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Funny side story whilst I wait for another question...

Paul Jackson (producer of Sliders, Lois and Clark and so on) and I were talking today and he asked me what I was doing. I said I was answering Xena questions today and heading off to Seattle for a Xena con tomorrow. He said "Are you kidding me? Don't they know the show is over?" I said "Yeah, but you know fans." He said "I guess. So, Seattle. Are you going to be singing that song about Seattle, from that old series, Here Come the Brides?"

Now what followed was a conversation between him and I that lasted almost an hour and has us searching all over the internet to find out whether Bobby Sherman sang the theme song or just released it; whether Perry Como was involved and who were the actors, all the time talking about how much we used to love that show.

Finally, Paul said "Wait... didn't I just make fun of Xena fans for this?"

Doh!

"did you do anything for the best of Xena DVD set that's coming out in July?"

I didn't do anything specifically for that DVD. I don't know if I'm on it or not. They might use some of the old interviews so I might be in that. I didn't even know it was coming out until I saw a reference on this board.

"I would like to ask: where do you think Xena's guilt ends and Gabrielle's light begins? That is, pretend Gabrielle sacrifices herself (for some stupid reason) in AFIN II, what happens to XWP? Xena was on her way to redemption before she even met Gabrielle (yeah, because of Hercules). So okay, on a scale of 1 to 10...what was the importance of Gabrielle's inspiration for Xena's continuing struggle against her "dark side"?"

Good question(s). First of all, I never played Xena has doing anything for redemption. In her heart, Xena knows she can never redeem the evil she has done. In that sense, the evil Xena is truly dead (if she was trying to balance her past karma, that would mean that her evil past still held power over her). So she was never trying to find redemption. Some would argue that she found it long ago or was on the path to it, but that means nothing to Xena. She is doing what her heart tells her because her heart tells her it is right. Gabrielle was instrumental in releasing that and has become her "little voice" in that regard. Gabrielle is a person that Xena could have and would wanted to have been, but never was allowed to be by circumstances.
Hercules made the last rationalization of her evil side crumble. But once that was done, she had no reason to live and, for my thoughts, was committing suicide at the beginning of SINS. Gabrielle's presence changed that.
But as to the 1 to 10 scale, it depends on when you count it. At the beginning, I would say that Gabrielle's physical presence was 10 out of 10. But as it went on, Gabrielle could have been "killed" and Xena would have stumbled, but her love and memory of Gabrielle would have made her pick herself up and carry on, so Gabrielle's physical presence dropped to, say, 3 out of 10. But Gabrielle's impact on Xena was forever going to be 10 out of 10, no matter at what time you gauged it.

"This may be a silly question...I'm not up mythological stories. Anyhoo, I noticed many similarties between, "Dreamworker" and "The Matrix." i.e. Die in the dream world and you die in the real world, Morpheus the dream god, the one, My question being, are these 2 stories based off of myth? Seeing how Xena came out before The Matrix, and both are heavy on martial arts, I always felt that perhaps they ripped of either this episode or used the same mythos. One of my favorite episodes btw, I love when dark Xena is talking to good Xena, "Me...me...me.""

Don't know about the Matrix, though, yes, there are similarities. But there are similarities between Xena and movies/series that have gone before. And the Dream "rules" are the ones that were just necessary for good storytelling. Otherwise, what's the risk? Things go wrong and you just wake up and things are fine. There had to be stakes involved. Morpheus... well, the sleep god is the reason for me using him and, in the Matrix, it's an obvious choice, so I don't think they borrowed from us at all. In fact, I'm writing a screenplay right now which has a villain named "Morpheus". I tried my best to come up with a better name, but it just seemed to fit so well, I kept it. Eh. I might change it later, but for now, it's Morpheus.

Good myths follow basic storytelling structure, so, yes, you can say that the two stories are based on myth. But then again, all the basic conflicts of mankind are dealt with in myths. There's no escaping them.

" Have you been doing any project or still in connection with any of the the Xena Actors/ Actresses (eg. Lucy, Renee, Bruce, Ted)"

I'd like to as I think they are all extremely talented. I tried to get Bruce to direct a couple of Sheena eps, but the schedules didn't work out (half of it did, but I needed him for two episodes). And one of my pilot scripts has Renee as the prototype for the character's role. I also have another idea that I'm pitching that Renee, Bruce and Ted would be great in. But I'd work with most of the Xena crew anytime. And if I get another show, you can bet I'll try to get them. Danielle, Hudson, Karl, Martin, so on and so on. I'm just so happy to see the success that many of them are having now.

"First of all, how often do you get to see or talk to Lucy and Renee? Is it just once a year at a convention or what. And how are they doing?"

Pretty much just at conventions. We don't hang out. I saw Renee at a party a while back. And they all seem to be doing well.

"Secondly, katherine Fugate has made it quite clear on her website that when se was brought in for "When Fates Collide", that was told by the producers and the lead actors that Xena and Gabrielle were a 'couple', in every since of the word. So in other words, yes, she was told that X/G were lovers . and hey, I'm not making that up, you can visit katherines website and read that yourself. Now I know you weren't there at this time; but it seems to be a different attitude there from TPTB at the end of Season 6 as opposed to when you were their.

My question is, are you surprised at that change of attitude from the producers and actors, or do you feel that the series was reaching it's end and they just said, 'Hey, this is what X/G are, and that's the bottom line? Now when you watch the final episodes, it can still be seen as ambigious(they never showed X/G getting married or in a lusty liplocl, etc.); but the bottom line for me was that the big man and the 2 leading ladies stated point blank that X/G were a couple. What are your feelings." "

I can't answer this at all. I wasn't there and I don't know of any of those conversations. From my experience, I think that Katherine is telling her impressions of the conversation as she felt she heard it. And that's not to dismiss what she said, I just have had too much experience at private conversations and public consumption to take things second hand for granted. There are many many many ways to related stories that color something one way or the other for the audience it was intended for. But, again, I wasn't there. I just saw absolutely no indication of a change in the attitudes when I was leaving. So the big man and the two leading ladies never said that to me.

As to what are my feelings, I'm not sure what you mean. Feelings toward the above or feelings about the relationship? I've always maintained two things: their bond was stronger than any love could endure. And, two, you can't judge that kind of bond by a sexual act. Ambiguous? Not to me. One does not preclude the other, but the latter can't be used to define the former.

"How did Lucy and Renee react when they got a script and read that Xena or Gabrielle was supposed to get naked? Were they like, 'Yeah, let's go take it all off', or was there NO WAY they were gonna take it all off? Just curious because......come on Steve, Xena and Gab did have a habit of getting naked quite often. "

I was told that the reaction was to roll their eyes and say "Here we go again...." We had a philosophy that seemed to appeal to everyone. That was that we could have them talking about something intensely dramatic and emotional at a table... or the same conversation in a hottub. Hmmm... same content, different setting... I'll take "Hottub" for five hundred, Alex!