Xena’s Destiny: Warrior at the Crossroads
By Gary Gerani.
Expect some startling new directions for the Warrior Princess and her maturing sidekick as Year Three unfolds.
The Official Magazine: Issue 02
Fasten your seatbelts, Xenites… it’s going to be a bumpy season!
After two years of whimsical derring-go, fanciful melodrama and oddball experimentation, Xena: Warrior Princess is about to push the creative/emotional envelope to its limit. “I’ll give credit where credit is due here - Mr. Rob Tapert, our executive producer,” acknowledges veteran staff Steven Sears. “He comes in with some of the most bizarre ideas and directions for the show. In a typical story session, (the writers) will squirm because - my goodness! - we’re talking about an area that network television has never gone to before. And that’s good, we should go there. Usually in a TV show - and I’ve done several series - when you get to your third season, the producers play it safe. They have their ratings and they figure, we’re not going to rock the boat here. But we’re not playing it safe, and we’re at the top of our ratings. What we’re saying is, ‘Look, there’s more fascinating material out there. We’re just not satisfied with it. It’s our job to challenge our audience, and, at the same time, challenge ourselves.”
Of course, going where no fantasy series has gone before can be an edgy experience, for both Xena’s creative team and the ever-widening and diverse viewership that supports the show. “The characters are really getting to know themselves through great duress,” explains head Xena writer, R.J. Stewart. “There’s going through a lot of crises, most notably a crisis of faith in each other, which is very different and very interesting to all of us working on the series.” Fellow staff writer Chris Manheim concurs: “It’s an amazing journey. (Xena and Gabrielle) criss and they cross and they come back at each other again. I hope everybody stays with us for the ride, because I really think it’ll be worth it.”
Executive producer Rob Tapert, Xena’s “mad wizard” of unconventional ideas, provides some tantalizing specifics: “Both characters will continue to evolve and face personal challenges that effect their friendship. And aspects of both their pasts come back to haunt them. Xena’s confronted with a tough situation: she has to go back and kill somebody on a promise she kept, and her friend Gabrielle can’t stand by and allow that to happen. Later, Gabrielle lies to Xena, and this costs her mentor something very near and dear. Ramifications of the episode ‘Maternal Instincts’ (to be aired during February ‘sweeps’) will continue to spill out for a long time. The rift between Xena and Gabrielle becomes so great that the characters are actively trying to destroy each other. And it’s only through the healing balm of music that they are able to be reunited.”
Things have changed since the “bad old days” of sci-fi on network television, where even the best and most innovative series barely survived past a couple of seasons.
In today’s world of TV syndication and upstart mini-networks like Fox and the WB, a fantasy show can stick around long enough to see its characters evolve and mature in exciting new directions.
And what’s at the core of this traumatic character evolution? “At conventions and other gatherings,” offers Steven Sears, “I’ve made the analogy that Xena and Gabrielle are as close as sisters, except that most sisters have their entire lives to learn things about each other. These characters were thrown into a relationship late in life, they’re both basically adults - they’re so perfectly matched that they should have been born together - but they haven’t had time to reconcile their differences. And so they’re having to do it all in a very small amount of time. In our third season, we’re going to be dealing with a lot of shattered illusions. A lot of expectations that we put on other people in our lives are going to be revealed. A lot of things that Xena relied on Gabrielle for, she’s going to realize just aren’t there. And a lot of the things that Gabrielle looked to Xena for, she’s going to realize were false hopes.”
“It’s really intriguing,” adds Chris Manheim, who admits, “it’s really hard stuff to write, because you get down to the nitty-gritty, and a lot of it is not pleasant to deal with. We’ve put Xena through the mill this season; she’s really going to hit rock bottom. But she’ll emerge a much richer character for all of this, as will Gabrielle.”
Although Season Three will be characterized by these dramatic developments, Xena fans who look to the show for its winning mix of action and humor will not be disappointed. We’ll still have our funny, campy episodes,” promises Sears. “It’s not going to be a completely dark season. I mean, we’re not going to have half of our viewership on the cliff ledge.”
One of the “lighter” episodes - at least superficially - is the much-talked about musical scheduled in air early in 1998. Considering the positive response actress/singer Lucy Lawless has been receiving in Broadway’s GREASE, the notion of producing a musical exclusively for TV (remember Cop Rock?) isn’t all that surprising. But true to their ongoing spirit of innovation, the Xena crew isn’t simply coasting on the gimmick: “The most amazing thing about (the musical episode) is that it was not done just to grab ratings,” explains Sears. “People will be very surprised at what the actual intent of this musical is. It actually serves a purpose within our universe. The fact that it’s a musical, well, so much the better…”
As every Xena fan knows, the series revels in time displacement and other unconventional devices to explore the more interesting aspects of its characters. In late 1997, rumors were flying like chakrams that Xena’s much-talked about, mysterious “back story” would be fully revealed, including a few self-contained flashback episodes featuring the savage, no-holds barred Warrior Princess from her pre-Hercules period. “We certainly have explored how to tell Xena’s back story in a fashion that is relevant,” clarifies Rob Tapert, who decided against self-contained flashback stories in favor of more clever applications. “As the show unfolds over years 3, 4 and 5, not on a weekly basis, but perhaps on a monthly basis, we will get large insights into how this person became who she is and why she feels the way she does about her life. We do have a game plan and it does include showing the audience, in different small doses, that old Xena. What she did in the past - and why - will effect what she’s doing in the present, and future.”
Additionally, “We’re not only exploring Xena’s past in terms of time, but also geography,” points out R.J. Stewart. “We’re going to China (New Zealand doubling for the ancient empire), where we’re going to find out a lot of important things that happened to her. Rob Tapert and I worked on that concept, and I think it’s going to be very well-received.”
A good bet, considering how Xena fans seem exhilarated by the show’s constantly evolving nature, irreverent sense of humor and free-wheeling addition to all things offbeat and creative. “Xena remains just a lot of fun and a real challenge to write,” sums up Chris Manheim. “And as long as it does that - as long as I’m not bored - I’m hoping it’s translating to the audience, as well.”
Based on all the available at this point in time, it most assuredly is.
CAPTION: Xena and Gabrielle astride Argo in a lighter moment from “The Debt.” Renee O’Connor likens their relationship to Batman and Robin - classic hero and sidekick - but also adds that “it’s much deeper than that.” Season Three promises to put that relationship through the emotional mill.