Highlander
Transcripts:
DVD Extras

Hal Beckett (Composer/Music Editor):

Well, you asked me about my favorite beheading. And "Duende" episode, I think was my favorite beheading episode. That was an exciting episode, musically speaking again, because we did a deep focus into the whole world of flamenco. And we had to find flamenco guitarists to perform on the show. I talked to flamenco dancers. We had to get the dancers in to do Foley for all the feet movement. And so I had to look at the world of flamenco very closely, which I hadn't done before. I mean, I'd heard flamenco music and knew a little bit about it, but I'd never studied it intently. But at any rate, the scene where they're having their duel outside-- I think it was some kind of a big circle that had the foot patterns that were almost a mystical combination of flamenco dance steps and sword play. So there was a duel happening between them. And it had a classic scene where I believe the opponent got the better hand on Mac just for a second, and was about to thrust the sword into Mac. And Mac turned it around a hundred and eighty degrees, and pulled the sword into him, which shocked him, and then he'd beheaded the guy. Something like that. I don't know if I've got the drama twisted around there or something, but that was a great scene. All shot outside in this beautiful, palatial estate in France, and the rain coming down, and it was great.

Ken Gord (Producer):

"Samurai", because I thought what F. Braun McAsh did in designing that catching the blade between his two hands, I thought that was pretty neat. Something that you wouldn't expect to see.

David Abramowitz (Creative Consultant):

Favorite beheading, I think, was in "The Samurai", where he catches the sword in his hands, turns it around, stabs the guy, grabs the sword, cuts the guy's head off. That was great.

Clip from 3x01: "The Samurai":
[DM & Kent fight, katana against katana. DM's sword tip becomes trapped in the rocks. Kent thrusts at him and DM stops the blade between his palms. He pushes the blade to the side, grabs the hilt and turns it around, impaling Kent. Kent falls to his knees. DM grabs up his own katana from the rocks and beheads him.]

Charles Wilkinson (Director):

I think one of the great beheadings was -- gosh, I'm going back a long ways now -- Roland Gift. I don't know why. I'd met Roland. I'd liked him as an actor, and he played Xavier St. Cloud, a character who'd been there through much of the series. And somehow his beheading just seemed to work very well.

Stephen Geaghan (Production Designer):

I think it had to be in the first episode that we did. And we had Richard Moll come in, and that was the first time we had actually done this before. And we were all anticipating this beheading. And that was probably the one, even though it was one of a series of -- oh, God, we did dozens and dozens by the end of the show. That was my favorite one because it was the first. And I think that, I don't think that they had Richard Mall losing his head.

Adrian Paul ("The Highlander"):

Oh, ah, in "Line of Fire", was that the one-- the one we talked about today? Favorite beheading, slice... "Revolutionary". Favorite beheading: "Revolutionary".

Clip from 3x03: "The Revolutionary":
[DM & Karros fight. DM gets Karros on the ground at swordpoint.]
DM - Up.
Karros - [carefully gets to his feet, DM's katana at his throat] You can't do it, can you?
DM - There can be only one. [performs a sideways, backhanded slice, & beheads Karros]

Donna Lettow (Associate Creative Consultant):

I like the one in "Shadows". I like the beheading in "Shadows" because it's the only time anybody ever used head cam. When the head came off, the camera started spinning down to the floor and I just thought that was the funniest thing.

Clip from 3x15: "Star-Crossed":
Fitz - Go to hell. [drops his sword & Kalas runs him through]

Possibly also Fitzcairn's when Kalas kills him. I just... I just like that image: he's down on his knees and he's looking up at Kalas. He's just "Go to hell." That just seemed very fitting, for someone as flamboyant as Fitz to just be fighting to the last minute.

Hal Beckett:

One that pops into my head, whether it's a favorite or not, was... the American Civil War episode. And I thought that was kind of interesting and... I forget which episode that was though. "The Lamb", that one. That one just popped into my head for some reason.

Ken Gord:

I think one of my favorite flashbacks was the Civil War in, was that the Kenny show? Was it "Courage"? No, not "Courage", "The Lamb", yeah. It was a great Civil War flashback, and it wasn't supposed to be a Civil War flashback. It was originally written as a Scottish flashback, it was supposed to be the Battle of... was it Culloden? And Dennis Berry read the script and had never heard of Culloden and didn't like the word anyway, and just thought that it would be neat to do the Civil War because he was familiar with that one. It became the Civil War and we somehow got a dead horse, which we put in the middle of that bridge and it worked out pretty well.

David Abramowitz:

I have a couple favorite flashbacks. I loved the one that took place in Munich where Amanda danced-- where MacLeod and Amanda did the tango. I thought that was great fun. And then there was another flashback which was -- oh there's so many, you know -- there's the one that was in World War One, which was "The Colonel", I believe, where I was amazed at how much bang we got for the buck and how good that looked in terms of a flashback. And then there was, I thought the flashback in the Four Horsemen was also quite good, thundering over the Arabian Plains.

Clip from 5x11: "Comes a Horseman":
[Nomad runs away as the Horsemen ride toward him.]

Stan Kirsch ("Richie Ryan"):

Yeah, I loved-- I mean, oddly, I thought the-- I loved the Westerns. I loved every time we went back to sort of the 1800s, very American, Western. I think that's something that really-- when I would sort of leave the set, we'd finish the sequence and I'd see them setting up this thing, I'd get a little itchy, like I want to put on that cowboy hat and, you know, I want to do that. I just personally, you know, to do a Butch Cassidy kind of a thing, that's what I really like.

Clip from 5x11: "Comes a Horseman":
[Super: Agua Dulce, Texas, 1867]
Jacob - Good morning, Eb.
[DM & the Rangers ride into town.]

[short time later]
Tippet - Quite a tracker, MacLeod. You've been in the military?
DM - I've done my time.

Charles Wilkinson:

I think... I'll give you a category, some of my favorite flashbacks, where when MacLeod was with Fitzcairn, played by Roger Daltrey, because the two of them got up to ridiculous hijinks. We had great fun writing it, and the two of them played marvelously off each other.

Clip from 3x15: "Star-Crossed":
[Fitz coughs, reviving. CUT]
DM - I wouldn't worry. It's all there.
Fitz - No thanks to you. That was a rotten trick.
DM - Ah, quit your whining.
Fitz - It was still a rotten trick.
DM - Where's your head?
Fitz - I'm surprised you didn't take it while I was down.
DM - It occurred to me, but I have better things to do.
Fitz - Like what?
DM - Learning to read and write.
[Fitz laughs.]

Stephen Geaghan:

"Wrath of Kali." It had to be India, because we did-- was such an extensive part of the show, all of the Indian flashbacks. And when we finally did the flashbacks in the watershed, we built a temple and we had the statue of Kali there -- she was the center of our show -- and one of the Indian actors came up to me and looked and says, "This looks like the Ganges Delta," and I'm thinking, "Yes!" And when you can get that far afield from where we're actually shooting it, and someone from that place can come in saying, "This works. This looks real." Then you know you've done your job.

James Thorpe (Writer):

Well, it's completely selfish, but my favorite flashback would have to be "The Modern Prometheus" flashbacks, because I worked so hard to get the period dialogue right.

Donna Lettow:

"Samurai", I think. I think "Samurai". "The Samurai" flashback is not only gorgeous, but it has something for everyone. It has swordplay. It has poetry. And the scene where Hideo tells Duncan, or asked Duncan, to be his second in his suicide, and then gives him the sword. You know, it is one of the most important moments in Duncan's life, and it plays as one of the most important moments.

Clip from 3x01: "The Samurai":
DM - I will be honored to be your second.
Hideo - [hands him the dragon-head katana] When it is over... the sword is yours.

David Abramowitz:

I don't have a favorite episode. That's like asking me of my three children, which is my favorite. I have lots of episodes that I love.

Hal Beckett:

It was actually two episodes, "To Be" and "Not To Be", which-- that was the end of season six? Those two, because there were so many layers going in there, and so much information and deep stuff about the Highlander lore. And I got a fascination with, you know, I wouldn't say occultish stuff, but sort of, you know, medieval demonology and things like that. And with the Ahriman story and the Richie Killer issues going on, I found those episodes fascinating actually.

Clip from 6x13: "Not To Be":
[DM & Methos begin to swordfight, DM using Kronos's sword.]
Joe - Kill him!

Charles Wilkinson:

There's really too many to list. I think in the funny realm, I think "Double Eagle" was my favorite, because we tried once or twice to do comedic shows, and that one certainly worked the best. One of my favorite shows was "Avatar" -- "Archangel", pardon me -- and "Avatar", really, I'll take them as a unit -- because we really stepped into new territory there.

Clip from 1x18: "The Lady and the Tiger":
[DM walks away from threatening car, then starts running. The car chases DM onto a narrow street as pedestrians jump out of the way. The car chases DM around a corner, then down a dead end street. DM jumps onto a car parked in the dead end, then rolls over the roof of Horton's car as it crashes into the parked car.]

Stephen Geaghan:

I think that would still have to be "Wrath of Kali", and simply for personal reasons, because the design in it I liked so much.

Clip from 4x09: "The Wrath of Kali":
Ramsey - What the devil were you thinking of? There's going to be hell to pay over this! I will not be held responsible for your actions.
DM - Never thought you would be.
Ramsey - [blocks DM with his riding cane] Now that you've saved your little heathen girl from the fire, what am I to tell the prince?
DM - [grabs hold of riding cane] Whatever you like. And don't do that to me again. [releases cane]

Elizabeth Gracen ("Amanda"):

I like "Dramatic License", because working with Sandra Bernhard and just saying the F-word so many times for a week was so much fun. The one with Nadia. See, I'm getting Raven episodes in there too. The Eiffel Tower sequence was my favorite, definitely my favorite moment to watch.

Clip from 3x22: "Finalé, Part Two":
[DM & Amanda tango along the railing platform.]

Stan Kirsch:

I'm going to go with, well, definitely the last ones for the reason that we've talked about, the "Not To Be", but aside from that, "End of Innocence" and... "The Innocent", for Mom.

Clip from 1x18: "The Lady and the Tiger":
[DM & Clay face each other, bow, move into fighting stances.]

Ken Gord:

I have more than one favorite episode, but I would say, let's see, no particular order: "Color of Authority", and let's see, "Courage", "Valkyrie", "Duende", and "Methuselah's Gift", and the two-parter with-- where Duncan goes bad, is that "Unholy Alliance"? or is that -- "Something Wicked" and what's the other one? "Deliverance." Yeah, that was an amazing two-parter. Oh, and back to flashbacks, those were great flashbacks, those Middle Ages flashbacks in the desert, with the Four Horsemen. Yeah, they were excellent flashbacks.

Donna Lettow:

Favorite drama, I would say "Shadows", but favorite comedy, I think, is pretty much neck and neck with "Till Death".

Clip from 1x18: "The Lady and the Tiger":
Gina - No one does that and lives.
DM - No!
Gina - Sorry about the mess in there.
DM - [devastated] No! No, no, no! It was all an act. Tell her-- [suddenly senses another 'buzz'. Methos pops up from where he was hiding at the other end of the barge, Cheshire grin on his face. DM is angry and relieved.] Not funny!
Methos - Oh, I don't know. Pretty funny from here.
DM - Oh, really? I think I should take your head instead. How about that? Would you like that?
Gina - What's the matter, Duncan? Can't you take a joke?
DM - Fitz would have found it funny.
Gina - So, are you going to give me away?
DM - [still disgruntled] No.
Gina - Oh, please, Duncan? Please?
DM - [grabs her, dips her] All right. Here, you'd better take her. [spins her into Robert's arms] Go on, for God's sake.

Hal Beckett:

Well, we've talked about Ahriman, I suppose he was a great bad guy, yeah. And, oh, now, the Four Horsemen episode, those guys were great too.

Clip from 5x11: "Comes a Horseman":
[The Horsemen arrive on ridge above the nomads' encampment & charge forward.]
Hijad - No!
Cass - What are they?
Hijad - The Horsemen.
[The Horsemen ride toward the camp.]

David Abramowitz:

Kronos. I love the character and I think Valentine Pelka is one of the consummate actors that we've ever had on the show. Anything he does is wonderful.

Clip from 5x12: "Revelation 6:8":
Kronos - The glorious virus. AIDS... Ebola... and now mine. It doesn't have a name... and it doesn't have a cure. Tell me, Caspian, were you in England when the plague struck? [Caspian smiles.] I was.
Caspian - You have a plan?
Kronos - I have a few thoughts. I have a few dollars. Enough for a start. And now we have Methos, now we'll have a plan.

Stephen Geaghan:

Roland Gift. [laughs] I thought he was not bad for a singer, to turn into a really bad guy.

Stan Kirsch:

Well, Methos, in "Not To Be", and Adrian, in "Something Wicked". [laughs] And it's very old, and we haven't talked about it for a long time, but I loved Andrew Divoff in "Bad Day in Building 'A'". I just think that he's-- I know he did a few shows after that I didn't get a chance to be in, or he did at least two, did one after that. He did one-- he did "Star-Crossed"^*, in addition to "Bad Day in Building 'A'", Andrew Divoff, and I've seen him in just a lot of films, and I just think he makes a great bad guy, and at the time it was very exciting. I think it was one of the Beverly Hills cop movies or something that he did, some big feature, and when we did "Bad Day in Building A", it was just very exciting to me. I was very young, and he had been the bad guy, his big movies, and all of a sudden I was there with him, and yeah. So I know it goes way back, but I really liked what he did. And of course Jonathan Banks^* was great.

* Divoff was in "Bad Day in Building 'A'" and "Little Tin God". Jonathan Banks was Mako in "Under Color of Authority".

Adrian Paul:

Peter Horton or Kalas were the two strongest, I think, and also Xavier St. Cloud.

Donna Lettow:

I think it's still Kalas. I think Kronos gave him a run for his money. But that David Robb managed to make that character believable... Some other actors, I mean, given the whole thing with the throat and everything, could have gone more over the top. I won't say Kalas wasn't over the top, but he was supposed to be. He's a drama queen. He's an opera singer. But he managed not to make it laughable. And the sword fights were phenomenal, especially the one in "Methos" on the slippery floor was just beauty to behold.

Ken Gord:

I think Valentine Pelka was one of my favorite bad guys. He didn't necessarily, when you met him, you know, seem like he would be an obvious bad guy, but I think my favorite bad guys are the guys who aren't, sort of right-on bad guys, who have, you know, are kind of a little off the mark. And for a small guy, he certainly carries a lot of weight. He was pretty vicious, pretty ruthless. And let's see. I like Peter Horton a lot. I thought he played, you know, just a really great sinister arch-nemesis to MacLeod. He wasn't an Immortal, which made him even more dangerous because he knew about them. And, uh...

Clip from 2x01: "The Watchers":
[Horton tries to shoot DM some more but is hampered by Lynn pulling on his arm. DM pulls out his katana & stabs Horton with it.]

Stephen Geaghan:

There were so many done, so many unforgettable moments in the four years that I did that show, that no one of them stands out except the kind of pang of regret that I felt when I knew that was over for me.

Donna Lettow:

I'm partial to the toast at the end of "Finalé Two". I don't know why. I mean, it's nothing spectacular, it's nothing dramatic. It's just our little family together, and I really like that moment.

Clip from 3x22: "Finalé, Part Two":
Joe - So, what'll we drink to?
Methos - [holding champagne flute] How about the wonders of modern technology?
Amanda - Hmm. To MacLeod... still in one lovely piece. [hands champagne flute to DM]
Joe - I'll drink to that.
DM - Fitzcairn and Paul.
Amanda - To old friends.
DM - And new ones. [looks over at Methos]
All - [raises their glasses in toast, then clink glasses together] Cheers. [drink]

Charles Wilkinson:

Some of the most best moments were off camera, and I would have to say one of them was Adrian trying to mount that painted horse in "Line of Fire", jump on its back and ride away. He must have missed seven times.

Stan Kirsch:

Probably the most unforgettable moment was when they pulled the practical joke on me up on the mountain in the middle of the snowstorm in the first season, when Barry Rosen, who was producing at the time, had paid one of the crew members to dress up in this -- he went out and bought it. rented this big Sasquatch outfit. And I'm sure people hearing this story at the time... but I just never forget shooting on the mountain in the middle of the snowstorm, and I'm sort of up on the hill, and Adrian's training, and I'm like Bert Young to his Rocky, and spinning this log around, and he's jumping over the log. We're doing the scene, and the camera's behind Adrian, and I'm the only one up on the mountain, and sixty people, everybody covered in bundles of clothes, and snowing like crazy, and all of a sudden, in the middle of the take, I see the whole crew, you know, kind of go, "Oh!" And I thought, you know, what was going on, but I didn't hear cut, so I kept going, like a good little actor, and you know, like ten seconds later, "Oh!" And my first instinct in my head was, "Oh my God, a tree's coming down." And so I immediately duck like this [throws his hands over his head], you know, cover myself up, and nothing happens, and just silence, silence, and I look up, and then there's this, looks like this massive Sasquatch bear, "Raaar," and I just start screaming and yelling, and ran, peeing in my pants down the mountain, and it was a guy named Lou, who was a good friend of ours, used to play poker with us -- he's one of the camera guys -- dressed up in this outfit, and they got me good. They got me good. There was a lot of practical jokes, and that was definitely an unforgettable moment, because I think I spent years trying to pay people back for just that one, you know, just that one, and of course they got it all on film, and we had a good laugh at the rap party.