From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V8 #45 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, October 13 2009 Volume 08 : Number 045 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] Faith, Descent and Sin Trades [cr ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:44:24 +1300 From: cr Subject: [chakram-refugees] Faith, Descent and Sin Trades (I was getting a bit ahead of myself, posting about mid-Season 4 before I'd got to the start of the season. How could I ever leave out Sin Trades...?) Season 5 was probably the best of Herc. Its contemporary Xena, Season 4, was (IMO) excellent at the start and finish, but flat in the middle. The starting episodes of Herc S5, Faith and Descent, took over the Dahak theme from Xena, albeit with different characters involved. In fact, although the spawn of Hope and Ares, Dinsdale the Destroyer, was finished off in A Family Affair on XWP, Dahak himself was busy causing trouble on Herc for half a season. Anyway, the best thing about Faith and Descent (IMO) was Nebula, Gina Torres (seen on XWP as Cleopatra in King of Assassins). Great screen presence and she has beautiful eyes. Over to XWP - the Sin Trades were (and are) my outright favourites, even though neither Ares nor Callisto features in them (nor, incidentally, in The Debts). And they're my favourites largely because of the powerful atmosphere created by T J SCott's directing and the marvellous score by Joe Lo Duca. If the Debts were made like epic movies, so was Sin Trade, I think. Incidentally, Lo Duca's music for the earlier Hercules episodes was (IMO) his best work, he created some beautiful themes, even better than his work on Xena. I wouldn't call his score for Sin Trade beautiful, more like powerful, compelling, spooky even. Visually, if The Debts showed off the New Zealand scenery at their most strikingly beautiful, Sin Trade showed it off at its most broodingly sinister. With one exception, the scenes in the Amazon Land of the Dead, looking towards the Gate to Eternity (Mt Ngauruhoe) which was tinted pink in the morning light; and the penultimate scene after Xena freed the Amazons, when the whole mountainside behind them was pink and the sky was gold. Magnificent. And, of course, there was The Vision. That took me completely by surprise. Obviously shot to be a complete contrast with the rest of the episode, even in the colours - the rest of Sin Trade is browns and reds and yellows, and so were Alti's previous foreshadowings, but the Vision was muted blue, slow and leisurely, almost peaceful, in stark contrast to the subject matter - Xena and Gabrielle getting crucified. And just as Gabrielle says 'I love you Xena' and Xena smiles back, someone slaps a piece of wood down on Xena's hand right in the front of the shot and lines up a whacking great nail on it. Ouch! They never used nails before. I can't think of a more startling moment on the whole of Xena. I have to say, Alti / Claire Stansfield made a worthy villain, one of the best. One can't help comparing her with Callisto, if only because Callisto had only just died in the previous ep, but really that's a little unfair - Callisto was just so exceptional a character - not just a hard act to follow, an impossible one. And isn't it a delightful irony, that Xena who was the destroyer of the Northern Amazon nation, later became the saviour of that same nation. 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 #45 *************************************