The Highlanders is a truly missing story. A couple of censor clips from Episode One, totalling less than a minute's total screentime, are all that survive, leaving this story only a little better off than Marco Polo in terms of existing footage. Barring a miracle find, The Highlanders is... gone.
Which leaves two main ways to enjoy this story:
1. The BBC Audio: The surviving soundtrack, cleaned up with some linking narration by Frazer Hines. As it's not a particularly visual story, bar the climactic fight scene at the end, this is a good way to experience the serial. Sound quality is clear and easy to understand, and the story itself is very dialogue-driven.
2. The Loose Cannon Reconstruction: If the original Loose Cannon recon was the only one, I'd recommend the audio over the recon with no hesitation. Fortunately, Loose Cannon upgraded their reconstruction just a year or so before their current hiatus. With much clearer telesnaps and audio, the upgraded reconstruction is quite easy to view and enjoy. The fight scene remains a bit static, impossible to adequately cover in either recon form or audio. The original recon tried - imaginatively, but somewhat jarringly - to cover by using a clip from Mutiny on the Bounty. The newer one tries to cut between telesnaps and composite photos, which is less jarring but also less dynamic.
Given the dialogue-driven nature of the story, there's no clear winner for me between audio and recon. The official CD has clearer audio; the recon has the advantage of the visuals, albeit in stills, as well as a brief prologue detailing the historical Battle of Culloden, thus placing the story in a bit of context. Individual preference of narrated audio versus telesnap reconstruction is probably the best guide for which to choose in this case.
Review Index
No comments:
Post a Comment