HIGHLA-L Digest - 14 Nov 2005 to 15 Nov 2005 (#2005-125)
HIGHLA-L automatic digest system (LISTSERV@lists.psu.edu)
Tue, 15 Nov 2005 22:00:07 -0500
There are 5 messages totalling 296 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Seacouver Repco (3)
2. Mr. Ed??
3. Season Six DVD Commentaries: Two of Hearts
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Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 22:33:13 EST
From: HilandDiva@aol.com
Subject: Re: Seacouver Repco
In a message dated 11/14/2005 1:05:37 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
Immortals_Incorporated@COX.NET writes:
("I'm Duncan MacLeod and I'm immortal, please take
off your clothes...")
This certainly works for me! If only we could count on THAT!
- Arlene
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Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 22:46:17 -0500
From: Sandy Fields <diamonique@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Seacouver Repco
OK.. I just gotta ask this question.
Is Duncan gonna be doing a high speed chase on a motorbike?
-- Sandy (the answer to this question might decide whether I'll spend $ to
see this movie)
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Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 22:46:53 -0500
From: Sandy Fields <diamonique@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Seacouver Repco
At 03:39 PM 11/14/2005, Highlandmg@AOL.COM wrote:
>Old age????? maybe if you check in once a while....
PPPPPFFFFFTTTTTT!!!
-- Sandy
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Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 00:45:54 -0800
From: Just Riding in My Taxi <mlozaouk@comcast.net>
Subject: Mr. Ed??
>And the undeniable sub-text would no doubt inspire a whole new branch of HL
>fanfic....
>
>Nina (if there's already Mister Ed slash out there, I don't want to know)
>mac.westie@verizon.net
>
>
Arrrrgh, no thanks for that visual! But the laugh out loud was great.
>-- Nora (What are horses doing in a motorbike chase?)(That's like bringing a knife to a gunfight!)(Returning to the depths of lurkdom.)
>
>
but they are DEAD horses, no?
>Wendy <Immortals_Incorporated@cox.net>
>Subject: Re: Seacouver Repco
>
>Me:(Have
>I exceeded the daily recommended allowance of paranthetical?)
>
never, Wendy. I've learned a whole new method of communication here (beg)
Wendy goes on
>and a
>small child must appear at least once -
>
or maybe a dwarf? more histerical laughter (I really do know that word is spelled popularly with a 'y'. It's feminista thing heh heh)
> TMar <tmar@polka.co.za>
>Subject: Re: Seacouver Repco
>
>Wendy wrote:
> >No...no..a thousand times *no*. Richie can not come back. If Tessa and
> >Darius and Rebecca and Fitz can't come back, Richie doesn't get to. No
> >way.
>
>But... but... it could all have been a trick by the BREW! Richie might
>not be
>dead! They might have been keeping him "on ice" on holy/unholy (depending
>on which version of the movie you watch) ground! You never know!!
>
You guys never disappoint- smiles for miles. If Marina hadn't answered
Wendy there I'd have been sure the world as we know it was ending.
>Nina (maybe slide the sword under an extra-long beach towel) (do Immies
>tan?)
>mac.westie@verizon.net
>
>
Now there's a question I don't remember (hi Sandy) but I'm sure there's
another Dead Horsey here. Would depend on whether melanin production is
considered to have a protective benefit or a palliative effect??
Marian Z. (from the Lurker's Lounge)
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Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 20:24:17 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge1@verizon.net>
Subject: Season Six DVD Commentaries: Two of Hearts
Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been a long time, but life's been complicated.
Complete commentary with screen captures is at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season6/TwoofHearts.htm
COMMENTARY: Writer James Thorpe tells us that this show was the closest
they came to an ‘audition show’ in that it had a mortal male policemen
paired with an Immortal female, bring their history and values and
motivations into conflict, and would include some sexual heat, and “for
what it was, it worked out very well.” But, Thorpe says, they were just
feeling their way towards an ultimate scenario without knowing what the
goal was. He also reiterates that working on Highlander as his first job
in Hollywood spoiled him for everything that came after.
Bill Panzer says that the show might be called “Moonlighting Meets
Highlander”, which was intentionally written to have a lighter, more
bantering framework, and that’s what Raven ended up trying to be, and
that impetus came from this episode. They decided they weren’t going to
try to replace Adrian with another version of MacLeod because that
wouldn’t be fair to the fans or to Adrian, who he terms a “unique,
powerful force” that couldn’t really be replicated just by throwing
another male/hero Immortal into the lead.
OUTTAKES: They show Claudia Christian’s audition tape as she sits in a
conference room, reading her lines. (yawn)
THE EPISODE: The episode opens in Chicago, where we see a well-guarded
woman bound to a chair and gagged, and another woman and man, armed with
guns, are cautiously moving in from the exterior of the building (an
empty factory). There’s a lot of skulking around and firing of guns, and
the woman (Kate) gets taken by one of the bad guys, who says he’ll kill
her if the good guy doesn’t drop his gun. The good guy (Nick) casually
ends up shooting the woman, then shooting the bad guy as well. Of
course, the woman subsequently revives and the two of the rescue the
damsel in distress, and walk away, arguing casually about who has to pay
for her blouse, and which is the right way to get out of the building.
The wealthy father of the girl they rescued tries to pay them, but they
refuse, then end up engaging in vigorous sex (Kate and Nick, not the
father) which we only view bouncing sheets, and Kate admits that she
modeled for the drawings in the Kama Sutra. In the afterglow, when Kate
admonishes Nick about getting his cholesterol checked and says something
about loving him, he gets suspicious that something is up, convinced
she’s preparing to fight another Immortal, but she won’t talk about it,
which pisses him off.
She flies to Paris, and we see an Immortal by the name of Bartholomew
talking to some nuns about raising money to feed starving children. Kate
arrives in the building and pushes her way past security, murmuring that
while she doesn’t have an appointment, Bartholomew has been expecting
her for “… the past seven hundred years.” She steps into Bartholomew’s
presence and we get a flashback to:
Northern England, 1270: Kate is helping a Berta, a healer who is
treating an hysterical woman in childbirth, insisting that Berta give a
potion that is thought to be a poison, but which succeeds in calming the
mother. Berta is amazed at Kate’s knowledge, and tries to give her the
insignia of the village’s healer, but Kate insists that when she came to
the village, alone and weary, Berta healed her, and was the village’s
true healer because of the love she had in her heart.
Then a recruiter for the Crusades stops in the village, and it is
“Brother” Bartholomew. Kate publicly questions the wisdom of a quest on
which most people die just trying to reach the Holy Land, but
Bartholomew insists that he’s doing the Lord’s work and that everyone
who participates will have their sins forgiven. Then he has a notice put
up saying that half the village’s harvest will be tithed to the local
Baron to help pay for the Crusades. Kate tears down the notice and says
she does not believe it was God’s will. She ends up challenging
Bartholomew, but is shot in the back with an arrow by one of the Baron’s
lackeys.
Back in the present, the two Immortals agree to meet in the parking
garage at noon. They confront each other in the usual way, but when Kate
pulls her sword, B’s two henchmen appear. Apparently his plan is to have
them shoot her so he can take her head. Fortunately, Nick screeches
around the corner in a car, firing his gun as he goes so the henchmen
duck away, Kate jumps in and they speed away.
They arrive back at some house/apartment, arguing about how Nick
shouldn’t have followed her, and we eventually get to another flashback
where we see Kate dumped into a mass grave after she had been shot by
the arrow. When she reaches the village she finds it burned down and
everyone dead, done on advice from Bartholomew to the Baron, to as an
example to other villages to might defy the tithe demand.
In the present, Kate tells Nick that she’s tracked B through the
centuries, and “whenever there was a war, a famine, he’d be there,”
purportedly raising money for charity and refugees, but in fact
siphoning off most of the money for himself. Nick says that rather than
just killing B, they should find the money first so it might actually
benefit the children for whom it was raised. In banter about how much
Kate hates Nick, she jokingly acknowledges that Nick is right.
They break into B’s office and trying to hack into his computer, but
they are being eavesdropped on by someone in a truck outside the
building. A police SWAT team moves in and captures them just as they get
into B’s financial records. The police guy has discovered their cache of
various identity papers and weapons, and is less than impressed by their
“commendations” from the past when they helped police catch bad guys.
Turns out they had B under surveillance for a long time, and turned up
nothing, including looking into the accounts Nick and Kate had turned
up. Now, because Nick and Kate had been caught snooping in B’s office,
they were going to have to terminate their surveillance. The police guy
isn’t happy, and decides to personally escort them to the airport,
having confiscated all their weapons. B has figured out that Kate will
be weaponless and sends his goons after them, and they unfortunately end
up killing the police guy, somehow managing to miss both Nick and Kate
as they escape out a window.
Kate and Nick eventually stop running and have a long conversation, with
Kate insisting that her fight with B was Immortal business and Nick
should never have gotten involved. He asks her if she thinks he’s, “…
the kind of guy who’s gonna sit on his ass and let you walk off and
maybe get whacked?” But she insists that, even though she loves him, the
Immortal part of her life can’t have anything to do with him. But he
tells her he’s part of all her life, or “I’m gone.”
They hear sirens and decide to deal with one issue at a time. They
contact the father of the girl whose life they saved, who had said he
‘owed them’ and asked them to call on him if they ever needed help. He
obviously has some pull with the local underworld, because in short
order they not only have weapons, but a whole jar of homemade pasta sauce.
B’s henchman tells him he’s sure Katherine and Nick must have fled the
country, but B is convinced that Kate, at least, will be coming after
him. He opens a safe in his enormous and richly decorated study, and
inside is a bible whose pages have been cut out. Hidden in the book are
$30 million in diamonds (why he’s sharing this knowledge with a henchman
is a bit of a mystery).
In short (and amusing) order, Nick and Kate take out the guy guarding
the grounds (only one?), and Kate approaches the front with her sword in
her hand (How did she get the sword? Didn’t the police take it from
her?). B, in the process of taking his diamonds and leaving town,
decides to face her, gets out his sword and even tells the henchman to
stay away, adding, “This won’t take long.” (Huh? He’s used henchmen
before, why does he suddenly want to do this mano-a-mano?) He grabs his
Crusader shield on the way out the door.
As they fight, Nick slips into the study, finding the diamonds, but is
shot by the henchman, who comes up to inspect his handiwork. Nick
suddenly kicks out, (he was wearing a bulletproof vest) taking the
henchman down and spilling the diamonds all over the floor. He then goes
outside, preparing to shoot B during their swordfight, but Kate insists
that he stay out of it. Of course, she wins and takes the Q, with a
flame circle rising around her.
Nick approaches and they lovingly look into each other’s eyes and agree
to go on a much-delayed vacation, and talk, making it clear that there
are still a lot of unresolved issues between them.
MY COMMENTS: Well, as I’ve noted above, there are some annoying plot
holes in this story, but by and large it is saved by the charisma and
strong screen presence of Claudia Christian. The relationship between
Kate and Nick is pretty well played, as well, and I think demonstrates
that, ultimately, *all* shows are dependent on interesting,
well-portrayed relationships, no matter the premise. The plot was your
standard going-for-the-one-dimensional-bad-guy story, and the action
sequences were only so-so. Neither Claudia nor the actor who played B
were very good with a sword, so the “action” part of the
action/adventure was pretty uninteresting.
All in all, this character and this actress was by far the best of the
audition-girl episodes, but even so it ended up being, at best, a
marginally average Highlander episode.
MacG
NOTE: All episode commentaries at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/indexframeset.htm
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 14 Nov 2005 to 15 Nov 2005 (#2005-125)
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