One of the things that gets tricky about canon in #Xena are the comedy episodes. They seem to challenge the idea that there’s any consistency. Should we consider them part of #Xena’s actual story? I’ve heard some argue that anything that couldn’t literally be in Gabrielle’s scrolls shouldn’t be canon. Sorry, Soul Possession! Then there’s one of my favorite eps, You Are There, that couldn’t possibly exist anywhere, seemingly. But I consider these all canon. There was a translation of Sophocles’s only surviving comedy,
“The Trackers”, a story about Apollo fighting with the satyrs over Hermes’ new invention, the lyre. Since only half the play survived, Harrison filled in the rest about the team that discovers the fragment, & sets free the characters in the story. Chaos ensues!
There’s a number of reasons why I believe this was a source for #Xena (Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire, etc.), but I’m also interested in the “uber” quality of this translation. It shows how the past is present, & the classic themes are eternal. More to the point, it tells me that the show’s canon isn’t just about plot or character, but it’s about how it’s all presented: the aesthetic, or style, is as important as the story itself. It also tells me that we can’t really understand the past without a good sense of humor to put it in perspective. It’s good to have a healthy appreciation for the ridiculous (a life lesson that took me a while to learn).
So, with that in mind, what about You Are There? Perhaps that was also a translation, using a fragment of Gabrielle’s scroll, & the only way to knit those scenes together was comedically? Nothing really happens that isn’t true to character, after all. Not even Eve’s scenes, which I don’t think would actually have played like that, but I can definitely picture her doing things like that: there was some real overturning-the-tables-in-the-temple energy there! The scene implying the Elijians are repressed sexually, indulging in disguised role-play, is something that may be embellished, based on perceptions about the cult, but I lay the groundwork for that in my story, with one particular sect that practices celibacy while waiting for Eli’s return.
The idea of a musical ep finds fertile ground in the Greek plays, because they were the original musicals in Western theatre tradition. Opera was invented in the Renaissance as a way of recreating how they might have looked. It’s fascinating that #Xena almost had a 3rd musical, featuring Sappho: that unproduced script also uses celibacy as a plot point. It went through many incarnations (at one point, spawning Lyre, Lyre), but never happened.
Apparently that musical never left Rob Tapert’s mind. In 2017, he produced Pleasuredome in New Zealand, starring Lucy, directed by Michael Hurst, which used that idea, set to 80s music this time (the original script used 70s disco, I believe).
It just goes to show if you hang in there, things can eventually fall into place! I’ll finish up my thoughts on canon tomorrow, then move on to at look at how I view Eve’s character, possible origins & development.