Last wibble on Spike in Africa

[indri]

The salt-licking, volcano-dwelling elephants of Mount Elgon. I know it says Kenya, but their map is misleading. There are better maps of the region here and here.

Why did ME pick Uganda? What mystical associations did they mean to impart? Or did they just pick some random African language?

All I can think of is that southern Uganda includes the source of the Nile, Lake Victoria (Mount Elgon may be part of the catchment zone---not sure). And that Alan Moore at least has identified the country with H Rider Haggard's miraculous Land of Kor.

Comments

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

According to JM they picked Africa because it had to be somewhere Very Far Away so that he could appear onscreen for as little time as possible. He was supposed to get the part of Picard's clone in Nemesis. But he didn't get it and they'd already built the "Africa" set. Weird.

[indri]

Thanks. I might have been keener to watch Nemesis if JM was in it.

Of course, I think the real reason that Spike's out on a desert plain is that it's much easier to dress a desert set than an equatorial rainforest one. I just wonder why, out of all the African languages, they picked Luganda. Didn't they pick Swahili in "Get It Done"? Maybe they just had a Luganda-speaking actor handy.

[witling.livejournal.com]

"Built the 'Africa' set"?

As in, got a permit for Burbank?

Seriously, how was a "set" "built" for any of that? As I recall, there was a .003 glimpse of JM stomping over some trucked-in sand, and then we were on a darkened sound stage with a talking garbage bag.

Not that I didn't love it anyway. I'm just snarkin'.

[indri]

Seriously, how was a "set" "built" for any of that? As I recall, there was a .003 glimpse of JM stomping over some trucked-in sand, and then we were on a darkened sound stage with a talking garbage bag.


They'd already hired the hut from the Cinema Cliche Hiring Corp?