Another DVD today. Lizzie wanted to watch "Highlander."

I should've been suspicious, but I think she honestly wanted to see it. Yeah, it's goofy, the acting and accents are bad, but it's still got some great ideas, and I love the concept of immortals and all the stories you can tell throughout history.

I realized that I have a lot of similar stuff in both The Wannoshay Cycle (my SF novel) and The Last of the Hand (the fantasy novel), at least as far as special effects go. Lots of energy pulsing through the air and bodies floating above the ground, nifty stuff like that.

I just hope my story and characters hold together better than the flick, which really shows its age in some points (like the hairdoes of the women!).

Lizzie says she's got all sorts of comments to share, "Mystery Science Theatre"-style, when we play it at the beach... sigh... :)

I didn't think any of the movies did justice to the whole idea of Immortals (of course if you had to pick one, it'd have to be the first). The TV series did a much better job. The concept is one of my favorites. If ever I was presented the opportunity to do work on an already-developed story, I'd want it to be the Highlander mythos.

Ever see the Renegade version of the second movie? I haven't.

"There can be only one." Gotta love it.

I agree, Scott. The TV show did a good job of exploring the society of immortals, what with Methos and the Watchers and all that. But there was a lot of unfortunate silliness, and the formula (Duncan meets immortal, flashback, 1st fight interrupted, 2nd fight completed, slightly new take on Quickening) got a bit old.

But, yeah, a Highlander media tie-in could be a lot of fun.

Queen soundtrack.

"Want... to live... forEVER!!!!"

You know, I never did watch the TV version of "Highlander," and watched a bit of the second one before it got too bad to watch (and really, the way the first one ended, how the heck COULD they do a sequel??? Where do you go after you're omniscient???).

But yeah, a media tie-in would be nifty.

There was a cool comic by Barry Windsor-Smith called "The Eternal Warrior" published by Valiant Comics in the early 90s that was like Highlander with a brain. He also did some kick-ass episodes of another comic called "Archer & Armstrong." Fun stuff, without the embarassingly bad acting of Christopher Lambert, he of no accent...

Greg: Yeah, even the series didn't do the greatest of jobs with the concept. I liked it in spite of the creators falling short of what it could have been. The formula for the show was getting tired, but they spiced it up now and then. Though I could've done without the "humorous" shows, which may be the silliness to which you referred.

They do/did have a Highlander series of books following the undocumented (by the show) exploits of Duncan MacCleod. I couldn't bring myself to try one out.

The Highlander property is a bit limited by the "Highlander" name itself. 3 incarnations of the idea (movies, TV show, and (gasp!) cartoon) each featured different MacCleods who all happened to be immortal.

Mike: Valiant, yeah, they were around back in the day when I was collecting (if they aren't still). Had an ish or two of "The Eternal Warrior" but don't remember much about it. "Archer & Armstrong" was some funny stuff. The concept behind "Shadowman" was pretty good, and I think they may even be making a movie based on it (they've made a videogame).

BTW, Lambert apparently trained to have his Highlander accent. To be non-specific European, I believe. I don't know that it can be as bad as the voices Nicolas Cage tries to pull off (he strives for a different accent for each movie) (all of them bad).