By Ariel Penn
R.J. Stewart, Executive Producer of Xena, visited the Feminism and Classics Conference at the University of Southern California on Friday, May 19, 2000. Since most of the folks in attendance had no questions, I had the opportunity to ask him a ton of questions about the direction of Xena and Season 6. A couple of times he tantalizingly expressed his interest in seeing Xena continue beyond Season 6. This is news considering Lucy Lawless' announcement that she would like to see the show end with the sixth season. He said his plan was to continue producing the show as long as people want to watch it. I must say I detected a bit of hopefulness in his voice and a strong desire to make a quality show that people will continue to want to watch.
R.J. addressed Xena's dalliance with Christianity. Are we going to Xena and Gabrielle running around as defenders of the Christian faith during the upcoming season? Thankfully, "no" he revealed. RJ said they were done with the Christian story arc.
I asked R.J. whether they were planning to bring Alti back. He indicated that they were, so all you Claire Stansfield fans out thereŠ rejoice! No more Christian defenders, more whoop ass ex-Amazon Shamanesses. I asked him about the emotional changes we'd see in Xena and Gabrielle's "friendship"(even R.J. smiled at my "friendship" description- call me the consummate diplomat) during season 6. He revealed that they were planning a three part trilogy involving the Norse gods where Xena and Gabrielle will be physically separated and dealing with their emotional loss. He promised it would a very emotionally satisfying series for those who appreciate their "friendship."
Someone asked if they would ever do that Sappho episode. He said he had been separated from the show for a while
working on Cleopatra 2525 and heard that this concept evolved into doing the Sappho story as a musical which then
evolved? into "Lyre, Lyre." <
He also revealed that their would be an episode where Xena helps Beowulf fight a monster and that Odin would be
included in the Nordic trilogy.
In another spill the beans comment, he said that Gabrielle is in no danger of sidekicking Virgil the way she
sidekicked Joxer this season, although Virgil would show up from time to time because Gabrielle still needs to teach
him how to write poetry.
I got to ask him a final questionŠ What was up with Natalie Merchant? For those of you who missed it, they staged
Xena and Marc Anthony's seduction scene to Natalie Merchant music. He explained that frequently the editor puts
down a temp music track after he edits the picture and before Joe Lo Duca completes his scoring. They liked Natalie
Merchant's song so much on the temp track that they decided to use it for the final. For the rest of the conference,
they showed scenes from "A Day in the Life" and a Xena obsessed professor named Briggs spoke about her upcoming
book on Xena. She was informative in her discussion of their use of creative anachronism and the creation of a
parallel universe many women wish existed. However, when she gave a whole analysis of the significance of the toy
lamb in "A Solstice Carol," I was reminded of why I couldn't wait to leave the hallowed halls of academia many a
year ago.
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