HIGHLA-L Digest - 25 Jun 2004 to 26 Jun 2004 (#2004-120)
Automatic digest processor (LISTSERV@lists.psu.edu)
Sat, 26 Jun 2004 22:00:04 -0400
There are 8 messages totalling 620 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Immie sensitivity (was--Re: Chivalry) (3)
2. Season Four dvds: The Colonel (4)
3. [highla] Immortals Among Us...For Real??
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Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 06:06:09 -0700
From: Stephen Bryce <sibryce@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Immie sensitivity (was--Re: Chivalry)
As far as pre-immies sensing Immies is concerned, I'd be remiss if I
didn't point out that Connor apparently sensed The Kurgan before his
1st death.
Steve
=====
"Sometimes diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock."
(Will Rogers)
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 09:13:37 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Re: Immie sensitivity (was--Re: Chivalry)
Good point, but then we all know Connor was "speshial". <g>
MacG
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Bryce" <sibryce@yahoo.com>
To: <HIGHLA-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 9:06 AM
Subject: Re: [HL] Immie sensitivity (was--Re: Chivalry)
> As far as pre-immies sensing Immies is concerned, I'd be remiss if I
> didn't point out that Connor apparently sensed The Kurgan before his
> 1st death.
>
> Steve
>
> =====
> "Sometimes diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find
a rock."
>
> (Will Rogers)
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 09:30:02 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Four dvds: The Colonel
NOTE: html version with screen captures at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/indexframeset.htm
COMMENTARY: Adrian Paul comments that "he'd (speaking of Duncan) rather be
lucky than good", so Duncan was glad that Joe came to his rescue. Every hero
has to have a moment of luck, or something that pays off that he's done in
the past. Everything we do comes back to us in one way or another, so
MacLeod's past with Joe has come back to him. He's actually "made a man who
is hellbent on rules and lives by a code, a secret code at that, made him
actually break" the rules. So it's an honor for MacLeod to have that happen
to him. AP feels that you need to have those moments to expose the hero's
vulnerability of what would have happened if he (Joe) hadn't been there.
Back in WWI, Killian had been hellbent on his own glorification and winning
or losing was more important than its cost in human life. MacLeod had seen
so much death that he knew it wasn't right to send the men into battle,
knowing the peace agreement had been signed, so MacLeod made sure Killian
was incarcerated, and Killian swore revenge once he got out. Usually, by the
time you've been 40 (or was it 70?) years in jail (if you're not Immortal),
you'd be an old man, or dead, and Adrian questions that no one noticed that
Killian hadn't aged in prison.
David A. says that you don't start out writing an episode by saying, "I'm
going to make this one complex and difficult." You just try to make it work
as best you can, and the story leads you in a lot of different directions.
What sometimes may seem like a difficult episode comes easier than the
simplest most straightforward lines. Until "it's revealed" to you (as to
where the story is leading), its *all* hard, and you don't see where you're
going. He doesn't remember this being a difficult one, but perhaps they
tried to fit too much into the one episode, and they wanted to create a sexy
young woman character to play off Amanda.
Gillian H. says the episode was filmed two ways because they were worried
about how dark the show was getting. In the original script, the character
of Melissa gets killed by the Colonel, but they also filmed a version where
she didn't get killed, so the scene when she comes gasping into the dojo was
filmed twice, and the tag was also filmed two ways. In the final edit, it
was decided to let her live. The structure of the show is written as though
she died, especially Amanda's reaction of guilt. But they had just had a run
of dark episodes, and they didn't want it to be "such a downer", so they
gave her a last minute reprieve, so although it doesn't really feel right in
the episode, keeping Melissa alive kept the show from being too depressing
for the family hour.
David A. says he really liked the flashback in this episode, that its one of
his favorites. When MacLeod comes out of the trench and is running towards
the barbed wire fence, "I mean, you're there!" David comments. He says they
had about two-thirds (sometimes half) of the money that network shows had,
and were expected to deliver the same kind of material. Those shows didn't
have to do flashbacks of WWI, but somehow they managed, and a lot of that is
thanks to Ken Gord.
With regard to the fight scene, F. Braun says "the environment dictates the
moves." The area of the last fight scene seemed more restrictive than it
actually was because the area around the underground vault contained a lot
of alcoves and corridors. He looked at how the scene was going to be lit,
mostly shadows and silhouette figures, so swinging sideways and overhead
with the full arm was how to create the visual impression of things coming
in and out and back and forth.
The problem came when they moved out of that hall and into an area that had
concrete girders over the top. Killian now has very little room to swing the
sword, so the moves became vertical every couple of feet. The important
thing to F. Braun was the reason for the fight. The driving force behind
Killian is revenge, and the fight is driven by character.
Gillian says she has always had the theory that when you think you have too
much material to fit into a script, that's when you have enough. If you have
just enough story, in the final analysis it will drag. If you have enough
material for a two hour show, and you fit it into one hour, you have
something that paces well and leaves people wanting more. There are some
episodes in which the domestic version is the better version because that's
how much story material they had. There are other episodes where there was
so much material that even the longer foreign version had scenes that ended
up getting cut, and this was one of those episodes.
OUTTAKES: We see what Gillian said was an entire deleted scene between
Amanda and Joe, where he talks about the rules. Except that, as far as I
could tell, it was the same as the opening scene of the episode.
On a second cut of the end of the same scene, Joe ends up snarling with a
smile and saying suggestively (of Amanda), "You are a piece of work." You
hear the director say with a laugh, "Cut before that line!" (which Jim B.
evidently ad-libbed).
In another cut scene, Joe asks her about whether she had ever considered a
line of work other than stealing. "You see a field of flowers, you just pick
a few," Amanda remarks casually, and says she only steals from people who
can afford it.
Gillian says that it is rare that a fight as long and complex as the opening
fight between Duncan and the thugs can be filmed in one master take. Adrian
Paul's teacher plays one of the on-screen opponents, and "you know you have
a good one when the crew applauds." Then she shows the master of the opening
fight scene, which is extraordinarily well-timed by everyone involved. It is
seen in one long shot from one camera, and at the end we can hear applause
begin.
A blooper is shown of Duncan and Amanda heading for the salon where Melissa
works, and they go into the wrong entrance.
Another blooper is shown of Melissa and Amanda running to the convertible
Melissa had taken, after Amanda had managed to break into the department
store. Amanda can't get the passenger side door open, and after several
tries, you hear an off-camera voice yelling, "Jump in. Just jump in," which
she does.
The unaired version of Melissa's death scene in the dojo, as well as the tag
where Amanda says goodbye to Duncan, is shown. They are both excellent
scenes, and Gillian is right, the story works better if Melissa dies,
including Amanda's heart-felt request that Duncan go to see Joe, because
"life is just too short, for him."
THE EPISODE: It opens with Amanda and Joe at the bar. Joe is talking about
how the Watchers have lived by the same rules for thousands of years. They
observe, record, and "stay the hell out of it." Amanda derides their rules,
both Joe's and MacLeod's ("That is such a guy thing!"). Amanda asks why are
they both so hurt, that Mac changes the subject whenever Joe's name is
mentioned, and that in response to the subject, Joe talks about how much he
and Mac don't have in common.
"Which is absolutely everything!" Joe snarls, and says he has to live by his
oath.
Amanda wheedles and begs prettily, trying to get him to talk to Mac, then
announces he's on his way over because Amanda told him it was Joe's night
off.
As they converse, we see MacLeod going to his car in an underground parking
lot. He is attacked by two thugs. Mac does pretty well against the two guys
in a really complex series of moves, until a guy in a van drives by and zaps
him in the back with a 'tazer, and he goes down hard. The big thug drags an
unconscious MacLeod around and throws him in the van as the driver berates
him ("I thought you were some big-shot fighter!"), then they put MacLeod in
a straight jacket and drive away..
Back in the bar, Amanda watches a young woman hustle an older man out of the
keys to his car, then tells her she's "Not bad for an amateur." They end up
bonding, as Melissa, the girl, talks about her mundane life as a
hairstylist, and how she steals "for the rush". When Duncan doesn't show
(about which Joe seems more disappointed than Amanda), Amanda suggests they
go joy-riding in the stolen car together. Amanda takes Melissa to an
expensive department store and uses a special "digital analyzer" to break
into the store. Once in, they deliberately trigger the alarms, then,
squealing with excitement, run off, jump into the beemer convertible, and
roar away.
The thugs dump Duncan (unconscious again after another brief fight as they
exit the van) in the back room of a warehouse near the docks, and the driver
and Big!Thug talk over how the "Colonel" will arrive anytime. Duncan wakes
up, and as he struggles mightily (and unsuccessfully) to get out of the
straightjacket, he listens to the two thugs talk about boxing and someplace
called "Gleason's Bar. Finally, in a gut-wrenching move, he deliberately
throws his shoulder out of its socket to allow him to (painfully) struggle
out of the straight jacket. Once out, he slams his shoulder into a pillar to
get it back into place.
The Colonel arrives outside the warehouse, and Mac senses an Immortal. As
the thugs go to fetch him, (and we see a woman with a Watcher tattoo taking
pictures), he takes them down. He is getting away when the Colonel's driver
shoots him with an automatic rifle and he goes down, falling underneath the
van. Shots continue to be fired, puncturing the gas tank and then lighting
it on fire as MacLeod rolls out, his clothes on fire, and dives off the dock
into the water and getting away. The Colonel is *not* amused.
Amanda takes Melissa to the dojo, and Duncan arrives, looking like something
the cat dragged in, his clothes burned away in large patches. ("He's
awesome," Melissa murmurs.) There's an awkward moment as Mac tries to cover
the fact that his clothes were in tatters, and Melissa leaves.
Amanda asks about what happened, and we get a flashback to World War I
(France 1918), where MacLeod was a medic. He's in the trenches, transporting
the wounded when he feels another Immortal. It's Colonel Simon Killian, and
he is disdainful of MacLeod's lowly position. "I should think a man of
your... experience, could do better," he says haughtily, and tells Duncan he
is missing out on the opportunity to lead men to glory, but Duncan says he
chose the duty because he'd seen men "die for the same ground too many times
to want to do it again." A message that the war is over is delivered to the
Colonel as he is expounding on his determination to drive the German's "all
the way back to Berlin." Killian is determined to lead the men into battle
and sounds the charge as MacLeod is screaming at him to stop, that the war
is over, even following him into the charge trying to stop the men from
following him, but Killian shoots MacLeod before he can pull him down.
Back in London, Killian is convicted of causing unnecessary deaths of over
300 soldiers and sentenced to death by firing squad. Killian is disdainful
(disdain seems to be his strong suit) of the court, screaming that he was
"Colonel Simon Killian before you were born. I will be Colonel Simon Killian
long after you and yours are dead!" At that point, Duncan steps forward and
begs the court (in the tone and words of "a simple man") not to execute the
Colonel because he's obviously not in his right mind, and that they should
have mercy. As a result, Killian is locked up in an insane asylum, making
friends with the spiders there.
When Amanda asks Duncan why he didn't just let them shoot Killian, Duncan
says that he had to pay the price for the men he had killed. "His crime was
committed in the mortal world. It's only right that he was sentenced by
mortal justice."
The next day Amanda takes Duncan to meet Melissa, and learns that Melissa
has cut and died her hair to look just like Amanda, and dressed like her, as
well. The two ladies bond even more as Amanda gets off on the admiration,
but Duncan is bothered by her drawing a young mortal into her world of
thievery. The rest of the plot involves Killian (who is obsessed with
spiders) kidnapping Melissa, mistaking her for Amanda, and dumping her back
in the dojo as bait for MacLeod to follow him back to his lair.
Duncan follows Killian to an icky, leaf-strewn house while Amanda cradles a
suffering Melissa. Killian's minions arrive and shoot Duncan down with
automatic weapons. He revives inside a cell with a single lightbulb, a sink,
a toilet and stacks of canned liver (the notion of eating canned liver seems
to bother him more than being locked up). Killian comes in, gloating about
how now Duncan is going to suffer the way he had suffered for 70 years of
being locked away, and that Duncan will be locked up for 70 years, as well.
He sticks Duncan's katana in the wall, out of reach, and leaves.
Amanda goes to Joe, who is convinced that since Duncan hasn't been seen
since he went off to meet Killian, he must have lost the fight, but Amanda
is equally convinced that Duncan is alive, that she would "feel it" if he
was dead. Joe says he'll try to find out what happened. He contacts Killian'
s Watcher, Andrea Henson, who comes to visit him at the bar. She is dubious
about his inquiry, but tells him MacLeod isn't dead, but locked up at an
nearby abandoned Air Force base. She tells Joe she's heard rumors about Joe
and MacLeod, that Joe is more than just MacLeod's Watcher. "You're not gonna
get involved, are ya, Joe?" she asks.
Duncan is singing to himself, opening a can of liver when he contemplates
the can opener, deciding to use it instead as a tool to loosen the concrete
around the bars. Duncan is moving the boxes around his cell, when he feels
an Immortal approach. It is Amanda, and when Duncan asks how she found him,
she says she had a little help from a friend, and Joe enters. Their reunion
is tentative, at best, but Duncan says he's going to take a trip to Gleason'
s Bar.
Big!Thug reports to Killian that he saw MacLeod at Gleason's Bar, and even
though Killian doesn't really believe him, he goes to the cell check on
Duncan. Duncan is there, but no longer in the cell. The fight shows Killian
doing a lot of dodging and weaving (I get the impression the actor was an
awkward swordsman). Killian ultimately moves above Duncan onto parallel
girders over his head, but Duncan ultimately disarms him and takes his head.
The Quickening is one I really don't like. It is a weird pseudo soldier
thing intended (I assume) as recognition of Killian's soldier's nature, but
it looked awkward, to me.
Back at the loft, Amanda is packing, getting ready to leave. She is
distressed, feeling guilty about what happened to Melissa and wants has to
go away for a while to "get it together." Duncan tells her the door is
always open, that he'll always be there for her. She asks him to go see Joe,
and when he hesitates, she says that life is too short, for him.
It is during the day, and the bar is deserted except for Joe, when Duncan
walks in.
"You broke the rules," Duncan says, fidgeting with a coaster.
"It wasn't the first time," Joe says. "It was for a good cause," and
confesses that it's hard to say no to Amanda, which Duncan acknowledges.
There is an awkward silence between them. Joe asks if Duncan wants to talk
about it, but Duncan just pulls out a bottle and a couple of shot glasses,
and Joe pours each of them a drink.
MY COMMENTS: Having a good villain is such an important factor in how well
an episode hangs together, and Killian wasn't a good villain. He was just a
complete nut job, who became even more of a nut job after being locked up in
an insane asylum for 70 years. The truly important elements of the story
were Amanda's odd little foray into having her own personal groupie, and Joe
's struggle to decide whether his friendship with MacLeod was more important
than his Watcher oath. Similarly, Duncan had to decide whether the value of
Joe's friendship for both of them overrode his fears about the consequences
of that friendship.
The symbolism of that last moment when Duncan declined to discuss the issue,
but just wanted to share a drink comes, I think, from his line in "The
Vampire", when Duncan tells Joe he only drinks with his friends, then
invites him over for a drink. It is the first big turning point in their
relationship, and Duncan is, in essence, turning back the clock to that
point.
There were, however, some really nice visual and emotional moments in the
episode. While I didn't really believe that centuries-old Amanda would get
so instantly enamored of such a vapid bubble-head as Melissa (and it made
Amanda seem more of a bubble head than usual), their "girls' night out" of
joy-riding and breaking into department stores was kind of fun to watch.
It is interesting the things you don't notice until you study them a little.
I had always though that fight scene in the parking lot was among the more
exciting ones in the series, and hadn't known exactly why until I saw the
raw footage, realizing just how precise every move and reaction had to be
for it to come off as realistic and smooth. The fact that it is all done in
very few shots gives it a sense of realism that a lot of screen fights don't
have.
Also, for some reason, I found that whole scene of Duncan deliberately
dislocating his shoulder to get out of the straightjacket compellingly
creepy.
As a separate point of interest, I noted that the Chronicle entry for
Killian on the dvd reads as follows:
TO: J Shapiro@admin.watchers.org
From: A Henson@field.WEUwatchers.org
Transmitted: 09/18/96
Mr. Shapiro,
You were right, Dawson went for it. The minute I told him MacLeod wasn't
dead, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. And once he managed to get me
to tell him that Killian had MacLeod holed up out at Whitburn Air Force
Base, he couldn't wait to get me out of that bar so he could get on the
phone. As you requested, I've stayed away from Whitburn since then and let
the Internal Affairs guys cover the events out there. I was honored to be
able to help the Tribunal in this matter, and if I can ever be of assistance
again, sir, please do not hesitate to call me.
MacGeorge
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 10:47:07 EDT
From: Chris Hatfield <CMH25@aol.com>
Subject: Re: Immie sensitivity (was--Re: Chivalry)
Sorry to bother the list with this. Would someone tell me how to
unsubscribe? I've lost that e-mail somewhere.
Thanks,
Chris
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 17:34:57 -0400
From: Wendy Tillis <immortals_incorporated@cox.net>
Subject: Re: Season Four dvds: The Colonel
>Usually, by
>the time you've been 40 (or was it 70?) years in jail (if you're not Immortal),
>you'd be an old man, or dead, and Adrian questions that no one noticed that
>Killian hadn't aged in prison.
This was an issue I wish they had bothered to address. Duncan went out of his way to make sure that Killian was punished by mortal laws. He knew that meant jail time - lots of jail time. Did he even think about what the guards might think when Killian was still alive and unchanged 50 years later? Likewise when Methos gets Kalas arrested for Salzer's murder. Did Methos consider the ramifications if someone got to wondering about the amazing ever-young Kalas? TPTB made a point of showing us that Immortals had to move around and change names/identities to avoid being noticed. One of the "Rules" states that the Game isn't to be played in front of mortals. So..what about imprisoned Immortals? What was TPTB's theory on how they escaped notice?
>Back in the bar, Amanda watches a young woman hustle an older man out of
>the keys to his car, then tells her she's "Not bad for an amateur." They end up
>bonding, as Melissa, the girl, talks about her mundane life as a
>hairstylist, and how she steals "for the rush". When Duncan doesn't show
>(about which Joe seems more disappointed than Amanda), Amanda suggests they
>go joy-riding in the stolen car together. Amanda takes Melissa to an
>expensive department store and uses a special "digital analyzer" to break
>into the store. Once in, they deliberately trigger the alarms, then,
>squealing with excitement, run off, jump into the beemer convertible, and
>roar away.
And here is an example of why I disliked Amanda overall. She was fun to have around so that Duncan would smile once in a while. But she was an appalling person <g>. Did Amanda stop and think about what would happen to Melissa if they got caught? That they might have been chased by cops and ended up in a crash? that there could have been a guard with a gun in the store? That Amanda might have 50 years to languish in jail but Melissa doesn't? Even though Melissa survived the experience, she almost died. Sure, Amanda goes off to think about what happened, but she's back by the time of MNO to robbing banks and exposing any near-by mortals to the danger of being caught in a cross-fire with police, being hit by a speeding car, blown up by a bomb etc. One really does wonder how many dead/injured mortals she left behind over the past 1200 years. (Of course I also hated the Raven episode where it supposedly all crashed in one her in one blinding revelation.)
> Finally, in a gut-wrenching move, he deliberately
>throws his shoulder out of its socket to allow him to (painfully) struggle
>out of the straight jacket. Once out, he slams his shoulder into a pillar
>to get it back into place.
Ouch ouch ouch.
>Amanda takes Melissa to the dojo, and Duncan arrives, looking like
>something the cat dragged in, his clothes burned away in large patches. ("He's
>awesome," Melissa murmurs.) There's an awkward moment as Mac tries to cover
>the fact that his clothes were in tatters, and Melissa leaves.
Ah...the amazing regenerating hair. Any fire close enough to burn those artistically placed holes in Duncan's sweater would have shriveled that long hair too. We've all seen how fast hair burns and Duncan was pretty well engulfed in the flames before he hit the water. But..perfect hair. Does Immortal hair act like Immortal skin - instantly healing? If so..how do they get hair cuts? (And we know they do get hair cuts)
>The Quickening is one I really don't like. It is a weird pseudo soldier
>thing intended (I assume) as recognition of Killian's soldier's nature, but
>it looked awkward, to me.
This was one of the most obvious attempts by Adrian to demonstrate that he was receiving some facet of the dead Immortal's essence. It looked dumb. I preferred the old-school shaking and grimacing bit. (Mostly I just fast-forward past all the Quickenings)
>Joe's struggle to decide whether his friendship with MacLeod
>was more important than his Watcher oath.
This would have been more interesting if I thought it was actually a struggle. Joe so desperately wanted to be friends with Duncan that his oath was never much of a concern. I would have preferred to see Amanda step up just once and actually be forced to *do* something...hunt down Killian and force him to talk. ..figure out what had happened and solve the mystery.Instead, she went to Joe, Joe compromised his oath (again) and Duncan was saved.
>Similarly, Duncan had to decide whether the value of
>Joe's friendship for both of them overrode his fears about
> the consequences of that friendship.
Well, having accepted Joe's help in escaping the cell, it would have been ungrateful to continue to snub Joe.
Wendy(The canned liver shows how truly diabolical Killian was.)(I'd have left him with canned ferret.)
Immortals Inc.
immortals_incorporated@cox.net
"Weasels for Eternity"
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 18:37:55 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Re: Season Four dvds: The Colonel
From: "Wendy Tillis" <immortals_incorporated@cox.net>
(snipping some good comments)
> >Amanda takes Melissa to the dojo, and Duncan arrives, looking like
> >something the cat dragged in, his clothes burned away in large patches.
("He's
> >awesome," Melissa murmurs.) There's an awkward moment as Mac tries to
cover
> >the fact that his clothes were in tatters, and Melissa leaves.
>
> Ah...the amazing regenerating hair. Any fire close enough to burn those
artistically placed holes in Duncan's sweater would have shriveled that long
hair too. We've all seen how fast hair burns and Duncan was pretty well
engulfed in the flames before he hit the water. But..perfect hair. Does
Immortal hair act like Immortal skin - instantly healing? If so..how do
they get hair cuts? (And we know they do get hair cuts)
It was more than perfect hair, it was in artful disarray. That, plus those
artistically crafted sweater holes were much of the reason Melissa's "He's
awsome" comment was stating the obvious. Can you picture Dunk with half his
hair burned off, and the other half all in bizarre hunks and tufts? Makes
me smile to think about it.
MacG
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 18:37:59 -0700
From: Don Dartfield <twodeel@jornada.org>
Subject: Re: [highla] Immortals Among Us...For Real??
On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 EllnT@aol.com wrote:
> Read an article today that claims that immortals are rare but real.
> Here's a snippet.
>
> REAL-LIFE IMMORTALS WALK THE EARTH - And you could be one of them!
>
> By Michael Forsyth
>
> IMMORTALS really do exist, according to researchers who say
> approximately one in every 200,000 people has a flaw in their aging gene
> that allows them to live indefinitely! But unlike the broadsword-
> wielding heroes portrayed by Christopher Lambert in the hit movie
> Highlander and Adrian Paul in the cult TV series, real-life immortals
> can be permanently dispatched by means other than chopping off their
> heads.
I bet this article came straight out of the Weekly World News, the tabloid
that makes up all their stories (and probably photographs too -- they're
famous for their pictures of "Bat Boy"), and should be read with
appropriate skepticism. Unfortunately, Yahoo runs some of the Weekly
World News's stories without clearly identifying them as fakes, which is
especially bad since people don't think of Yahoo as a source of fake news.
If a news story seems over the top to me, what I usually do is look at the
first sentence. About 95% of Weekly World News's stories have first
sentences that end in exclamation points -- especially if it is
unnecessary and makes the article sound goofy.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 15:42:47 -1000
From: MacWestie <mac.westie@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: Season Four dvds: The Colonel
Wendy--
>>>> This was an issue I wish they had bothered to address. Duncan went out
of his way to make sure that Killian was punished by mortal laws. He knew
that meant jail time - lots of jail time. Did he even think about what the
guards might think when Killian was still alive and unchanged 50 years
later? >>>
Well, in the far past, there were less detailed records & photographs, & as
the guards left or died off, who would know? But for the last couple
hundred years--yes, this is an obvious problem, & DM totally ignores it.
And, that decision he makes re: Killian is at odds w/ DM's opinion other
times, when he says that mortal laws aren't made for Immies/can't handle
Immies. (I recall him telling Doc Anne that about someone, & of course he
was right & she was TOTALLY wrong.) The evil Immies who really pissed off
DM throughout the entire series almost always had harmed mortals, like
Killian did, so they "deserved" mortal punishment too; yet DM personally
whacked all those Immies w/o remorse--just as he should have done. Why he
would want Killian alone to abide in jail for decades escapes me. Sure--it
would suck--but he would still be ALIVE, & he would eventually escape,
so....
>>> So..what about imprisoned Immortals? What was TPTB's theory on how they
escaped notice?
I'd assume most Immies would soon suicide or get themselves killed to revive
someplace less secure & escape. Poof. Like Annie Devlin did, for instance.
(Guess that's something that didn't occur to Killian--the spiders must have
shriveled his brain. Of course, in the flashback DM doesn't consider the
possibility Killian could quickly escape mortal justice that way, when he's
rather pompously deciding Killian's fate.)
>>> Ah...the amazing regenerating hair. Any fire close enough to burn those
artistically placed holes in Duncan's sweater would have shriveled that long
hair too. We've all seen how fast hair burns and Duncan was pretty well
engulfed in the flames before he hit the water. But..perfect hair. Does
Immortal hair act like Immortal skin - instantly healing? If so..how do
they get hair cuts? (And we know they do get hair cuts)>>>
It's almost as though some personal time travel is involved. Immortal
wormholes. Any injury to an Immortal triggers a temporal distortion that
gradually (so that it _looks_ like fast healing) draws the Immie's body back
to the time just before the injury--while somehow leaving the Immie's memory
intact & of course causing no changes to things (not even clothes being
worn) or people in the area. It would explain the lack of aging (though
Connor's wormhole has clearly gotten out of whack), & no scars, & even
perfect hair after burning. It doesn't explain haircuts, though--much less
Amanda's extreme bleach jobs.
>>> This would have been more interesting if I thought it was actually a
struggle. Joe so desperately wanted to be friends with Duncan that his oath
was never much of a concern.>>>
Joe was an Immie groupie; probably most Watchers would be, unless they went
over into stalkerhood like Horton. But Joe, in a sad kind of way, _needed_
to be pals w/ DM--his pretty oath be damned. His attitude didn't reflect
well on him OR on the Watchers (a creepy group really).
> Wendy(The canned liver shows how truly diabolical Killian was.)(I'd have
left him with canned ferret.)
And made them creep, alive, into the cans.... The lone light bulb was the
worst thing about Killian's little cell. Imagine just waiting for it to go
out..........
Nina
mac.westie@verizon.net
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 25 Jun 2004 to 26 Jun 2004 (#2004-120)
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