Aricles Annex - Xena: Warrior Princess Magazine Articles

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Starburst Special #43

April 2000
pgs. 16-23

Xena returns to China in the fifth season episode  Purity

THERE'S ONLY so much of RJ Stewert to go around. Stewert learned that lesson the hard way. as he had to relinquish most of his day-to-day writing and producing duties on Xena: Warrior Princess in order to channel his energies into the creation and launch of Cleopatra 2525, half of the back-to-back action pack (the other half being Jack of All Trades) that has filled the void left by the conclusion of the abbreviated sixth season of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. "I've really liked being back on Xena," Stewert notes. "I like Studios USA thinking how hard I work because I want them to appreciate me. But I must say that it was staggered in a way that most of my work on Cleopatra was done and then I went back to Xena. Now we're on a Cleopatra hiatus. The real challenge will be when the new season of Xena starts up just about the same time we're going back to finish Cleopatra. Then I don't know what I'll do. "

And what did Stewart make of the Xena episodes that aired while he concentrated on Cleopatra 2525? "I was pretty pleased," he responds. "I have some of those `Gee, I would have done this or that differently' feelings. The way Xena's baby was handled and delivered was very good. Some of the comedy stuff I didn't think worked as well. Perhaps we were burning out on some of the comedy beats anyway."

Gabrielle cares for her pregnant comrade

Pregnant pauses

Series star Lucy Lawless' real-life pregnancy complicated matters, of course, forcing the entire production team to try their hand at creative tapdancing. Episodes focused more often and more heavily on Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), Joxer (Ted Raimi), Ares (Kevin Smith) and the like, while those hours that did feature the expectant Xena were somewhat less action-oriented than usual. "When Lucy was actually pregnant it was  really difficult," Stewart recalls. "It was just dumb luck for me, for my own selfish purposes, that I got to go to Cleopatra during that period. I know it was a very, very, very difficult thing to cover for the writers who were covering it. Lucy just couldn't work that much. I mean, she was pregnant. We all know that Xena can fight when she's pregnant, but Lucy couldn't work a full day.

"In that sense I am extremely happy with this fifth season given that that was the handicap we had. Since she has had the baby, Lucy has been recuperating pretty quickly and been back working full time, and it's been fun to use the fictional baby as a dramatic device. So, I'd say the actual pregnancy made it very difficult, but once Lucy was back and we just had this fictional baby to deal with on the show, it made it a lot of fun and was actually a boost for the show. "

Critical opinion

Mixing episodes he was directly involved with those he was not, Stewart cites  Fallen Angel, the season opener, as a winner. Other installments that earn his praise include  Chakram, which explored the pros and cons of a heavenly Xena;  God-Fearing Child, the Hercules crossover, which not only offered the surprising return of Kevin Sorbo as Hercules, but also featured the long-anticipated birth of Xena's baby, Eve, whose birth may very well signal the end of the gods' rule; and  Eternal Bonds, in which Gabrielle races to find the antidote for a poisoned Joxer and Xena struggles to fend off armies let loose on them by priests of the gods. Of  God-Fearing Child, Stewart states that "Kevin was very kind to do it. We really appreciated it. He was terrific in the episode. Lucy was still very much recuperating from having glven birth, so I we really needed him on camera a lot. And he was great. It was a little tricky balancing the two characters, but I think we pulled it off."

The bane of any long-running show is keeping it vital and interesting. Xena recently crossed the 100-episode threshold, but Stewert insists that there are plenty more adventures to tell. "There are whole other cultures we can go to, even to the extremes of the Americas and the Aztecs and Africa," he stresses. "There's a whole world to explore. The Nordic countries. Germany. They did some of that on Herc, but we've never done it on Xena. That's what l'd love to do on Xena, explore the ancient worlds. In terms of the characters, I don't want to give anything away, but something happens later on this season concerning Xena's child that will clearly send Xena and the series in a somewhat different direction. I think it will be a direction everyone will like. It's not like reinventing the wheel or anything. I can't say what it is, but it's very much wrapped up in who her daughter is and how that evolves."

New ground

Jennifer Sky stars as Cleopatra

And now it's onto Cleopatra 2525, which debuted to strong ratings and surprisingly positive reviews in January. The series, which kicked off with  Quest for Firepower, centers on Hel (Gina Torres, who had guest-starred on Xena and played the recurring role of Nebula on Hercules) and Sarge (Victoria Pratt, Queen of the Amazons on Xena), two futuristic freedom fighters who use their brains and brawn in an effort to reclaim Earth's surface from the fearsome flying creatures called Bailies. Hel and Sarge are joined by Cleopatra (Jennifer Sky, Amarice on Xena), a would-be actress who went into a coma during boob-enhancement surgery in the year 2001 and has just now been stirred from her cryosleep.

"Rob Tapert came up with the idea of doing two half-hours, and we then tried to come up with what genre to approach," Stewart says, relating the genesis of the show. "We chose sci-fi and just started to piece together a world that seemed interesting, that we could have fun with. It came from necessity, in the sense that we had to fill the Hercules slot, but it also came about because Rob and I love to tell cool stories. We had to find a genre and a milieu that let us do that and let us do that in a way people heven't seen before. And Cleopatra is what we came up with.

Crossing genres

"Rob and I are bringing a mythological bent to the sci-fi. The way we're approaching it, it becomes sci-fi/fantasy. There are some fantasy elements to the sci-fi because we enjoy the fantasy so much. But Cleopatra is a different show, and it's different in the best way possible from Xena and Hercules. It provides people who like our shows a whole different world to enter. It also gives Rob and I a whole different well to mine."

While he describes himself as "neurotically worried" about Cleopatra clicking with Jack of All Trades and the Cleopatra/Jack combo complementing Xena, which remains a potent ratings draw in first-run syndication, Stewart thinks he and Tapert are on the right track. And, based on the first couple of episodes, it does seem that Stewart and Tapert have imbued Cleopatra 2525 with the right mix of kitsch, action and sex appeal. The real accomplishment, however, will be maintaining that increasingly volatile magic over the long haul. "We don't take ourselves too seriously in the sense that we don't get too ambitious with themes, that we don't ask the audience to take us too seriously. But when we are sitting down, figuring out the stories and the character arcs, we take that all very seriously.

Level crossing?

The heroic threesome - Hel, Cleo and Sarge

"We want our characters to be as full as they can be within the genre. We want our stories to be as interesting as they can be. Yet we always have that sense of fun in the background. It makes for terrifically fun story sessions. We've done 14 episodes so far and I like them all. I know that's a self-serving thing to say, but I do believe that. I like that we've invented a whole world. Actually, we're creating a bunch of whole worlds. Underneath the Earth all of these different little civilizations have evolved and they're isolated from each other So our characters can go to one level and there will be mutants, and they can go to another level and there's a deliberately re-created 20th century world. To explore all of that is great fun.

"We've got a chart on the wall where we have the different levels mapped out," continues Stewart, who is based in Los Angeles, while the show itself goes before the camera in Auckland, New Zealand. "We're going to put a list of trivia questions on the Internet, on the (Cleopatra 2525) web site. 'What level is this on?' And if you watch all of the episodes you'll figure that out. That's probably the most fun I have, and I also enjoy developing these three new characters I like a lot. They have very distinct motivations and desires. "

Victoria Pratt plays Sarge

Long-term planning

And, yes, Stewart believes there are six years worth of adventures to spin, motivations and desires to investigate. "Rob and I are delusional that way," Stewart says, laughing. "We have the fifth and sixth season twists figured out in our minds. We always think in preposterously optimistic terms because of the success of Xena. We think we'll heve a long run with Cleopatra and if we do, we know we'll need plenty of stories to tell."

As if Stewart didn't already heve enough on his plate, he's embarking on yet another project. For Turner Network Television (TNT) and Renaissance Pictures (Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi's company), Stewart is in the process of writing a pilot for another television series that asks the following question: What if the Arthurian myths took place today, in a major American city? In fact, the writer-producer must bid farewell in a moment so that he can return to his computer and bang out a few more pages of script. Before he does, however, Stewart takes a moment to marvel at how he's built a large part of his career on the foundation of myth and fantasy.

"I finished school in the 6Os - actually, it was the 70s bscause I was screwing around so much, and I had no idea what I was doing," he says. "I knew early on, though, that I wanted to work in show business, making television and features. I'm very fortunate that I at least had a very clear idea of the kind of television I liked, which was The Avengers and Wild Wild West. My tastes in features are totally different. I love this Paul Thomas (Magnolia) Anderson guy. The types of movies I imaginad doing when I was in college were the kinds he's doing now. But l'm doing television now and l'm doing the kind of television I loved when I was in high school. I love it, but I can't honestly say I ever knew l'd end up making it."

lan Spelling

Producer RJ Stewart [sic - that's Rob Tapert] with his stars - Gine Torres, Victoria Pratt and Jennifer Sky. We understand he whistles with joy each morning on the way to the office...

XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS Cast: Xena (Lucy Lawless), Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor). with Joxer (Ted Raimi), Salmoneus (Robert Trebor), Callisto (Hudson Leick), Jullus Caesar (Karl Urban), Alti (CIare Stansfield), Ares (Kevin Smith) First transmitted: 4th September 1995
Season One A1..............................Sins of the Past A2..............................Chariots of War A3..............................Dreamworker A4..............................Cradle of Hope A5..............................The Path Not Taken A6..............................The Reckoning A7..............................The Titans A8...............................Prometheus A9...............................Death in Chains A10.............................Hooves and Harlots A11.............................The Black Wolf A12.............................Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts A13.............................Athens City Academy ..............................................of the Performing Bards A14.............................A Fistul of Dinars A15.............................Warrior...Princess A16.............................Mortal Beloved A17.............................The Royal Couple of Thieves A18.............................The Prodigal A19.............................Altared States A20.............................Ties that Bind A21.............................Greater Good A22.............................Callisto A23.............................Death Mask A24.............................Is There a Doctor in the House?	Season Two B1...............................Orphan of War B2...............................Remember Nothing B3...............................The Giant Killer B4...............................Girls Just Wanna Have Fun BS...............................Retum of Cailisto B6...............................Warrior...Princess...Tramp B7...............................Intimate Stranger B8...............................Ten Litte Warlords B9...............................A Solstice Carol B10............................The Xena Scrolls B11............................Here She Comes Miss Amphipolis B12............................Destiny B13............................The Quest B14.............................A Necessary Evil B15.............................A Day in the Life B16.............................For Him the Bell Tolls B17.............................The Execution B18.............................Blind Faith B19.............................Ulysses B20.............................The Price B21.............................The Lost Mariner B22.............................A Comedy of Eros
Season Three C1...............................The Furies C2...............................Been There, Done That C3...............................The Dirty Half Dozen C4...............................Deliverer C5...............................Gabrielle's Hope C6...............................The Debt, Part One C7...............................The Debt, Pare Two C8...............................The King of Assassins C9...............................Warrior...Priestess...Tramp C10.............................The Quill is Mightier C11 ............................Maternal Instincts C12.............................The Bitter Suite C13.............................One Against an Army C14.............................Forgiven C15.............................KingCon C16.............................When in Rome C17.............................Forget Me Not C18.............................Fins, Femmes and Gems C19.............................Tsunami C20.............................Vanishing Act C21.............................Sacrifice, Part One C22.............................Sachfice, Part Two	Season Four D1..................Adventures in the Sin Trade, Part One D2..................Adventures in the Sin Trade, Part Two D3..................A Family Affair D4..................In Sickness and in Hell D5..................A Good Day D6..................A Tale of Two Muses D7..................Locked Up and Tied Down D8..................Crusader D9...................Past Imperfect D10................Key to the Kingdom D11................Daughter of Pomira D12................If the Shoes Fit D13................Paradise Found D14................Devi D15................Between the Lines D16................The Way D17................The Play's the Thing D18................The Convert D19................Takes One to Know One D20.................End Game D21.................Ides of March D22 ................Déjà Vu All Over Again
Season Five E1....................Fallen Angel E2....................Chakram E3....................Succession E4....................Animal Attraction E5....................Them Bones, Them Bones E6....................Purity E7....................Back in the Bottle EB....................Little Problems E9....................Seeds of Faith E10..................LyreLyre, Hearts on Fire E11..................Punch Lines E12..................God Fearing Child E13...................Eternal Bonds E14...................Amphipolis Under Siege E15...................Married with Fishsticks E16 ..................LifeBlood E17...................Kindred Spirits E18...................Antony and Cleopatra E19...................Looking Death in the Eye E20...................Livia E21 ..................Eve E22...................Twilight of the Gods [Motherhood]	Cleopatra 2525 Cast: Cleopatra (Jennifer Sky), Hel (Gina Torres), Sarge (Victoria Pratt) First transmitted: 17th January 2000 Season One A1...................Quest for Firepower A2...................Creegan A3...................Flying Lessons A4...................Mind Games A5...................Home A6...................Rescue A7...................Run Cleo Run A8...................Choices A9...................Perception A10.................Trial and Error

from table of contents The days when women screamed at danger are long-gone, and producer RJ Stewart is responsible for some of the most formidable females of all...