# Sing me a song
of a lass that is gone #
# Say could that lass be I? #
Hi everyone,
and welcome to our
Outlander End of Summer Series.
We've put together
four all new exciting events
airing on Sundays.
You'll hear from our favorite
author Diana Gabaldon,
some of our incredible cast,
our composer Bear McCreary,
as well as other
fun special guests.
This is all part of our effort
to support
Doctors Without Borders
which has been
working tirelessly
to respond to the COVID-19
emergency relief
around the world.
So if you enjoy
what you see today,
and throughout this series,
please click the link
on this page to donate.
Since none of this would be
possible without Diana,
this week I'll be
talking to her
about the evolution
of her books,
asking her some fan questions,
as well as revealing
an exclusive clip
from an Outlander Untold scene
from the Season 5 Blu-ray
and DVD at the end.
So make sure to stick around
and check it out.
Now, without further ado,
here's my conversation
with Diana Gabaldon.
Hi Diana, how are you?
Um, so far so good.
Sling not withstanding.
Yes, I see it's still on
so I mean are you able
to type with both hands yet?
Yes I am, thank God, yeah.
It's much more relaxing.
I was uh,
thinking the other day
of the first time Ron and I
came to visit you
after we sold
Outlander to STARZ.
I was thinking how nervous I was
because obviously I was
such a big fan of the books,
and I had so many questions,
I remember coming
into your house
and as soon as I stepped
into your actual house,
all questions
went out of my head.
Like, you know,
I had so many questions
and it just was like-
we sat down
and it was just blank.
What are you first impressions
when Ron and I walked
in the door?
I was very excited
and very nervous too
'cause you know,
you just don't know
what you're gonna see.
I think we kind of took you
through what we were thinking
in terms of the story
and I think we asked you if you
had any kind of concerns
for what we were about to do,
-where obviously we talked about
-Got lots.
prior- prior iterations
of- of this story
'cause there have been many.
For the author of a book,
you know exactly what
these people look like.
You know what they're doing.
You know what
it should look like.
You have this-
this picture in your mind.
And naturally
what's on the script
is not gonna look like that.
I mean, it can't.
And so, you know, I was
entirely prepared for that,
but other people's versions
are often startling
and uh, and yours wasn't.
You know, you and Ron
actually did grasp
who the characters were
and to a large extent,
what they would
and would not do.
Consequently, you know, even
when changes have to be made
for a television script,
I mean you made them
very thoughtfully
and considerately.
You tried to preserve
the actual flow of the story
and the character's natures
which I really appreciated
having seen a lot
of alternate versions.
I can imagine.
Well I think people-
I feel like people
ask you all the time
if when you're writing now,
you see Sam and Caitriona
and I know you say no,
but even though
Sam and Caitriona
and the rest have done
such an amazing job
that they're still probably not
what you imagine in your head.
Oh no, they're not.
You know, when I'm writing,
I'm in the world of the book
which is a completely
different place
from the outside world
or the show world
for that matter.
I think the first season
was magic for all of us
because you know,
you only can see
a couple fall in love once.
-That's right.
-The first time.
It's not like they don't
kind of find new things
to love about each other
but there's only gonna
be a first lead up to them
being intimate
with each other once.
You're never gonna capture
that specific moment again
so there's something
special about that.
That's right, that's right.
But as the books have gone on,
obviously as you know,
we've diverged from the books
here and there.
You keep tellin' me,
you ken how this will end.
Murtagh and keeping him alive,
probably the-
one of the bigger ones.
You know,
a lot of people ask us
if we come to you
with those kind of things
and certainly on the Murtagh
of it all,
we did call you and say,
"Hey, we have an idea."
This is crazy!
And it is well known that
you were not crazy about-
I mean you were like,
go with it,
but it's not my first choice,
obviously.
For us, we felt we needed
someone to continue for Jamie
to talk to besides Claire.
I mean Claire's always
gonna be his first person
but also we were looking
for that second person
to bounce things off of
because unlike the books,
we can't hear inner monologues.
Exactly.
Unless we do voiceover,
which is something
we do sometimes,
we don't like to rely
too much on it.
That, plus the need
to condense things
because these are big,
sprawling books
and there's no way
you're gonna fit
even part of them
into a one season show.
And that's the-
the main- main difference
between a book version
and show version.
And have you ever
retrofit anything?
So have you ever kind of
gotten to a later book
and gone, "Oh,
I did something I-
"that didn't work and now
I'm gonna retrofit it."
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, no it's uh,
yeah, as my husband once said,
"You can't tell if anybody
in your books is really dead
unless you saw them go 'gak'
right in front of you."
Now, have you started
book ten at all?
I know you're finishing
book nine,
but do you write little-
since you write out of order
do you have little bits of ten
sitting around in the house?
Yes, I do.
No, uh when stuff bubbles up
I write it down
'cause you know,
when I've seen something
you know then that's gold,
and then I can start
with something.
So in fact, I have little pieces
of all kinds of books
including the prequel
which is about uh,
Jamie's parents:
Brian and Ellen
-Yeah.
-and also about uh,
Master Raymond's first book.
You know,
pieces of him bubble up
just periodically.
Uh but yeah,
there's always pieces
and especially in the mid part
of a book that I'm working on
when I know stuff is gonna
happen down the line
and I'm writing it
but I don't exactly
know where this book ends
and the next one begins.
So those pieces, sometimes
they shift back and forth
and sometimes I'll have
quite a large chunk written
and I'll think you know,
this just doesn't fit in here,
it must go in the next book.
It's nice that I still
have some place to put it.
So getting back to the show,
a lot of people ask,
you know we obviously
a couple years ago released
the chemistry test
between Caitriona and Sam.
What's the matter?
Don't sulk, for God's sake.
Sulk?
Sulking, is it?
I'm using all
the self control I've got
to stop from shaking you
'till your ears rattle.
That was fabulous.
I was thinking,
"Wow, that really works."
And I could tell from
the comments, you know,
from the onbookers that
they all felt the same way.
It's funny 'cause we had
that test in Los Angeles
at Sony and uh, they
have this small casting room
and I remember when
Caitriona came in
'cause I think
Sam was there first,
that they kind of
instantly got along.
It felt like that had known
each other for years.
I think when you grabbed my hand
and I like punched you in the
face.
That is good.
Such a relief
to all of us, I think.
Yes, yes exactly.
So you've gotten to know
the cast as we've gone along.
What would you say
is your relationship
with all the cast members
and do you talk
to them frequently?
Do they come to you
for insight into characters?
I know obviously, you talk to
the writers quite a bit but--
Yeah I've gotten very
friendly with Colin McFarlane
who plays Ulysses just
on Twitter more recently.
Mistress. Sir.
Ulysses.
Oh, he did come and talk to me
before his first season started
-Yeah.
-and was asking
interesting questions
about Ulysses
and his relationship
with Jocasta.
It's mostly been
Sam and Caitriona
that I have more of a personal
relationship with you might say.
Sam, for instance,
will usually check in with me
around the beginning
of each season
and say you know, "Where
is Jamie's head right now?"
You know, what- what's
he thinking at the moment,
you know,
what is he trying to do?
And you know,
I'll just kinda do a brain dump
at this point in his career.
You know, this has happened
and this is how
he's reacting to this
and you know, then he can
use whatever of that
is useful to him.
And then what- I mean I'll share
my favorite uh, moments
from the series,
but what would you say
for you, your personal favorite
moments from your books?
Like, if you had
two favorite moments,
and that's hard,
I know it's like picking
which of your kids
is your favorite
but I mean when you look
at your books overall,
are there a couple moments
you're like,
I just- this touches my heart
for some reason, or...
Yeah, well there's always
you know,
a number of scenes
from each book
that are like that because
if those weren't there
it would not be a good book.
So it's hard to- to say.
But you know,
for Outlander for instance,
one of my favorite scenes
is the one
when Claire arrives
at Castle Leoch
and starts tending Jamie
because that needs to be done
and she's the only person
that can do it.
They have this physical
intimacy
more or less forced on them
because she's having to fix him
and so forth
and this immediately
develops into unexpected
emotional intimacy
for them both.
Yeah, there's too many,
honestly, moments in the show
that for me uh,
to pick a favorite.
I've told this story before
but I- I think
just a special moment for me
was during the first season
when we went up to our
Craigh na Dun location.
We were filming Claire
going through the stones
for the first time
and it called for
a gust of wind to come up
when she's picking the flowers
and going over
and- and we didn't have
a wind machine that day
but every single time
we did that scene,
the wind would come up.
It was just kinda
spooky and magical
and it just kinda felt like
oh we're in the right place
at the right time.
It was like a special moment.
Oh it was a special moment.
It was special for me because
that is the actually-
the first footage
that I saw of the show.
Oh, really?
Yeah, Ron and I were doing the
early fan events in New York
and we were backstage
waiting to come on.
He had a laptop with him
and he said, "We got some
of the first dailies in,
"would you like to see them?"
And I went, "Yes!"
So he showed me and it was
zoomed in on her shawl
when she's lying on the ground.
Well I'm sure you've been
asked this before,
but obviously um,
last couple seasons
you've written an episode.
Matt called you about writing
episode for Season 5.
"Journeycake" which
I love that title.
-It just clicks.
-Oh, thanks.
Do you find it difficult
to transition
from writing just your novels
to going and writing
a 50 page script?
Or is it just really easy
at that point
'cause it's just
such a small chunk?
Writing a script is way easier
than writing a novel.
I mean, well obviously
it's shorter and so forth.
The only thing is that
you have so many-
it's a very
collaborative exercise.
Yes.
Completely different
from writing a novel.
You could just-
you put in the pieces
and you make sure that
you have a- a nice dynamic
uh, flow and that
your structure is- is good.
That the- the story flows
and you not
just get the beats in
and so forth,
but you know,
there's underlying structure
which is very important
in any kind of dramatic thing.
From short story to a novel
to a TV episode.
And so we've got that,
you know, for instance
we have the triple strand
of plot running through
"Journeycake"
and we have the recurrent
peanut butter theme.
I thought before dinner
we could have
the future's answer
to journeycake.
Peanut butter
and jelly sandwiches.
Is Doug the only one who
reads your books initially.
Yeah, I don't write them
as I say in order
so what I have are scenes.
When I finish a scene,
I will print it off.
I work in the middle of the
night, he gets up at dawn.
So you know, I'll come down
around 4:30
and leave it on his sink
and he'll get up at 5:30 or 6
and uh, take it with him when
he goes out for his coffee.
He has time he'll read through
it and make marginal notes
and bring it back to me at lunch
and you know,
talk- talk to me about it
or sometimes he just says,
"Oh, this is great."
Wonderful, and tell me
what he likes
which is perfect.
Marvelous.
But it's also good if he says,
you know,
there's this thing
in the middle here,
you know, I don't really
think that works, you know.
This is why, you know, this
character would not do that.
He's always right.
You know,
when he says that.
And, in fact, sometimes
I'll give him a scene
and at the top I'll say there's
something wrong with this
but I don't know what it is
and he'll tell me.
He has a very good
literary eye.
But then he's the only one
who sees it.
Do you and Doug ever argue
about a character?
Like he'll say,
"You know what,
"I don't think so-and-so
this would do that."
And you're like, "Actually,
I think that person would."
Yeah, well it's never
an argument
'cause you know,
he has a really good grasp
of these characters.
He's been living with them
for as long as-
almost as long as I have.
Um, but you know when
he says something like that
I will say,
"Well I see what you mean,
"but, you know, it's because
there's going to be
"another scene prior to this
in which this happens
"and that's why he's now going
to respond to this
"in the way that he does
"rather than in the way
that you would think he would
"if you hadn't
read that scene."
Sometimes he'll come back
and say,
"No, he just wouldn't do that."
And in that case,
I'll listen to him.
I find that fascinating.
Let me just say for the record,
I love Doug.
He is one of the sweetest,
nicest people.
I always look forward
to seeing him
at conventions or wherever
we might be, so.
Um, we've now pulled up
some fan questions
and we're going to post
these questions.
Both Diana and uh,
I will chime in as well.
First question we have is:
"Did Bree shoot Bonnet
out of pity or revenge?
"Or both? Inquiring minds
want to know...
"She didn't say anything,
"although it is kinda nice to
leave it to your imagination.
"Still curious though."
We did purposely
leave it ambiguous.
We did not want to answer
that question.
We felt that the audience
should make up its mind.
I will say just from
my personal perspective,
and this is not talking
for the writers.
For me it felt like
a little bit of both.
It wasn't really so much
revenge, I don't think
Brianna's character,
in my mind
is a revengeful sort, really.
She wouldn't wanna
see anyone suffer.
And she knew that Bonnet's
worst fear was drowning
and quite honestly,
that's a horrible way to go.
So I feel like it was pity
and I think she just wanted
it to be over, quite honestly.
Well I value ambiguity.
I- I really like uh,
I like that.
And it's uh,
it's easier to do
in a- in a novel,
but uh, but you did a good job
with it in the show.
[gunshot]
As for Brianna,
what she did was mercy.
She had mercy on him
because she knew
exactly how dreadful
that would be for him
and he's gonna die either way, 
regardless.
There's also the sense
of finality,
of drawing a line
under Stephen Bonnet
as she says in the book,
"I'm the only person
for whom this isn't murder."
Her father and Roger
both volunteered
to kill him on the spot
if she wanted that done
or to support her if she wanted
to kill him on the spot.
And she didn't.
She wanted him to be tried,
have legal process
and so forth.
But when it came down to it,
you know, she would
give him that gift
and send him
on his way quickly.
"What is your favorite costume
of the season?"
This is a hard one,
as people know, or don't know,
the first four seasons
we had the marvelous
Terry Dresbach
as our Costume Designer
and she left us after
Season 4,
after establishing
this amazing look.
Um, and Trisha Biggar
is our new Costume Designer
starting on Season 5.
I think everyone
looked so amazing.
It's hard for me to um,
pick one costume,
although um, well I did love
seeing Jamie in the kilt again
but I- I think Jamie
has this kind of-
and I'm not gonna do it justice
in describing it,
but it's this kind
of overcoat that he has
that looks so amazing
and then something else
that I just loved
was the last scene
with Claire on the porch.
From Episode 12,
she has this great
blue sweater on
that's- just to me exactly
in this horrible moment,
the aftermath,
wrapping herself in this
-Yeah.
-unbelievably cozy
looking blue sweater.
It was just marvelous.
I don't know if Diana,
if you had a favorite
look or looks.
Oh, a number of them, yeah.
I really love Jamie's uh,
look when he was sending off
to rescue Claire
and he has this sort of
high collared,
military jacket on
with his kilt and so forth.
But let me put in a word here
for the Browns
from Brownsville
whose costume I had
thought was fabulous.
Those guys are
just terrific actors.
They're so repellent.
I'm so terrible.
That's what good costuming
is supposed to do,
help them be
in their characters
and do what they needed to do.
The next one:
"Will we see any more exclusive
collector's edition scenes
"for Season 5 like we had
in Season 4?"
Yes, we will.
We have four
Outlander Untold scenes
that will be revealed later
and will be available
on the DVD - Blu-ray set.
Yeah, I've seen them all
and they're great.
They'll enjoy them.
"In the charging buffalo scene,
"how did the special
effects people
"throw Bree (Sophie) in the air
"and how did she participate?"
Bree!
[gasps]
Obviously it was a stunt woman,
not Sophie,
but we actually,
in a funny moment,
had one of our crew members
dressed up as the buffalo
That was great, I love it.
[laughter]
And not for the moment
where she's thrown,
which we either used a rig
or a trampoline
for the stunt person,
but when she's kind of
shooing the buffalo
and trying to get it
to come towards her,
there's a hilarious outtake
of one of our crew members
dressed as the buffalo
[laughing]
I think Sophie just did
such an amazing job.
Yeah, she did.
She's so in the scene
and it's- I don't know how she
did not bust up laughing.
Next question:
"In my case, the question
is for the first episode,
"the first season,
"I'm rewatching it."
Good for you!
"How was Jamie at the front
of Claire's window
"in Inverness before she went
through the stones?"
Oh, Diana, this is one
of those circ-
-Yeah.
-circular um, time paradoxes
that maybe you can answer
that I can't.
Well you uh, noticed that
we see that figure of Jamie
there when Frank
comes in to Claire
and tells her that he thinks
he's seen a ghost.
When I turned around
to say something,
and he'd gone.
He just vanished.
He did see a ghost.
It was Jamie's ghost.
That's- that's why he's there,
you know,
now why he's there
and how he got there
is a question that
will be answered
but it will be the last thing
in the last book.
You'll have to wait.
"Who came up with the idea
"of that beautiful song
'Never My Love?'"
The answer to that
is Toni Graphia,
our amazing, wonderful,
talented writer
and actually I think
Matt's assistant Maddy
also had this on her list.
To us, that was such a fitting
song for Jamie and Claire
and certainly in this moment
for Claire to be playing
in her mind
over and over
and thinking of Jamie
and that warmth
and protection
and kind of where her home was.
"Are we ever going to find out
what life was like
"for Young Ian
with the Indians?"
I could tell you but then
it would spoil things.
In future books,
that is talked about?
Well you will actually get
to see a little bit more of that
-in book nine.
-Oh!
Oh, interesting.
And the last question:
"What can Diana tell us about
the next book in the series?"
Oh, well I could tell you
a whole lot about it,
but we don't have
that much time.
What you really wanna know is
when is the book coming out?
And that I- I don't know.
Um, I'm very close
to finishing writing it.
As to what it is,
it's a really, really
interesting book.
I've been having
such fun with this.
Especially now that
I'm in the final phases
where I actually really
know everything that's left.
I can't say that
there's no tragedy in it,
but you know, by and large...
-[gasps]
-let's put it this way:
Oh God,
is it someone we love?
-Mmm.
-[gasps]
Actually, I'm not sure.
Yeah, let's put it this way:
it's not Jamie, so--
That leaves
so many people though!
Somebody a few months ago
asked me,
you know, can you say something
in five words or less
that will make people,
you know,
want to- want to read book nine?
And I said, "Yes.
He's still alive."
'Cause that's what
they're afraid of,
is that Jamie's gonna die
in this book.
And I don't think I'm amiss in
telling you that he doesn't.
No, but you didn't-
but- but you didn't say
Claire survives.
No, I didn't. Yeah.
-[gasps]
-But um, you know,
we'll have to see.
I feel nervous
all of the sudden,
like I'm sweating.
Diana, I hear a rumor
that potentially
a little sneak peek
of your next book might be in
the DVD Collector's Edition.
Yes, uh-huh.
We did this for
the season four DVD as well.
So this one deals
with an encounter
in the Highlands.
It involves Jamie, Claire,
uh, Young Ian,
and several other people
as a matter of fact.
Interesting, huh.
Well thank you Diana,
it was so lovely to talk to you.
Oh, my pleasure, entirely.
And before everyone goes,
we're gonna have a sneak peek
of one of our first
Outlander Untold
with Ulysses and Murtagh
which Diana has already seen,
have you not?
I have and I enjoyed it.
We hope everyone else
enjoys it as well.
Thank you.
Today we're shooting a scene
between Murtagh and Ulysses.
The night before that Jocasta's
gonna get married
to Duncan Innes.
He runs into Ulysses
just before he's allowed
to see Jocasta.
The stakes are so high,
if he gets caught here,
that's- that's it for him.
There's a huge loyalty
that she inspires
because of this special
person that she is.
The difficulty for me,
obviously
is that I also have strong
feelings for Jocasta.
It is a really tense moment.
It's a really beautiful scene.
I can see I'm very much
unwanted here.
[sighs]
Why should I give this to her?
I'd rather give it
to her myself.
Then I could explain.
What satisfactory explanation
can you possibly have
for showing your face here
the day before
she's due to marry Mr. Innes?
I'll no be explainin'
myself to you
or anyone else
except Mistress Cameron.
Thank you again to Diana
for being a part of this series
and to all the fans
for tuning in.
We'd also like to thank
Doctors Without Borders
for providing vital support
around the world
during COVID-19.
If you've enjoyed what
you've seen so far,
please help us by clicking the
link on this page to donate.
And please tune in next Sunday
for more of our
end of summer series
with our favorite
Outlander cook
Theresa Carle-Sanders
who will be joined by actors
Lauren Lyle
and John Bell.
See you next week.
