I don't care if B5 was totally or partially planned from the start, it's execution was excellent. Even B5 had character probs. Susan Ivonova (Claudia Christian) quit/denied back in the last season which made JMS rewrite some eps.
Too bad Highlander and other series weren't set like this.
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Obviously writing the entire series out ahead of time would be impossible, but, yes, the major points should be plotted out, including how the series will end. For instance, if there is going to be a major revelation about the main character close to the end of the series, there should be hints being dropped all along.
DS9 dropped the ball in this area. La Femme Nikita dropped the ball in this area. In fact, I can't think of any show that has done a really good job of this except maybe B5 (which I haven't watched all that much).
As for actors leaving: there are several ways around this A) Plan departures for some of the supporting characters after a few seasons and make them sign contracts for that long. The main character has to under stand the the series will go for so long and be willing to commit i.e. sign a contract.
B) Make everybody sign contracts for the series' five year run or whatever and make them stick to it.
C) Write contingencies that allow for unexpected dropouts, injuries or deaths. Yah this one is kinda difficult, but not impossible.
I'm not saying that any of this is simple. I'm saying it's what is needed to provide a truly satisfying, non-week-to-week-feeling show. Just MHO of course.
------------------ "A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
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I wasn't referring to Highlander specifically, but more the general notion that having lots of details worked out in advance is somehow the key to a quality television show.
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Oh, I know (didn't mean to imply you did), but a lot of people (not neccessarily in here) think HIGHLANDER was a -B TV show, when, IMHO, I think it is one of the best (well, was) written hour-long series in recent mind.
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I liked it but thought it was ridiculous the lengths they would go to so as not to show the actual head-chopping. I remember when Duncan fought some guy at a sawmill. When the guy lost his head he fell down on his knees, then stopped falling forward and fell backwards, away from the camera of course. It isn't possible to fall backwards after you have fallen to your knees, it's called momentum.
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"Band of Brothers" ... the episode which introduced Darius
And I think Grayson falls to the side. He falls foreward to his knees, then collapses to one side.
A beheading was done very well in the flashback for "Finale." Xavier St. Cloud fights and beheads Hamza El Kahir in the desert, and you see Xavier disarm Hamza (the shot is a POV from Duncan, so the two dueling Immortals are kinda far away, but you can still see them clearly enough), and Hamza drops his head and Xavier deals the final cut,and Hamza collapses, and you see Xavier get the Quickening.
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Aah, St. Cloud. � haven't seen much Highlander, only 'bout one season, but I do remember HIM. I saw the episode where he was introduced. Did his hand grow back later or what?
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He came back in the second season for a two-parter, "Unholy Alliance" where Xavier teamed up with ex-Watcher turned Hunter James Horton to go for MacLeod's head. Mac got Xavier at the end, took his head, but Horton got away ...
Xavier came back for a flashback at the end of the third season, and another flashback for an episode filmed for the fourth season but held over until the 5th.
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Oh, I should probably mention, Xavier was using a wicked metal claw for a right hand. He used it very effectively in the two or three sword-to-sword matches he had with MacLeod before The Highlander finally got him.
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Highlander did have a few bad spots but overall it was done well IMO. There was the whole "evil being" thing towards the end of the series which I thought stunk.
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Well ... the last episode of the 5th season (where Mac killed Richie thinking he was a 3,000 year old demon) sucked, as did most of the 6th season.
The only standout eps in the 6th season were a flashback episode where MacLeod and Fitz are tying to figure out which one of Fitz's mortal friends poisoned him and why ...
And the finale, which was essentially a (damn -- what IS that film title???? I can't believe I forgot it!). You know, MacLeod gets challenged to a duel by an Immie whose holding Amanda hostage, and Mac goes prepared to lose his head, and then does the whole what-ever-the-name-of-this-damn-movie-is-why-can't-I-think-of-it and sees how the world would've turned out if he had never existed:
Methos would still be running with the other Horseman...
A full blown war has erupted between the Watchers and the Immortals ...
And Amanda's a bad girl 'cuz she poisoned her husband ...
Oh, but Tessa is married with children ...
And Fitz lost his head several hundred years ago, "and that's a lot of unhappy women, MacLeod..."
And Richie died his first death during a robbery and was taken in and trained by Kronos and Methos, and when he can't kill Joe Dawson, Methos kills him ...
And MacLeod fights him ... "I AM DUNCAN MACLEOD OF THE CLAN MACLEOD!"
To which Methos replies, "never heard of you."
They fight. MacLeod wins ... and goes back to reality, where he and the real Methos (not the alternate-universe Methos) overpower the K'Immie's henchmen and MacLeod fights and takes him down to a Quickening to the tune of Amazing Grace ...
Good two-parter.
The rest of the 6th season sucked.
------------------ My roomate is a stupid, often-drunk, country-listening, non-cleaning, non-choring redneck ... kill him now ...
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