Producer Rob Tapert met with the writer and agreed that Stewart's credits on the new show would be "developed by" and co-executive producer. Since then the writer has been promoted to full executive producer. But primarily Stewart is the head writer. He wrote or co-wrote over 20 shows and has rewritten several scripts from freelance writers. "All the scripts go through me before they go out," he advised. "That doesn't mean I write all the scripts. I have to okay them. I supervise the writing staff and I keep in close communication with the pre-production, the post-production and, of course, the actual filming of the thing.

Eric Grunderman is the guy in New Zealand. I keep in close contact with him. Of course, I try to keep in close contact with Rob Tapert at all times because he's the one who owns the company and is the main guy."

For Stewart, the action-adventure-fantasy format offers a lot of freedom to a writer. A freedom that is advocated by Tapert. "Rob encourages us to explore different things," said Stewart, "and we found audiences liked both the dramas and the comedies and as a writer it's hard to resist trying both of those out. I don't think many writers get the opportunity to write such turgid melodrama one week and some outlandish comedy the next. I really enjoy it. It's something we found that we could do in this genre."

When Stewart or one of the other scriptwriters on the show comes up with an idea for an episode, they pitch it to Tapert. Once the producer approves the suggestion it is sent for development. "Because of my position I can go directly to story," said Stewart. "With anyone else we have a meeting before we go to story."

Once the story is developed a meeting is held to discuss the beat sheet for the episode. "Everyone would give me notes and discuss it and then I would go off and write the script. Steve Sears and Chris Manheim, who are on staff here, would go through the same process. Sometimes we like to meet on the idea even before we go to treatment to discuss it to make sure that somebody doesn't go off in a totally wrong direction. Although I don't rewrite Steve or Chris, I do give them lots of notes. Steve or I rewrite most of the freelancers. Actually Chris rewrote one of the freelancers this year.

"As far as a freelancer goes, we generally give them the idea. We work and develop the idea with them and then when we get to the point where we think the story is right we send them off to do the script. Some of them hit pretty close so there isn't a lot of rewriting to do. Others miss by a mile and we have to do a pretty big rewrite. That's really not much of a reflection on the writer, whether they're good or not. It's whether they're a good marriage to the show.

"There are some terrific writers who just can't necessarily write in the genre. Some people don't get the sensibility for the show and we have to rewrite them. The other thing is that people who even get the show aren't part of the day to day meetings and don't know the direction we're going so we have to do corrections on things just because they don't know where we went since the last time we had a meeting."

A XENA season consists of 22 shows, 22 mini-movies that have to be ground out in a ten month period. To maintain that pace there has to be more to drive the creators then just a job. "When Rob and I get together we talk about Xena," said Stewart. "Not because it's work, but because it's what we like to talk about. When you love what you do, you generate ideas. When we came up with the idea of a rift between Xena and Gabrielle ["Maternal Instincts"], we were sitting in the office just laughing and talking about what would be cool to happen on XENA. It doesn't feel like a lot of pressure. Don't get me wrong, there are times when we're sitting staring at a blank board wishing an idea would appear on it. But by and large because we like the show so much, when Rob and I talk, we generate a lot of ideas. I think that's a key to it. We have a passion for the show."

When something unforeseen occurs, writers are left scrambling around to fill in the gaps. When Lucy Lawless fell off her horse and smashed her pelvis while rehearsing for the Leno show, the production schedule left no room for even a temporary shutdown. Stewart and crew went to work. "By necessity we did some outlandish things when she fell off the horse," he said. "We left her in somebody else's body and had Hudson Leick play her. Then we kept her dead for a week. Those were two interesting shows."

Steve Sears had written an episode called "Intimate Stranger" where Ares switches Xena and Callisto's bodies. At the end of the episode, they were supposed to switch back but a hasty rewrite changed that. "We reopened that episode," said Stewart, "and had Xena stay in Callisto's body. Therefore we could go directly into an existing script without even stopping production. That was amazing. That whole period was sort of surreal. We'd be sitting there watching dailies with Hudson Leick playing Xena. It happened so quickly because we were about to go into production when Lucy fell off the horse. One second I'm working on an episode for Lucy Lawless and two weeks later I'm seeing it with Hudson Leick playing it. That was a time when I was shocked at how well everything turned out because it was so weird."

Whether feature films or television production, the budget restraints always leave the creative forces behind the projects wanting. "The China episodes were very expensive and the musical was very expensive," Stewart stressed. "If we had triple the budget I would do a major epic centaur show with just an army of centaurs and chariots. We'd have this huge mythical battle. I love centaurs, but when we do them we're so limited. We have about three composites a show. After that it's those actors walking around with the kind of funny girdles that look like horses. If we had an unlimited budget I'd do the ultimate centaur battle.

"We did a show in the first season called 'Hooves and Harlots' which had some nice stuff. The centaur stuff in FANTASIA is terrific, but that's animated. I think somebody, someday, with a huge budget, will do a magnificent live-action centaur piece, and I hope it's me. The centaurs are such interesting creatures. The reason you don't see them more often is that they are extremely expensive to do. It just ups the budget ridiculously."

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