The Highlanders - Episode Four
Written by – Elwyn Jones and Gerry Davis
Director – Hugh David
Producer – Innes Lloyd
(“A prison commissioner using his office to smuggle rebels out of the country!” - The Doctor to Ffinch about Grey being a slave trader.)
- Ben untying himself underwater and going under the boat to the other side in an effort to make Trask and Grey think he drowned.
- The Doctor once again changing his clothes, this time to soldier’s gear. And then when they get back to the barn, back to his normal clothes again. Two obviously likes playing dress ups in this one.
- Polly and Kirsty telling the Doctor he made a good woman and liked him in the dress. XD
- Two and his love of hats.
- That the women aren’t left behind and are an important part of the plan. Yes.
- The Doctor calling Jamie Prince Charles to get him out. Sly and devious liar Doctor. I love you.
- Perkins spitting on Grey. I would have wanted to do that for a long time too, if I had to have put up with him for as long as you must have. You stick to the good peoples from now on and not some Solicitor doing shady slave business behind the backs of everyone.
- Ffinch believing what Polly told him about Grey, after she gives him back the things she stole from him and arresting grey for his slave trading. Haha, dear Algie comes through! And this time without a bribe! Nice.
- Oooh, Polly and Ffinch share a kiss, hee. He liked her, awwww. It must be because she is a badass in this serial *nods* He obviously knows a woman who can look after herself.
- The Doctor taking Jamie on as a companion under the rule that Jamie teaches him to play the bagpipes. Hahah, nice.
- That the whole slave market thing is just a way for Grey to get rid of the strong prisoners to sell on the market for money. It isn’t even Trask’s idea, he just goes along with it? Wow. These two are a dastardly couple.
- Kirsty telling the Laird to keep his voice down because someone might hear an give her away, only to raise his voice louder and louder as he tells her to go away because they may capture her. Uh, shhhh.
- At the end a few people start talking over the others, but not too badly.
- Hey! Look at that, it was a short clip of the Annabelle. Yay! I tend to like the ships on this show, don’t I?
- There was a repeated bit of clip showing fighting. I don’t know if it is from the episode or not, as it did begin to repeat itself, but it was exciting to have moving pictures on my screen *gasp* Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that. Nice.
- It’s missing. That’s about it, really. Shitty recons aside, but that goes here too. Because it’s missing.
Aaaaah, I wish this one wasn’t missing because there was so much going on and it was all entertaining!
We get some small clips in this one of fighting and of the ship sailing and of course the TARDIS fading out, off to the next destination. Atlantis, I believe is next, if my memory serves me. At least Underwater menace isn’t all missing. Can someone tell me if it has been animated for the two missing episodes, or not?
As to this episode. Grey gets what he deserves, Perkins gets his reward for putting up with Grey by NOT going to prison. The Highlanders are freed from slavery. Algernon Ffinch gets a kiss from the girl of his dreams. And Trask dies. Yes. By drowning, which is poetic justice at work.
I really enjoyed this one, in case it wasn’t clear.
Body count – 2. A no named guy on the ship fell from the crow’s nest to the deck IF the clip shown of fighting is from the episode. It did repeat itself, but stopped just before this guy could die again XD Well, it was in the episode and he died, so he is included, even if he isn’t meant to be there and the clip was from something else. Oh, and Jamie throws Trask overboard to drown.
The Highlanders as a Whole
I remember the first time I watched this I was relatively used to recons, but was annoyed by them so I didn’t really pay much attention because I watched the whole serial in one sitting. And I was bored by the whole thing and hated it.
Watching it one episode a night, as was intended, and paying attention to the recons to look for things I find awesome or shitty actually made me pay attention to this one a lot more, as is true of all the recons this time around during my Epic Rewatch.
I love this serial. I wish this serial was not lost so much because it would be one of my faves of the lost ones. It’s entertaining, it introduces Jamie, it gives us kick ass Polly getting shit done and getting the handsome guy doing so. Ben starts off a damsel in distress and stays that way until the last episode, where he manages to be smart and save himself. It’s a small role reversal, but one nonetheless.
The characters for the most part were entertaining. I loved Perkins and Algie Ffinch. I also cheered when Jamie threw Trask overboard. I didn’t much like Grey so I was happy to find Ffinch believing in Polly and arresting his ass.
All up while the recon is hard to watch, because of how bad quality it is, if you can’t watch it just listen to it and enjoy the madness that is The Highlanders for yourselves. The laird is a bit hard to understand in the first episode, and Kirsty got hard to understand in the second and third episode sometimes, but apart from that, it is definitely still doable to listen to this as audio without the recons.
Very enjoyable, would listen again.
