Scottish Skies
influence of culture
Duncan MacLeod is one one of the best-known Scottish characters on television. Because of the lead character's heritage, we find the writers and producers of Highlander: The Series exploring and paying tribute to Scotland in a number of different stories.
Duncan's home village, Glenfinnan, is recreated with a fair amount of 17th century accuracy in Homeland and the film Endgame. Still, the people and events shown are vague enough to avoid conflict with historic details. The fighting and intermarrying between the MacLeods and the Campbells is true to life.
After being cast out of his village in 1622, Duncan later returns to the Highlands to participate in what would become one of the most famous battles in Scottish history: Culloden. In 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie, son of deposed king James II of England, attempted to win back the throne from the new Hanover kings by military force. He landed in Scotland in "the '45" and raised an army from the Highland clans, then marched to England.
While they pushed surprisingly far south, Charlie's forces were severely outnumbered as they reached the fields of Culloden. The English forces - armed with "modern" rifles - spared no mercy for the Scotsman, still carrying broadswords. The campaign was doomed from the start; Culloden was a tragedy, symbolically marking the end of the Highlanders' martial lifestyle.
In Take Back The Night, we see Mac helping the defeated Charlie flee to the Isle of Skye. History is given a twist, in that Charlie's friend Flora MacDonald was "really" an ancient Celtic Immortal named Ceirdwyn. The story stays close to the popular, romantic version of events, down to Charlie's Scottish accent. In reality, Charlie would have no such accent, since he hadn't been to the country prior to 1745, and was raised in Poland.
A far more credible and interesting portrayal of Charlie is seen in Through a Glass Darkly. This episode introduces Warren Cochrane, Immortal Jacobite. Originally killed by the English in 1513, he seeks revenge two centuries later under Charlie's leadership. Sadly, he's "killed" once again by the English soldiers the night before the battle and cannot participate.
In 1786, he travels with Duncan to France, to meet with Charlie and convince him to attempt to taking the throne again. Duncan clearly sees a pathetic drunk who can barely swing a sword, still dreaming of conquest, but for Cochrane he's still a hero, who rationally admits the cause is lost.
The scene is a fascinating examination of the distortion of historical heroes by those who love and believe in them. Warren's refusal to admit that Charlie was flawed eventually leads him to behead his doubtful student, develop amnesia, and beg Duncan to kill him. Mac tells him he must live with his memories, recalling things as they truly were.
Culloden is revisited once more in Forgive Us Our Trespasses, when the Immortal Steven Keane seeks revenge on Duncan for killing his friend in 1746. Indeed, after the battle, Mac goes on a rampage, slaughtering the English soldiers and commanders as they had the Scots. Ceirdwyn convinced him to stop, but Keane hasn't forgiven him. Is it wrong for Keane to judge me as I do others, asks Duncan?
Whether or not it's justified, Mac's rage against the English is understandable, especially since he had already done what he could ensure the continued well-being of Scotland. In Reluctant Heroes, we see him as part of Queen Anne's court in 1712, five years after the Act of Union absolved the Scottish parliament and made Anne ruler. Mac is on hand to speak for the Scottish people. He also joined several Highland regiments later assembled by Britian.
In 1720, Duncan tries but fails to steal the Stone of Scone, a legendary stone believed to have dated back to Biblical times, when Jacob used it as a pillow. It was involved for centuries in Irish and Scottish coronation ceremonies.
The events of The Stone of Scone, a lighter episode, are based on those of Christmas Day, 1950, when four Scottish Nationalist students liberated the stone from Westminster Abbey. Highlander replaces the students with Duncan, Fitzcairn, and Amanda, but most details, like the gang driving away with the stone in their car trunk, then leaving a stone of dubious authenticity to be found at Arbroath Abbey, are straight from the headlines.
Dramatic License, another comedy, pokes fun at pulp romance novels. Bestselling author Carolyn Marsh draws from Duncan's past (or rather, her Immortal husband Terence Coventry's memories of him) to create a swashbuckling, beefcake hero. Like Through a Glass Darkly, the episode theme is the romanticizing of Scotland's past.
Duncan's regret and anger after Culloden is such that he doesn't set foot in his home village until 1995, in Homeland. Though the people of present-day Glenfinnan are initially hostile towards this "outsider", they eventually realize that Duncan might not only be a true MacLeod, but the legendary, undying protector of the clan. An accurate assumption.
