[Kalimac]

Maril and Elanor - sorry, I'm joining the party rather late, but I really like both your suggestions - the Merry and Pippin thing always bugged me as well (though it was fun to watch ). I like the "abbreviated" version of "A Conspiracy Unmasked" where Frodo leaves a week later to stay with Merry, but if you want to be even more conservative with time - considering that realistically we're probably looking at a maximum of eight minutes for all of this to happen - why not just have Frodo and Sam stop the night at Merry's place in Buckland on their way out of the Shire (so he could still leave instantaneously, no need to show shots of him planning the trip)? This would introduce Merry and Pippin in a believable way (why wouldn't Frodo crash at Cousin Merry's?), you could work in a line about "My cousin lives not far from here" thus establishing the relationship, and by showing Frodo *spending the night* somewhere you could also give the viewer a sense of time passing and make them realize that this journey does take quite a few days - I know they tried to do that in the movie as is (showing Frodo and Sam cooking over a fire in the woods, and so forth) but still the impression you were left with was that it took about twelve hours for them to reach Bree, when in fact even Buckland was a good couple of days away from Hobbiton. (For people who like the "farhest away from home I've ever been" line, that could be kept in, since it's unlikely that Sam ever *did* visit Buckland before). And since Black Riders have been shown as being all over the place, it's likely that Merry and Pippin would have heard or seen them before Frodo and Sam arrived, and seeing Sam's protectiveness and Frodo's terror would put two and two together (possibly an oblique reference to Bilbo's travels, and the fact that they were asking for "Baggins") and announce in the morning that they were coming along to help protect him. If nothing else this would give them time to get some luggage together and lock up the hole, instead of literally running off in what they stood up in. Just my 2.5 cents.<P>Also on the Gandalf falling off a bridge issue - that actually seemed OK to me. For one thing, having him scream it as he fell into the depths would be incredibly hard to do without sounding very weird - would his voice echo? Also, you'll notice that he was hanging on the bridge only by his fingertips, with his whole weight hanging off of them and nothing to brace himself against. If you've ever been in a physical position like that - and I have - your hands will simply give out very quickly unless you have tremendous upper body strength in both your arms and your hands. Basically it was just the law of gravity kicking in.<P>OK, enough preaching . Time to take the Country Captain out of the oven. What do you think of the Merry and Pippin scenario, though?<p>[ March 25, 2002: Message edited by: Kalimac ]