. Duncan tells him not to "let it become a habit." When Joe
tells him to be careful, that he didn't want to lose another friend,
Duncan responds snidely by saying, "Since when did we become friends?"
Then, of course, he turns right around to tell Charlie that he was going
to the Zone as a "favor for a friend." I think the only real emotional
interest in this episode is that we have established that Joe is getting
into the habit of siccing his "pet" Immortal on bad guys he doesn't
like, and that Duncan is beginning to think of Joe as a friend.
The other nice bits really come in the flashback, where Duncan is the
well-dressed (one assumes he is there in his reportorial capacity)
friend of Jesse, the son of a coal mine owner who has sided with the
workers in a work dispute, and is posing as a miner himself. The son is
played by Michael Shanks (currently featured on SG-1 as Daniel Jackson).
There are *lots* of action sequences in this episode, with DM kicking a
lot of bad guy butt, and Charlie perpetually mystified at how DM does
what he does, and who he is. Oh, and if there is any redeeming aspect to
this episode, it is that DM looks *really* fine in a lot of those
scenes. Was that crass? Hmm, ah, well. <g>
MacG
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 12 Jan 2004 to 13 Jan 2004 (#2004-15)
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