'Family Tree'

[ithildin]

Highlander Season One

Family Tree, Air Date: October 1992

Richie tries to track down his parents and runs afoul of a female crime boss, and Duncan comes to his help while pondering his own life among the MacLeods. ~ recap and quotes via tv.com

Quotes below the curtain





(coming back to life in front of his family)
Duncan: It is a miracle!
Ian MacLeod: It is the work of the demon master from the world below!
________________________

Richie: You never found out who your real parents were?
Duncan: No. But after a couple of hundred years...you get over it. One day so will you.
________________________

Duncan: There's a proverb in Northern India: If you go hunting tigers, be sure you're prepared to find one.
________________________

Duncan: My father couldn't understand what had happened.
Richie: Who could? Man, he musta freaked. I mean, there you were all of a sudden, on your feet again - zombie in a kilt!
________________________






Next up will be Free Fall. Look for it next week.

Comments

Re: Family tree

[holde-maid.livejournal.com]

The series really began to find it's footing with "Run for Your Life" in the second season (...)
it was the thematic writing that elevated this series into a different category than your standard fantasy/adventure fare, and that came with David A. in the second season.

I have to agree. The introduction of the Watchers as a counterpart to The Game (which offers too little variance) and themed episodes together made the series much more complex and interesting.
Though of course without Methos it would never have been what it eventually became. :-) He added so much depth.

Actually, keeping Kronos alive longer would have added even more, very likely. I wonder why they wasted him.

Re: Family tree

[robi-travels.livejournal.com]

"Actually, keeping Kronos alive longer would have added even more, very likely. I wonder why they wasted him."

Have to agree on this one. Kronos was a great character. The Horsemen story should have been 3 or 4 episode story. Or, better yet and entire season Arc - kind of like Wiseguy did. No doubt Kronos would have put Sonny Steelgrave and Mel Profitt to shame and they were both fantastic bad guys you loved to hate (or love depending on your attitude).

Roberta

Re: Family tree

[kethali.livejournal.com]

Actually, keeping Kronos alive longer would have added even more, very likely. I wonder why they wasted him.

Because, while Kronos himself made for a great villain, he was undeniably tied with the entire notion of the Horsemen--and the idea of a few men, even immortal men, conquering the world in this day and age is... well, laughable. No one would buy it. Even the thing with the virus, such as it was, barely worked as a supporting story for the Duncan/Methos conflict. Just like the thing with Kalas exposing all Immortals through some sort of computer miracle was nearly impossible to digest. My point is, the audience isn't that stupid--willing to let something like that go as a shortlived 'eh', maybe, but that's about it. And I think the writers/directors were pretty aware of this, which was to their credit.

Re: Family tree

[robi-travels.livejournal.com]

"and the idea of a few men, even immortal men, conquering the world in this day and age is... well, laughable."

Have to disagree on this one. Seems to me a "few" men are very capable of conquering the world (or at least causing mass panic and war) in this day and age (just look around at recent events). And, if those men, being immortal, view humans as slaves or playthings, know they cannot be killed by their own poison, and have no conscience, well it very well could work.

The problem with the story arc was that the time needed to build the belief in the ability of these men to carry out the deed was not there. Had they started small in a few places, spread word of a virus that morphed into a pandemic (think ebola, SARS, or the bird flu) by making sure it spread, increased panic, impacted world economic markets via the increased crime rates, health cost, building cost if they were using bombs, too., and numerous other factors, it would be possible to get the world or a good part of it cowtowing. Self preservation and greed make for strange alliances in world politics after all.

Roberta

Re: Family tree

[holde-maid.livejournal.com]

I see where you're coming from, though I don't necessarily agree. Frankly, if the general public buys the DaVinci Code, I don't see why they wouldn't buy into Immortals trying to conquer the World.
Which, btw, they wouldn't have to actually accomplish. It would have been quite interesting to see Kronos' reaction at failure, in fact. Such an experience might have rendered him even more dangerous and more difficult for Methos to handle. :-)
Either way, the stress would certainly have had to be put on the interpersonal conflict, not the conflict between the Horsemen and the world at large. ;-)

Oh, and I totally agree on the Kalas thing - I thought that was a little weak, too.

Re: Family tree

[robi-travels.livejournal.com]

"Which, btw, they wouldn't have to actually accomplish."

Agreed, it was the effort that was the catalyst in the story not its success or failure.

"It would have been quite interesting to see Kronos' reaction at failure, in fact. Such an experience might have rendered him even more dangerous and more difficult for Methos to handle. :-) "

Most definitely, megalomaniacs generally do not recognize failure and the reprisals to the Horsemen, those around them and the general public could have been interesting.

"Either way, the stress would certainly have had to be put on the interpersonal conflict, not the conflict between the Horsemen and the world at large. ;-)"

Yep, for all its touching on history HL was all about the personal relationships and impacts not the "global" impact of events. I think that was what made it a success. And Kronos could have added much complexities to the relationship dynamic in HL.

Roberta