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SF-LOVERS Digest            Tuesday, 6 Oct 1992       Volume 17 : Issue 517

Today's Topics:

         Television - Highlander (6 msgs) & Quantum Leap (4 msgs)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 5 Oct 92 17:16:21 GMT
From: jblum@hamlet.umd.edu
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: Highlander: The Series

driskill%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Hank Driskill) writes:
>jblum@hamlet.umd.edu writes:
>>Just one question for those who saw it... after the end of this episode,
>>where can they go from here for the rest of the season?
>
>Well, I can answer the last one, since (for some odd reason) channel 5
>here in Salt Lake got the _second_ episode instead of the first shipped to
>them...

Oops.  Are you sure?  The first episode basically just threw you into the
situation.  Was Christopher Lambert in yours?  If so, it was the first.

>The second episode was very well done... I'm a major fan of Highlander and
>often refuse to admit the existence of Highlander II: The Sickening, so I
>was very pleased that this is before the Gathering.  Since I missed the
>first, I'd like some info on the relationship between "Connor Macleod of
>the clan Macleod" and "Duncan Macleod of the clan Macleod"... this is the
>only part which still worries me.

"Same clan... different vintage."  Connor was from the time of Duncan's
grandfather.  Apparently he'd become a sort of local legend, a story to
frighten children by.  Then Duncan got killed, and came back.  Apparently
whatever causes immortality (which is probably NOT being exiled from the
planet Zeist) runs in the clan.

------------------------------

Date: 5 Oct 92 17:41:08 GMT
From: wakesm@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Steve Wake)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: Highlander: The Series

driskill%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Hank Driskill) writes:
>The second episode was very well done... I'm a major fan of Highlander and
>often refuse to admit the existence of Highlander II: The Sickening, so I
>was very pleased that this is before the Gathering.  Since I missed the
>first, I'd like some info on the relationship between "Connor Macleod of
>the clan Macleod" and "Duncan Macleod of the clan Macleod"... this is the
>only part which still worries me.

The way that they explained it in the first episode, is that Duncan is from
2 generations after Connor.  Duncan said that his grandfather would tell
him stories of a man in their clan that couldn't.  But, of course Duncan
did not believe the stories until we was supposedly killed in battle and
lived.

Duncan does not like to fight, and has spent most of his life hiding in an
ancient burial ground (holy land).

Steve Wake

------------------------------

Date: 5 Oct 92 18:09:05 GMT
From: WHITE@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: TV Highlander

   I enjoyed it.  Richard Moll was great as the rolling-eyed baddie.  The
swordfighting was impressive (except when Slan and Mac went at it in the
polishing room, where the speeded-up footage was all too obvious and ugly).
However, I'm not sure how much mileage the series can get from a weekly
baddie coming to cut Duncan's head off and Duncan doing the reverse.  After
all, we *know* that Connor ended up as *the* immortal - wonder who
eventually does Duncan in?

------------------------------

Date: 5 Oct 92 18:11:16 GMT
From: barnejd@wkuvx1.bitnet
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: Highlander: The Series

Having seen Highlander but not II (only got a summary from my roommate),
I'll make my comments and theories on the series.

pjm6z@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Dave Lister) writes:
>jblum@hamlet.umd.edu (Hi ho -- Kermit the Frog here...) writes:
>
> Richard Moll on the other hand was disappointing, if you look at the
> sword fights between Duncan/Connor vs. Slan it is very obvious that they
> had to speed up the sequence.  Obviously Richad Moll was a little clumsy
> with the sword.

Yeah, this was one of the more annoying moments in the show, with the
special effects speedup.

>>The series takes place before the first movie, so there are plenty of
>>immortals roaming about, and it completely ignores Highlander 2: The
>>Quest For More Money.  That should be a plus in anyone's book.

Doesn't Conner say something about how he thought they "used to belong"
somewhere?  Possible tie-in?  Really doesn't matter; I consider Highlander
II to be apocryphal (alternate timeline or "what if..." story).

>>Just one question for those who saw it... after the end of this episode,
>>where can they go from here for the rest of the season?
>
> I think that there are a lot of things that the show can do.  From the
> opening credits we have seen seens with Duncan in Civil War times and in
> a couple other places.  I think they can have entire show dedicated to
> him at one time in the past, perhaps as a tie into what was happening in
> the future.

One thing I don't want is him facing a different immortal every time.  I
was hoping Moll would survive and become a recurring foe.  Oh, well.
There's only so many ways to have an hour long swordfight.  I'd like to see
a little exploration of the Highlander universe, myself.  How did the
immortals develop, if the second movie is ignored?  If the mystical
approach is taken, what other magical types might exist?  Suppose a human
finds out about this and starts looking for the secret of immortality (good
recurring foe material)?  Suppose someone starts hunting them down?  What
happens when a human beheads an immortal?

> The one obvious thing that can and should be donw with the show is the
> end.  I think the best way to end the show would be to bring back Clancy
> Brown as the Kurgen and Lambert again and have it end with the Kurgen
> killing Duncan and leading into the very beginning of the first movie.

Logical (I had thought of this, too :+).  It would also explain why Lambert
is so grim in Highlander as opposed to his more fun-loving Connor in the
series.

Jeff Barnes
Western Kentucky University
BarneJD@WKUVX1.BITNET

------------------------------

Date: 5 Oct 92 19:38:47 GMT
From: 4224_5201@uwovax.uwo.ca
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Higlander: The Series

I am a computer science major (second year) at the University of Western
Ontario, and until two weeks ago did not have access to the internet news.
I too was distraught with the possibility that I might not get Highlander
the series, but discovered two stations in the TV guide that carried it.

Channel 20 (Detroit) is a station that the local cable operator does not
have, which is a tragedy because they carry three other Detroit stations.
Channel 20 carries Highlander on Saturday evening. They also carry reruns
of Battlestar Galactica on Saturday mornings, a show I like which I can not
get on TV.

Channel 43 (WUAB Cleveland) carries a lot of crappy Cannon action movies
from the 80's starring Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson. They also carry
some syndicated shows like Street Justice and the new Renegade show from
Steven J. (a-team) Cannell. They carry Highlander on Sunday evenings. Lucky
for me I do get this channel.

The premiere episode introduced a new immortal to the Highlander mythos.
His name is (I think) Duncan McLeod, a cousin of the Lambert character ( I
am Connor McLeod, of the Clan McLeod, born on the shores of Lochshire...
blah, blah, blah). The actor who plays the character is obviously North
American and does a bad Scottish accent. He used to play a paramilitary
type on War of the Worlds, shot just outside Toronto. He was a friend of
the male doctor and the female doctor and her daughter, on the very
depressing second season. One of the later episodes had Street Legal's
Cynthia Dale as a guest star (she played a humanoid representation of one
of the Martians).

On the first episode, Lambert guest stars. His cousin is living in a big
city (LA?), and has a girlfriend who knows all about the immortals. She has
a thick European accent, but I do not know what it is. In the course of the
show a Curgan-clone shows up (Night Court's Richard Moll, who is the voice
of the Bat-computer on Batman the Animated Series). He threatens, steals
the girlfriend and confronts Duncan. She escapes but so does Moll.

The Highlander cousins confront Moll on a bridge. Lambert is thrown into
the river, and his pacifistic cousin finishes the fight. Reluctantly, he
cuts off Moll's head (there can be only one), and Lambert says goodbye to
his cousin.  TV special effects show car trunks flying open, bursting
headlights, Moll's floating corpse, lightning et al. plus one screaming
Highlander.

There are flashbacks in this episode. In Scotland Duncan builds a residence
near holy ground so no one can fight him. In North America, they are
present during a massacre of Indians (Duncan's Indian girlfriend dies).
Lambert (20th century) remarks that Duncan gets all the good women.

There is this kid who witnesses the Highlanders doing a sword fight in a
warehouse. He rips off hubcaps for a living (punk!) and also saw the
dismemberment of Moll. Watch for him in upcoming episodes.

This is a French/Italian production. Other crappy European productions
include the horrid Tarzan half-hour show and some show about a vigilante
judge. Casting was done in Vancouver, LA and London. Shooting was done in
Vancouver and LA.  Several tracks of Queen's Some Kind OF Magic were
remixed in this episode, including Who Wants to Live Forever ( for the
Indian massacre) and the full-length version of the Highlander opening
music ("I am immortal, I have inside the blood of kings") was used for the
warehouse sword-practice and the end credits.

This show is a rip-off of the first movie. It is also a prequel to the
events of Highlander I. This show might get better, but probably won't.
Note that Russell Mulcahy, Australian video director and creator of the
Highlander movies, is not mentioned in the end credits. If you are lucky,
you might get a chance to rent out a movie called Tusks, an Australian
low-budget horror movie about killer Rhinos. It was also done by Mulcahy.

I look forward to Highlander III. It will probably be better than this.

John P. LaRocque

------------------------------

Date: 6 Oct 92 02:59:28 GMT
From: gjw@access.digex.com (Gregory Watson)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: Highlander: The Series

jblum@hamlet.umd.edu writes:
>The series takes place before the first movie, so there are plenty of
>immortals roaming about, and it completely ignores Highlander 2: The Quest
>For More Money.  That should be a plus in anyone's book.

   No, it unfortunately takes place after the first movie.  In the first
movie, at the very start, when Connor is arrested, the cop says something
like "So Mr. Nash, where were you going at time, month 1980 something, in
such a hurry."  There were slightly more recent cars and computers here
though.

   However, aside from this little error (which I'm more than willing to
overlook), it was pretty good.  Much better than expected.  I'm looking
forward to the others.

Gregory Watson
gjw@access.digex.com
gjw1@midway.uchicago.edu

------------------------------

Date: 1 Oct 92 15:28:32 GMT
From: dlb@fanny.wash.inmet.com (David Barton)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: QL: Jimmy

I almost never post paens of praise about a TV show.  This is an exception.

As a born-again Leaper with the re-runs on USA, I have enjoyed Quantum
Leap.  Last night's episode, "Jimmy", was a step above.  Truly incredible.

Some episodes and stories justify science fiction as a truly independent
art form, able to give us experiences that are not available otherwise.
This was one such.  Sam leaping into a retarded man, and though not
retarded himself, finding ordinary actions and mistakes taken as further
proof of his "retardation".  As the episode progressed, I became more and
more convinced that if, for some reason, I had been labeled retarded as a
young boy, I would not be in an institution.

The ordinary scene that sticks with me (a sign of a truly great show): Sam
setting the table, handlling the plates in an exaggerated, careful fashion,
afraid of simply dropping one.  Then storming out of the room in sheer
frustration, in a manner very consistent with retarded people, when he does
and gets shouted at.

A truly wonderful episode.  Why it did not win an Emmy, I don't know.  It
certainly deserved one.

Dave Barton
dlb@hudson.wash.inmet.com

------------------------------

Date: 1 Oct 92 20:59:09 GMT
From: sallylb@netcom.com (Sally Smith)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: QL: Evil leaper misconception

Everyone seems to be assuming that the 'evil leaper' concept is a leftover
or continuation of The Halloween Episode, when in fact the _reverse_ is
true.

I have here on tape an interview with Chris Ruppenthal from September 14,
1990 (I had a cheeseburger; Chris had chicken and fettucine) in which he
says:

"I had an idea that I spoke to Deborah Pratt about, which was, Sam would
fight some guy who ultimately would get away at the end, who would be some
bad guy, and we thought, 'Oh, we'll never be able to do that, we won't be
able to do that till season four.' [....] It was a topic and a style that I
didn't expect to be done till much later in the series, and it wound up
that we started talking about it at a story meeting one day and it evolved
into the Halloween show."

In other words, the Halloween episode was an early spin-off of this
recurring arch-enemy idea that they had earlier and were planning on saving
for later.

Just thought I'd set the record straight.

Sally Smith
(510)790-0608
sallylb@netcom.com

------------------------------

Date: 2 Oct 92 10:30:31 GMT
From: laura_uerling@qmrelay.mail.cornell.edu ("Laura Uerling")
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: QL question

I followed the recent discussion of QL's season premiere with interest.
(For the record, I basically liked it, though I thought it went on a little
too long. The plot twist at the end was fun.)

In particular, "rck1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Roberta Chi-Woon Kwong)" made a
good point:
>And speaking of giving leapees heart attacks, remember the joke about
>leapees thinking that they'd been kidnapped by aliens while at PQL?  Well,
>here we have Oswald winding up in the Waiting Room not once, but SIX OR
>SEVEN TIMES! Does he notice that every few years, he pops inexplicably
>into this large blue room with a man named Al holding a strange mechanical
>device? No wonder Oswald went psycho! :-)

This bring up something I've always wondered about. The "leapees" in the
Waiting Room are obviously aware that they're not in Kansas anymore, but do
they remember being there when Sam leaps out and they go back to their own
time? Furthermore, are they aware of what Sam is doing to their lives while
they're waiting? If not, it must be pretty weird for them when they leap
back - Sam sometimes causes some serious life-style changes. (To take a
recent example, when Sam leaped into Nicos he was treading water in the
Aegean, when Sam left and Nicos got back, he found himself in a lip-lock
with Brooke Shields on some remote island.  He might even consider it an
improvement, but it *would* be disorienting.)  Oswald was portrayed as not
exactly stable even the first time that Sam leaped into him; having chunks
of his memory inexplicably altered several times certainly wouldn't help.

The only thing I can think of that would prevent this is if some memory of
what Sam has done stays in the leapee body when Sam leaves; i.e. leapee
gets back to his own body and time and suddenly "remembers" what has
happened to his body while he was in the waiting room. Of course, this
doesn't explain to the other people in the leapee's life why the sexist
lout changes into a sensitive guy, improves his life, then changes back
into a sexist lout. Unless the whole time-stream adjusts to the new reality
and everyone's memory of the events adjusts accordingly...

Enough imponderables for one day. Anyone have any opinions on this?

Laura
laura_uerling@qmrelay.mail.cornell.edu

------------------------------

Date: 3 Oct 92 03:22:31 GMT
From: jogle@zia.aoc.nrao.edu (Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim))
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: QL question

laura_uerling@QMRELAY.MAIL.CORNELL.EDU ("Laura Uerling") writes:
>This bring up something I've always wondered about. The "leapees" in the
>Waiting Room are obviously aware that they're not in Kansas anymore, but
>do they remember being there when Sam leaps out and they go back to their
>own time? Furthermore, are they aware of what Sam is doing to their lives
>while they're waiting? If not, it must be pretty weird for them when they
>leap

The Quantum Leap comic book was supposedly going to expore this, with a
story (or series of stories) concerning this cult of people that arises out
of the people Sam lept into; they know something wonderful has happened to
them that has changed their lives, and it was going to be kind of like the
UFO cults and believers we have in the "real world".  They seem to have
abandoned the idea though, as many of the really interesting story ideas
that they said they were going to do haven't appeared when they said they
would (another neat one was going to be a leap as seen from the viewpoint
of everyone at Project QL instead of from Sam's viewpoint.)

As for what the leapee remembers, I recall someone saying somewhere that
the leapee does know what Sam did while they were switched, but I don't
think it was explained HOW the leapee knows what happened.

Jim Ogle
NRAO-VLBA
Socorro New Mexico
jogle@aoc.nrao.edu

------------------------------

End of SF-LOVERS Digest
***********************