From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V9 #40 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, May 31 2010 Volume 09 : Number 040 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] You Are There [cr ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 31 May 2010 00:33:49 +1300 From: cr Subject: [chakram-refugees] You Are There I personally rate You Are There the best comedy of the entire Herc/Xena series. It nudges Yes Virginia into second place. The premise of the episode is, of course, a whopping great YAXI. I don't know why I can accept it without unease - maybe, unlike the normal YAXI of an extra wearing a wristwatch or Xena wearing the wrong chakram, which is merely distracting, this one's so huge that you either accept it as part of the premise of the episode, or reject the whole thing. It seems I have no trouble accepting this. After all, last week, Xena was trying to drown a (very physically real) archangel and persuading an emperor-god to kill himself. So Nigel and his cameraman have been magically sent back in time? OK, why not, Doctor Who does it all the time. The ep opens with some magnificent seascape/sunset shots, ending with a ship approaching Shark Island (of Prison fame) - probably Motuihe Island, I think - but I guess they just re-used the shot, since this time it's Norway, or wherever Odin hangs out. Notice that the roof-poles on the inn are the same ones seen crossed in Waitakere Bay when Beowulf and Xena landed in Return of the Valkyrie. Beowulf seems oddly unconcerned to see Gabrielle and Xena. Not so the Valkyries, "you know the way to Valhalla. Die a hero's death, I'll escort you there myself". Xena: "That's part of my long-range plan, right now I just want to see Odin". Now was that first bit foreshadowing Friend in Need, or what? Cut to outside the inn, where Nigel rushes into shot, just in time to catch Xena seeing off three Valkyries. Nigel is harder to shake off, though the "what's this thing?" glare that Xena is giving the camera isn't very welcoming. I won't chronicle the ep, since it would take many pages, just mention a few things that caught my attention. In the studio, Gabrielle appears to be trying to taste the mike. Xena is just generally suspicious and defensive. I loved Gabrielle's aside to Xena, "Everyone's seen the tapestry". And Xena's reply to a charge of killing the Olympian gods - "Well, not all of them". Classic! Charon's list of Xena's victims in Hades is interesting - Ilainis of Mycenae (Athena's champion in Amphipolis Under Siege); Velasca (I thought she was trapped in a lava flow for eternity, though Callisto broke out); Mark Antony; Callisto, Caesar. And Caligula, of course - but this raises the question, if the god Caligula ends up in Hades, where did the Olympian gods go when Xena iced them? Charon is usually Michael Hurst, but on this occasion played by Peter Rowley, Ares' henchman and sword-parking facility in the evil hat in Seeds of Faith. I love the crack he gets in about Hercules being a cheapskate (which is founded on actual episodes of Herc). Odin raises the interesting question of why Xena never killed Ares. "Because she's got a thing for him" - which is probably true, though his other speculations are way off. The energetic and inquisitive Nigel, having been thrown out of Ares' shack (hey, since when was Ares' farm in the Northlands? YAXI!), even interviews the Archbastard errm Archangel Michael (he's very insistent on the 'Archangel' bit). Who says, you can't trust Xena. Well, like anyone in their right mind would trust Michael? And Lucifer - "Cover anything up? I'm the devil, you idiot. I'm really bad. I'm evil incarnate. What do I have to cover up?" And Nigel manages to provoke a spectacular display of interesting language from Eve, can't say he doesn't deserve it. Gabby consents to an interview to persuade Nigel that he's wrong about Xena. Naive as ever, Gabby, haven't you learnt anything in these last six years? Just as Nigel's getting personal, Xena breaks up the interview, and points out that nobody loves anybody any more. Xena and Gabs walk out of the studio (it looks as if Nigel brought an entire studio with him), past props from Cleopatra 2525 (a real time-traveller our Nigel, evidently). They have a typical lovers' tiff (Gabs: "We're saying things that people who love each other would never say". Wrong again Gabby, that's exactly what lovers do, frequently). Nigel heads to the local, err, tavern, and shows admirable dedication in ignoring the tavern girls who are feeling him up, and finds Ares, much to Ares' discomfiture ("I'm trying to get laid, I'm not a criminal!") Nigel's interview with the masked informant was, of course, taken straight out of Woodward and Bernstein's encounters with Deep Throat over Watergate. Even the final phrase, "Follow the love", is a riff on the original "follow the money". Nice. Quite impressive when Ares gets his godhood back, courtesy of the golden apples. (Is all the ambrosia mined out?) Xena really does keep everyone in suspense over whether she's going to eat too, and become a goddess. But she gives it to Aphrodite, so everyone gets their love back. I just noticed the golden glow around Gabs' hand as she pats Beowulf. Nice FX! And I liked the honesty of Ares' last quote: I guess you know I'll never stop trying. Xena: I'd expect nothing less. I *like* the writing on this episode. Written by Chris Black (only other ep he wrote was Amphipolis Under Siege - is that why the reference to Ilainis of Mycenae? :) And of course the joke on all the are-they-or-aren't-they fans at the end of the ep. (There's a YAXI there too - if the battery really was dead, we wouldn't be able to hear Nigel going on about it. Never mind). Altogether a delightful ep, with so many characters getting to reprise their roles. 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 V9 #40 *************************************