I hope it's okay if I respond to your self-critique here. I've been thinking about this since last night, both in general and the specific criticisms you gave yourself.
Do we ever provide any kind of an explanation for why Duncan here is so very unlike the Duncan we see in canon, and instead resembles a pouty teenager with a crush? No, we do not, and in retrospect I do so wish I'd done that. People sometimes (with reason) rag on my version of Methos, but the Duncan here is what's really off-key. I needed his drive to connection as a foil to Methos's drive to disconnection, but it's more a device than a thing adequately explained and justified. This criticism also applies to Strata, and if I'd been able to pull that off they would both be much stronger stories.
This is so interesting to me. Privately, I'd have agreed about "One for the Road." Of all your stories, this is the one that works least well for me (which still of course puts it in the "well worth reading" category), and I would not take issue with your analysis of the main problem I have with it. The Duncan in this story doesn't evoke the Duncan in my mind's eye, particularly. However, I never felt this with "Strata," at all, and in fact I think the characterizations in that story are some of the strongest and most memorable in HL fiction for me. I think that the themes of "Strata" are extremely well-integrated with the personalities and emotions of the characters, and for me, the story was more about Immortality than it was about a relationship. I think you also did a particularly good job of capturing the way Duncan and Methos would be in a new and different environment and situation.
I've got a pretty bad headache this morning, so I suspect I'm rambling and not making clear what I really want to say (heh - ironic, given this thread), but in any case. I don't equate these two stories, really. Except that perhaps my humble opinion is that "Strata" succeeds in convincing me of a lot of nuances in character that "One for the Road" didn't. Again IMO, it's a much more subtle story, and the writing is more evocative as well.
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Do we ever provide any kind of an explanation for why Duncan here is so very unlike the Duncan we see in canon, and instead resembles a pouty teenager with a crush? No, we do not, and in retrospect I do so wish I'd done that. People sometimes (with reason) rag on my version of Methos, but the Duncan here is what's really off-key. I needed his drive to connection as a foil to Methos's drive to disconnection, but it's more a device than a thing adequately explained and justified. This criticism also applies to Strata, and if I'd been able to pull that off they would both be much stronger stories.
This is so interesting to me. Privately, I'd have agreed about "One for the Road." Of all your stories, this is the one that works least well for me (which still of course puts it in the "well worth reading" category), and I would not take issue with your analysis of the main problem I have with it. The Duncan in this story doesn't evoke the Duncan in my mind's eye, particularly. However, I never felt this with "Strata," at all, and in fact I think the characterizations in that story are some of the strongest and most memorable in HL fiction for me. I think that the themes of "Strata" are extremely well-integrated with the personalities and emotions of the characters, and for me, the story was more about Immortality than it was about a relationship. I think you also did a particularly good job of capturing the way Duncan and Methos would be in a new and different environment and situation.
I've got a pretty bad headache this morning, so I suspect I'm rambling and not making clear what I really want to say (heh - ironic, given this thread), but in any case. I don't equate these two stories, really. Except that perhaps my humble opinion is that "Strata" succeeds in convincing me of a lot of nuances in character that "One for the Road" didn't. Again IMO, it's a much more subtle story, and the writing is more evocative as well.