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1-1: The Gathering, Family Tree, The Road Not Taken

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  • 1-1: The Gathering, Family Tree, The Road Not Taken

    Discuss the first three episodes of Season 1.

    The Gathering
    Family Tree
    The Road Not Taken
    __________________________________________________

    "Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
    --Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script

  • #2
    Note: Cinedigm legally hosts every episode for free on YouTube.



    Episode 1: "The Gathering"

    The series premiere is decent enough thanks to some great chemistry between Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul, but the acting is otherwise fairly weak at this point, Richard Moll gets a bit tiresome, and the editing is atrocious. The scenes don't even play in the proper order! See it mostly for Connor MacLeod's only TV appearance.
    __________________________________________________

    "Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
    --Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script

    Comment


    • #3


      Episode 2: "Family Tree"

      The eleventh episode to air, the sixth to be shot, but the second one in continuity. It's good when Richie is on screen, otherwise not so much. Duncan's flashback with his father is laughable.
      __________________________________________________

      "Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
      --Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script

      Comment


      • #4


        Episode 3: "The Road Not Taken"

        Mulan's dad, Soon-Tek Oh, guest stars. (Or Lt. Hip to James Bond fans). Didn't care for it. Duncan's quest to judge all of his old friends begins here.
        __________________________________________________

        "Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
        --Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script

        Comment


        • #5
          Thinking of "The Gathering": A great beginning episode, if we can put up with the over-the-top villain! Fortunately, the series began giving us more believable bad guys almost immediately.

          Something I've begun thinking about...I know, of course, that the writers hadn't even thought of the Watchers at this point, let alone the plot of Endgame. But I can see a way all that could fit together!

          Why was Connor chasing an Immortal who wanted to kill Duncan? Let's suppose, first of all, that there was a lot of gossip among the Watchers, and at least some Watchers really were acquainted with "their" Immortals. Connor's Watcher knew he was concerned about a mysterious Enemy seeking to kill anyone he cared about. The Watcher learned Slan Quince was going after Duncan (really, just because he thought Duncan might be rusty after having tried for years to keep his life with Tessa as "normal" as possible). So the Watcher warned Connor - both of them thinking Quince might be that "Enemy," possibly using an alias Connor wouldn't recognize. That was why Connor was hunting Quince! But he would have realized, when he actually saw Quince, that he didn't remember him from any past encounters.

          Comment


          • Wilusa
            Wilusa commented
            Editing a comment
            To dubious: Since you know where I left Cassandra (grins), have you read my Endgame fic, "Survivor"? At both ff.net and AO3.

          • dubiousbystander
            dubiousbystander commented
            Editing a comment
            I had read it before, and am reading it again. Did the version you watched not include Jacob's lines about finding her whoring in a brothel? HEY! My collection of your stories is incomplete! I have to stick Survivor in the epub!

          • Wilusa
            Wilusa commented
            Editing a comment
            One line about her having been a whore...which might or might not have been meant literally. But I conceived the idea of her having wanted Tessa dead!

        • #6
          Sorry, did I list "The Gathering" as an episode? It was CLEARLY the third movie!


          __________________________________________________

          "Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
          --Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script

          Comment


          • Aleander
            Aleander commented
            Editing a comment
            It even references Ramirez's speech when he sacrificed himself in HL2!

            Man, you couldn't possibly get a far more disparate pair of episodes. Oh, wow. Oh, oh, wow.

            "Also starring Adrian Paul." I mean... Its hilarious.

        • #7
          The Gathering - For the most part, I like this episode. I wish we could have seen much more interaction between Duncan and Connor. But my god Slan was a horrible villain.

          Family Tree - Not a big fan of it. Clinch was an amusing character, whipping everybody's ass yet getting owned by Duncan. For the record, I find Mrs. Gustavson to be totally frickin' how.

          The Road Not Taken - OK episode. Dustin Ngyun had a much better showing in the next season.
          "It's Rock & Roll. If you aren't breaking some sort of law, then you are doing it wrong." - me, answering a bandmate's question of what would happen if someone called the law on us for playing too loud at an outdoor show.

          Comment


          • #8
            I am determined to rewatch the series, especially with BoK's Desert Island challenge. Rewatching episode 1, because of the Highlander Rewatched guys and their tendency to get hung up on sex and nudity, I realized just how visible Tessa is in the shower. I didn't remember her being this visible, but then what I'm watching is the full episode. Perhaps a little bit of the shower was cut out...

            Comment


            • #9
              Originally posted by dubiousbystander View Post
              I am determined to rewatch the series, especially with BoK's Desert Island challenge. Rewatching episode 1, because of the Highlander Rewatched guys and their tendency to get hung up on sex and nudity, I realized just how visible Tessa is in the shower. I didn't remember her being this visible, but then what I'm watching is the full episode. Perhaps a little bit of the shower was cut out...
              ^ Very likely, given the differing U.S. broadcast and European cuts of episodes (U.S. Standards and Practices being far more puritanical than their overseas counterparts). Typically, 3-4 minutes were trimmed per episode, on average. I definitely remember being amazed at seeing much more of Tessa in that scene when I first bought the Season 1 VHS boxed set from the Highlander store, than had existed in my taped-off-WGN copy previously.

              Comment


              • #10
                It's probably been 17 years since I saw Season six.

                Comment


                • Aleander
                  Aleander commented
                  Editing a comment
                  Happy 20? Indiscretions ain't so bad, though.

              • #11
                I recently read the script for "The Gathering," and was surprised to find that it was actually the script for the two-hour "TV movie" the producers had originally planned. I was somewhat puzzled. As I understand it, they had to film a shorter version because they couldn't get Christopher Lambert for as long as they'd hoped. But...his character wasn't even in the subplot that was cut! It dealt with the character who would become Randi McFarland (in the script, "Kate Kendall") interacting with the character who would become Richie (in the script, "Cole"). She was already realizing strange things were going on, and paying "Cole" to report to her.

                I think the version that aired was better - that subplot was unnecessary. But I was interested in two small differences. As late as July 1992, the writers had intended Mac's upcoming birthday to be not his 400th, but his 500th! And in the episode's ending, "Cole"/Richie had been meant to overhear, and be puzzled by, Mac's assuring Connor that he'd "watch" him.

                Comment


                • #12
                  I agree with others that the major problem with "The Gathering" is the villain. For me it was specifically his mask. It's so silly.

                  Family Tree is alright, but I thought it was an odd choice for the second episode since it's relatively uneventful as Highlander episodes go. I have Season 1 on DVD from Germany as well as the Immortal Collection from the United States and in the German release the episodes are played in a different order—Family Tree is played later on in the run, which I think makes more sense.

                  I really like The Road Not Taken. I guess on the surface the idea of an immortal trying to create an army of super-soldiers is a little silly, but I really liked the immortal antagonist in this one.
                  Formerly known as "Quickening"

                  My latest video in which I visit an ancient broch and cairns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxY2hYR6GXw

                  Comment


                  • Tootsie Bee
                    Tootsie Bee commented
                    Editing a comment
                    Yeah, "Family Tree" is second in the DVD set because it was the second script they wrote, but it didn't air on TV until the mid-season point. The German DVD probably follows the air dates, which means that Season 1 is likely all out of production number order.

                • #13
                  Just want to note, with "The Gathering" having been the beginning of the series: I'd heard years ago that Stan Kirsch's character was originally going to be named, not "Cole," but "Sammy." I thought everyone knew that! And more recently, I found some old notes according to which "Duncan" was once going to be "Fletcher." (Yikes. Isn't that a name whose meaning has something to do with arrows? Hardly appropriate, in a show so involved with swords!)

                  I remember learning that for the role that became "Richie," they didn't consider any actors as young as the character was supposed to be. There were some legal problems, in either Canada or France, dealing with the ways they could use young actors.

                  Also, they couldn't cast that role until they'd cast the series lead, because they wanted different physical types. I remember seeing, at a convention, the screen test of an actor who was just as good as Stan. It would have been a hard choice between them...except that the other actor looked as if he could be Adrian's kid brother!

                  Comment


                  • #14
                    I started to rewatch the series again. Hadn't watched it in full since 2011 I think. Popped in the first DVD and gave the first 3 eps a watch. I still always enjoy Season One because its very early 90s and is very different from the later seasons.

                    Was reading the episode guide in an old magazine that the French partners couldn't afford Lambert and was telling them that they have to write a script without him in it. Their response was that Lambert only asked for $50,000 and was doing it as a favor to Bill Panzer. The Germans saw the draft and dropped out. The French then said to write Lambert back in. When Lambert was contacted he told them "Fuck you, I'm not going to do it." The Germans then said that if he wasn't going to do it, they were not going to pay a quarter of a million per episode. Lambert was then offered $500,000 for 3 days work.
                    The crew said that Christopher Lambert was the most cheerful person they had ever seen in their life.
                    I wonder if thats why his performance is go good and energetic haha. It's still one of my fav episodes that I've rewatched a countless number of times since the 90s.
                    Power to the Donut!

                    Comment


                    • #15
                      I finished a re-run of the first season last year in production order listed in the highlander book but sadly the rest of the series has no differences! I'm on The Raven at the moment!
                      JB

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