I was a bit disappointed in this episode. Of course, being the first serious ep after seven weeks with nothing but reruns punctuated by a comedy ep, it was kind of under pressure to perform. And also being the "Return Of Najara" it inevitably invited comparisons to Crusader, which I would now rate as one of the best eps of this season. I didn't *hate* The Convert or anything... indeed there wasn't even anything about it I disliked particularly - certainly nothing that radically turned me off or upset me. But it just didn't seem to perform that well, and there were a few things going on that I would have preferred to see done a different way.
I would divide the ep into three main elements:
1) The Joxer plot.
Well I was basically sympathetic to this. I think it's a good idea to treat Joxer's character a bit more seriously sometimes, to give him some development - if he's going to be a true regular character (which, de facto, he certainly is), then he needs to be allowed his humanity... and to be given some respect (gasp!) and some chance to develop sometimes. And I thought Ted's acting in this ep was fine... he made Joxer's feelings, even his standing up to Xena, believable, without creating too much of a discontinuity from the Joxer we've come to know. But (you could tell there was 'but' coming, couldn't you?) somehow this whole plot mostly failed to grab me... I watched it going through the motions, and I never really felt fully engaged. Only at the very end did it get a bit of an emotional rise out of me... most of the time, whilst bearing it no ill-will, I didn't find myself feeling much of anything about it. I'm not entirely sure why. I think it was a combination of the fact that it was too split up by other things, which it didn't really connect with very closely, and the fact that somehow it was hard to believe it was going anywhere very much - Joxer was kind of upset, and he realised a few things about himself, but basically he was going to be alright, and... it was all kind of low-key and predictable, almost as if we'd been through it all before.
2) Najara's return.
I thought this was a distinct let down after Crusader. In Crusader Najara was a powerful woman of mystery. She seemed very capable, and it seemed that she and many others believed that she was acting rightly... when she argued with Xena it seemed really possible that she was right and Xena wrong - there was true ambiguity and doubt in the air, and Xena was seriously challenged, both by Najara and by her own feelings. Whereas this time, Najara mostly seemed fairly evidently a pathetic loony... I felt sorry for her, rather than in any way threatened or challenged. She just seemed truly mentally ill and in need of help. And I had a bit of a problem with the fact that although Xena kept saying that (Xena repeatedly indicated that Najara was unbalanced, calling her 'whacko' and a 'nut'), it never seemed to really occur to Xena that this was basically a sick person, and that she needed help. I thought Kathryn Morris played Najara fine, given the drift of the script... I never for a moment doubted the psychological reality of the character. But this time she seemed mainly a sad case, and far less interesting than in Crusader.
3) Gabrielle and Xena.
Which brings us to the third element, our heroes themselves. What is happening here? This was the first ep where I pretty much came to the feeling that Gab just can't be trusted or relied on. I've come to the conclusion that my problems with Gab's non-violence really have nothing to do with problems with non-violence and everything to do with problems with Gab. I *could* accept a completely non-violent character... I could even see how it might work to have Xena travelling with a completely non-violent character. What I'm *not* comfortable with is *Gab's* non-violence. It just doesn't feel organic... it doesn't feel like something that grows out of her character and that she truly and directly feels and lives. It feels like something that she's *adopted* because of pressures and needs in her life. In other words Gab doesn't feel like a person who has grown and *become* non-violent... she feels like a person who is mixed up and is *trying* to be non-violent out of some belief that this is somehow the solution to her problems. Now a very interesting question is: "where is this coming from?" In other words, given that I have this perception, why do I perceive things this way? Is it just me? Am I projecting things that others don't see in the action on screen? Or if there *is* a basis on screen for this feeling, is it an intentional thing created by the writers? Is this the way the production and writing staff see Gab's current situation? Or is it more a consequence of the way Reneé is playing the part? Is it more *Reneé's* perception, interpreted through her performance, that I'm picking up? Or is it just some kind of an accident... this would be the most cynical option - that neither the writing staff nor Reneé are too clear *what* is going on with Gabrielle's character, and this feeling of her being mixed up and not really naturally grown into her way of non violence is just a consequence of the uncertainty behind the character's portrayal?
Of course the bottom line is, I can only speak for myself. And whatever the intentions of the writers and of Reneé, I'm not at all comfortable with where Gab is at right now. I'm just hoping that at least this is something they're doing on purpose, and that the other shoe is going to drop at some point, as it were.
So in this ep, things between Xena and Gab continued to be pretty uncomfortable to my perception. For all her new way, Gab doesn't seem any more centred or relaxed. She seems tense, and ill at ease. And her perceptions and judgement don't seem to have got any better. Her great strength, as Xena as said, is that she has 'a good heart', 'a big heart' I might almost be inclined to say... she sympathises with people, she tries to see the good in them. But sometimes she's too anxious to believe even for the good of the people she's believing in - believing everything people say and sympathising with all their expressed feelings *isn't* always the best thing you can do for them. Anyway... I'm afraid at this point it's hard to see how Gab can really be trusted to do any task or deal with any person. She just seems too uncentred and has too many issues of her own. And Xena just has to deal with this, I suppose. She loves Gab, and wants to stay with her (besides feeling that she owes Gab a tremendous debt in more ways than one), so she has to respect Gab's attempts to find and follow her way, and just deal with it and protect Gab as best as she can.
Am I totally crazy here, or do other people see it this way? I don't see Xena and Gab as having solved their problems and stabilised their relationship at all. Indeed it feels very much to me like one of those 'bad patches' that relationships go through, where if you really love someone you just have to hang in there, do what you can to keep things going, give them space when they need it, and just hope that things get better.
***
So anyway, that's the way I see The Convert... a mixture of a low-key and largely uninvolving Joxer plot, a return for Najara that loses most of the original strengths of the character, and a relationship between Xena and Gab that seems troubled and unsatisfactory. So, despite some fine acting, and other strengths, not an ep I feel very good about, overall.
But let's take a wander through the details...
***
Why were the nasty guys (Kryton's men) killing all the religious types at the beginning? Did they just not like them? Or were they actively trying to suppress whatever religion it was, or something? I realise they probably wanted to steal some stuff and take some slaves - but killing all the vague praying guys didn't seem at all necessary in order to achieve that...
*
And if that was supposed to be blood that we were shown dripping down the furniture in such lingering details, how come it looked pitch black? Is this another case of the props people not being able to get straight the colour things will appear on film?
*
Possibly showing these religious types getting massacred in such detail until Xena stepped in was mainly intended to point up to us how dangerous Xena's world is for the peaceful and the spiritually inclined, if they don't have obliging warriors around to rescue them.
*
And Gab and Joxer come wandering in conveniently after everything is over - so we don't have to deal with Gab watching the massacre, perhaps?
*
The camera certainly lingered on those funny knives with the clawed handles enough, didn't it? I thought for sure those special knives were going to play some significant part in the plot - you know, the design revealing at a critical moment that X was working for Y or whatever (as happened in Hooves And Harlots, for example).... but no dice - nothing significant really hinged on the design of the knives at all. So I guess the props department were just proud of them, or the director liked the look of them, or something...
*
"Save them!" "Save who?" "The novitiates!" Err... shouldn't that be "the novices". To my understanding "novitiate" means the state of being a novice... so saying "save the novitiates" instead of "save the novices" is like saying "save the priesthoods" instead of "save the priests".
*
"Kryton took them where?" Well the wounded guy couldn't answer, but since one of them screamed like a tea-kettle at just that point, the question conveniently answered itself.
*
I'm sorry, but this thing of Gab's where she blows talcum powder in people's faces just looks ridiculous to me! Now if she used pepper, maybe... but then I guess that would be 'violent'. And why does Xena call it a 'smoke compact', since it obviously blows powder? And 'compact' is a pretty odd word to use in ancient Greece too!
*
Someone should explain to Kryton's men that crossbows are for *shooting* people with! Several of them had crossbows, but they just seemed to wave them in the air vaguely in the manner of pickaxes (in fact at first that's what I thought they were...)
*
I liked the way, when Xena spun around on the end of her whip, that all the men obligingly ran up and got into position to be kicked - *cooperative* opponents do make a warriors task *so* much easier.
*
Gab *still* pronounces the name "Nijara", although "Najara" seems to be the accepted spelling. If it's really spelled "Najara" in the scripts, why does Reneé pronounce the first vowel as an "i"?
*
I wish they'd actually given us a proper view of how Joxer came to stab Kryton. I've played it back in slow motion and everything, but you just can't really see how it happened. Why did Kryton keep stumbling on - Kryton was knocked off balance and staggered, but Joxer was quite a distance away, so you couldn't say Kryton was knocked into him. But if Kryton was actually trying to attack rather than just stumbling, why wasn't he more coordinated? And was Joxer actively *trying* to stab Kryton, or was he just holding up the knife in a vaguely defensive manner? You can't see at all as it happens, and afterwards Joxer's arm seems to be in a most awkward position for either stabbing or defensive waving (although I guess the position slightly favours some kind of strange stabbing motion). Also the knife is in Joxer's *left* hand - is he left-handed? Nope - I just went back and watched him in a couple of other eps, and he seems to behave entirely right-handedly.
*
I can't say I was surprised when Kryton's men gave up and ran away as soon as they saw that he was dead. But then I *was* somewhat surprised when all the play was made later about them coming back to avenge him. The former behaviour seems far more in keeping than the latter with the way warlords' men in the Xenaverse generally act. And the two behaviours don't really seem very consistent with each other...
*
I don't wish to be overly nit-picking or morbid here, but when they showed is Kryton laying on the ground (repeatedly) the blood was pumping out of his wound - this means he was still alive... blood does *not* pump out of your wounds when you're dead!
*
If Najara didn't break any ribs, what was making all that crunching when Xena pressed thumbs into her chest?
*
Most doctors would really envy Xena's diagnostic skills - one push in the lower chest with her thumbs and a rather quizzical look down her nose at the patient, and she can determine that nothing is broken, but that the patient is suffering from what 'looks like' a mild concussion. What *does* a mild concussion look like? I've had concussion a couple of times, and it was a bitch - nausea, giddiness, loss of balance, vomiting, headaches... but I'm not sure what it *looked* like. Maybe you can tell from the eyes or something...
*
We have another example here of the Xenaverse concept of 'jail'. Xena says they're going to get Najara healthy and then take her back to jail. But *which* jail? They always tend to behave as if there was a coordinated international penal system in the ancient world. And Najara wasn't even 'jailed' in Greece - she was handed over to some vaguely defined 'local authorities' in *Phoenicia*, which is either a longish sea voyage or a very long walk from Greece (being roughly where modern Lebanon is). So how come she's apparently wandering around the Greek countryside after her escape? No one even *mentions* Phoenicia in this ep!
*
The village headman or whatever he was looked big and imposing when they first showed him - but he was *very* short... he barely came up to Joxer's shoulders. This looks like a deliberate 'short people' joke....
*
And Xena grabs the first passerby and asks for the 'local apothecary'. So are 'local apothecaries' like 'local authorities' - every village has them?
*
"I've changed Xena. I've put down the sword." "And I'm the Queen of Egypt!" Initially Xena's scepticism seems a little arbitrary - after all, people *do* change, and who should know that better? And she doesn't actually wait for anything on which to base her decision. I'd have been happier if it had been scripted more clearly, with her being cautious at first, but not becoming fixed on any view until she had something on which to base it.
*
OTOH, Gab's complete *lack* of scepticism seems even more surprising... not to say rather wearing. I really think things would have been richer and much more believable if both their positions had shown a bit more awareness, ambiguity and development.
*
So hang on a minute... when Kryton's wife died in childbirth, he shipped his son to the academy? So the academy takes newborn babies? But then later, Armaan talks of an 'old nurse' telling him stories, and how he couldn't go home... I guess maybe she worked in the nursery department of the academy!
*
"You know what Xena? You're always in everybody's business!" Well I guess Joxer has a point here, in some ways. And who'd have ever expected to hear him make it to Xena's face? Mind you, even though Xena does promise to let him do it his way, and not to 'come along as backup'... guess what - she still comes along, and she still keeps taking the lead in everything. I guess old habits die hard... and alpha females find it easier to 'change sides' than to change their spots, as it were. Which is to say, Xena may have changed in many radical ways... but to change her basic personality would be hardest of all - and basically she's a leader, a dominant, take-charge, focus and control type. If it's happening in her vicinity, it's her responsibility, so far as she's concerned. So yes, she is 'always in everybody's business'.
*
So if Najara is to be believed, Eli is prison visiting in Phoenicia (or was it Greece)?
*
I must say I really have no complaints at all about Kathryn Morris' portrayal of Najara. I though Najara was 100% believable in this ep... and you could really follow the twists and turns of her mind. On the other hand, that was part of the problem - her character was *too* easy to follow and understand in this ep, which made her *much* less interesting than in Crusader. Instead of having the ambiguity and strength she had in Crusader, and really challenging us (and Xena) through her actions, she just seemed like a rather pathetic sick woman (and I mean mentally, not physically). But so far as I can see, that was in the script... and given the way the character was written this time, I thought Kathryn Morris played it near perfectly.
*
"You and I would meet again - united in a common bond not even Xena shared." The trouble is Najara's obsession and her agenda are *too* clear... so we're just left wondering again why Gab seems devoid of judgement and common sense.
*
Note that Najara says of the way of peace "stray from that path, whatever the reason, the consequences could be devastating for everyone". This is very different from what Eli himself said - he emphasised that the path was hard and not for everyone, and that anyone trying to follow it would likely fail many times.
*
I see Joxer's hair seems to be really thinning these days - maybe wearing that darned helmet is bad for it! Talking of which - I thought in the scene where Joxer argued with Kryton's ghost (or whatever) that he threw the helmet into some kind of pond or something at the beginning - sort of like Gabby's staff (and a wiser move it would have been). But I guess I was wrong, since he turns up wearing it again later in the ep.
*
I was glad Xena showed she cared enough for Joxer to try and talk to him. Although, of course, she couldn't really say anything new, anything that we, at least, hadn't heard her say before. But somehow the whole Joxer plot in this ep was a bit like that - well meaning and basically sympathetic... but not very original, not really terribly productive. I thought Ted acted fine... but somehow the whole thing didn't really grab me, didn't really involve me or move me much.
*
And how come Xena trusts Gab to tie Najara? I mean she knows Gab's problems by now, so why tempt fate? Is this a case of "I've got to trust her - even if I really know it's a lousy bet that's likely to lead to trouble"?
*
"Eli! He is living proof that peace really works!" Oh dear! I think I'm getting a really bad case of cynicism here. Hearing Gab say this the way she did immediately got me thinking that there *must* be something wrong with Eli too! Gab seems to have such an affinity for rotten gurus that she's almost like one of those pigs you take into the forest to sniff out truffles - if Gab's drawn to them, there *must* be something wrong with them. Oh well, maybe Eli will be the exception. And before folks start flaming me - the preceding was *not* meant to equate Gab to a pig in any way - I'm just saying that somehow it seems that despite herself she can't help reacting to bad religion. Perhaps a canary in a mine would have been a better analogy... "Oh no, Gab's off again - there must be a rotten guru about!"
*
And I notice that Xena's reaction to all this Najara-Eli-Peace-Love talk is to stolidly pretend to have instantly gone to sleep. It really gets to the point where you (well I) wonder how Xena deals with Gab sometimes. But if you love someone, you try your best. And given how she's failed in the past, Xena is even more driven. (And yes, I mean, at least in part, that Xena is still trying to make up to Gab for the gabdrag... apart from the fact that she feels she just owes so much to Gab for helping her turn her life around.)
*
"We both have the same inspiration... Gabrielle. But unlike you, I've changed my whole life for her. You just changed sides." Some of this dialogue is good... Najara is still the queen of snark, and she can hit close to home with Xena sometimes. But then the way she attacks Xena here just serves to reveal her real agenda. And now, rather than seem threatening, it seems more sad, pathetic. Xena says "Same old whacko underneath". And this ep really does make Najara seem like a whacko. But then if she's crazy, isn't she to be pitied more than anything else?
*
Why did the principle of the academy have such a *strange* accent? He sounded as if he'd got a plum stuck in his throat!
*
See, Xena promised to butt out, but as soon as Joxer waffles about what to tell Armaan about his father, Xena pipes up and says he's dead. And then she asks Armaan to travel with them when he says he's going to leave and avenge his father. It's just against Xena's nature *not* to try and take control.
*
BTW, did anybody think that the choice of the name "Kryton" for the warlord was a deliberate play on "The Admirable Crichton"? (Originally a play by J.M Barrie, known to many through the 1957 film with Kenneth More.)
*
I could sympathise with Joxer's position in not wanting to tell Armaan the truth about his father - although ultimately I think the others were right... he was bound to find out the truth eventually, so delaying it would just make things worse. But what if he *hadn't* been bound to find out, what then? Should he still be told the truth, or should he be left with a lie that makes him feel better? I incline to saying "tell the truth" myself... telling lies has a habit of leading into problems you didn't foresee, and besides, isn't it showing more respect for the other person to let them deal with the truth themselves rather than denying them access to it and dealing with it yourself on their behalf, as it were? Isn't that somehow treating them as less than a complete person? But OTOH, I can see the other side - sometimes telling someone a truth that hurts them and they did not have to know seems almost like selfishly gratifying your own principles at the expense of their pain. Well... who said life was easy?
*
The business with Kryton's soldier coming back to avenge him gave Joxer another chance to be brave (if somewhat ineffectual) in trying to stop Armaan hearing, and it made a bit of a diversion, but really it didn't seem very probable, and it didn't actually advance things particularly.
*
And why the flatulent grooming scene with Argo? Well I imagine the flatulence was perhaps unscripted - but for an ep which at first sight seemed overburdened with plot elements, this sure seemed to spend a surprising amount of time on non-essential scenes.
*
There seemed to be some confusion in Xena and Gab's following fireside argument about Najara's reformation. At first Xena was saying Najara was a "nut", which, based on this ep, for sure seemed very true. But then at the end Xena says "She's a fanatic, Gabrielle - don't trust her!" Now in Crusader I might have agreed that "fanatic" was a reasonable description of Najara... but in this ep it seems much clearer (to the detriment of her character) that she is in fact a "nut". So I found this sudden going back to calling her a fanatic jarring and out of place.
*
The big final denouement scene between Joxer and Armaan just didn't do it for me. It just felt too... contrived. And I'm afraid when it got to Gab's "living with what he has done is a fate worse than death" speech, it slipped over the edge of contrivance into banality, for me at least.
*
And then after Armaan wanders around trying to knife people, they all go peacefully to sleep? (Except Xena, of course...)
*
OK, now when Armaan comes back and does his "My father's not dead, Joxer - he lives where he's always lived, right here! And that man... that man would call you a hero" speech - *that* one I bought. I mean, I know it's still rather contrived and a bit banal - but it has enough honest sentiment to win me over. Basically I'm very sentimental - but for the most part this Joxer plot was too sputtered and cluttered for me to get involved. Only at the very end here did it win me over (mostly).
*
I liked Xena's "Gabrielle and Najara - clear out!" She may think Najara is a dangerous nut, but still she accords her non-combatant status and trusts her with Gab.
*
Have we seen those sort of Ninja throwing-star things Kryton's men were using before?
*
Talk about telegraphing - but then I guess it was false telegraphing... when that knife fell in the sand and stuck with its point up, I thought for sure that someone, probably Najara, was going to get 'accidentally' impaled on it.
*
Why is it that it seems to be a requirement for warlords to have their soldiers wear silly helmets? (Well at least partially to stop us getting too familiar with the stuntees' faces, I guess...)
*
So this time Xena got wounded on her left thigh - makes a change from her upper left arm.
*
Don't say that! The Djinn get mad when you say that!" I really think it's sad they decided to make Najara cuckoo - I thought her character in Crusader had much more potential than that.
*
And I realise that they want to keep the fights interesting by introducing some variety into them - and that's laudable... but I didn't think all that mucking around with *very* fake looking vines in the treetops was one of their better efforts - which is a shame, because I'm sure it took a lot of work to do... but it just didn't succeed aesthetically like say the ladder fight in Callisto, and too many shots seemed absurd and overdone.
*
And how come they're so into blood these days... dripping it, smearing it?
*
"Guide my hand to its destiny!" The result was not what she had in mind, presumably.
*
And was that an "I told you so" scowl Xena was giving Gab when they leant over the stabbed Najara?
*
So Najara is in a coma, and 'the sisters' (who appear to run an establishment with bars and iron doors) will "keep her comfortable". Well what do you think *that* means? I hope she rises above mere derangement if (when) she comes back again. Maybe they'll let R.J. Stewart write her again...
*
I was *not* very convinced or comforted by the final dialogue and Xena's concluding "with me around, you won't have to" remark. I don't know - this whole "way" thing still doesn't feel right to me. It doesn't seem to come organically out of Gab's character - she seems to have reached for it rather than growing into it, so it feels more like a symptom of a problem than an attained way of life.
***
So who was who in The Convert?
* Najara herself was played by Kathryn Morris who first played the character in Crusader. Najara is Kathryn's only role in the Xenaverse. You might have caught sight of her as a psychiatric patient in As Good As It Gets, or an anxious mother in Prophecy II (saw the first Prophecy - Christopher Walken as a fallen angel... is that typecasting, or what?) She also played a featured role in the series Pensacola: Wings of Gold, and appeared in eps of Silk Stalkings and Poltergeist: The Legacy.
* Kryton's son Armaan was played by Mfundo Morrison. He played Liardus in the pilot 'movie' for the Young Hercules series, and has appeared as Theseus in the Young Herc episodes Adventures In The Forbidden Zone and The Beasts Beneath (thanks to Miltiades for the tipoff re the Theseus role).
* The impressive but vertically challenged Magistrate was played by Steve Wright, who has previously only been seen on HTLJ, as a Mercenary in The Vanishing Dead, a Scarred Man in Prince Hercules, and the Head Peasant in One Fowl Day. (Can you imagine telling your grandchildren that one - "I played the Head Peasant in One Fowl Day? - Oh well, it's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it!)
Unfortunately Steve Wright is a very common name... there are at least six 'Steve Wright's in the entertainment industry - but I don't *think* any of the various 'Steve Wright' credits I came up with are actually for this performer.
* The Headmaster of the academy was played by Dennis Hally, who may well have had a certain haunting familiarity - he was first seen in Giant Killer as King Saul, and then subsequently came down in the world rather to play a Bootmender in A Tale Of Two Muses.
* Nicholas Clark gave us his Dying Acolyte (the stabbed chap who managed to pass on various useful information before expiring). I believe he appeared in the HTLJ ep Ares as Kid #2 (credited as Nick Clark).
* Mary Wilson played Novitiate #2 (mind you I still say 'novitiate' is an office, like 'priesthood' and not a person at all). Now interestingly enough I found another credit for 'Mary Wilson' in a TV episode called 'The Convert'... however, since this was an episode of Tarzan made in 1968, I doubt it was the same person. Still, how's that for a coincidence?
* For the rest of the credited cast, Darryl Brown as Kryton the evil (and mostly dead) warlord, Stacey Edgar as the (talkative) Young Novitiate, Kevin Alexander as the (avenging) punk, Susie Kleis as the other Novitiate, and Dan Sharkey as the Townsman, I could find no prior credits at all.
* The ep was written by Chris Manheim, whose previous writing credits on X:WP are for The Prodigal, Altared States, Remember Nothing (with Steven Sears), A Solstice Carol, Here She Comes...Miss Amphipolis, The Quest (with Steven Sears and R. J. Stewart), A Comedy Of Eros, Maternal Instincts, The Bitter Suite (with Steven Sears), King Con, Tsunami, A Family Affair (with Liz Friedman), Paradise Found, and Devi.
* The director was Andrew Merrifield, who previously directed Been There Done That, Gabrielle's Hope, The Quill Is Mightier and Vanishing Act.
***
The disclaimer was:
Argo's gastrointestinal condition was cleared up upon completion of this motion picture.
***
And what about the HTLJ ep, Love On The Rocks?
I quite liked it actually. I definitely felt this was Iolaus 2's best performance yet. (But having a character who persistently has to be referred to as "Iolaus 2" still seems a bad idea to me.) And Nautica was pleasant... a sweet girl, without being saccharine.
Discord is operating on her own now, with Ares nowhere to be seen? I've never been a big fan of Discord really... she seemed to have an odd combination of stiffness and poutiness... but actually I found her less irritating in this ep than before. And I have to admit I find Alexandra Tydings a pleasure as Aphrodite... if you described the way the role is handled to me, I don't think I'd expect to like it at all - but somehow the way she actually plays it makes the character likeable and sympathetic. Herc was absent for most of this ep, and I can't say that I really felt the lack at all. I definitely thought this was a stronger entry than the last Herc-lite ep, Genies and Grecians and Geeks, even though that one had Auto and Salmoneus, who I normally like. And I thought Brutus made a good comic villain too... broad certainly, but still fun.
So... lightweight certainly, but still enjoyable, and solidly within the tradition of the show. And a step forward for Iolaus 2. (And an improvement too on Disney's "Little Mermaid", which always seemed to me like thinly veiled propaganda for abandoning one's children to the consumer culture...)
***
And who was who in Love On The Rocks?
* The fetching amphibian, Nautica, herself was played by Angela Dotchin who may seem familiar for a couple of reasons. Xena fans will of course recognise her as Suraya, the young bride from last seasons ep Tsunami. And those who watch Young Hercules will recognise her from her regular role as Kora.
* Alexandra Tydings, is well known to us as the lovely Aphrodite, to say nothing of the fetching Katherine the Pig (about the only saving grace of One Fowl Day, for me). She can also be seen as Victoria Reynolds in The Sunchaser, and in an ep of The Red Shoe Diaries entitled Burning Up (where, I should perhaps caution you, even more of her is seen than in her role as 'Dite).
* Meighan Desmond has played the role of Discord previously in the eps Two Men And A Baby, If I Had A Hammer, Porkules, and One Fowl Day, and also in the X:WP ep The Deliverer, and regularly on Young Hercules. Apart from this, her only other credit that I am aware of is as Lulu Chatfield on the New Zealand soap Shortland Street, which so *many* Xenaverse denizens have frequented.
* Nautica's doting if somewhat overbearing dad, Triton, was played by Bruce Hopkins. His most recent Xenaverse role was also as a dad - Rahl, Vanessa / Pilee's father in the X:WP ep Daughter Of Pomira. On HTLJ he also played Pylon (no doubt he was electric in the role ) in Cast A Giant Shadow, Jordis in Heedless Hearts, and Nehemiah in Regrets I've Had A Few, and on X:WP we first saw him in Dreamworker as Termin, the first person Xena ever killed, and he also appeared in Ten Little Warlords as Tegason.
* The zany thug leader Brutus was brought to life by Hori Ahipene. Hori has never appeared in the Xenaverse before, so far as I can determine, but he does have quite a range of credits. He was a regular on a couple of New Zealand TV comedy shows, The Semisis and Telly Laughs... but I don't think too many people outside NZ will have seen those. Where you're more likely to have come across him is in Jane Campion's film The Piano, where he was joined by a whole bunch of Xenaverse habitués - Stephen Hall (Hector in SOTP, Thelonius in TQIM, the Captain in Tsunami, Therax in The Play's The Thing, Purces in The Fire Down Below), Ian Mune (Menas Maxius in Gladiator, King Sidon in The Apple), Bruce Allpress (Enos in Unchained Heart, an Old Man in The Road to Calydon, Septus in Cast A Giant Shadow, Skouros in Not Fade Away, Phidias in War Wounds, and Stouras in Redemption), Gordon Hatfield (the Lieutenant in Unchained Heart, Seerus in Death in Chains, Rufinus in The Furies, Minion #1 in Hercules In The Underworld, Temple Guard in The Wrong Path, Freedom Fighter in Not Fade Away), Tamati Rice (Garel in The Price, Vercinix in When in Rome), Jon Brazier (Walsim in TDHD, Tarsis in VA, Mercenary #2 in The Vanishing Dead, Jakar in The Outcast, Slave Trader in The Fire Down Below, Trinculos in A Star to Guide Them) and Stephen Papps (Pylendor in Unchained Heart, Seer in OOW, Teles in The Road to Calydon, Trilos in Protean Challenge, The Darkness in Norse by Norsevest and Somewhere Over Rainbow Bridge).
Hori was also in Rapa Nui, the (rather dreadful) epic about young lovers on ancient Easter Island, which was also crowded with folks we know - Nathaniel Lees (Cheiron, the Blue Priest, Manus in Dreamworker, Niklio the healer), Grant McFarland (Ming Tzu in The Debt, First Ruffian in Cave of Echoes), Lawrence Makoare (the Barbarian Leader in TQIM, Maecenus in FF&G), William Davis (Kaelus in TPTT, Malik in Death Mask, Skirner in Atlantis), Mario Gaoa (Quintas in Unchained Heart, various townsmen and soldiers), and George Henare (Zarathustra, Hidsim in Lost Mariner).
* The eye popping Fish Merchant was played by Jim McLarty. We previously saw Jim as Myles in Eye of the Beholder, Pankos in Armageddon Now part 2, and the Teacher in Reunions.
Jim can be seen in a few movies, too. He was in "The Frighteners", which starred Michael J. Fox. This movie also featured Stuart Devenie (Asterius the Magistrate in And Fancy Free, Count Von Verminhaven in Greece Is Burning, and Kernunnos in Resurrection and Render Unto Caesar), Danny Lineham (Drinker #2 in The Warrior Princess, Grathios in The Reckoning, Lycus in The Sword of Veracity, Johe in Prodigal Sister, and the School Teacher in Let There Be Light), and George Port (the First Critic in The Play's The Thing).
Jim is also in the TV movie of Stephen King's The Tommyknockers, in which you'll also see Yvonne Lawley (the Norn in Norse by Norsevest and Somewhere Over Rainbow Bridge, Gryphia the old nurse in Key To The Kingdom) and Craig Parker (King Cleades in Key To The Kingdom).
Jim appeared with Kate Elliott (Yakut in Adventures In The Sin Trade) in the NZ TV movie House Of Sticks, and he also appeared in an ep of the US TV series High Tide (playing "Frank" in the episode "Tight Spot").
* Kelly Greene gave us his Goon #2. Kelly has been seen before as Epius in The Sword of Veracity, and on X:WP as a guard in Death in Chains, and as Derq in The Prodigal.
* For the rest of the credited cast, Burt Turner as Goon #1, and Rebecca Richards and Rob Ipsen as the alternately loving and battling couple, I could find no prior roles.
* The writer of this ep was Kevin Maynard, who has not written for HTLJ or X:WP before.
* The ep was directed by Rick Jacobson, who did My Fair Cupcake, and the X:WP eps The Dirty Half Dozen, Sacrifice 2, A Good Day, and Locked Up And Tied Down.
***
The disclaimer was:
No Fish Out of Water was harmed during the production of this motion picture.
