David Abramowitz joined Highlander about a third of the way through its first season.
During Seasons One and Two his official title was Supervising Producer and from
Season Three to Season Six he was listed as Creative Consultant, but he is often
referred to as simply the "head writer". When David first came on the the job,
Highlander had already been through a number of head writers, which was
not a very good sign. In the beginning, David worked on scripts by other writers
which were already in the pipeline. Band of Brothers was the first episode
over which he had complete control, and it became a major turning point for the series.
Up till then, Highlander had been primarily an action series featuring
villains-of-the-week, lots of swordfights, and head-chopping.
Under David's guidance, the series began to take a different direction, with more
character development and deeper themes. Band of Brothers was also the
episode which introduced Darius, an Immortal warlord-turned-priest, who became
one of the most beloved and memorable characters the series ever produced.
Darius was David's idea, and a character he loved. Donna Lettow, who worked with David from Season Three on as Script Editor and Associate Creative Consultant, has gone so far as to say "David Abramowitz IS Darius," not only because he was the one who wrote the Darius episodes, but also because he is a very spiritual and loving person himself. She credits David with introducing more spiritual themes into Highlander. As an Immortal character in the series, Darius was somewhat unique because he had chosen to give up both his military aspirations and his participation in the Game to work for peace. Simply by being what he was, he called into question the necessity of the Game, and the First Rule Immortals live by: "There Can Be Only One." In Band of Brothers we witnessed how he became Duncan MacLeod's friend and teacher, and in subsequent episodes and seasons we saw how Darius' teachings continued to influence the way the Highlander lived his life. Long after Darius' death in The Hunters, his presence could still be felt on the show, a testament to the talents of both David Abramowitz and Werner Stocker, the writer and the actor who created this remarkable character. David Abramowitz also worked from 1998-99 as the Creative Consultant for Highlander: The Raven, a new spin-off series starring Elizabeth Gracen and Paul Johansson, and worked as a producer on the 2000-2001 series Queen of Swords. Although QOS was not a Highlander spinoff, it featured the popular Highlander alums Valentine Pelka and Peter Wingfield in recurring roles, and Elizabeth Gracen and Anthony De Longhis as guest stars. Unfortunately, neither Raven nor QOS were renewed for a second season. More recently, David wrote the script for Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, an anime feature released on DVD in 2007, which also featured the voice of Jim Byrnes. He also completed a script for the much-anticipated feature film Highlander: The Source, but regrettably, David's script was not used. Davis-Panzer Productions and the studio apparently wanted a movie that would appeal to the computer-game audience. The end result, which aired on the SciFi Channel in 2007, was so painful to watch that some fans have dubbed it Highlander: The Sores. Ironically, David has been working as a consultant on an actual Highlander computer game scheduled to debut in 2008, which appears to be more promising than the film. We'll keep our fingers crossed. |
The Book of Darius URL: https://www.angelfire.com/film/bookofdarius/ Webmaster: tirnanog (This page last updated 02/08/2008) |