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Chapter XLV: "The Hound of Ulster"

Time to ramble...

Chapter XLV: "The Hound of Ulster"
Story Editor: Michael Reaves
Story: Michael Reaves
Teleplay: Diane Duane & Peter Morwood
Director: Bob Kline

THE TITLE/ORIGINS
I think my original title for this episode was "A Bronx Tail" or "A Bronx Tale". They wound up using that title for an episode of Goliath Chronicles, I think.

Then I think I wanted to change the title to "The Barghest". But Michael and Peter & Diane protested that the Barghest was a Northern English legend, not an Irish one. They wanted "The Hero of Ulster". I changed it to "The Hound of Ulster," which was a compromise we could all live with.

But somewhere in here we confused the legend of Cu Chullain, with the legend of the Barghest/Great Beast (not to mention tossing in and combining the Banshee and Crom-Cruach).

I've since gathered fromt the fans that Cu Chullain himself was the Hound of Ulster, a title he won by having to act as a watchdog for another lord for a period of time.

Oh, well. I just wasn't that familiar with this legend at the time. And I didn't do or have time to do all the necessary research, I'm afraid.

I guess in the Gargoyles Universe, things might have been a bit different. Or maybe not. Actually, the on-going story of Rory & Molly a.k.a. Cu Chullain & the Banshee still fascinates me. Eventually, I'd love to be able to bring them back and have the excuse to really research the topic thoroughly.

PREVIOUSLY ON GARGOYLES
Sometimes we struggled to fill out that 30 seconds of footage. This looked like one of those times. We emphasized Bronx moments and Avalon's past abandonment.

LIFE IN LISCOO
And then we're in Liscoo. Again, I like the relationship between Rory & Molly. Her manipulations are subtle... she encourages his delinquincy. Tries to convince him to leave town... to leave Ireland even, for America.

Rory believes he's nothing. He's a quitter... as his father later says, "Ah, Rory, you always gave up to easy." Rory's arc is to move from being a boy who's a quitter to a man who refuses to quit. Even in the face of inhuman opposition.

But there's a real economic undercurrent to all this. Rory's dad is explicitly on the Dole. Rory is shoplifting and has no trade. It's a relatively sophisticated, young adult dilemma he's facing.

I really like Rory's dad Mr. Dugan -- and Colm Meany, the actor who played him. Love the exchange between him and Molly...
Molly: "Hello, Mr. Dugan."
Dugan: "Hmph. Molly."
(So much ... unfondness... in so few words.)

Of course Molly IS a bad influence on Mr. Dugan's boy Rory. Cuz she's a Banshee trying to keep Rory from realizing who he really is. DUH!

FUTURE STORY IDEAS OR RANDOM REFERENCES: YOU DECIDE!
Rory: "And dwarves made me shoes."
Elisa: "I don't know whether to expect vampires or Sherlock Holmes."
Banshee: "The time of the Gathering approaches." (That was a freebee.)

WHEN THE BANSHEE KEENS...
...lots of people have to work really hard to make it sound really cool. Start with Sheena Easton's vocals directed by Jamie Thomason. Throw in music effects by Carl Johnson, edited by Marc Perlman. Throw in Sound Effects by Paca Thomas, all mixed by the great crew at Advantage Audio. We have many great shows. And the Advantage guys, our composer and voice actors always did a great job on them. But the soundwork on this episode, is just STUNNING.

WIZARD OF OZ REFERENCES
Elisa: "I don't think we're in Scotland. Or Kansas either."
Banshee: "But more than enough to deal with a noisy young hero -- and his little dog too!"
(Frankly, I don't think you can ever have too many Oz references. Erin, my ten-year-old daughter recognized the latter line as a reference to something, but couldn't immediately place what it was from. She guessed Scooby Doo episodes. Odds are that "little dog too" line has been used once or twice over the hundreds of adventures that Scooby has had. So she may not have been wrong. But when I mentioned Wizard, she immediately remembered.)

CAIRN NA CHULLAIN
The site of one of my most annoying missed opportunities. When Elisa, Angela and Goliath wake up in Cu Chullain's tomb, his armor and bones should have been in there with them.

It's interesting to me that the Banshee gets so annoyed by their denials that she doesn't try to mesmerize the info that she thinks she needs from Elisa, Angela or Goliath. She says that her voice can mesmerize (a little forshadowing for what she's about to do to Rory) but instead she just tries to torture the travelers into telling her what she wants to know.

RANDOM OTHER LINES I LIKE
Elisa (sing-song): "We've got company."

Banshee: "You have recently been in Avalon -- the scent of its magic is all about you." (I love the idea that magic has a scent to the carefully trained nose.)

Banshee: "I like it here."

Rory: "About last night... you don't recall putting on a foot of height and a yard of hair--?"
Molly: "Huh! In your dreams..."
(If she can do anything to convince him it was all just a dream...)

Goliath: "A land with a hero soon finds other deeds for him to do." (Is this the old Batman argument that Batman's mere presence draws the Joker and his ilk to Gotham..?)

DELAYED REACTION
Rory comes to as Bronx licks him awake. There's a funny delayed reaction. And a real Elisa-in-Awakening moment, as Rory says: "This can't be happening."

In general, it's hard for someone of my generation to avoid making a Lassie comparison with Bronx here. Timmy may not be in the well, but Angela, Elisa & Goliath are stuck in the Cairn. And Bronx is finding the one person he believes can help get them out.

When Molly first turned into Banshee on screen, I'm curious what you guys thought. Did you think that Molly was Banshee or that just in THAT scene the Banshee had posed as Molly until Bronx figured out the truth?

(When Rory walks off with Banshee at the end of the act, Erin said: "Bad idea." And my seven-year-old son Benny said, "He's tranced. He can't do anything.")

We were trying to generally confuse you guys by having Rory leave with the Banshee and then wake up unharmed in his home. Molly shows up... is she to be trusted? Is this the real Molly? Is the real Molly a Banshee? Was the whole thing a dream?

The whole thing was actually pretty linear. But we wanted to keep Rory and the audience off balance.

In the end, I think we played pretty fair. Even Molly's initial reaction to hearing Bronx's howl in the opening minutes of the episode plays well I think, both as the kind of reaction a superstitious Molly would have AND as the reaction the Banshee would have to hearing the sound of a Gargoyle Beast for the first time in centuries.

SO THORY
The Cu Chullain design and concept we wound up with is a little too close to Marvel's THOR for my tastes. I'm not worried about the legalities, but I'd have liked to have come up with a better design for old Cu and a fresher idea than leaving Rory with a walking stick that transforms into the Spear of Light. We just didn't have the time to dance with it enough to come up with something better.

SO CLEVERDON
Actor Scott Cleverdon, who played Rory came up with Cu's battle cry at the end, insisting that it was authentic. Sounded cool. So we trusted him.

REINCARNATION
So if Rory is the reincarnation of the Hero of Ulster, does that make Bronx the reincarnation of (Buena Vista's Gargoyles') Hound of Ulster. Or is he just another Great Beast? We intentionally left that vague.

A BRONX TALE
But we did want this story to BELONG to Bronx as much as possible. I had to kinda push to keep Goliath, Elisa and Angela from joining in the heroics, leaving the heavy lifting to Bronx and Rory.

The episode inevitably became Rory's story. But by removing our three regulars from the action, I felt that Bronx got more of a showcase than he would have.

I love the "smug" Bronx at the end.

Anyway, that's my ramble. Where's yours?


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Kaylle writes...

Do you have any news on the proposed live-action movie?

Thanks for your time in answering these :)

Greg responds...

The live-action movie is in limbo. Currently, Touchstone is not pursuing it.

Response recorded on October 28, 2004

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katherine writes...

where can i find or see the episode "Deadly Force" is there anyplace i can see it

Greg responds...

See it on DVD, available for purchase on Dec. 7th, 2004!!!!

Response recorded on October 28, 2004

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juan castano writes...

please can you tell me a list of all of oberon's children

Greg responds...

Nope.

Response recorded on October 28, 2004

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John Bibb writes...

I recently read an article on Yahoo News (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=570&u=/nm/20021126/sc_nm/health_cloning_antinori_dc&printer1) describing how a doctor named Severino Antinori announced that a human clone was going to be born this January. I noticed the name seemed VERY simmilar to Anton Sevarius, and naturally my thoughts turned to Thailog. The article said the Italian doctor made headlines in 1994 for helping a 62 year old woman have a child. I was wondering if, in 1994, you saw those headlines and named the geneticist after this guy.

Greg responds...

Nope. It is such an incredibly bizaare coincidence. As I've said before, many times, it freaks me out.

Response recorded on October 28, 2004

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Michelle writes...

Hi Greg,
I'm 29 years old and I just started watching the Gargoyles cartoon as of September 2002 through ToonDisney. I am very shocked that I didn't know about this show before. I am a big fan of the 80s cartoons such as GiJoe, Thundercats, Voltron, etc.. And in my opinion, The Gargoyles are right up there with the best of them. Thank you for creating another great cult show for the 90s. Anyways, here is my question, if it hasn't been asked already. I noticed that during the end credits, Laura San Giacomo is continuously left off of the credits as Fox. I would never have known it was her, except for some of the other websites that have the actors names next to their characters. Was it her decision or someone elses to leave her name off of the end credits? Why the big secret?

Greg responds...

I have answered this before, many times, but what the heck...

It was her agent's decision. I doubt it's something he would still insist on today, but he was worried about a stigma.

Response recorded on October 28, 2004

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Frank writes...

How do i get a previous episode of the gargoyles on tape

Greg responds...

Record it off Toon Disney or wait until December 7th, 2004 and buy the DVD!!!

Response recorded on October 27, 2004

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Billy Kerfoot writes...

Dear Greg,

I can't believe I'm talking to YOU!

1) Did you and the others really have to make the Future Tense illusion the way it was? It was horrifying the way you made that woman(Chavez' daughter y'all call her) weeping in devastated New York, made all the good guys except for Goliath and Elisa dead, and the most hardest of all which is Lexington turning into a villain you see in your nightmares! Lexington's my favorite character but this eposide shook me up quite a bit due to his change in person. I hope you don't let Lex become something like that. You won't right? Because if you do I'll be torn.

2) How exactly was Lexington going to rule the world?

3) What made Goliath realize this was all an illusion?

4) Is there a theme to Future Tense? If not did you and the guys just make it for the action?

Greg responds...

1. We were going for shock value, certainly, among other things. Looks like we succeeded.

2. Through his e-Xanatos surrogate.

3. Elisa acting out of character, mostly.

4. There's always a theme. In fact, there are a few in this episode, including: "Be careful what you wish for." "Even the enemy cares about something." "No matter how bad things get, you never stop trying." Etc.

Response recorded on October 27, 2004

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James Sconawah writes...

Do you have any pictures from the "Bushido" episode?

Greg responds...

I have the episode on video.

Response recorded on October 26, 2004

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James Sconawah writes...

Is Gabriel Coldstones son? If so then does that make his love his mother?

Greg responds...

Yes, Gabriel is the biological son of Coldstone and Coldfire. But from a gargoyle's point of view, Goliath is as much Gabriel's father as Coldstone is.

Response recorded on October 26, 2004


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