From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V5 #172 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 Thursday, July 7 2005 Volume 05 : Number 172 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [chakram-refugees] Mouth To Mouth on XWP [cr ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 06:42:35 +1200 From: cr Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Mouth To Mouth on XWP On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 18:29, IfeRae@aol.com wrote: > > It was a total aberration. The tone was completely wrong. It just had > > nothing whatever to do with XWP. >> > > I wasn't really campaigning for Fishy as "true" XWP (whatever that > is), so much as noting a few Xenaisms (e.g., the mouth-to-mouth). There > were certainly other eps that were just an excuse to do something different > -- the musicals (which I liked) being the most obvious. My least favorite > of all is Lifeblood, as the Amazon High scenes and "main story" had even > less to do with XWP (despite the Amazons) than Fishy, which at least dealt > with Gabs working out her issues about kids, as well as incorporated > several XWP regular characters. Lifeblood was purely a vehicle for using > footage from a completely different show, as opposed to creating something > for XWP. Huh? But then, wasn't Fishpaste a trial run at a sitcom which TPTB were vaguely contemplating? Yeah, I agree, Lifeblood was mostly of interest for what we saw of Amazon High. But heck, it still had more good footage in it than many Xena eps. AND, it had the atmosphere of a Xena ep... I could argue that it had more do with XWP (dealing with the origin of the Amazons) than anything in Fishsticks. As for Gabs working out her issues about kids - aside from the fact that I couldn't care less about Gabs, or her issues, or kids, as you know - it wasn't. It was Gabs working out her issues about hideously deformed mutant monstrosities. (I didn't know she _had_ any issues about kids....) > > By that I mean, there is just no explanation for how Gabs would or could > > (or > > why she should) experience 'flashforwards' to some seventies-style TV > > sitcom. >> > > Heh, same as the "just take our word for it" method by which Xena somehow > got transported to the 20th century in The Xena Scrolls. It's all fantasy, > remember? Nope. It was Xena's spirit that got transported in Xena Scrolls. That's pretty mainstream, in and outside XWP - just consider Deja Vu, Clones, Soul Possession, Yes Victoria.... That's quite different from Gabs (or anyone) somehow foreseeing 20th century sitcom culture. That did not happen anywhere else. And - why should Gabs foresee that sort of silliness? There was no reason for it. > > Every other anachronistic ep had some rationale. The 'modern' eps (Xena > > Scrolls, Deja Vu, Clones, Soul Possession) were entirely logical in there > > setting. >> > > Bwahahaha! Sure, if we're willing to believe in spells, reincarnation with > intact memories, magic chakrams/scrolls, etc. So Gabs had the imagination > of a science-fiction writer. Why not? Because it didn't fit with the atmosphere of the series, not in any way. It was not a Xena ep. > > You Are There was, aside from the plot device of Nigel the > > > reporter, quite in keeping with the general ambience of the series, so > > the anachronism of Nigel and his cameras was acceptable (IMO). >. > > Um, can you 'splain how Nigel and his camera crew was any more "logical" > than Gabs' mermaid fantasy of refrigerators, water beds, etc.? Easy. Nigel et al were observing the regular Xena world. They were anachronistic, but the rest of the world was typical Xena. A certain level of anachronism can be tolerated without destroying the illusion. As I said somewhere, Fishsticks was way over the line. Nothing about it resembled XWP in any way. > > But Fishsticks just had no reason to exist. And as for those > > embarrassing deformed mutants - since when were genetic abnormalities > > funny? Excuse me a > > moment while I go and laugh at a cripple..... >. > > I don't think that was the point, so much as Gabs getting rid of her fear > (admittedly overblown) of children, learning to love and accept them > despite their flaws. To me, they were simply manifestations of childish > characteristics -- pranks, rebelliousness, getting underfoot -- not > "literal" children. They weren't portrayed as any more laughable (and were > ridiculed much less) than nearly all the other principles in the ep. Well, I found them cringingly embarrassing. The ony other rubber monsters equally bad were in a couple of Herc episodes. And if they weren't meant to be funny, what were they doing in a supposed comedy? Why did those 'kids' need to be hideously deformed, anyway? > Again, it's perfectly understandable why some folks may not like Fishy, but > "logic" is something we seem to see quite easily in other aspects we're > okay with but don't make "sense." I'll try and restate this a bit more clearly. My primary objection to Fishsticks is not because of logic, it's because I found it embarrasingly absurd and (with the exception of the two from the Bronx) cringingly un-funny. HOWVER - if there was the slightest hint of a logical reason why this should be going on in Gabs' perverted little brain*, it might help just a little to provide a rationale for it. But there wasn't. Not a trace. Zilch. Nada. (* I dont mean to imply that Gabs' brain really was tiny and perverted - just that it would have to have been to imagine Fishsticks ;) > Portraying something weird was a normal > part of XWP for me. Incorporating several scenes from another show was the > true aberration. Fishy was more "organic" to XWP in terms of how the > characters were used. Hardly. Not one of the characters in Fishland were particularly recognisable as their XWP counterparts. And, thank the gods, Lucy wasn't in it. > Lifeblood grafted bits of XWP on to somebody else's > show that happened to have XWP producers and actors. Well surprise surprise, like Fishpaste didn't? > I watched it the > other day and cringed every time Xena thrust that magaical dagger toward > the ceiling. Talk about a waste of screen time and as much "logic" as the > Hind's Blood dagger. > > -- Ife Considering Lucy was not available for much acting, what would you have preferred? Some other sort of Xena-lite ep? The Hind's Blood dagger was quite logical. Hinds Blood could kill a god. Where was it not? cr ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. 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