Eclectica

Mostly cogent, most of the time.

There can be only one

Since we moved house we’ve enjoyed a flood that damaged most of our stuff in storage; been snowed in and then endured a 24 hour power cut, so we had no heating when it was at its coldest; and now we’ve all got stinking colds, of which mine has led to a chest infection and baby Thomas’ has led to conjunctivitus, sleepless nights and some truly spectacular vomitting.

This was supposed to be a quieter year, godammit!

Anyway, I’m working again, polishing the first two thirds of Operation Motherland so they’re fit to be seen.

Reading back through stuff I wrote quite a while ago now is almost like reading an old book; it’s hard to think I’ve got to get sufficiently back into the story to wrap it all up satisfactorily. But I will, have no fear. Once I’ve finished hacking up my remaining lung.
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Word is out that Big Finish are doing Highlander audiobooks, with Adrian Paul returning to the role of Duncan MacLeod. I’ve known about this for some time but have been keeping schtum. They’ve already been recorded, and no, I didn’t write any of them.

Nonetheless, I am stupidly excited by this, because I love Highlander the telly show.

Yes, it oscillated in quality more than almost any other show I can think of; yes, it beggared belief that Duncan managed to secrete a full length Katanna in his socks week after week; yes, some of the guest performances were, um, not great. But damn, it was fun and rollicking and it had – very important this – lots and lots of truly brilliant sword fights.

I grew up on the Three Musketeers and Treasure Island, and black and white Zorro re-runs on Sunday mornings. I like nothing more than a good buckle swash, and Highlander did it better than any show ever.

I shall draw a veil over the movies, other than to say you should go rent The Source. You won’t believe your eyes. Really.

But the central concept is simple and fantastic, and when done properly, Highlander is solid gold. I put a lot of effort into pitching for the comic book back in the mid nineties, when Topps had the rights and were planning on launching a tie-in. Nothing ever came of it. I came within sniffing distance of a HIghlander novel deal at the same time, but again, it fizzled.

So I spent a lot of time thinking about how Highlander works and what kind of stories suit it best.

My conclusion: it should be big, sweeping and Romantic, unafraid of derring do and eschewing grim reality in favour of heightened drama, grand love stories and proper villains. In short, it should always feel as if it could have been written by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Oh, how I’d love to write it.

But in the meantime I shall settle for listening to the new productions – the choreography of the sword fights will be the best ever because they will all take place in my mind!