Highlander: THE SERIES

[Mark_Nguyen]

Wait - they STARTED releasing it on Blu-Ray?!

[Checks]

Seems like they didn't do it right. Okay, sticking with my existing, and very often-played, box sets.

Mark

 

[Methos]

good plan lol

M

 

[KB24]

Yes the features on the original box sets are massive!

 

[Skywalker]

I would have been all over the Blu-rays if they'd been done better, but I heard the video quality wasn't all that great. So I'll stick with my DVDs for now.

 

[Snaploud]

I loved the sword fights on this show. They were really inventive.

 

[Biffette]

Another Highlander fan here. Yeah, their ability to pop up with a non-reset event every now and then really increased my enjoyment of the show.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

and for a low budget TV show it was amazingly well made. Period costumes, period locations (real castles, not cardboard stuff) and excellent regulars.
Btw, did you notice how from season 1 to 6 Adrian Paul gets better and better with the sword?

There's one thing, though, I never got: what's it with David Abramowitz and the letter K (and C, Q and all similar sounds)?
Just pay attention when you watch the series: if an Immortal turns up and his name starts with a K-sound you can bet that he's next in line to lose his head: Quince, Kiem Sun, Kuyler, St Cloud, Carlo Sendaro and Cahill in season #1 alone. Not to mention the super-villains Kalas and Kronos in the later seasons. And all other bearers of the K-curse.

 

[Aragorn]

Wait - they STARTED releasing it on Blu-Ray?!

[Checks]

Seems like they didn't do it right. Okay, sticking with my existing, and very often-played, box sets.

Mark

Blu-ray allows for cheap double dips for catalog titles. DVDs aren't selling anymore, slap the same thing onto Blu-ray and sell the movie for $5 to $10 more. When Universal was backing HD-DVD, they were throwing a lot of crappy older titles out there without actually trying to improve picture or sound. Always best to read the picture and sound quality reviews for titles that have already been out on DVD for several years.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

I wouldn't think Highlander would be high on the list for an expensive remastering. It was low-budget in the first place, which ended up being much of its charm. The same years I was watching insanely explosive fleet battles on Star Trek, I could switch to Highlander for basically one visual effect and a whole lot of costumes, accents and swordfighting.

I'd been thinking recently about how the franchise could ever be brought back. A TV reboot is the most logical, be it in miniseries or similar TV concept to the original series. I'd rather a reboot than continuing the TV series, which IMO has been plenty explored. I'd like to see a fresh start without any of the baggage of the first series re: existing characters and where they've been over history.

Center it on Connor Macleod and explore his history, put it in the present day, and mix standalones with an overarching storyline with a more powerful villain accross several centuries, starting with the Kurgan. Maybe even have Ramirez as a recurring flashback character, how Fitzcairn ended up, or Kastagir as a contemporary partner in present-day fun.

Leave the Watchers out, at least in the first season, but bring them (and/or a new Duncan or Methos) if need be later on. And focus in on the themes and consequences of immortality, and not simple action stories like the TV series had in its first couple seasons. I wouldn't mind seeing a good quickening scene with modern CG techniques, even on a TV budget... Finally, how about a shorter season on a cable channel? I wouldn't mind seeing actual, slightly bloody decpaitations instead of trying to disguise the act with clever angles and dodgy results. I swear some of the beheadings in the series had the heads cut off at the knees!

Incidentally, has anyone read the Highlander comics that have come out over the years? I've seen a couple, and they seemed pretty well done mixing the TV series and movie universes.

Mark

 

[Leviathan]

...it never answered several key questions like:

"if an immortal is on a desert island can they continually lop off and eat their own leg till rescue?"

"Why do none them use the nutshot as an opening move?"

"Where do they hide the swords?"

"What constitutes "holy ground"....Graceland? Starbucks?"

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

1. Nope, since with Xavier St. Cloud they showed that amputated limbs do not grow back. Even if it did (really slowly), it wouldn't have been fast enough to avoid starvation. Terrence Kincaid was stuck on an island for a century and starved to death multiple times, after eating everything on the island, down to the flies.

2. Immortals have sharp swords. Try sticking your leg out to can a guy, with one of those waving around. Then refer to question #1.

3. They. Just. Do. Doesn't stop some from having more obvious scabbards or whatever to hold them over the centuries, though. Uh, it's a "Doctor Who" style perception filter that comes with immortality. That's it. Yeah.

4. Pretty much anything that was used as a regular location for religious worship or burial, which had been consecrated as such by ministers of that religion. I think one novel actually had an Immortal CREATE holy ground as such for their own protection. However, you're right as we never knew if this extended to every Muslim's prayer mat, or to any place a Jewish person dropped a kosher hot dog.

Mark

 

[Methos]

holy ground is the one rule pretty much all immortals live by... the 'one on one' has been broken a few times, and 'there can be only one' is typically ambiguous as it's been shown immortals can live together peacefully, it's just the assholes of the bunch that believe in The Game and The Prize...

But Holy Ground... that's a pretty big one... it's rumoured the last time a quickening took place on Holy Ground, it was on a temple at Pompeii... so it was universally decided to be generally a bad idea for continued survival, even by the asshole headhunters lol

M

 

[Skywalker]

Yeah, I remember when Endgame came out, they originally had the Sanctuary (where Connor had gone) located on holy ground, and then Jacob Kell showed up and killed all of the Immortals there (except for Connor) with no repercussions. This caused a huge uproar in Highlander fandom, and they changed it in the DVD version to remove any references to holy ground.

Of course, while this reconciles the scene with Highlander continuity, it kind of robs the scene of its whole point, that being that Kell was supposed to be this evil badass who didn't care about the rules of the Game. Not to mention it makes the Watchers look dumb for not putting the Sanctuary on holy ground.

 

[Unicron]

Some parts of the series would seem to imply that it's only quickenings that are strictly forbidden on holy ground, because of the Pompeii incident. But one can still threaten or perhaps even fight, as long as it's just posturing and they don't take any heads.

Personally, I found it rather amusing that quickenings are always shown to be violently destructive, and yet no one in the series ever seems to notice random bolts of energy blowing stuff up, regardless of where Duncan fights.

 

[Methos]

yeah i remember the original version of Endgame as well... after they edited it, the Sanctuary didn't make sense... i'd rather they'd have shown the Watchers combing through what looked like a nuclear crater, after the quickenings, to find the bodies...

M

 

[Skywalker]

Some parts of the series would seem to imply that it's only quickenings that are strictly forbidden on holy ground, because of the Pompeii incident. But one can still threaten or perhaps even fight, as long as it's just posturing and they don't take any heads.

The implication (at least IMO) always seemed to be that any kind of violence was prohibited on holy ground. When Connor started going after the Kurgan in the church, he had to remind him that they were on holy ground. And I remember one episode from the series where the Immortal of the Week was threatening two mortals, a guest star and whichever lady happened to be Duncan's love interest at the time. The love interest tried to keep the other guy from panicking and running away because she knew that Immortals couldn't hurt anyone on holy ground.

Personally, I found it rather amusing that quickenings are always shown to be violently destructive, and yet no one in the series ever seems to notice random bolts of energy blowing stuff up, regardless of where Duncan fights.

Oh, I think a few people noticed the big ass lightning storm when he took Kalas's head on the Eiffel Tower.

 

[Satyrquaze]

iirc, Kane attacked Conner on Holy Ground and didn't seem to give a crap until the location seemed to forcibly remind them where they were.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Highlander III: The Sorceror (or The Final Dimension) didn't happen.
Highlander II: The Quickening also did not happen.

If you insist on them having happened, then they were dreams Connor had while all goobered up in the Sanctuary. As for the Sanctuary being on "fake" holy ground, it's not like there are many large, functioning monasteries around that would allow a secret society (that ISN'T the incumbent religion) to stash creatures that won't die on the premises. I'm guessing that the rogue Watchers who maintained the place didn't want to be THAT noticable, and set up the false front to hopefully discourage any passing Immortal to even bother coming in with murder on their minds.

[Incidentally, if the Sanctuary had been operating for centuries, how did they get by before modern drugs to keep the residents unconscious? What's wrong with just burying them - it worked for Nefertiri without any particualr side effects?]

Regarding holy ground, the very first time it was mentioned was by Ramirez, who only said that the only place an Immortal would be safe is there, and that no Immortal would violate that rule, because "it's tradition". No fire or brimstone, one jsut does not do it. It was in the movie universe though, but who knows? Someone told Ramirez of this rule, and it's not like anyone told the Watchers directly. :P

[Aside - I'm reading the 2006-8 run of Highlander comics, which has Fitzcairn appearing on a yacht formerly owned by the Cathoic Church, and therefore consecrated and essentially a mobile holy ground for him to hide on. Everyone respected it, but had he not told anyone, no one would have known.]

Frankly, I'm of the opinion that the Gathering, plus most of the rules of the Game were made up by some Immortals a very long time ago while they were sitting bored around a campfire some millenia ago. Not unlike most religions, the Immortals of the time tried to explain their nature by basically making up stories about it, which turned into legend, which turned into the culture they live by.

I can see some thoughtful Immortal coming up with the idea that EVENTUALLY there will be only one Immortal left, and that one would have the sum power of all the Immortals, and using that as justification to go a-hunting. Otherwise, why bother chopping heads off at all? The rush? Besides, with new Immortals popping up all the time, it's not like the Gathering is anywhere near unless that suddenly stops happening.

Mark

PS - People even MENTIONING that "Highlander: The Source" happened tend to be violently interrupted before they can finish typing abou

 

[Unicron]

Oh, I think a few people noticed the big ass lightning storm when he took Kalas's head on the Eiffel Tower.

Probably, cause I haven't seen any of the series in a long while. Connor and Kell do have a small fight in Endgame, although it's more a psychological match than anything else. Duncan warns Connor that no quickenings could occur because it's holy ground.

 

[Forbin]

Whenever there was a massive quickening with flashpots and towering explosions in a public place, my wife and I would turn to each other and say "I'm sure nobody noticed that."