From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V8 #16 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 Saturday, March 7 2009 Volume 08 : Number 016 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] Early days [cr ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 20:24:46 +1300 From: cr Subject: [chakram-refugees] Early days For some reason, seeing the first few eps of Legend of the Seeker, which were filmed mostly at Woodhill, reminded me of the early days of Renpics when they were shooting Hercules here in Auckland. So I dug out Season 1 of Herc and had a watch. (I might progress to later Hercs and Xena). (Digression - the Herc Season 1 box set is not bad value. It's only 13 eps but they've added in the 5 Herc tele-movies, and there's some stuff to interest the Lucy or Renee fan aside from the three Warrior Princess eps). Plus some Renpics location archaeology, so to speak). There's a lot of things that struck me as 'echoes from the future' so to speak - The very first person visible in the titles is Nathaniel Lees as Hera's blue priest - Nicklio the healer from Destiny. There are several locations in the titles that look familiar, from the Bethells area; and then a shot of Renee. The first episode - Herc and the Amazon Women - there's Lucy's name in gold in the 'Starring' list at the start. And Joe Lo Duca, David Eick, Eric Gruendemann, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert of course. And Kevin Sorbo and Michael Hurst, naturally. And Josh Becker and Liz Friedman appeared in the credits. They were all in at the start. I recognised quite a few of the villagers and the Amazons as regular extras in later eps. Kim Michalis (mostly appeared in Herc), David Taylor - Solan, Simone Kessell (many Herc eps, also Miss Messini), and of course Rose McIver as the very young girl who metamorphosed into a hydra-headed monster - Daphne/Xena in Little Problems. The Amazon village was in the valley that was used for many subsequent scenes throughout the series, such as Callisto and Hope in Sacrifice, or Amarice and Eli's happy little band getting ambushed by the Romans in Ides. The men's village was, I think, in the Waitakere valley, same location as the first scene in Sacrifice where the insufferable Seraphin was getting ready to be killed by the followers of Dahak; and the fish fight in The Quill is Mightier; and others. And there were, of course, a couple of brief walking-past shots on the Wainamu dunes, and they got to gallop up the Waiti- Wainamu stream. Overall the plot, though ingenious, was pretty weak, especially the device of Herc persuading Zeus to hit the Reset button. The second movie, Lost Kingdom, has Renee O'Connor and Robert Trebor (Gabs and Salmoneus later on), also Nathaniel Lees. There's a short scene in Mt Mangere (later used as the scene of the attack on the wagons in The Warrior Princess, and many eps thereafter right up to When Farts Collude), and Hunua Falls. First shot of Renee O'Connor is as a very talkative assertive girl who is rescued by Hercules then tags along and refuses to be left behind (now who does that remind me of? :) Curiously, her name is Deianeira - which is totally weird, since in the very next movie, Hercules meets a completely different Deianeira, Tawny Kitaen, who is destined to become his wife and have his kids and then gets killed by Hera in Episode 1 of the TV series. There is absolutely no reference in that ep to the fact that Herc has just played a major part in putting Deianeira (ROC version) on the throne of Troy. Tawny-Deianeira is also, as it happens, an assertive girl who tags along with Herc refusing to be left behind.... I can only assume that one draft developed into two completely different stories and nobody remembered to change the name of the female lead. Hey, there's a scene where Herc and Ga... Deianeira arrive on the beach, in Waitakere Bay (north end of Bethells Beach), which was never used again until Xena memorably walked out of the water to confront Odin in Return of the Valkyrie. But the valley they're looking up to the (CGI) city of Troy is Union Bay, Karekare - only ever seen otherwise, briefly in Siege at Naxos and momentarily at the start of The Quest. Movie #3 - Herc and the Circle of Fire - there's a scene just at the end of the credits that, I think (I haven't done a detailed comparison to prove it), is in the Rangipo Desert beside the Desert Road (State Highway 1) - the same general area as used much later for Sin Trade. And all through these eps there are lots of linking shots of snow-clad South Island mountains that I won't even try to identify. I note that right through the Herc and Xena series, the producers would every now and then haul another South Island mountain shot out of the files and dust it off to add a bit of visual interest. We have Simone Kessell again, Mark Ferguson (Dagnine) as Prometheus, Lisa Chappell (portrayer of many assertive co-stars in later eps) and Kim Michalis. In Herc in the Underworld, the Waiti dunes, Lake Wainamu, and the end of the ridge between the Waiti and Wainamu valleys, features prominently. In later eps they moved higher up the ridge, for example where Xena first met Joxer. And - you win some you lose some - having just last week identified Okiritoto Falls at Muriwai as the waterfall in Kindred Spirits, Many Happy Returns and the stream in Punch Lines; in this Herc movie the second female lead goes for a dip in a nicely-proportioned waterfall pool that I don't have a clue as to the whereabouts. Ah well, another puzzle to be solved... This ep is also noteworthy for Michael Hurst's first appearance as Charon, Hercules' notorious stinginess towards him being reflected as late as You Are There; and Mark Ferguson appears as Hades (the first of three different Hades's), his similarity to last ep's Prometheus being disguised by Prometheus' heavy makeup. Simone Kessell's there again, also Rose McIver as Ilea, one of Herc's kids. And that's it for the tele-movies. I think (as with XWP) the series got better later on. It was also (as with XWP) wildly uneven. 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. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V8 #16 *************************************