From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V2 #321 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Monday, November 25 2002 Volume 02 : Number 321 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] <> ["Cheryl Ande" ] Re: [chakram-refugees] <> [IfeRae@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2002 16:51:01 -0500 From: "Cheryl Ande" Subject: [chakram-refugees] <> # # # # # # # Well when this episode aired the first time the howls of disapproval nearly deafened me. My God - Xena has reached a new low wailed the subtextors - Joxer kissed Gabrielle - the world will end right now. Joxer fans wailed - Gabrielle is such a bitch she slugged Joxer after he saved her from drowning. Others just generally wailed - this is not a Xena episode (well they were kinda right). A posse was then formed to hunt down Orci and Kurtzman (and then Rob for hiring Orci and Kurtzman). Having said all this - I like MWF - it's stupid, bizarre, and yes, not a Xena episode but I enjoyed it. The story opens with Gabrielle unsuccessfully trying to quiet crying baby Eve. Gabrielle is concerned that she just doesn't have the patient or talent to be a good parent. Xena tries to buck her up but it is no use - Gabby is depressed. Joxer arrives with baby back ribs for Eve which are deemed inappropriate baby food. So he and Gabrielle go to town for pabulum where they encounter a cat fire fight between Discord and Aphrodite at the docks. An errant fireball results in Gabby being knocked unconscious into the water. When she awakens she in in a tidal pool and she is a mermaid with a husband who looks just like Joxer and three children - seal boy, fishy boy, and Roe a puppet octopus(ironically of the three children the puppet has the most personality). Gabrielle is told by her husband, Hagar, that she is his wife Crustacean and she has amnesia. Gabrielle is suspicious but she accepts this as fact, especially when Hagar solicitously gives her medicine to help her get well. However all is not well in Hagar household - the two boys are prone to homicidal pranks directed at their "mother" - they have a tendency to hang her upside down over a shark's tank. Hagar is a chauvinist pig with political ambitions and a loose moral compass - his real wife has escaped the family and he is drugging Gabrielle so she will think she is his wife (she is of course Crustacia's twin). He is being helped in this by two sisters from Joisey, Sturgina (Meighan Desmond) and Crabella (Alex Tydings) who have carnal designs on Hagar. Gabrielle now takes over running Hagar's household and is getting accustomed to mermaid land. In mermaid land every thing is brightly colored and its like living in a posh seaside resort in the 1950s. A woman's day is spent keeping house, avoiding being killed by her children, and spending afternoons at the club with friends who try to kill you with escaped giant squids. Gabrielle however makes the best of it. She bonds immediately with Baby Roe (did I mention Roe is really cute and I hope Lucy got custody of her so Julius could play with her) - she wins over the boys by escaping from one the snares with an acrobatic flip, and slaps some sense her doltish husband. In fact this is my favorite scene - Gabby has spent the day dealing with her bratish sons, cooking and cleaning when Hagar arrives home announcing he wishes he could be like her and do nothing where upon Gabby throws a knife at the wall, slaps him upside the head, and then blames him for damaging the wall where the knife is sticking out. Oddly enough Gabby's temper tantrum works - Hagar and the boys respond very nicely. They boys are well behaved and she and Hagar are getting along. Gabby now asks Hagar how they met - in a very funny parody of Saturday Night Fever and Lolita, Hagar tells her how he hit himself on the head with a paint bucket and Crustacean came to his aid (ROC makes a wonderful Lolita with heart-shaped sunglasses, lollipop, and big silver braces on her teeth). Gabby's starting to like the guy. Sturginia and Crabella are upset. They tried to get Gabrielle to leave Hagar by telling her how bad the boys were but the plan backfired - Gabrielle is determined to raise the boys right. So now they decide to kill Gabrielle. They allow a killer squid into the club's swimming pool and when Gabby brings the kids to the club for an outing they maneuver her to the pool to be grabbed by the squid. Gabrielle, as luck would have it, was feeding Roe pieces of apple when she was attacked and she kills the beast with her pairing knife (big pairing knife) to the approval of her children and the rest of the club members. (there's a nice throw away scene here - when Gabby emerges from her fight with the squid she leaves with Roe in her wagon and as the people pat her on the back a wobbly Gabby keeps falling off her high heels). Hagar is now truly smitten with Gabby and asks her to marry him (well he tells her they are renewing their vows) and gives her a big pearl ring. Gabrielle says yes and - here it is - Hagar and Gabrielle kiss. Crabella and Sturgina are not happy but since they are supplying Hagar with Gabrielle's amnesia drug they simply substitute a placebo. At the tropical wedding, all seem happy but wait Gabby sees a decoration that looks very chakram like - flash to Xena and chakram; the swimmers are in the pool holding their hands up - flash to Xena fisting two fish: then more flashes of her and Xena - Gabby remembers! and she ain't happy. S & C are happy but Gabby with a little help from Baby Roe beat them senseless. She doesn't beat Hagar senseless ( she should of course - he drugged her, tried to make her party to bigamy and had her put up with his kids - but I digress) but she does tell him that he has changed and to go and try to win his wife back (another kiss and Joxerfans are very happy now). Meanwhile back at the docks, Joxer is giving Gabby mouth to mouth and she still in a dream state kisses him. She awakens, confused and demands to know what's going on - Joxer unable to make simple declarative sentence gloats about the kiss and gets shocked by Gabby (Joxerfans are now upset but Joxerhaters are happy). Xena arrives with baby Eve and she is wants to know what's going on (is she jealous or confused - Lucy can twist a line so well). Dite explains about the accident. Eve starts to cry and now Gabby takes the baby and with renewed confidence comforts the baby and tells her the mermaid tale (she is still wearing the pearl ring). Now this episode has some real flaws. The first being that most of the plot has absolutely nothing to do with the premise set-up in the teaser. Gabby is unsure of her maternal abilities but her little adventure in mermaid land hardly deals with this at all. Yes she gets along well with the puppet but it would have been nice to have at least one scene with the real child actors showing her to be a good parent. Second we have to believe that Gabrielle is attracted to Hagar which would be find except that Hagar is slime - he lies, drugs, and seems very happy to commit adultery. It would have been nice to see him with the real Crustacean so we could see that he has indeed changed and the marriage will be saved. Which brings up a couple of questions - why did Hagar think this substitution would work?, why wasn't he afraid the real Crustacia would show up? - methinks some merpolicemen should be digging up that tidal pool floor in case Crustacia is buried there). Anyway the cast seemed to be having fun. I'm sure the Xena extra's found it nice to lounge around pools in swimwear for a change. Lucy had time off to have her baby. ROC and TR had a chance to do a romantic comedy. Did I mention the puppet was really cute? Movie references: Plot based on Goldie Hawn movie Overboard (didn't see it); Saturday Night Fever (didn't see that movie); Lolita (never saw that one either). TV references: At the pool the portrait painter's models are doing a pose from the Charlie Angels' series ( I saw the series but the not the movie). The wedding brawl has the audience and bouncers who are trying to keep order behaving like people from the Jerry Springer show (I'm ashamed to say I have seen the show). Things to note: Hagar has a lot of Ted Raimi's actual mannerisms (which isn't earth shattering but very noticeable if you ever saw Ted in person). In the final scene when Xena is talking to Gabby on the dock - in the background you can see it raining really hard. CherylA ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 01:10:34 +1300 From: cr Subject: [chakram-refugees] Shark Island Prison I just noticed that on Josh Becker's site, www.beckerfilms.com, there are three draft Herc and Xena scripts. There's a Herc draft and a Xena draft of eps that were never picked up, and a first draft of Shark Island Prison by Rob Tapert and Josh Becker. Interestingly enough, there were obviously major changes between the first draft and the final screen version. I must say I'm not entirely happy with the way the screened version of LUATD concluded. When the riot started I was entirely on the side of the prisoners against the sadistic guards, and I was quite disconcerted when Xena stopped the riot and let the guards take control again. LUATD left it unresolved what happened to the prisoners or whether the brutal conditions in the prison continued unabated. The initial script had the more violent prisoners getting ready to burn the Commandant, Xena rescuing her, and the Commandant ordering an improvement in conditions. I preferred that version, though it needed a bit of work. cr ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2002 22:16:45 EST From: IfeRae@aol.com Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] <> In a message dated 11/24/2002 3:52:00 PM Central Standard Time, cande@sunlink.net writes: @ @ @ @ @ @ @ > Eve starts to cry and now Gabby takes the > baby and with renewed confidence comforts the baby and tells her the mermaid > tale (she is still wearing the pearl ring). First, I'll say again that I liked this ep despite every reason in the world I would've expected to hate it. That said, my big question was and still is about why Gabs had the ring on when she regained consciousness. I certainly didn't see any plot reason for that -- e.g., that one of the gods was responsible for creating some actual alternate reality during her unconscious state. Was it just a tongue-in-cheek gift to Joxer fans? A rather cheap attempt to make us wonder if mermaid land was real? I recall some discussin about that may have taken place when the ep aired, but I sure don't remember the suggested explnations. - -- Ife ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V2 #321 **************************************