A Necessary Evil
written by Paul Robert Coyle
Interview with R J. Stewart - Executive Producer
The Chakram Newsletter: Issue 05
SD: This episode was the third in the trilogy that covered the period of Lucy’s injury.
RJ: We had approximately six scripts ready when we came back from hiatus. The accident happened just before the hiatus ended. “A Necessary Evil” was not one of those scripts.
We were given a date for Lucy’s return to work. We had had a version of “Evil” that Paul was working on that would introduce a new god. It wasn’t going to be Velasca. It was going to be Callisto teaming up with another god. Suddenly, we had to come up with an emergency script that wouldn’t have Xena in it and that became “The Quest” where Xena’s spirit went into Autolycus’ body. We invented Velasca for that script and she was perfect to use in “Evil.”
Before the accident, the idea of Callisto teaming up with Xena and then betraying Xena to fight against her with another god was worked out with Paul.
SD: How soon did you know how much Lucy was going to be able to participate? Lucy did a bit of kicking and fighting in “Evil.”
RJ: I started hearing from Eric Gruendemann and Rob that she was capable of doing certain things, but not too much. Also, that she wanted to do too much! Early in “Evil” she did overdo it and the doctor was really mad. She was in a lot of pain. We realized that if we could get her to the Christmas break without any further injury, that, after the long holiday, she would be pretty much back to normal. The episode filmed after Christmas was “A Day In The Life” which didn't have a lot of action. She showed such courage.
SD: In this episode, Gabrielle became an Amazon Queen. Is there going to be any more to this part of her life shown in the future.
RJ: Well, keep watching. (laughing)
SD: In the game of “Truth or Dare” that Callisto played with Gabrielle when they were sitting around the campfire, was Gabrielle really trying to understand Callisto?
RJ: I think it was Callisto playing with Gabrielle. I don’t think Gabrielle was trying to find anything in Callisto. Gabrielle has had no good feelings about Callisto ever since Perdicus’ death. And she irritates the hell out of Callisto. Because there is that love/hate thing that Callisto has toward Xena. She would love, in a bizarre sort of way, to have a relationship with Xena.
SD: Would Callisto want to steal Gabrielle away from Xena?
RJ: Oh no! The only interest Callisto has in Gabrielle is to kill her so that Xena can suffer. Gabrielle bothers Callisto on two levels. One, Gabrielle is friends with Xena and, two, Callisto is jealous that Gabrielle gets to spend time with Xena.
SD: Xena used Gabrielle as bait to trap Velasca. Wasn’t that taking a bit of a chance?
RJ: It’s been a long time since Gabrielle was the frail, inexperienced young girl that Xena first met. She’s pretty much an adventurer and warrior herself now. If you want to come on this ride, you gotta take some chances. It's as if Xena’s paying Gabrielle the compliment of saying, “You’ve earned my confidence so much, I know you can handle taking this risk.”
SD: So there you were with two gods and you had to get rid of them. Not an easy thing to do with immortals.
RJ: That is always tricky. And I don't think we’ve ever done it to everyone's satisfaction because it is such a cheat. You're saying they’re immortal and you’re killing them at the end. So you have to freeze them in a lava pit. Why can’t they break out, they’re gods?! I don’t think anyone would go far in defending that. It's a very vulnerable position.