Revisited

Many shows are criticized for having weak or "wobbly" beginnings, and it is interesting to look back on where it all began. With the recent release of "The Xena Trilogy" from Hercules, there has been plenty of interest in Xena's early appearances, so how does the pilot episode of X:WP rate?

I was a little unsure of going back to the beginning, but I needn't have worried. The episode "Sins of the Past" was carefully made, and told its story at several levels. First we see Xena reborn from the dark to the light, trying to put her past into perspective, or at least behind her, even to the point of burying weapons and armour, thinking perhaps she could make herself a civilian, an ordinary person, in some sense thereby. We see magnificent New Zealand countryside, misty mountains and gnarled trees over languid lakes, as we hear Joe Loduca's amazing rendition of the traditional Bulgarian song form -- that incredible sound that is "Xena." (How many remember the "Bulgarian shepherdess' song" used as the end title for one episode of the late, great Carl Sagan's "Cosmos?) This sound, translated into the Xena mythos, and the imagery it accompanied, were the starting point of something fantastic.

Then we see Gabrielle's breakaway from the traditional life of a female in the ancient world, her courage to do the different, to be more than society would have her be. I did not find her irritating at all -- I found her everything she "became" in later episodes, though in a raw form.

And how about the tomb of Lyceus? It was amazing to find that the set was retained and used again in "Remember Nothing" in the Second Season, with the context switched so that in that timeline the sarcophagus held Xena's mother, Cyrene. That's contextual accuracy!

Xena is a troubled person, oh how troubled she is! But she has triumphed, she has turned back from the "dark side," and that's what ultimate victory is about. She is an icon, no doubt, up there with the Skywalkers and the Ben Hurs. Lucy acted her part with conviction from the beginning, from Xena's almost-insane laughter in battle, her swaggering fun as she runs rings around the blind cyclops, her willingness to let her own people stone her -- atonement for her decision long ago??? -- to her consummate professional skill in combat as she puts her own life on the line to save her home from a warlord every bit as bloodthirsty as she had ever been.

I liked it a lot, perhaps more so than on first seeing it. After all, X:WP replaced Hercules at the end of its First Season in the weekly slot down here (thus carrying directly on from "Unchained Heart"), and we were a bit unsure of what we were tuning into. The show, and Lucy and Renee, won us over very quickly, but the truth is that the quality was there from the very beginning. Hard work shows.

Battle On and Blessed be,

Whitesword