Well, that was a darn sight better than Braveheart!
I'd only seen clips of the 1995 film starring Liam Neeson, specifically the climactic duel between Rob Roy and the evil Archie Cunningham. The fight arranger was William Hobbs, who was mentioned admiringly by Peter Morwood in the panel on screen swordplay at WorldCon this year.
It was the sword choreography in that duel that made me want to see the rest of the film, so now I know just what bad blood was between Rob Roy and Archie, who really had no redeeming features whatsoever. It was also obvious that the Marquis of Montrose, played by John Hurt, knew that there had been some underhand dealings - suddenly, Cunningham could pay his tailor's bills, and where could that money have come from if it were not the cash that Montrose had loaned to McGregor, and which had been stolen from him?
The film was shot entirely on location in Scotland. I was a bit dubious about all the long shots at first, but it was worth it to show off all that magnificent scenery.
There's also a scene at a Highland celebration where a woman sings a song in Gaelic - I see from Wikipedia that the soloist was the lead singer from Capercaillie, Karen Matheson.
Oh, and Rob Roy's little brother Alistair was a complete idiot.
Saturday, 18 January 2020
Wednesday, 1 January 2020
Shadow of the Past - Big Finish
Dr Liz Shaw has always been one of the lesser known Companions of the Doctor, spending a season with the Third Doctor and then disappearing as Jo Grant is introduced.
I rather liked her - sensible, scientific, and taking no nonsense from the Doctor.
Sadly, Caroline Johns (who played Liz Shaw) didn't do much for Big Finish - but I've just finished listening to Shadow of the Past, and if it was all to this standard then what she did do was very good.
The story is part of the Companion Chronicles, and it's a two hander, with Caroline Johns as Liz Shaw and Lex Shrapnel as the young UNIT soldier who accompanies her.
She's been called in, as an older woman, to the opening of a UNIT vault that was sealed in the 1970s, which leads to her telling the story of the crashed space ship in the vault to the young soldier accompanying her.
The story is by Simon Guerrier, and nicely catches the tone of the Third Doctor's UNIT days, and he's placed it between Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Ambassadors of Death - so the Doctor's relationship with the Brigadier is quite strained at this point (after the Brig blew up the Silurian caves).
I shall be getting more Big Finish stories with Liz Shaw, I think.
I rather liked her - sensible, scientific, and taking no nonsense from the Doctor.
Sadly, Caroline Johns (who played Liz Shaw) didn't do much for Big Finish - but I've just finished listening to Shadow of the Past, and if it was all to this standard then what she did do was very good.
The story is part of the Companion Chronicles, and it's a two hander, with Caroline Johns as Liz Shaw and Lex Shrapnel as the young UNIT soldier who accompanies her.
She's been called in, as an older woman, to the opening of a UNIT vault that was sealed in the 1970s, which leads to her telling the story of the crashed space ship in the vault to the young soldier accompanying her.
The story is by Simon Guerrier, and nicely catches the tone of the Third Doctor's UNIT days, and he's placed it between Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Ambassadors of Death - so the Doctor's relationship with the Brigadier is quite strained at this point (after the Brig blew up the Silurian caves).
I shall be getting more Big Finish stories with Liz Shaw, I think.
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