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Highlander Reboot/Prequel Anticipation Thread

As for the TV show, I ran across a YT channel that has some massively long video compilations of every single one of Duncan's historical flashbacks. Each video covers a century of his life, and I've finally reached partway through the last one (20th century), and it's over 5 HOURS long.

I've watched those, adding in the other characters' flashbacks too (this was back when the whole series was officially on YouTube). It's a very interesting way to view the show, and one of the most effective things about it is that certain one-shot characters like Dougray Scott's Warren Cochrane and Marc Warren's Morgan D'Estaing appear in flashbacks set years or even centuries apart, and spacing them out across the chronological edit really does make these characters seem ageless and eternal.
 
It's an absolutely amazing way to watch the show, seeing how Duncan changes over the years. He goes from an illiterate clansman with his mind on war and courting a girl he loves, to the capable, intelligent 20th century man we see in the present-day setting.

He doesn't become a professional in the way Methos did (he spent numerous decades as a doctor, for instance, and I'm guessing that the reason was partly a curiosity about how the human body works and a wish to somehow make amends for his Horseman past - to help and heal, rather than kill for pleasure). But he does become intellectually curious and appreciates the arts for more than just the profitability that his antique business brings.


I just found some of the Amanda flashbacks, and while I remember the time she and whatsisname went on a Bonnie & Clyde-type crime spree, I'd totally forgotten the one where she did midwifery.

Some of the print fanzines I have focus on Methos. I didn't particularly like him much in the series, but that was before I read so many stories about him - and before I read Peter Wingfield's story in the Evening at Joe's anthology.

Some episodes are still on YouTube, so I'll finish the last of the Life of Duncan MacLeod videos (just 4 hours to go!).

I've been taking notes, because one thing I want to avoid in my Merlin/Highlander crossover is the same historical events and people that were mentioned on the show (well, except for Shakespeare - as a Shakespeare buff, I can't not mention him!). But I'm definitely using different monarchs, different wars, and some different locations and historical events.

One reason for the notetaking is to see just where Duncan was, at which time. I have to commend the show for usually managing to have him go places that wouldn't need modern transportation methods to get him there (ie. faster than a horse or ship).
 
It's an absolutely amazing way to watch the show, seeing how Duncan changes over the years. He goes from an illiterate clansman with his mind on war and courting a girl he loves, to the capable, intelligent 20th century man we see in the present-day setting.

It's how I introduced my now-wife to much of the series. It had the effect of making her care much more about characters like Fitzcairn through his multiple flashback appearances so that his death in the present day came as much more of a punch, rather than it coming in only his second appearance before we know him all that well.

There's an interview with Adrian Paul and Christophe Lambert on YouTube where Paul talks about the care that went into keeping track of what they'd established in the flashbacks about where Duncan was at a particular time, both geographically and in terms of his character development. He expresses hope that if one were to line up the flashbacks back to back as a chronological timeline, it would hang together and you'd see a linear progression in Duncan's character, and the fact that fans have now done just that shows that they pulled it off.

The only slight anomaly was Duncan's clipped English accent in one of the earliest filmed flashbacks from Season 1, episode 3, rather than the Scottish one he'd come to use otherwise, which I just headcanon as an affectation for some reason unknown to us.
 
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