HIGHLA-L Digest - 19 Nov 2004 to 20 Nov 2004 (#2004-208)
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Sat, 20 Nov 2004 22:00:16 -0500
There is one message totalling 265 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Five DVDs: Rev 6:8 - rough cut
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Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 18:22:45 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Five DVDs: Rev 6:8 - rough cut
G&D express their admiration at the editors’ succinct summarization of a
complex episode’s events on the “last week on Highlander” prologue. This
episode was also 7 to 10 minutes overtime, and by the time they knew
that, the CAH episode had been locked, and could not be changed. So the
decision to drop the Greek portion of CAH was fortunate. If they hadn’t,
they wouldn’t have been able to drop the Greek flashback out of Rev, and
they would have had a serious problem.
Gillian tells us that Peter was thrilled when he got the script, which
was a complete surprise to him. He said that it fortunate that he didn’t
have to audition for the part because he was one of the three actors who
had lied on his resume about being able to ride.
G&D tell us she was flattered that that the Vancouver crew, who normally
only worry about the technicalities what they have to do to prepare a
set for Vancouver, bugged them for copies of the script so they could
find out how the two-parter ended, and that they were worried Methos was
going to get killed off.
Ken Gord was the one who found the abandoned submarine base location,
which was then occupied by the sculptor who created the chairs and other
strange looking objects. The writers originally had it set in a French
chateau.
The “What goes better with rat, red or white?” line from Caspian was
added post-production to cover a large whole in the filmed dialogue.
Mapping the four horsemen to the legend, Gillian tells us that Methos is
(obviously) Death; Kronos is Pestilence (because of the virus); Caspian
is obviously Famine, and Silas was War. The Pestilence plot was added
late in the game. Kronos was originally supposed to have some kind of
nuclear device, but it was Adrian Paul who felt that doing something
with a virus would be more interesting.
In the scene in the church between Duncan and Methos, Gillian comments
that it is a classic example of talking at cross purposes, of each not
really listening, since each figures they already know what the other is
going to say.
In the flashback to the Horsemen’s camp, when Kronos says it is time to
share Cassandra, she tells Methos to “send him (meaning Kronos) away”
and is utterly shocked when he turns away, letting Kronos take her, and
there is more of Cassandra being dragged screaming through the village.
At the submarine base, as Kronos takes Methos to see Cassandra there is
a significant scene that was cut. They stand above where her cage is
located, looking down at it:
Kronos: Look around. This is your whole world now.
Methos: You mistake me.
Kronos: Try to leave, and the moment I sense you’re gone, she dies.
Methos: Why would I care?
Kronos: You can’t out think me, you can’t out fight me, and you sure as
hell can’t kill me!
Methos: You’re sure of that, are you?
Kronos: You had your chance, and you couldn’t take it.
(flashback to Ios in 4th century BC). Gillian and Donna talk over all
the dialogue about how bad it was, and it was the first scene filmed for
the episode. Gillian says she doesn’t know what was worse, the script,
the location, the costumes or the writing. Donna votes for the wigs as
being the worst. At the time, they swore they would never show the scene
to anyone. I had to turn off their chattering to capture what was said.
KRONOS: (emerging from a ruin, as Methos takes a scroll from a dead
body): Methos the scholar. That’s a good one, brother.
METHOS: It’s what I want to do, to study and learn.
KRONOS: What for? What’ve you got to learn?
METHOS: Everything! About the world, about myself. About who we are.
KRONOS: I can tell you who we are.
METHOS: Can you? (pouring wine into a cup)
KRONOS: I am Kronos. I always have been and I always will be and you are
exactly like me. We are what we are, and it’s more than enough.
METHOS: It’s not enough for me. People who don’t learn from their
mistakes, repeat them.
KRONOS: We don’t make mistakes! We make HISTORY! Give me a drink.
(Methos opens his “secret decoder ring” and puts powder in the cup as he
pours). You’re getting too damn serious for your own good. Turning into
a Greek.
METHOS: Thank you.
KRONOS: Just be careful you don’t forget what you really are.
METHOS: I never forget what I am. The more I learn the more aware I become.
(Kronos drinks, and Methos walks away)
KRONOS: Where do you think you’re going?
(Methos stops and turns)
METHOS: It’s what I’m trying to tell you. I’ve finished riding with you.
(he turns away)
KRONOS: Sit Down! (Methos stops) Don’t make me say that again.
METHOS: You don’t need me!
KRONOS: There are four horsemen, there always will be.
METHOS: Then you find someone else to take my place.
KRONOS: That’s impossible. We four are brothers. The blood we’ve spilt
binds us, and only blood can separate us. You still don’t understand do
you Methos? For you to leave the horsemen, you must leave your head.
(Methos draws his sword)
METHOS: I was afraid you might see it that way. (They circle each other,
and Kronos looks a little woozy.)
KRONOS: Fight me, and don’t think you’ll live to learn anything from it.
(Kronos collapses to his knees, then looks up.) The wine. (He falls to
the ground, and Methos easily deflects his one attempt at a blow.)
METHOS: A little something I came across during my studies. That potion
would be enough to kill most people. It will stop even you.
(Methos is seen sliding the bolt in place in a grate over a well)
KRONOS: (inside the well) Traitor! Coward! Fight me!
METHOS: Why would I do that? I’ve already beaten you!
KRONOS: Your life is mine! Your head is mine!
(back in the present, at the submarine base)
KRONOS: So, you had your thousand years of study, while I had a thousand
years of crusts of bread flung to me by the priests you left.
Gillian asks whether Kronos is actually smarter than Methos, but then
answers her own question by saying that Kronos is smarter than Methos
when Methos is “off his game”. Most of Methos’ tricks don’t work, and
throughout Kronos is one step ahead of him. It is only because Duncan is
“so good” (which, as the hero, he is supposed to be), that disaster is
averted. Although, Gillian says, it could be argued that Methos was
*really* Machiavellian and orchestrated every move and countermove,
knowing what Kronos’ reaction would be.
The sword fight between Caspian and Duncan was, Gillian and Donna
report, one of the happiest days in Marcus T.’s life and one of AP’s
more frustrating days, as he was both acting in it and directing it. One
set of the film from that day was lost from one of the three cameras.
The scene is all right because there was enough film from the two
cameras to cut together, but it would have been much better if they had
had the film from the third camera.
At the end of the scene between Methos and Cassandra, there is some cut
dialogue where Methos says he had his chance with Kronos “and I couldn’t
strike!” Gillian says that every one of the filmed cuts that were made
actually left Methos’ motives more ambiguous, and that wasn’t a bad
thing because it left room for more revelations later on.
When Duncan delivers his line about Cassandra preferring death to being
Kronos’ pawn, Gillian notes that that is something Duncan and Cassandra
have in common – that they can envision a “fate worse than death”, and
that is something Methos does not do, because once you are dead there is
no opportunity to improve your lot – game over.
Gillian tells us when Methos delivers the line to Silas, “You know
nothing about me,” the original line was “You have no idea who I am.”
She also notes that it makes a huge difference who kills their opponent
first in the fight scene. Does Duncan kill Kronos first, or does Methos
kill Silas first, and how does that impact the other fighters reactions?
The idea of the end of the battle included some kind of joining of the
Quickenings in a vortex, but the vortex they were able to create with
the technology they had at the time, Gillian says, “was more of a
corkscrew.” What we see in the rough cut is PW and AP against a blue
screen some of the time, and them reacting in the base some of the time,
but one interesting reaction that I don’t recall seeing in the aired
version was each of them reaching out towards each other as the
Quickening battered them.
Gillian notes that “normally Adrian Paul does all the quickenings, and
that somehow he managed to pull off “the combination of pain and
emotional intensity and intimacy that this requires, and almost no one
else can do it, I think.”
Notably, in this version, Duncan only tells Cassandra once that he wants
her to live before she drops the axe. (Donna: He may be a murdering
bastard, but he’s my murdering bastard)
As Methos and Duncan walk away after he says his line about “a thousand
regrets”, Gillian says it makes her wish they still had a show so they
could explore another one of those thousand regrets.
MY COMMENTS: She’s not the only one who wishes there were more chances
to tell Methos’ – and every one else’s – story. The extra moments in
this cut were mostly of the Greek flashback, and we are all better off
that it was never aired. The dialogue is stiff and unnatural, the
attempt to poison Kronos was stupidly portrayed, the costumes and wigs
were horrid and even the blocking and movement looked bad. We can,
however, use the general idea that Methos tried to leave the Horsemen,
Kronos told him his head was forfeit if he did, and that Methos tricked
him so he could escape, evidently unable to take that final stroke that
would end Kronos’ life forever. Those events put Methos’ final remarks
to Duncan in context – that they were brothers in all ways but birth,
and he couldn’t judge Kronos worthy of death without judging himself the
same way.
And we get back to the whole “judging” thing again. Because Methos
refused to judge Kronos, he was let loose on the world again. We know he
wrought at least some havoc in Texas in the 1800’s, but we have no idea
what else he was up to before or after that. He must have truly been
“small time” for quite a number of centuries, or he got more discreet in
his nefarious activities. I can imagine him working with terrorist cells
in the Middle East, for instance. Perhaps he was the one who absconded
with all those mysterious, missing WMDs. It’s as good a story as any
concocted to date.
One of the most interesting differences between the rough cut and the
aired cut is that Methos’ motivations are more ambiguous in the aired
cut. AP told us in his comments that he looked for that moment of
ambiguity in each scene and played to it, so if you then cut out all the
lines that clarify any of Methos’ history it really strengthened (in my
opinion) the drama and tension between Methos and Duncan.
I thought Gillian’s comment about who killed first in the double
swordfight really interesting. I hadn’t really thought about that, but
she’s right, assuming that the second fighter was aware of the outcome
of the first fight. I think Gillian was implying that the second fighter
would take heart at the first one’s victory, giving them that extra edge
to win.
I went back and double-checked, and the sequence is clear. Duncan takes
Kronos’ head, then Methos whacks Silas. However, I don’t see that Methos
is looking towards Duncan, or could possibly be aware that their fight
had concluded in the second or two before he kills Silas. Besides, it’s
not like if he saw Duncan lose, he’d suddenly throw down his sword in
despair and give up. Methos fights to survive, and even if he took on
the fight out of uncharacteristically altruistic motivations, I don’t
think he would ever have willingly or easily given up his head to Silas.
He would have killed Silas, then worried about how he was going to
convince Kronos to let him live, or how to get away, or call the cops,
or something to get him out of his predicament.
MacGeorge
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 19 Nov 2004 to 20 Nov 2004 (#2004-208)
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