October 26, 1997- Whoa, I now see the logic behind taping a Highlander that's on at midnight. An old friend of Macleod spends 30 years pulling a hilarious scam with his mortal wife: jump in front of a car and fleece the nervy perpetrator. Unfortunately, when he throws himself in front of an American consulate car driven by a drugged-out son of a diplomat, his wife is killed. The ensuing moral struggle (sound familiar?) dominates the entire episode. The dad wants to protect the son. The immortal wants to kill the diplomat. Duncan wants to be a good boy scout. See "Blast Off!" for more info.
October 23, 1997- Hello all, please excuse my lengthy abduction, I mean, absence from the site. "Realside" has been real stressful. Anyway, to whet the appetites of all you Highlander fans (I know you're out there), last week's episode had one of the coolest quickenings I've ever seen. Electricity and water may not mix for mortals, but Duncan's pals have no problem. The stunningly redheaded immortal who avenged her lover's death made the visually interesting mistake of decapitating in knee-deep water. Anyway, the whole episode had shades of Schindler's List and the recent Swiss bank scandals about the Holocaust gold. It also highlights one of the perks of immortality: you can crack jokes about bad deaths. Watch out for the blatant Amanda reference. Even more interesting, Macleod gets rejected! C'mon, Mac, 2000-year-old women know how to get dates.
Mulder dies
Is it true?
Blast Off! My personal soapbox
October 13, 1997- More tardy news: there's an uproar in the SF community over Bantam's decision to stop paying Star Wars writers with royalties and instead insisting on a flat rate. The franchise is a lucrative business for Bantam and Lucasfilm, who argue that the rates are fair and reflect profits gained from royalties. Writers are now faced with the possibility of a general trend towards flat rates. Taking away royalties, which represent a percentage of profit earned, hurts writers already contending with the pressures of today's publishing business. More information is available at the SFWA site. October 11, 1997- Somehow the disarray in my brain prevented me from knowing that Ray Bradbury's latest was released at the beginning of this month. Driving Blind, a collection of short stories by the Grandmaster himself, is in bookstores now. I'll check it out this weekend and I hope to review it by Monday.
October 5, 1997- The final season premiere for Highlander: The Series aired last week. Viewers saw a more somber Duncan MacLeod reluctantly accepting his role as the "Champion" destined to save the world. It's all the soul-searching you can stand and the Devil masquerading as His Vileness, Horton. Two words of caution: it's a "to-be-continued" show, and MacLeod (yes, yes, it's true) chops his locks.
Blast Off! My personal soapbox
© 1998 milesphile@hotmail.com
Coming up this Sunday, last year's season finale of The X-Files, "Gethsemane." To celebrate the occasion, I've written a silly poem:
Scully cries
Cigarette-Smoking Man
Tells some lies
You'll have to view
At nine, eight central,
November 2.
I'll keep this short because I haven't seen the movie yet and I might even like it: GATTACA... isn't that a borough in New York? "But ya knaw, he's such a noyce boy even if he's from Gattaca. Mmm-hmm." (That's a bad New York accent, even on the screen.)
Ooo, that Highlander episode made me itch! Macleod's self-imposed quickening deprivation has extended into its fourth episode this season. As noble non-violence may be in the real world, this is a TV show about people who spend centuries killing each other! A symptom of this new Macleod seems to be a penchant for this 70's blazer-with-a-cream-shirt look. (My friend says it's a leisure suit sort of look, but I can't remember what it's called.) Apparently he doesn't need the long black coats anymore because he doesn't carry a sword on a regular basis. (It took him 46 minutes out of the hour-long show to even take a peek at his sword.) Snap out of it, Mac! I'd rather hear you whine about Richie than see your guilt expressed this way.
In other news, it has been confirmed and confirmed yet again that Darin Morgan, brother of Glen, wearer of the Flukeman suit, creator of Jose Chung, destroyer of Queequeg, and all around zany Emmy-winning monkey boy, is not going to pen any X-Files scripts this season. However, there is word on the Net about a crossover episode featuring Jose Chung on Millenium will air this season (no doubt with a sprinkling of brotherly love.) This episode would strengthen the ties between the X-Files and Millenium; whether the two shows will ever intersect is still in doubt.
Why must The X-Files premiere on November 2? They've finished filming the fourth episode, and we have to wait until after the World Series?! The whole point of the cliffhanger was to spend three months wondering if Mulder lived or not (though to many people, the point was moot.) How long has it been? As of October 1, it's been 168 days! The suspense has been throttled to death. Entertainment Tonight and other shows have already shown David Duchovny (alias Mr. Leoni) up and alive and working. Aside from tales of an equally socially-inept clone twin, Mulder is decidedly un-corpselike. We love him, we love Scully (congratulations to Gillian Anderson for the Best Actress Emmy!) but enough already! This waiting would dehydrate a Fiji Mermaid.Home
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