From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V5 #120 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 Tuesday, May 10 2005 Volume 05 : Number 120 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] Season 6 meanderings [cr ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 08:14:16 +1200 From: cr Subject: [chakram-refugees] Season 6 meanderings Just working my way through the Season 6 DVD's, and some odd thoughts occurred to me... Coming Home. Aren't those Furies just too over-the-top? (And I mean that in a positive way :) I'm so pleased they were left over from Motherhood to cause mayhem in this ep. (Though, the alternate cuts in Motherhood where Xena killed 'em were good - and it would have made Motherhood a positively glorious orgy of god-destruction :) Curiously enough, in the interview for 'Coming Home', Lucy finds it very odd that Ares is well-disposed towards Xena at the end when, a few minutes before, they've been been beating each other up. Maybe she hadn't fully realised or remembered that the whole thing was a set-up by Xena to free Ares from the Furies. Gurkhan. Yeah, everybody knows I dislike it , but I've just realised I dislike it a lot _more_ than Fates. The one thing I really hate in Gurkhan is Xena getting savagely beaten up when helpless, and grovelling to Gurky. (Of course I hate it even more because Gabs dropped her in it.... ) But aside from that, I can't get over the fact that this entire expedition is to avenge Gabs' parents who, last time we saw them, were treating Xena like something the cow left behind; and to rescue her niece, who I couldn't care less about and who turns out to have all the charisma of pondweed. In fact she's the obnoxious Number One Wife who seems to be doing quite well for herself in the Hitler's-deputy stakes and on first encounter earns herself (IMO) a good smacking from Xena at the end of the show - and then of course she turns out to be Gabs' missing niece and so is un-smackable. :( So it's not just that I hate bits of the ep - there's nothing in it I like. Gurky isn't even a good villain. Fates, at least, has quite a lot of interesting scenes to keep me entertained. Back to more positive things.... The Ring trilogy. I think the forest location shots were at Cable Road (Woodhill Forest, Muriwai). In fact I'd swear to it. However, last Saturday (which was a beautiful fine day, perfect weather) I went out there to match up my scans with the scenery - and utterly failed. I went right through the areas I know they've used in other eps, and found plenty of spots that looked very much like the scenes in the Ring - but nothing that quite matched. (How could I tell? Well, for example, in most of the scenes, there will be at least one distinctive tree somewhere in shot - either it's got a double trunk, or bends in a particular way, for instance. If I think a location is 'it' but that distinctive tree isn't there - hard luck, try again. At least searching is helped, in a pine forest, by the fact that you can see for considerable distances between the trees. Anyway, that's how I spent a not-unpleasant, if futile, afternoon :) Back to the eps - they must have used a lot of artificial snow (whatever it was) in those forest scenes. They made it stretch as far as they could, dusting it round the bases of trees as if it had thawed in the spaces between the trees, but even so - they musta used a lot of it. The flying horses were, on the whole, remarkably well done. There was the occasional shot where the horses legs appeared to be 'out of sync' with the apparent speed the horse was moving - either galloping too fast for its speed, or moving too fast for its gallop - but on the whole, quite convincing. And the sky backgrounds were unreal (and I mean that in the complimentary slang sense. Fabulous. Gorgeous. Were they paintings or did Renpics manage to catch the mother and father of all sunsets?) The story - a little convoluted, but much easier to follow, second or third time round. Anyone think 'Valhalla' looks a little odd? A bit like those mud dwellings that exist somewhere in Africa, I think. There are a few birds - little black dots - circling round it - ravens? Incidentally, in 'You Are There', they used the same clip for the 'Artists Impression' - but they forgot to stop-motion it - so Nigel's 'Artists Impression' has a moving bird in it. Clever artist! :) Dangerous Prey. Varia is Really Annoying at the start of the ep. Did anyone else cheer to see Xena dragging her around on a leash like a recalcitrant dog? And, of course, she screwed up Xena's plan to corner Morlock in the caves, by getting herself caught - now what does that remind me of? Oh yep, Gabs. Come to think of it, with hindsight, where _was_ Gabs? Out of sight for most of the ep. (You know this is the first time I've ever noticed that. I Am just so Not A Gabfan (TM). Umm, was this the one ROC directed? That would explain Varia, I guess Old Ares Had a Farm. Hmm. Ares ain't the only one who just can't imagine him as a farmer :) The God You Know. Oooh I loved it when Xena was giving Michael a hard time. "If I can kill gods, I can kill angels too". I was really really annoyed when that interfering busybody Eli went and zapped Xena just as she was drowning Michael. Howcome Xena doesn't get to do to these irritating people what I want to see her do to them? And then Michael got that smug look as he was being fished out of the pool. Arggh! Anyway, there was a curious gap in the logic, where 'Saba' appears late at Caligula's party and says "Name your task, Lord. I will prove myself worthy of your indulgence." And Caligula has Ares brought in and says "Prove yourself - kill him" as someone hands her a sword. (Fade to commercial). And when we come back, Xena and Gabs appear to be about to do a sexy floor show with Ares. What happened to the "Kill him" ? Are they proposing to, umm, orgy him to death? Something somewhere don't fit. You Are There next, I think. cr ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. 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