HIGHLA-L Digest - 10 Jul 2004 to 20 Jul 2004 (#2004-129)
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Tue, 20 Jul 2004 22:00:05 -0400
There are 4 messages totalling 466 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Moments That Make You Go "hmmmm" (3)
2. Season Four DVD Commentary: Timeless
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Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 16:44:27 -0400
From: Wendy Tillis <immortals_incorporated@cox.net>
Subject: Moments That Make You Go "hmmmm"
It's too darned quiet here.
I was watching "Mortal Sins" the other day (why does SPIKE-TV keep showing
the same episodes over and over and over again?). It came to the scene
where Duncan is going after Daimler and he walks into Daimler's HQ to find
a bunch of skinheads waiting for him. These are rough, leather-wearing,
Neo-Nazis just hanging around waiting for Duncan to show up so they can
beat him to a pulp. And then I notice that one of them is drinking from a
large plastic bottle. Yep...bottled water in a liter-sized plastic bottle.
Not beer. Not wine. Not whiskey (or whisky). Water. The big bad skinheads
sit around, over bottles of spring water, plotting to wipe out the mud-people
It just made me go "hmmmmmmm".
Wendy(I managed to sneak out of town - and back- without returning to the
remains of a drunken pool party.)(You people are slipping.)(Or getting a
lot better at cleaning up.)
Immortals_Incorporated@cox.net
"Weasels For Eternity"
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 17:14:54 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Four DVD Commentary: Timeless
I'm baaaack...
html version w/screen captures available at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season4/Timeless.htm
COMMENTARY: Gillian says they got letters “about MacLeod in drag.” While
historically, men did play female characters, they would, in fact, be
more “boyish” than MacLeod, but they had a lot of fun with it. The
original version of the episode was not as lighthearted as the final
product turned out. The writer’s outline had the same basic plot points,
the only change they decided on was that Walter shouldn’t die. That was
not a minor change, obviously, because it changed the entire tone of the
episode, since Walter suddenly becomes a more sympathetic figure that
the audience is supposed to like. There is a question, however, of which
is the “A” story and which is the “B” story. Claudia and Walter are the
guest stars of the week, but the Alexa love story is just as (if not
more) memorable.
Peter W. tells us that the casting of Alexa was “crucial”. The script
said that Methos meets a girl he is powerfully attracted to, and it
would have been easy to cast some gorgeous “L.A. Bombshell” for the
part, but that wouldn’t have worked. The casting of Ocean said a lot
about Methos, as well as being an interesting dynamic because of the
physical differences between himself and Ocean because she had a sense
of frailty about her. Peter says there were a couple of occasions in his
life when, from the first moment he met someone, he knew it was special.
The idea that there can be a soulmate, somebody for everybody is a
common theme throughout literature and Peter didn’t know exactly what it
was about Alexa that appealed to Methos, perhaps her vulnerability, her
humor. What Peter was interested in was the idea that you could meet
someone and just know they are special, and that in a hundred lifetimes,
you would only meet one like that.
The director, Duane Clark, let them play a scene, then he would take
Ocean off to one side and whisper in her ear, then take Peter off to one
side and whisper in his ear, so that they would then play the scene
again intently focused on each other, trying to figure out what the
director had said to the other actor. It created a great connection
between them on screen, with the two of them “living together in that
moment because you know that something is going to be different, but you
don’t know what it is.”
Peter says there was a great power to the story, and he was amazed
although there were only a handful of scenes between the two characters,
there is a “sense of whole worlds moving, of huge things going on.”
OUTTAKES: The flashback had to be cut back in editing, Gillian tells us,
and notes that the full scene gives a “little more of the goofy side of
Duncan MacLeod and Adrian Paul,” and includes Gillian’s favorite line to
MacLeod, “When you can best me with a sword, then you can play a man’s
part.” Gillian notes that, “apparently Walter didn’t see the bathtub
scene from “Chivalry.” (Hmm. I wonder what she could possibly mean.)
There is a scene from the flashback that was cut, that contains to men
in the background, holding a donkey. It was intended to be a sight gag,
but it didn’t work. The sword fight between Duncan and the drunk backs
up towards the two men and Duncan yells, “Mind your ass!” They were
right to cut it. The joke fell flat.
Finally, they showed several takes of the final duel between Duncan and
Walter. The guest actor, Ron Halder, was a classically trained actor who
had never worked in television before. Gillian tells us that it isn’t
very often that a long, complicated fight can be filmed in one master
take from start to finish, with only a few bobbles along the way, “such
as Ron ducking into a blow and almost losing his head for real if not
for Adrian’s quick reaction.”
The first three starts are bobbled by Ron, ending with the move Gillian
describes, but then they get into the rhythm of it, and the fight goes
on and on, with both of them really into it until Duncan breathlessly
delivers his line about sparing Claudia. They do it again, filming it
from another angle, and this time Adrian misses a beat, so they start
from there and move on, both of them seeming to really enjoy it, and
even though Adrian blows a line, they continue to the end, apparently
for the satisfaction of getting through the scene.
Then they show the original version of the scene of the moment when
Methos asks Duncan about whether he’s ever felt about someone the way he
feels about Alexa. Gillian tells us it was intended that it be clear
that Duncan was thinking about Tessa, while the final version ended up
getting cut so that it looks like he is looking at Claudia and thinking
about her. In the original, Duncan’s look cuts to a flashback of when
Duncan first meets Tessa.
VIDEO COMMENTARY: Gillian tells us that “Timeless” was one of her very
favorite episode, and that the two stories built into it really worked
together, and that this is another example of Duncan looking out for
someone who was destined to become an Immortal. The writer, Karen
Harris, was a former mentor of Gillian’s, who “got it” with regard to
the theme of how does Immortality affect your ability to engage with the
world.
Ocean Hellman was perfect casting for the role, and it turned out that
she and Jim Byrnes were old friends from when Ocean’s mother used to
take her to bars where Jim was playing, so the chemistry between her and
Joe stemmed from a natural friendship. The name “Alexa Bond” was one of
the first things they had about her. They felt “Alexa” was slightly
exotic, but “Bond” was normal.
Gillian tells us that this episode clarifies the whole notion of whether
another Immortal can sense a pre-Immortal, which had been left vague
from Duncan and Connor’s initial encounter with Richie. Duncan’s comment
about wanting Claudia to have a normal life as long as possible is also
an after-the-fact explanation of Duncan’s looking after Richie in the
first season.
Ron Halder was one of Gillian’s favorite guest stars, and she describes
him as a guy who is very much like Walter, a larger than life impresario
Shakespearean stage actor. Duncan, Gillian comments, tends to fall in
with “these charming rogues, the Benny Carbasa’s, the Amanda’s, and
Walter fits into that category.” He’s insufferable, but he’s so genuine
and innocent about it, you can’t really blame him.
She says that Adrian was really good natured about doing the flashback
scenes and that not everyone would have been able to pull it off, “with
such aplomb, wearing that dress, letting Walter stuff their bosom.” He
also does “a fashion show” of just about every wig they had ever used.
During the scene in the bar between Methos and Alexa, Gillian poses the
question, “Which is it? Is he cute because he’s “doing cute” and thought
that she would like it? Or is this genuine nervousness? Kinda never know
with this guy.” But she said she does buy that even after 5,000 years of
life he would still be nervous, and she says this particular romance
really charmed them all, even David Abramowitz to the extent that he
didn’t want to let it drop. The romance plays through the rest of the
season, even though the character of Alexa never appeared again.
Gillian notes that Walter had a very benign view of life as an Immortal,
which he describes to Claudia. She said the episodes had gotten very
dark, and gotten to the point that Adrian had reminded them that they
needed to point out that there were good things about immortality, that
you get to see art and history and do so many things, and that it isn’t
always about killing and dying.
In the park scene with Alexa and Methos, it wasn’t supposed to be
raining that day. Every time Gillian watches that scene, she thinks they
must’ve been crazy. Who would go find that guy listening to music in the
park in the rain, and not think he “was a nutbar”? But they had to move
forward with filming, so they gave her a bubble umbrella, and the actors
just pretended that it was the most normal thing in the world for them
to sit on wet benches in the pouring rain, with her already being in
frail health.
Gillian said that the notion that Claudia suddenly couldn’t play was
hard to sell, although the notion that the wellspring of art comes from
the notion of mortality is a good one.
In the confrontation between Methos and Joe about Alexa, Gillian notes
that we see a glimpse of the man behind Adam Pierson’s mask, and the
line, “twenty years or six months” is the key to the whole episode, but
that line almost got cut from the show. It had disappeared from one of
the versions, and it was Peter Wingfield who called the office and asked
for the line back.
Gillian notes risk inherent in Claudia’s decision about whether to learn
to use a sword, or Alexa’s decision to take what time she had left and
spend it with “Adam”. “Why not have a life for as much life as you
have?” Gillian asks. The romance intrigued them all so much, especially
Gillian, that the stories that ended up being sequels to this one were
the beginning of the anthology of stories they later wrote, “because I
wanted to see what happened next.”
Gillian also says the final swordfight is one of her favorites, and that
they never cast for swordfighting ability, and in this case they were
very lucky that not only was Ron Halder athletic, but well trained, so
they were able to incorporate a long, complicated fight.
Because there are two stories being told, there are two tags, one for
Claudia and one for Alexa. Normally the primary story ends last, but in
this episode, there are several tags as they go back and forth, leaving
you wondering which story is primary, which is as it should be.
THE EPISODE: (abbreviated version that incorporates some commentary)
Claudia Jardine, a young, brilliant classical pianist, is a long-time
protege of Duncan’s, and is being stalked by someone trying to kill her.
It turns out her stalker is an old friend of Duncan’s, Walter Reinhart,
a larger-than-life Immortal impresario who want to kill Claudia at the
peak of her talents - because she is a pre-Immortal.
Claudia is a bit of a diva, spoiled and egocentric, but also charming
and more than a little frightened about being stalked, who Duncan has
looked after since he found her living with a foster family when she was
14, paying for her music education at the finest schools.
At Joe’s bar, where Duncan takes Claudia, Methos has met the new
waitress, a small, ethereally beautiful woman by the name of Alexa Bond,
and he instantly is taken with her, although she rejects him as a little
too cynical for her taste. [NOTE: I found two things interesting about
these scenes. First, it appears that even Joe didn’t know that Duncan
was the backer of such an evidently famous classical performer, so
Duncan plays a lot of things pretty close to the vest. Second, the
chemistry between Alexa and Adam Pierson just leaps off the screen.
There have been lots of comments about what makes for good chemistry
between actors, but we see both of them totally focused on each other,
totally in the moment. I do think it is acting skill and talent, and a
willingness to open yourself up emotionally, to take that risk, and
that’s when chemistry happens. Also, as a side note, the jam-session
between Claudia and Joe shows Joe really playing and going to town,
while Rae Dawn Chong does a fairly poor job of faking playing the piano.]
Then we meet Walter face-to-face, and are shown the flashback to rural
England in 1663 (Duncan is only about 70 years old, and the flashback
takes place almost immediately after he escaped the clutches of
Kristin), where Duncan is playing the women’s parts in a troop of
traveling players, with Walter the head of the group.
Bumpkin!Cross-Dressing!Duncan is silly and funny and charming in a
hide-your-face-behind-your-hands kind of way. (Talk about actors taking
risks!)
Walter first charms Claudia, then tries to convince Duncan that killing
Claudia now will preserve her great gift, but Duncan insists that, “It’s
not up to us to decide when a mortal life is over.” However Walter, who
has no talent of his own but admires it greatly in others, is determined
to murder Claudia and take her under his wing to develop and preserve
her genius.
Methos goes to Duncan, babbling about Alexa like a schoolboy with a
crush, but when they talk about what to do about Claudia, and Methos
suggests telling her the truth, Duncan declines, saying, “It would be
nice if she had some semblance of a normal life. Once she finds out what
she is, that becomes impossible.”
Methos sits himself at a table at Joe’s so he can be sure and be waited
on by Alexa, who looks dubious while Methos twiddles his hands
nervously, and rubs his palms on his jeans. His breath even catches when
she accuses him of using a line on her and he tells her he’s never used
it before, “to the best of my recollection.” And when she asks him why
he wants to go out with her, he delivers the oft-quoted line, “Because
the alternative is unthinkable,” which seems to overcome her hesitation,
and she agrees to meet him for a date. [NOTE: This is beautifully played
by both of them.] But Methos soon learns from Joe that Alexa is dying.
In the meantime, Walter has finally managed to kill Claudia, shooting
her as she and Duncan return from going out for dinner. When Claudia
finds out what she is, and that Duncan has known all along, she his
sponsorship of her and asks whether he liked her at all, “even a
little.” Walter steps in, claiming that he will now take care of her,
and once Claudia accepts the reality of her Immortality, she is elated
that she will never age, never get arthritis or loose her ability to
play. Duncan is pissed off at Walter, and warns Claudia that she will
only “play forever” so long as she deals with the realities of being
Immortal, and keeps her head.
Alexa finds Methos sitting in the rain in a park, listening to music on
headphones, and tries to cancel their date. Methos is charming and
witty, asking if it is his nose that has put her off, making her laugh,
and when he reaches up to gently move her hair from her face, the
intensity of their connection is palpable. She tells him at last that’s
she’s dying, that they can’t go out tomorrow. Methos solemnly agrees
with her, and there is a long, pregnant moment of silence until he
states firmly that, “We’d better make it tonight.”
Unfortunately, now that Claudia knows she has all the time in the world,
she has lost the emotional power of her music. As Claudia flees Joe’s,
with Walter and Duncan on her heels, Methos arrives looking for Alexa.
Joe tells him that Alexa doesn’t want to see him, and we suddenly see
Methos emerge, telling Joe he wasn’t asking Joe’s opinion. “I know she’s
dying. You are all dying. Twenty years, six months, what’s the difference?!”
He goes to Alexa’s house, and she tells him it was a mistake to agree to
go out with him, that her life is going to get ugly. Methos tells her it
will be beautiful to him, and that whatever happens, he can handle it,
if she will let him. She asks why he would want to do that, and he
answers once again, “Because the alternative is unthinkable.”
“Do you ever just wish that time could stand still?” she asks sadly. He
doesn’t answer, but hands her plane tickets to Paris, and offers to take
her anywhere, or everywhere, if there is time. “It’s not that easy,” she
insists.
“Yes it is. You spend whatever time you have left dying, or you spend it
living... with me.”
In the meantime, Walter is pressuring Claudia to keep trying to play
until she gets angry, accusing him of ruining her talent, saying she’d
be better off dead, then arrogantly instructs Duncan to, “Make him go
away.” Walter is incensed, saying she belonged to him, that he made her.
Walter and Duncan have a confrontation where Walter tells Duncan “It can
be deadly to stand between a man and his dreams.”
Duncan presents Claudia with a sword, and when she rejects it, he gently
tells her that he had the same fears when he first became Immortal, and
that he can’t assure her she will ever get her gift back, but “there’s
future upon future, lifetime upon lifetime out there for you.” And when
she sadly says she’s nothing now without her talent, he tells her that
“talent is something that you have, not who you are.” Claudia thinks no
one will care about her if she can’t play, but Duncan tells her that he
will care.
He takes her to a Buddhist retreat to give her time to think and to be
safe until she is ready to start her training, but Walter intervenes,
shooting Duncan. Claudia and Walter argue, and she insists he took away
her talent. Enraged, he puts a sword to her throat, but Duncan has
(quite quickly) revived, and puts his own sword to Walter’s throat. “No,
Duncan, let him,” Claudia responds in resignation, but Duncan is royally
pissed by now and orders Claudia to wait inside the monastery.
Walter is certain he will win, having last seen Duncan’s sword skills
about 350 years before. The fighting is fast and furious, but there is
an atmosphere of competition rather than threat, and I certainly got the
sense that neither of them felt that, when it came to it, the other
would really take his head. Sure enough, Duncan disarms Walter and makes
him swear to leave Claudia alone, threatening to take Walter’s head just
to shut him up after he dramatically spouts some more Shakespeare (“Out,
out, brief candle....”). After initially crossing his fingers behind his
back as he swears, Duncan makes Walter show his hands and swear again.
They walk off with Walter spouting some original poetry and discussing
Duncan’s improved swordsmanship.
Claudia, as a result of Walter’s almost killing her, has found her music
again. She refuses to train to protect her self because, “I have to fear
death in order to feel my music, in order to feel mortal.” The notion of
Claudia being unprotected and unskilled troubles Duncan a lot, but she
insists that’s the way she has to live.
The final scene is outside Joe’s where Methos and Alexa are loading up
an old van to take a driving trip coast-to-coast, then they plan to go
to Egypt. Methos stops to talk to Duncan. “It’s not long enough,” he sighs.
“It never is,” Duncan answers. As they drive away Joe observes that
Alexa may not make it to Egypt. “It doesn’t matter,” Duncan tells him.
“Even if she lives to be 100, he’ll still have the pain of losing her.”
When Joe learns that Claudia has left not learning how to protect
herself, he sighs sadly. “One of them trying to die and one of them
trying to live. It’s crazy.”
“Not for her,” Duncan answers.
SUMMARY: This is one of the top ten episodes of the entire HL series. It
has everything in it, wonderful performances, a resonant theme, and is
chock full of both humor and pathos. The production values are rich in
color and visual interest, and everybody just looks so damned good.
Walter is handsome and elaborately debonair, “Adam” is charming and
winsome, Alexa has a transcendent beauty, Joe looks ruggedly handsome,
and Duncan looks great in every scene, even the ones where he is a
poorly shaven cross-dresser in a wig. Even Claudia looks lovely, and
conveys a wonderful brattiness, but still manages to be vulnerable and
likeable.
It’s not perfect. Gillian is right, the sudden loss of Claudia’s gift as
a performer creates a believability gap, and Duncan makes for a rather
tall, unshaven woman, although he gives it his best shot. <g>
MacGeorge
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Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 18:04:57 -0700
From: Gregory Mate <gmate@rogers.com>
Subject: Re: Moments That Make You Go "hmmmm"
Wendy scares the lurkers by yelling:
>It's too darned quiet here.
We're hunting wabbits. Shhh!
>the same episodes over and over and over again?). It came to the scene
>where Duncan is going after Daimler and he walks into Daimler's HQ to find
>a bunch of skinheads waiting for him. These are rough, leather-wearing,
Actually they're balding, only looking rough to panhandle more effectively,
and their tie-dyes are at the laundromat. These days, it is more
fashionable for people losing their hair to go clean-shaven than have a
comb-over.
>Neo-Nazis just hanging around waiting for Duncan to show up so they can
>beat him to a pulp. And then I notice that one of them is drinking from a
>large plastic bottle. Yep...bottled water in a liter-sized plastic bottle.
Could have been gin, vodka or peppermint schnapps. Without tasting it, how
can you tell?
....Greg....
gmate@rogers.com
"Comb-Over Tie Dye Peppermint Schnapp Neo-Nazis" -- coming to a theatre
near you!
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Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 17:08:44 -0700
From: Jen Allen <jen@jendaveallen.com>
Subject: Re: Moments That Make You Go "hmmmm"
Wendy Tillis wrote:
> It just made me go "hmmmmmmm".
I was reading _Household Gods_, by Judith Tarr/Harry Turtledove, and the
main character, Nicole, mentions that her sexual fantasies were usually
Mel Gibson and Adrian Paul.
It didn't specify if they were together in these fantasies, but the
'and' did make me go "hmmmmmm". <eg>
> Wendy(I managed to sneak out of town - and back- without returning to the
> remains of a drunken pool party.)(You people are slipping.)(Or getting a
> lot better at cleaning up.)
/whistles innocently
Who, us?
Jen
--
, ,
/ \/ \
(/ //_ \_
.-._ \|| . \
\ '-._ _,:__.-"/---\_ \
______/___ '. .--------------------'~-'--.)__( , )\ \
`'--.___ _\ / | Jen Allen ,' \)|\ `\|
/_.-' _\ \ _:,_ Chronicler for JL Dawson " || (
.'__ _.' \'-/,`-~` Bryan Cutler and Jim O'Leary |/
'. ___.> /=,| http://www.jendaveallen.com |
/ .-'/_ ) '---------------------------------'
snd )' ( /(/
\\ "
'=='
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 10 Jul 2004 to 20 Jul 2004 (#2004-129)
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