EW The Ultimate Guide to Outlander

IS IT ME OR DOES IT FEEL AS THOUGH 2014 was a million years ago? There are many reasons to be grateful for Outlander, but chief among them is the fact that it distracts us from the challenges of daily life in this particularly weird era we’re living through. It does so with rugged men in kilts, breathtaking vistas, gorgeous interiors and dresses beautiful enough to make you weep. More important, it promotes the idea that one can live on whisky and oatcakes and still have exceptionally dewy skin. If that’s not living the dream, what is? But the main reason to be grateful for Outlander has a long name: President Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp Randall Fraser. One of those epithets isn’t official. Yet. Long before Mare of Easttown was a…

OVER THE COURSE OF THE FIRST FIVE SEASONS of Outlander, Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) has handled multiple outbreaks of contagious disease—on two continents and even on a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean. But not even our favorite time-traveling doctor was able to shield her friends and family from the disruption of COVID-19. Production on Outlander’s sixth season—based on Diana Gabaldon’s A Breath of Snow and Ashes—was delayed by more than eight months because of the pandemic, and the number of episodes was cut from the previously announced 12 to only eight. (Season 7 is now planned to be 16 episodes long, to compensate.) And once the cast and crew reunited in Scotland, the strict health and safety protocols created “a strange atmosphere,” according to actor Richard Rankin. “We all like…

SAM HEUGHAN (JAMIE) IT’S BEEN SAID THAT A MAN CANNOT serve two masters. And in the case of Jamie Fraser and the impending Revolutionary War, that means choosing where his alliances lie—with the British, who’ve bestowed upon him land and title, or with the Colonists, who are more than a sure bet in what’s to be a long battle. Could this difficult choice—and Jamie’s ultimate decision—be the undoing of the new life the Frasers have built in America? At the end of season 5, we saw Jamie and his men kill quite a few people to avenge Claire: Given his actions, how will Jamie be perceived in the community going forward? We’re used to the Frasers being very popular. Certainly the Ridge has become very successful and has grown.… At the…

IN A WEIRD WAY, WE CAN THANK DOCTOR Who for the creation of Outlander. When author Diana Gabaldon began her first novel, she initially planned to write a mystery but then hit upon the idea of historical fiction instead. (“It’s easier to look things up than to make them up entirely,” she said in a 2002 interview.) But where to set a novel with the whole planet and the entire timeline of human existence at your fingertips? As luck would have it, as Gabaldon was exploring her options, she happened upon an episode of the beloved BBC series Doctor Who—the 1969 classic “The War Games,” in which the Doctor’s companion is a Scotsman from 1746. “He appeared in his kilt,” Gabaldon recounted. “And I thought, ‘Well, that’s rather fetching.’” True enough.…

12 JAMIE DONS HIS TARTAN ONCE AGAIN S5, E1 “Tryon wants his Scot; I’ll give him a Scot.” When the North Carolina governor calls upon Jamie to assemble his men and hunt the outlaw Murtagh FitzGibbons, Jamie knows he must tread carefully—honoring the crown’s demands whileensuring loyalty among the settlers of Fraser’s Ridge. He ultimately summons his long-ago identity as a Scottish warlord to do just that—donning the tartan and dressing like a Highlander, which had been frowned upon following the Jacobite uprising. Once again ensconced in the Fraser colors, Jamie is an unstoppable force. It’s no surprise that the gathered assembly pledge their fealty to Red Jamie. 11 CLAIRE RESCUES JAMIE FROM WENTWORTH PRISON S1, E15 After enduring a series of unspeakable tortures at the hands of the sadistic Black Jack…

NOT EVERY BELOVED BOOK SERIES GETS THE adaptation it deserves. But sometimes fans luck out. By the time Outlander premiered on Starz in 2014, author Diana Gabaldon was already a bestseller many times over. Yet a television series based on her novels was still a risky proposition. With a time-skipping heroine, the budget was bound to be big—and fan expectations were high to say the least. Thankfully shepherding the project was a TV veteran known for writing some of the best science fiction of the last two decades: Ronald D. Moore (Star Trek: The Next Generation; the Battlestar Galactica reboot). Moore had a distinct vision of what a show based on Gabaldon’s books would look like—and what it definitely wouldn’t look like. “We’re not trying to reinvent the 18th century…