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Xena Warrior Princess - Season One
Episodes
Disc One: “Sins Of The Past”, “Chariots Of Water”, “Dreamworker”,
“Cradle Of Hope”
Episodes
Disc Two: “The Path Not Taken”, “The Reckoning”, “The Titans”,
“Prometheus”
Episodes
Disc Three: “Death In Chains”, “Hooves And Harlots”, “The Black
Wolf”, “Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts”
Episodes
Disc Four: “Athens City Of The Performing Bards”, “Fistfull Of Dinars”,
“Warrior… Princess”, “Mortal Beloved”
Episodes
Disc Five: “The Royal Couple Of Thieves”, “The Prodigal”, “Altared
States”, “Ties That Bind”
Episodes Disc Six: “The Greater Good”, “Callisto”, “Death Mask”, “Is There A Doctor In The House?”
Stars:
Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor
Guest
Stars: Kevin Sorbo, Michael Hurst, Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi, Tim Thomerson,
Kevin Smith, Tom Atkins, Robert Trebor, Jeremy Roberts, David Ackroyd, and Bobby
Hosea
Writers:
Rob Tapert, R.J. Stewart, Josh Becker, Jack Perez, Adam Armus, Nora Kay Foster,
Terence Winter, Julie Sherman, Peter Alan Fields, Alan Jay Gluekman, Roy Thomas,
Janis Handler, Brenda Lilly, Chris Manheim, and Patricia Manney
Directors:
Doug Lefler, Harley Colveliss, Bruce Seth Green, Michael Levine, Stephen L.
Posey, Charles Siebert, Eric Brevig, Jace Alexander, Mario DiLeo, Garth Maxwell,
John Cameron, John T. Kretchmeir, Gary Jones, and Stewart Main
Executive
Producers: Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert
Feature
length: 1080 minutes
Extras:
“Xena Chronicles”, “Xena Trivia
Game”, “Xena Screensaver”, “Director And Actor Bios”
Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
N/A
Packaging:
Seven-Disc Digipack Gatefold Within A Glossy Cardboard Slipcase
Chapter
Stops: 130
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 1995-1996/DVD Release: 2003
Home
Video Distributor: Anchor Bay Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
At
last Region One DVD buyers will be able to begin their “Xena” TV series
collections in entire season sets with the debut of “Xena:
Warrior Princess: Season One: Deluxe Collector’s Edition Six DVD Set” on
Tuesday, April 29, 2003 from Anchor Bay Entertainment. In America only a few
select episodes featuring Xena from early episodes of “Hercules: The Legendary
Journeys” were made available on DVD through Universal as well as the
Director’s Cut of the Series finale from the now defunct USA Home
Entertainment. Now Anchor Bay will be distributing complete seasons of both
“Xena: Warrior Princess” and “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” on DVD
while continuing to release complete seasons of “Highlander: The TV Series”
in regular intervals.
In
many ways I think “Xena” surpassed “Hercules” because her character is a
woman atoning for sins of her past by defending justice in the ancient world and
thus achieving redemption. However make no mistake that “Xena” has to fight
the urge to be the villainous warrior princess she once was when she first
encountered Hercules. This inner battle makes her more dynamic as a character.
At her side is the young bard and soul mate “Gabrielle” (Renee O’Connor)
who chronicles their adventures and provides the viewers with a more innocent
perspective on Xena as played by Lucy Lawless and at the same time provides Xena
with a kind of emotional grounding as well as some comic relief. The
relationship between the two characters over the six seasons the series aired
prompted lots of speculation regarding the nature of the friendship between Xena
and Gabrielle, which Xena describes in season one as the sister she never had.
Well all character speculations aside, I don’t think it really matters with
regard to this series, which with tongue in cheek delivers some rich adventure
stories that whole family can enjoy.
Among
the guest stars in the first season there are a lot of crossover appearances
between both “Xena: Warrior Princess” and “Hercules: The Legendary
Journeys” that helped to enrich the fantasy world shared between the two
series while helping both programs develop a distinct voice of their own as the
shows progressed. So in season one we get to see Kevin Sorbo and Michael Hurst
appear in “Prometheus” while Bruce Campbell portrays his “King Of
Thieves” character in “The
Royal Couple Of Thieves” and the late Kevin Smith makes two appearances as
“Ares” the God of War. Ted Raimi makes his first appearance in the series as
“Joxer” in the episode “Callisto” and familiar genre film character
actors like Tim Thomerson and Tom Atkins also make guest appearances in season
one.
Each
first season episode of “Xena: Warrior Princess” is presented in their
original (1.33:1) broadcast aspect ratio with brand new English Dolby Digital
5.1 Surround Soundtrack mixes. The picture quality is quite mixed and ultimately
disappointing. I am guessing that the series, which was filmed on location in
New Zealand was edited together on video and with age, the original video
masters for season one have probably begun to show a bit of grain. Regardless of
what the reason, I think the discs were probably mastered from the best source
materials available because episodes from later in season one beginning with
“Ties That Bind” are a definite improvement in overall picture quality when
compared to much of the earlier episodes. Of course the grain is harder to spot
in well-lit indoor scenes and daylight exteriors, but on some of the episodes
the picture can look downright murky. I hope as future seasons are released, the
picture quality will be improved.
The
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is an improvement over broadcast
stereo soundtracks, but it doesn’t use the rear channels very often and there
are no captions or subtitles encoded on any of these discs whatsoever. The main
menu for each DVD is animated while the subsequent menus are standard
interactive still frames that are easy to navigate. Extra features include a
season one photo gallery on disc one and a bonus CD-ROM containing a
screensaver, trivia, select cast and director bios, and the “Xena
Chronicles,” which contains a synopsis for each episode that also includes
cast, guest star, writer, and director credits under the heading “Scrolls”
and there are character bios for the entire first season divided up into
“Mortals,” “Gods,” and “Creatures.” There is even a section for
“Treasures” as well as a search function. The CD-ROM is actually nicely put
together and will work on both Windows based and Macintosh PCs.
There
is also a season one collector’s coin and within the insert is a mail in
opportunity to buy a coin holder to place all six collector’s coins as the
sets become available and there is also some glossy photos with trivia questions
for the “Quest For The Golden Sword” sweepstakes where those who participate
will have the chance to win a solid gold “Xena: Warrior Princess” edition
sword valued at $100,000. There are also chances to win other items listed
exclusively within the insert that comes inside the seven-disc Digipack gatefold
packaging within a glossy cardboard slipcase like the Fox DVD release of “24:
Season One” last year.
As a whole, it is nice to finally have complete seasons of “Xena: Warrior Princess” and soon “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” on DVD and despite the shortcomings on the picture quality for some of the first season episodes, I think “Xena” fans will enjoy having the series preserved on DVD for years to come. “Xena: Warrior Princess: Season One: Deluxe Collector’s Edition Six DVD Set” will debut on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 from Anchor Bay Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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Xena Warrior Princess - Season One