HIGHLA-L Digest - 23 Mar 2004 to 25 Mar 2004 (#2004-56)
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Thu, 25 Mar 2004 22:00:03 -0500
There are 4 messages totalling 247 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. TV alert for South African members (2)
2. Season Three dvds: The Lamb
3. Immortals Among Us...For Real??
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Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 11:41:22 +0200
From: Tarryn Zank <Zankt@nu.ac.za>
Subject: TV alert for South African members
This is just a TV alert to South African members of this list:
1) The Outer Limits season 6 is being shown on SABC 3 after the movie on Friday nights, so say around 11pm. This week is the episode entitled "Manifest Destiny" and stars Michael SHanks (ep: The Zone). In 2 weeks time, ie 9 April, we should get "The Beholder" with Peter Wingfield. Being another Vancouver series, there are probably many more 'lesser' HL alumni (ie guest stars) in these episodes, so always good to watch.
2) "Tracker" starts on SABC 1 on Saturdays from the 3 April, at 9pm.
I knew as soon as it was cancelled that we would be getting it on this channel, as it always has the one-hit not-so-wonders, Andromeda and NYPD Blue being the 2 exceptions, but then, we only saw 1/2 of season 1 of ANdromeda, and we've only just seen the season of NYPD Blue where Rick Schroeder joins the team.
Thanks!
TarrynZ
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<<<<gwavasig>>>>
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Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 15:11:50 +0200
From: T'Mar <tmar@sifl.iid.co.za>
Subject: Re: TV alert for South African members
Tarryn wrote:
>This is just a TV alert to South African members of this list:
>
>1) The Outer Limits season 6 is being shown on SABC 3 after the movie on
Friday nights,
>2) "Tracker" starts on SABC 1 on Saturdays from the 3 April,
Thanks for the info, Tarryn! I never pay attention to the schedule
and always end up finding out late. Goodie, another OL episode
with Michael Shanks. :) :)
- Marina. (PS: Can you email me offlist with your phone # if you
have one yet?)
\\ "And we are scatterlings of Africa on a ||>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> //
// journey to the stars. Far below we leave || R I C H I E >> \\
\\ forever dreams of what we were." - Juluka ||>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> //
//=============tmar@sifl.iid.co.za============|| \\
\\============Chief Flag Waver and Defender of Richie============//
Discussing Voyager:
Me: What happened to Seven?
My brother: She stumbled into a plot device.
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Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 09:40:23 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Three dvds: The Lamb
COMMENTARY: Don Paonessa discussed his efforts to make 10-year-old Kenny
look 800 years old during a Quickening he takes. What he ended up doing was
to superimpose stunt coordinator John Wardlow's eyes onto Kenny's face,
achieving the effect he was looking for.
David A. comments on the tragedy of Miles Ferguson's death in a car
accident, but said he did a great job as Kenny, playing both innocent and
evil well. They didn't want to place a value judgment on Kenny's doing what
he needed to do to survive.
Stan Kirsch talks about how much Jim Byrnes adds to the show. In some ways,
Stan felt like he and Jim "bookended Adrian, in a way." Between Adrian and
Peter W., the show had a European flair, and Stan noted that he and Jim
brought an all-American aspect to the series, and they had a lot of good
scenes between them.
Ken Gord talked about Dennis Berry and he really liking Miles F.
immediately, that he had been overlooked by other casting directors as being
not experienced or professional enough, but "that kid was fantastic." He
wanted nothing more than to be an actor, and notes his regret that Ferguson
"didn't grow old as an actor."
The episode is then dedicated to Miles Ferguson.
OUTTAKES: We see director Dennis Berry on an empty set talking to the camera
and complaining (in a joking way) about not having a crane for himself. [I
didn't understand the point of it, so I'm just reporting it.] Then we see
the alley scene were Duncan finds the Immortal that Kenny killed, except
that Berry is using his signature smoke for atmospherics. While Adrian keeps
going and stays in character, whenever his face is turned away from the
camera he's audibly commenting about the fact that he can't see anything
through the smoke ("This is good. Where's the body? I've lost it!").
Then we see the last conversation between Duncan and Kenny, and Miles blows
the line and says, "There can be no other way." Adrian breaks character and
jokingly asks, "Is that half of 'There can be only one, and half...." he
gestures with his hands and laughs.
EPISODE: The episode opens with a young boy, ragged and dirty, knocking an
old homeless man out with a brick and stealing his sandwich.
Duncan is showing Richie a sailboat he appears to be interested in,
rhapsodizing about "There's nothing in the world like an old wooden ketch!"
while Richie is bemoaning the amount of work involved in upkeep. Turns out
the boat is full of dry rot and Duncan isn't really interested in it, but
when Richie complains (again) Duncan says it's all a part of Richie's
training, to expose him to culture. They are having an amusing argument
about the nature of culture when they 'feel' another Immortal.
I'm going to skip a lot of plot stuff here and summarize by saying that
Kenny is an 800 year old Immortal who has survived by beguiling other
Immortals into "protecting" him, then whacking them. He does whatever is
necessary to survive, and Duncan even defends him when Joe and Richie object
to what Kenny does, saying that, in truth, it was no different that what
they all (Immortals) did - killing other Immortals in order to survive.
We learn in some really nice flashbacks to the Civil War that while Duncan
was trying to get slaves north to freedom, he encountered a young Immortal
drummer boy, who begged him for protection. Duncan briefly left him with
someone he trusted while he went to get the slaves through the battle lines,
only to have the boy killed while he was gone. He obviously feels guilt over
that, and that influences his ambivalent feelings about what Kenny does to
survive.
Kenny dislikes Anne intensely, seeing her as an interloper, and we learn
that Kenny has a history of killing off the mates of the "protectors" he has
found. One of them, Dalmon Ross, has been looking for Kenny for 20 years
after Kenny killed his mortal wife. After a confrontation with Duncan, when
Duncan easily defeats him and demands to know why he's after Kenny, Ross
tells him that Kenny murdered his wife. Duncan lets Ross go, telling him to
leave Kenny alone. A few minutes later, Kenny sneaks up behind Ross and
takes his head.
It is only in a subsequent discussion with Joe and Richie later in the loft,
when Joe tells Duncan that Ross' wife was mortal and had died trying to
prevent Kenny from killing Ross, that Duncan finally decides that Kenny has
crossed the line, and realizes that Anne could be in danger.
Sure enough, Kenny hot wires a car in a parking garage and tries to run Anne
down. [NOTE: Why, on earth, do these scenes always have the pursued person
running down the open car lanes instead of dodging into the areas where the
pursuing car can't go? Oh, right, this is television. Sorry, lost my focus
there for a moment. <g>] Duncan gets there just in time, grabs her, dodges
into the parked cars, Kenny crashes, jumps out of the car and runs away.
Duncan sends Anne to the dojo for safety, and goes after Kenny. They end up
inside some warehouse-type space, with Kenny hiding in the rafters.
Duncan urges Kenny to come out and talk, asking why he went after Anne.
Kenny says she was in his way, and that, "I *hate* it when people get in my
way!"
Duncan says he could protect him, that the other Immortals who had taken him
in would have protected him, but Kenny just tells him they all would have
killed him, eventually, and lets loose a big chunk of shelving on top of
MacLeod, pinning him to the floor. As he lies there, helpless and injured,
Kenny approaches to take his head. But with one hand Mac reaches up and
stops the blow, managing to push Kenny away, then shoving the equipment off
himself and reaching for his katana. But he is injured and slow to rise, and
Kenny slips away. By the time Mac reaches the street, he only sees Kenny
fleetingly, riding in the back of a school bus, looking evil and determined.
The tag scene has Duncan returning to the loft, still nursing a sore
shoulder, with Anne practically attacking him in concern. Anne is rattled,
says she's starting to like him, doesn't want to see him on one of her
gurneys in the ER, and "would you please leave that Rambo stuff to the
police?"
Duncan says he'll try and be more careful. He lowers himself carefully onto
the couch [seems to me he must have been really injured, like a broken
shoulder or something, to still be hurting for that long], and tells Anne he
sent Kenny home. They cuddle a little. Anne looks up at him and says, "Oh,
we're up to that, are we?"
"Maybe," Duncan answers, and they kiss. What happens next is left to the
imagination.
COMMENTARY: I thought Miles Ferguson did a good job in a difficult role,
especially so for a young actor being called upon to play someone who had
been alive for 800 years. The most interesting aspect of the show, for me,
was when Duncan expressed the view that what Kenny did was no different from
what all Immortals did, despite Duncan's view that his own honor would have
been damaged if he had 'tricked' any of his opponents as Kenny tricked the
Immortals who took him in.
The general disgust with which Duncan described what they did - killing to
survive - was a small peek into some very strong feelings about the nature
of his own existence, and what he had to do to continue living. He appears
to have accepted it as the reality of his life, but he hates it - truly
*hates* it in a way that we rarely see expressed so directly.
I liked the Civil War flashbacks, which involved a meaningless battle that
Duncan tried fruitlessly to prevent. I thought the general
too-young-immortal-trying-to-survive idea they used was a good one, but it
was more intellectually interesting than emotionally compelling, for me. It
might have had more punch if they had had time to spin the plot out a little
more, so that we didn't learn of Kenny's killing ways until after we had
begun to think of him as a more sympathetic character. But that is the
limitation of television, I guess.
As for Anne, she came across as anxious, over-eager, and a bit of a
controlling busybody. I honestly don't know whether it was the actress or
the way the character was written, but even though we've only seen her in a
few episodes so far, and she and Duncan are just barely into a 'relationship
', it already seems doomed. <g>
MacGeorge
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Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 17:28:51 EST
From: EllnT@aol.com
Subject: Immortals Among Us...For Real??
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 23 Mar 2004 to 25 Mar 2004 (#2004-56)
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