HIGHLA-L Digest - 16 Feb 2004 to 18 Feb 2004 (#2004-36)
Automatic digest processor (LISTSERV@lists.psu.edu)
Wed, 18 Feb 2004 22:00:16 -0500
There is one message totalling 181 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Two: The Vampire
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 17:28:14 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Two: The Vampire
COMMENTARY: BP notes that The Vampire was a Dennis Barry episode. Barry,
says Panzer, "of the sweeping camera shots and sex" (shots of sex scenes, I
assume he means <g>), who also believed that violence should be pushed to
the limits that censors would allow. They ran into a little trouble with
that on this show, and ended up toning down some of the sound effects (as in
when staking someone through the heart), or German and French television
would not run the episode.
This was the first time they played around with the supernatural (SIDEBAR: A
bit of an anachronistic statement, don'tcha think?). The ideas of vampires
and immortals are not that different and they enjoyed playing around with
those ideas. There was a very high percentage of flashbacks to present day,
in the episode, and one of the joys of Paris is doing flashbacks. He reports
that Ken Gord and Dennis had a huge disagreement about the final fight scene
and the quickening. Dennis Barry said you couldn't have a decent Q during
the day, but Ken found an abandoned racetrack called "The Hippodrome"
(wonder if it was the same one used in Archangel), and insisted that Dennis
to do it there, and during the day.
The actor playing the k'immie (Jeremy Brudenel, the same guy who later
played Robert deValicourt in "Til Death") was a trained English stage actor
who really knew how to do a sword fight. With the big exterior space to play
with and two athletic actors, "they really got to tear up the scenery." Then
BP opines: "If we ever had a doubt that Duncan MacLeod was a real hero, a
larger than life character, and a character you can only have in a movie,
it's the end of the fight here. The bad guy is smart-mouthing him, Adrian
turns it around, says that you are not good enough to take me, and then the
bad guy, being kind of a little camp, gets to come back with a little funny
line as Adrian whacks his head off."
In order to make the Q a little better, Dennis found 10,000 old tout sheets
(someone can correct me on this, but I think those are the flyers put out by
professional race analysts giving their various picks on the races), and
they were sent flying around during the Q. BP says "it was the beginning of
Dennis' Paper Period" since there is evidently another Q where he sends
paper flying everywhere. He concedes that the episode was a "little campy."
EPISODE: The episode opens with an older man paddling back and forth in a
swimming pool that has a glass roof leading up to the rest of an obviously
"modern chic" house. Somebody comes in and holds the guy's head under water,
also banging it against the side of the pool, killing the guy. Then there is
a segue up the stairs to a wake. The man was a rock entrepreneur and a
friend of Duncan's. Peter, the brother and the partner of the murdered guy,
is also a friend of DM's. Outside, while consoling the daughter of the
murdered victim, Ellen Piper, he feels the presence of another Immortal, and
thinks he recognizes him as Nicholas Ward, an old adversary from the
previous century. [SIDEBAR: I dunno about anyone else, but I would be a
little leery of having a see-through floor. All the leggy women slinking
around during the wake would have to worry about someone standing below
gazing up their skirts.]
Mac stalks after Ward, loses him, then hears something behind him and
strikes out, decking Joe Dawson, who is standing in the shadows, having been
following Ward.
[SIDEBAR: Why was Joe following Ward? He was assigned to MacLeod, who was
also there, so I suppose he might have recognized Ward and figured DM could
take care of himself for a few minutes while he trailed another Immortal,
but why wouldn't Ward have had his own Watcher?]
FLASHBACK: We see DM in 19th Century dress, watching a little entertainment
in a bar/restaurant where actors are doing a little melodrama about
Vampires. Turns out there are rumors of Vampires in the streets and the two
men, William and Henry, partners in an import/export shipping enterprise
with whom DM had hoped to invest some portion of his funds, were at odds
about the issue, with William dismissing the whole notion and Henry is
obviously quite frightened about it. William leaves, and in short order,
Duncan 'feels' another Immortal, then a scream is heard. William is found
dead, bloodless, with two puncture wounds on his neck.
The upshot of the plot is that Ward is using the fear over vampires to throw
suspicion from himself, because he, as the export company's lawyer [SIDEBAR:
Lawyer/Vampire. Seems redundant, doesn't? (MacG ducks and runs)] is killing
off the partners as he simultaneously woos the daughter so he can marry her
and take over the company.
There is a VanHelsing-ish character involved, and he and Duncan use "modern"
forensic evidence to prove that Ward is the killer, but Ward gets away.
PRESENT DAY: Dawson tells MacLeod that the French police didn't have any
evidence of a serial killer in Paris. Mac assures Joe that there will be
evidence soon, since killing is "what Ward does."
In the next scene we learn that Ward is back to his old habits, and has
seduced Ellen, the daughter of the murder victim we saw in the first scene.
To make an already long story slightly shorter, Ward ends up killing the
partner of the original murdered guy to cover up his first murder (Ellen's
father), and has convinced Ellen to marry him. Duncan tries to be 'cool'
with her, not trying to tell her that her "Nicky" is a bad guy. Ward tries
to set the police on Duncan to distract him while he and Ellen go off to get
married, but Joe Dawson manages to keep an eye on them, letting Duncan know
that they are about to be married in a civil ceremony.
Duncan shows up at the ceremony. [SIDEBAR: The bride is in black (her father
had just died, so that's kind of understandable), but Ward is all in white,
with his hair an almost white-blond. He is also either very pale or made up
to look that way. And interesting visual choice.] When Ward can't convince
DM to go away ("We can work something out, make a deal!") Ward laconically
tells Ellen that "everyone brings a little baggage into a relationship.
MacLeod and I need to talk about mine."
THE FIGHT: Ward insists that "this is a joke" and says, "They're mortals,
MacLeod. Who gives a damn about them?" [BP was right. This is a
scenery-chewing fight between two actors who are really comfortable in
intense action scenes. Some of it (like both of them falling off a balcony
and landing elegantly on their feet) is a little OTT. It's finished with DM'
s classic move, where he's kneeling with Ward behind him ready to take his
head off. He swings his blade over his head, then cuts sideways,
disemboweling his opponent before taking his head. It's the same move he
used in "Band of Brothers" and several other classic fight scenes.
THE Q: Once again we have DM looking like he is "managing" the energy to
some degree, convincing me even more that the use of the lightening in
Finale II to destroy Kala's computer files was deliberate.
ENDING TAG: One of the most interesting scenes in the episode was Joe asking
Duncan how Ellen took the news of Ward's abandoning her at the altar. Duncan
says he told her that Ward had responsibilities he had to deal with that
"were more important than his own happiness." Then he adds, "Sometimes one
truth is kinder than another."
Joe says he'll see Mac around, and Mac asks if that means Joe is still
following him. Joe says, "Its20 's what we do. But you know, if you were to
invite me for a drink, I wouldn't be following you, would I?"
"I only drink with my friends," Mac replies as he gets into his car.
Joe looks disgusted, closes the car door and starts to walk away.
"Hey, Dawson," Mac calls, with a smug smile on his face. "Bar opens at
five."
Joe pats the hood of the car and looks pleased with himself as he walks
away.
COMMENTS: This episode is a bit hokey for my taste. In the flashback, the
pseudo-forensic stuff seems contrived, the obvious voice-overs by the girl
(Juliet) don't sound right, and the actors look uncomfortably chilly, with
every breath fogging in the air, even the indoor scenes. The present-day
stuff works better, and the scenes between Joe and Duncan show a tentative,
careful re-building of mutual concern and, finally, even a bit of
friendship. The whole plot was convoluted, and the episode would probably
have been improved with more inter-personal scenes and fewer
forensic-investigation plot twists. As it was, they were trying to work too
many action events into past and present and the result was a bit of a
jumble.
On the other hand, Jeremy Brudenel, the actor who played Ward did so with
gusto and flair, and all the scenes between Duncan and Ward had a nice
dramatic, emotional edge to them. I can see why they invited the actor back
to play Robert deValicourt.
A couple of other interesting things to note about what is done and said in
this episode: Duncan, when Henry tries to convince him that vampires are
causing the killings, states unequivocally that he is "an educated man." In
that day and time, what does that really mean? Obviously, by this time he
can read and write, but an educated man of that day also generally knew
Greek and Latin and was well versed in the classics and history.
Also, in the flashback, despite his own certainty that Ward was the killer
of Juliet's father and her father's partner, Duncan waited until he had
irrefutable proof that Ward was guilty before he went to Juliet to try to
convince her that Ward was a killer. In the second go-round, in the present
day, Duncan didn't bother with trying to talk to Ellen. Instead, he just
whacked Ward, then let her believe Ward disappeared for altruistic reasons.
In the interim, he has learned more about human nature and is more pragmatic
about trying to convince someone that her beloved is a bad guy. I enjoy it
when we see tangible evidence of Duncan's changing views over time.
MacGeorge
------------------------------
End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 16 Feb 2004 to 18 Feb 2004 (#2004-36)
**************************************************************