It was great to be back in Paris, because at least the scenery was fabulous. But the rest of this episode? Not so much.
Ward was an emotional vampire, of course, not a real one. He married rich women and sucked them dry, murdering others in their lives as needed in order to secure his access to the money. Although he was visually stunning and good with a sword, Nicholas Ward wasn't even that interesting an evil immortal. And the flashback was really, really long, and really, really bad. I had absolutely no interest in the pointless (pun intended) death of Baines, the aspiring vampire hunter. Utter waste of time.
Yes, it was sort of an interesting idea: an immortal masquerading as another type of fantastic creature. Immortals on this show are very human, though, and bringing in vampires, even fake ones, so did not work. This was undoubtedly another niche-exploration attempt on the part of the writers. Which would explain the upcoming "Pharoah's Daughter" as well.
Adrian Paul always looked good, but he was outrageous dressed entirely in black. The final duel, with Duncan in black and Ward in white, at a stunning but unrecognizable French location, was a good one and the best part of the episode. And the quickening was probably one of the best, visually, in the series. Ward even got a great last line: "Everyone's a critic."
Flashbacks:
— 1840 Paris. This mish-mosh of Ward, one of his marital victims, and Baines the vampire hunter, had to be the longest flashback so far. Too bad it was so dull.
— Note the vast amounts of fog during many of the flashback scenes, as well as the absolutely fabulous quickening. Yes, it was a Dennis Berry episode.
Bits and pieces:
— Michel Modo (Maurice) has replaced Charlie in the cast. As I said before, I find the Maurice character to be even more annoying than the Charlie character. This was not a move in the right direction.
— Richie is still in the cast, and he isn't even in France. But Joe is in Paris, and friends with Duncan again.
— Duncan and Nicholas Ward fell from a great height and landed on their feet, which wasn't humanly possible. Something similar happened in the first part of "Unholy Alliance." Again, I think they were exploring where they were going with the series. And no.
— Ward's fiancee gave Duncan a phone number. An American number. I'm fairly certain Parisian telephone numbers aren't seven digits starting with 555.
— Baines: "Princes of darkness. Creatures of the night. Immortals. Do they not exist for you?"
One star for the story. I'll give it an extra half point for the duel and the quickening. One and a half out of four possible stars,
Billie
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Billie Doux knows that there can be only one.
does anyone know the name of the song and band that is playing in the beginning of the episode, right after the man is killed in the pool?
ReplyDelete1.5 stars for one of the classiest villains in the series? Preposterous!
ReplyDeleteIt was a great episode, the flashback being a classic murder mystery with wonderful clothing added to it. The only thing that took from this episode was Duncan being a total twat.
Okay, you had me giggling. :) Nicely done, "Nicholas Ward".
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that the producers tried to get David Bowie on the show and the Ward character was created for him but it never came to pass. Really a shame.
ReplyDeleteThe "stunning but unrecognizable French location" is the old tribune of the Auteuil hippodrome. Unfortunately, it hasn't been used in 70 years and is now literally falling apart...
ReplyDeleteIt was indeed a gorgeous duel and quickening. One of the best. The rest of the episode? Meh.
ReplyDeleteI always thought this episode was watchable enough to make it worth Ward’s last line. I wish he had been as much fun for the rest of the episode. He almost was.
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