Es kann nur einen geben!
May. 1st, 2011 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janne_dOr if we want to be British "there can be only one, chaps". (Okay, they don't really say chaps.)
My quest to rewatch Highlander continues and now that I've demanded ny refund for shoddy, unplayable DVDs I have moved on to collecting the DVDs in the German releases (UK ones no longer seeming to exist). Which fortunately have a choice of German or original English audio because I don't remember much of the Deutsch I learned at school.
Though if you give me a couple of weeks, I'll be able to claim that I'm immortal, born in the highlands of Scotland and that I'm waiting for the Gathering since the written introduction at the start of each episodes' credits is in German. So are the titles actually which I was not expecting. And confusingly, the order of the episodes written on the DVD packaging does not match the order of the episodes actually on the discs... I'm pretty sure it is the packaging that has it correct from the little I was able to watch of the last set I tried! But all the episodes are there, just a little... jumbled.
So for the Germans on my flist I have now watched:
Die Zusammenkunft
Die Maske
Willenlos
Der Fremde
Sprung in den Tod
Ein Toter zuwenig
Die Wilderer
1, 2, 4 and 6 I can translate or it's close enough to the English version. Does 'sprung in den tod' mean jump to the death? It would fit, even if it's not much like Free Fall. But what on earth do 'willenlos' and 'ein toter zuwenig' mean? Because the second does not look much like Bad Day in Building A to me!
So Die Maske (or Family Tree, though there is a mask involved) was the one I just couldn't watch at all before and it was nice to finally see it! I liked Duncan's evasiveness about looking for Richie's parents - I've heard that even the producers/writers weren't sure for a while that they were going to make him Immortal but it is interesting then how careful they were to seed the clues in just in case because in hindsight it is obvious why Duncan is acting like that. Oh, and I loved how much Duncan seemed to like beating up the enforcer dude - he laughed both times. I liked the enforcer dude too, he seemed to enjoy his work so much! He was like 'yay, I get to break someone's fingers! I got beat up by someone better but I'm still happy! I got fired... oh well.'
Willenlos (The Road not Taken) I thought was really muddled in its plotting. Oh, Kiem Sum is nice! But Duncan is telling him off, but he's a good guy, oh wait he's a bad guy who just smiles a lot. But it is nice to see that Sergeant Powell is still the only detective in Seacouver. And that Richie acts like a complete idiot at the slightest provocation: 'ooh, I've heard this guy is a psycho blackbelt, I'll just barge into his criminal meeting shouting his name so he can beat me up and endanger my friend' *headsmack*
Oh, and I'd always heard that the Eurominutes were cut footage of sexy stuff or character beats that got removed to meet the shorter US run times, but from these I'm guessing there was also an awful lot of 'Duncan drives T-bird' or 'Richie walks the streets' stuck in for that too because I can't think of any other reason we'd need 5 minutes of watching Adrian Paul drive. Pretty as he is. (It happens in some others as well.)
Der Fremde (Innocent Stranger) - it's Vincent Schiavelli! Hi Vincent Schiavelli, who only ever seemed to play crazy people... Ooh, and annoying blonde reporter woman, I remember her. I'm slightly annoyed Lucas Desiree only appeared this once as he seemed rather nice, and Sergeant Powell is now the only detective in the state, never mind the city...
Sprung in den Tod (Free Fall) was notable mainly for how much Joan Jett sucked at acting. Oh, and for Richie getting taken in by someone conning him again - for someone supposedly street smart he certainly seems to lack, well smarts. And I can't believe how mean he was to Tessa with his crack about having more time than her. Little prick. Does he get less annoying? Oh, but now there is a second policeman in Seacouver - I guess they found out they were having to pay Powell too much overtime.
Ein Toter zuwenig (Bad Day in Building A) was a bit hohum. Annoying reporter reappeared, Duncan stabbed people, Tessa was slightly awesome and Richie actually managed some smart psychological warfare.
Die Wilderer (Mountain Men) was one I remember watching first time around! Way back when I was a wee person. Tessa was even more awesome, leaving things for people to track and trying to signal planes and playing the crazy people against each other, and there was bonus Wes Studi (who lost several cool points for having the most awful mullet) and bonus Duncan running about topless. I particularly liked the running-topless-through-a-river, I felt it really added to the plot! Damn that man is nice looking. And so would Caleb have been if he'd had a clean up - I'm sure I've seen him in something else.
I watched 3.5 of those today. This series is seriously addictive! And when I finish, I can watch them all again in German for the fun of it.
My quest to rewatch Highlander continues and now that I've demanded ny refund for shoddy, unplayable DVDs I have moved on to collecting the DVDs in the German releases (UK ones no longer seeming to exist). Which fortunately have a choice of German or original English audio because I don't remember much of the Deutsch I learned at school.
Though if you give me a couple of weeks, I'll be able to claim that I'm immortal, born in the highlands of Scotland and that I'm waiting for the Gathering since the written introduction at the start of each episodes' credits is in German. So are the titles actually which I was not expecting. And confusingly, the order of the episodes written on the DVD packaging does not match the order of the episodes actually on the discs... I'm pretty sure it is the packaging that has it correct from the little I was able to watch of the last set I tried! But all the episodes are there, just a little... jumbled.
So for the Germans on my flist I have now watched:
Die Zusammenkunft
Die Maske
Willenlos
Der Fremde
Sprung in den Tod
Ein Toter zuwenig
Die Wilderer
1, 2, 4 and 6 I can translate or it's close enough to the English version. Does 'sprung in den tod' mean jump to the death? It would fit, even if it's not much like Free Fall. But what on earth do 'willenlos' and 'ein toter zuwenig' mean? Because the second does not look much like Bad Day in Building A to me!
So Die Maske (or Family Tree, though there is a mask involved) was the one I just couldn't watch at all before and it was nice to finally see it! I liked Duncan's evasiveness about looking for Richie's parents - I've heard that even the producers/writers weren't sure for a while that they were going to make him Immortal but it is interesting then how careful they were to seed the clues in just in case because in hindsight it is obvious why Duncan is acting like that. Oh, and I loved how much Duncan seemed to like beating up the enforcer dude - he laughed both times. I liked the enforcer dude too, he seemed to enjoy his work so much! He was like 'yay, I get to break someone's fingers! I got beat up by someone better but I'm still happy! I got fired... oh well.'
Willenlos (The Road not Taken) I thought was really muddled in its plotting. Oh, Kiem Sum is nice! But Duncan is telling him off, but he's a good guy, oh wait he's a bad guy who just smiles a lot. But it is nice to see that Sergeant Powell is still the only detective in Seacouver. And that Richie acts like a complete idiot at the slightest provocation: 'ooh, I've heard this guy is a psycho blackbelt, I'll just barge into his criminal meeting shouting his name so he can beat me up and endanger my friend' *headsmack*
Oh, and I'd always heard that the Eurominutes were cut footage of sexy stuff or character beats that got removed to meet the shorter US run times, but from these I'm guessing there was also an awful lot of 'Duncan drives T-bird' or 'Richie walks the streets' stuck in for that too because I can't think of any other reason we'd need 5 minutes of watching Adrian Paul drive. Pretty as he is. (It happens in some others as well.)
Der Fremde (Innocent Stranger) - it's Vincent Schiavelli! Hi Vincent Schiavelli, who only ever seemed to play crazy people... Ooh, and annoying blonde reporter woman, I remember her. I'm slightly annoyed Lucas Desiree only appeared this once as he seemed rather nice, and Sergeant Powell is now the only detective in the state, never mind the city...
Sprung in den Tod (Free Fall) was notable mainly for how much Joan Jett sucked at acting. Oh, and for Richie getting taken in by someone conning him again - for someone supposedly street smart he certainly seems to lack, well smarts. And I can't believe how mean he was to Tessa with his crack about having more time than her. Little prick. Does he get less annoying? Oh, but now there is a second policeman in Seacouver - I guess they found out they were having to pay Powell too much overtime.
Ein Toter zuwenig (Bad Day in Building A) was a bit hohum. Annoying reporter reappeared, Duncan stabbed people, Tessa was slightly awesome and Richie actually managed some smart psychological warfare.
Die Wilderer (Mountain Men) was one I remember watching first time around! Way back when I was a wee person. Tessa was even more awesome, leaving things for people to track and trying to signal planes and playing the crazy people against each other, and there was bonus Wes Studi (who lost several cool points for having the most awful mullet) and bonus Duncan running about topless. I particularly liked the running-topless-through-a-river, I felt it really added to the plot! Damn that man is nice looking. And so would Caleb have been if he'd had a clean up - I'm sure I've seen him in something else.
I watched 3.5 of those today. This series is seriously addictive! And when I finish, I can watch them all again in German for the fun of it.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 08:58 pm (UTC)I think the episode order was changed more than once between first airing and DVD release, but I don't know the exact details. That might be where the confusion comes from?
Does 'sprung in den tod' mean jump to the death? It would fit, even if it's not much like Free Fall. But what on earth do 'willenlos' and 'ein toter zuwenig' mean? Because the second does not look much like Bad Day in Building A to me!
You're right about "Sprung in den Tod", and "Willenlos" means having no will of one's own, in the sense of being controlled by someone else. So it fits the episode at least. "Ein Toter zuwenig" is "one corpse too few", referring to Duncan's missing corpse perhaps? (German titles are often stupid. These aren't as bad as they might be! Although there's no earthly reason why "Free Fall" couldn't just have been "Freier Fall", which makes perfect sense in German. *headdesk*)
I can't imagine what Family Tree must be like if you don't know about Richie's pre-immortality - I mean, Duncan's behaviour makes perfect sense if you know, but what if you don't? I really wish I could remember seeing this way back when.
And I always like how much Duncan enjoys fighting. :D
because I can't think of any other reason we'd need 5 minutes of watching Adrian Paul drive
Hahaha, that is so true. :D
I always found Sergeant Powell incredibly annoying, and the reporter woman not much less, so I wasn't sorry those two got dropped eventually. But I think they both show that Highlander was originally much more grounded in the everyday world, with the police stumbling across beheaded corpses and the press getting involved - something that happened very rarely lateron.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 09:23 pm (UTC)Yay! Though now that I know what willenlos means I can't see why I didn't manage to guess that one. It also makes more sense for the episode than The Road Not Taken if you ask me, though I suppose it is a little literal.
"Ein Toter zuwenig" is "one corpse too few", referring to Duncan's missing corpse perhaps?
Ooh, that would make sense too. So 'toter' is corpse? I thought that it was 'leiche' in German - if my memory of watching 'Stand By Me' dubbed in German class and then having to read a German review can be relied on. Hmm, I wonder if it is related to lich in English?
I mean, Duncan's behaviour makes perfect sense if you know, but what if you don't? I really wish I could remember seeing this way back when.
Yeah, I didn't remember this episode from the past. I remembered Free Fall and Mountain Men though - I suppose they are a little more dramatic. I think if you didn't know you would just take Duncan's comments at face value and assume that he's just good at reading people, and on a meta level that they are drawing parallels to allow a closer connection of him and Richie emotionally rather than paralleling them as Immortals.
I think they both show that Highlander was originally much more grounded in the everyday world, with the police stumbling across beheaded corpses and the press getting involved - something that happened very rarely later on
Well I'm glad they don't stick around! I do remember Duncan being interviewed by police in Paris a couple of times though - were they early seasons too? I don't remember any other press attention though. I suppose it is partly why the Watchers come into play because then we can assume they are doing clean-up when the Immortals don't. Though I remember from a lot of crossover fics that it was usually the large numbers of headless bodies that drew in Mulder and Scully to Seacouver!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-01 10:02 pm (UTC)"Toter" is "(male) dead person" - you're right about "Leiche". Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse you.
Hmm, I wonder if it is related to lich in English?
I'm pretty sure they both go back to a common root.
Of those early episodes, the only one I had a reasonably clear memory of was Bad Day in Building A.
and on a meta level that they are drawing parallels to allow a closer connection of him and Richie emotionally rather than paralleling them as Immortals
Oooh, yes, that makes sense!
I do remember Duncan being interviewed by police in Paris a couple of times though - were they early seasons too?
Over the years it happens less and less, but I wouldn't swear to the details right now. Might have to keep an eye on this!