|<- - A Season 7 - Introduction and Disclaimer - Trails of Unrest (1/2) ->
-
It was then I took to thinking
and my hands took to writing
and my dreams came in answer to the call.
*
Waiting in wonder
my thoughts ran like thunder
Could it be I been wasting my mind?
I grew sort of cold as the vision unfolded
bursting the shackles of time.
*
So I gathered what I had
and took a look at what was going down
and it made me kind of sad
seeing all the circles going slowly round.
And the stars sang in harmony
it was so perfect that it laid me down
and the rain clouds were tossed away
seemed like the world was lost
and I would drown - in its sound.
Fortune - Ken Hensley, Proud Words On A Dusty Shelf, 1973
A Season 7
Introduction and Disclaimer
Well, my fellow Xenites, here it is, yet another 7th season project. I can't say I had the idea, the idea just hit me with a knock-out blow, on the proverbial morning after. After seeing 'the end' for the first time at the culmination of an all-sixth-season video weekend at a friend's place, I awoke with a start to just the beating of my heart, everyone else was still fast asleep, and to a world from now on without Xena. There I was, pretty much on my own, after a short flash of a dream, and at half past eight on a Sunday morning in August 2001. We had watched all the tapes in two days and nights, and had finally fallen asleep at around five a.m. To make sure we'd get some sleep at all, we had exchanged the last pairs of shows in our own little TV schedule. So Friend In Need was followed by Many Happy Returns and Soul Possession, in a way making it easier to take, much like back then, at the end of the fourth season. These, too, are taken by many as alternative ends.
There and then, with everybody else firmly asleep until 1 p.m. or so, the sound of the 1970s style roller blinds rattling in the wind, the aftershocks of the FIN experience and the dream, and a peculiar state of being wide awake after very little sleep turned into a daydream, almost a vision of a whole set of stories, not unlike a complete season. Just as if I was seeing something like all those promotion trailers of the future that never was to be right away, within perhaps one single hour, at most. The experience was a wild ride to say the least, emotionally and visually, just as well as far as the stories themselves were concerned. I carried it home in silence that day, but soon after arriving at my place decided that it was too precious a gift to allow it to rot away without tasting it, and I started to take some notes. I was determined not to become a sinner by carelessly wasting the potential of the stories.
During that period, it became apparent that RTL, the local station which had bought X:WP for the first five seasons, would not broadcast the last season for the time being. First, I thought I could perhaps try and write my project in parallel, starting in late October, and then take over the baton when the series would have ended here, which would have happened in the spring of 2002. But with no new season in sight to everybody, including those with no access to tapes from beyond the pond, I decided to rush it into production right away, so there would at least not be a winter without new episodes for littleme. Quite a bold thing to do, when you're still wrestling with the finer details of the word processor.
Of course, Xena: Warroir Princess is not my idea, invention or discovery at all, let alone copyrighted property in any way.
The show is, first of all, owned by the copyright holders mentioned in each episode's credits, and was concieved of and turned into reality by a most creative and courageous bunch of people around the globe, mostly in New Zealand and the U.S., to whom I owe just about everything but my life. Perhaps even that, since you never know, 'what if...'.
I never did, do not, and never will intend to infringe any copyright whatsoever. I'd rather commit suicide.
Seeing the vision was an extremely visual experience, as the choice of words may help to indicate, I will try to write simply what my mind's eye is seeing, and I would like to try to preserve as much of that aspect as I possibly can, within the bounds of my humble skills. Part of this approach is to include fictional opening titles, fictional credits and, now and then, a fictional cast of actors, to make it as much a read-alike as possible. Although the visualization is left to the mind's eye of the beholder, there are at least the Original Soundtrack CDs available to make the experience sound. And whenever the memories of the unique look and appearance of the show begin to fade, videotapes and DVDs are in production as I write these words.
Support your favourite artists, buy their works of art.
I would like to state clearly that I have never met personally anyone mentioned in particular or otherwise involved in creating X:WP, or any of their representatives. I have no access to any kind of restricted information on them or on the show whatsoever, or anything else even remotely involving X:WP, apart from what I've seen on the small or silver screen and what's publically available.
Now, when I struggle to turn the few notes back into the stories they once were in my mind on that fateful morning, I sometimes discover likely sources of inspiration, in things I like or that I stumble upon somehow. I'll try to include them into special guest credits for each story as I notice them, but I'd like to apologise in advance for those inspirations I can't trace back to their roots. They're not forgotten and, for sure, treasured just as much as the others, because they were and still are part of a wonderful moment in my life. The same is true for the lyrics or poems at the top of most of the stories. Help the creatives, buy their products - that's what the credits are there for!
By the way, I absolutely admire the idea of mentioning all the people who've worked creatively on a product, for example in the small print that's whizzing across the screen after the show. Precisely because that's ever more absolutely unthinkable in my real life occupation. I can't wait to see more of all these people in front of and behind the camera who've been part of this Sergeant Pepper's of TV series, because, like that Beatles album, they've changed their part of the cultural world forever.
I have to admit that I felt quite depressed for a couple of weeks after being spoiled about 'the end', and after actually seeing it, I think I would have fallen down right into a deep black hole, especially since the sixth season as a whole, and each of its details is such a marvellous piece of art. It is a strange thing to say, talking about totally fictional characters, and especially after what happened since that Sunday morning in the real world. But being quite close to both events, the emotions at first were exactly the same, until realization kicked in slowly, and separated fact and fiction. Acceptance is yet to come; perhaps it never will in both cases. But in this one case at least, the deep plunge was not to be, for inspiration seized me by the neck and pulled me out of the abyss. Perhaps something inside had started the therapy before the illness befell me. Or as somebody else said,
»... in case you didn t notice, I m in a different kind of mourning.«
*
all stories, elements, designs, and other products of creativity not previously copyrighted or otherwise documented (c) J.A. 2002-2004,2006
v.1.0.0.2
-
|<- - A Season 7 - Introduction and Disclaimer - Trails of Unrest (1/2) ->